NewsHour on Handel, Messiah, and the Market

Here's an interesting article on Handel, the Investor.

Great Messiah - plus food for thought!

Thanks and congratulations to SCNO singers for your fine work with Messiah. The week left me with renewed joy and confidence in our possibilities for the rest of the season and future years!

Check out this article on the choral scene in Washington D.C. Interesting to compare the assessment of available singers, audience, and money with our situation in New Orleans...

Artistic Note and Hammond Dining Recommendations

First the artistic note: in His Yoke is Easy - where we have been asked to insert the eighth rest between "his burthen" and "is light" many of us are rushing - coming in too soon with "is light" after (or, actually,) during the rest. Make sure there are eight eighth notes in every bar (even with the added rest). It would not be a problem if we just sang what Handel wrote, but we must do what we have been asked accurately AND expressively.

Now, the important stuff:

If you are going up early to eat, or looking for someplace to go after the concert in Hammond (I think these would still be open at least until 10), here are two personal favorites:
They are within half a mile of each other, basically on or just off Highway 51.

Cate Street Seafood Station has San Francisco quality sushi at Hammond prices. Best sushi I have ever had (with the exception of an event hosted by the Japanese consulate, but that's another story...) Ask for the cowboy roll (not on the menu, but they'll make it if you ask). For casual surroundings and GREAT food, this place is the bomb. I sometimes drive to Hammond just to eat here (plus my friend Keith Davis, the luthier [look it up] lives and works here).

Cate Street Seafood Station
maps.google.com

308 South Cate Street
Hammond, LA 70403-4224
(985) 340-3891

If you are into TexMex, this is pretty good ... like Superior Grill on St. Charles

La Carreta: Historic Downtown Hammond‎
7 reviews - more info »
108 Northwest Railroad Avenue
Hammond, LA 70401
(985) 419-9990
carretarestaurant.com‎

MESSIAH SCHEDULE CHANGE!!!

Due to the inclement weather on Saturday, the LPO cancelled and has rescheduled their Classics Concert for Monday evening. Due to other contractual obligations, this means that the orchestra cannot rehearse Messiah on Tuesday evening.

What this means for us is:

The Monday (12/14) Piano Rehearsal at Loyola is CANCELLED (enjoy your free evening! Since you have nothing better scheduled, consider reviewing your music...)

On Tuesday, December 15 we will have a piano rehearsal at the First Baptist Church in New Orleans from 7 - 10 PM. (This is NOT a change in schedule - merely a change in the nature and function of the rehearsal. Be there by 6:45 ready to sing your asses off!)

Wednesday's Orchestra rehearsal will take place as scheduled at the FBCNO from 7-10 PM.

There are no changes to the performance schedule on Thursday and Friday.

The gift of Monday night off is an expression of confidence in the chorus by conductor Rebecca Driver, the LPO staff and players - AND by SCNO board and staff. Let's make sure we live up to this professional and collegial response to force majeur by delivering a great artistic product - with a positive attitude towards conductor and orchestra, and a public demeanor that turns out an enthusiastic audience for our concerts!

2010 Grammy nominees

Best Choral Performance
The Sixteen (Handel Coronation Anthems)
San Francisco Symphony Chorus, Pacific Boychoir, SF Girls Chorus (Mahler's 8th)
Warsaw Philharmonic Choir, Warsaw Boys' Choir (Penderecki, Utrenja)
Voices of Ascension (Song of the Stars)
Gabrieli Consort (A Spotless Rose)

All of the Best Classical Album nominees contain chorus, though sometimes in a minor role:
Morgan State University Choir, Peabody Children's Chorus (Bernstein's Mass)
SF Symphony Chorus, Pacific Boychoir, SF Girls Chorus (Mahler's 8th)
Tanglewood Festival Chorus (Ravel, Daphnis & Chloe)
Chicago Symphony Chorus, Chattanooga Boys Choir (Ravel, L'Enfant et les Sortilèges)
Chorus of the Mariinsky Theatre (Shostakovich, The Nose)

Two of the five Best Small Ensemble Performance nominees are choirs:
Tallis Scholars (Josquin, Missa Malheur Me Bat)
Theatre of Voices (David Lang's Little Match Girl Passion)

There are a sprinkling of choirs in other categories:
Conspirare (Best Classical Crossover Album)
Atlanta Symphony Chorus (Best Surround Sound Album)
London Symphony Chorus (Best Engineered Album)
Tanglewood Festival Chorus (Best Engineered Album)

And a couple of choral works were nominated for Best Classical Contemporary Composition:
Arvo Pärt, In Principio (Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir)
Roberto SIerra, Missa Latina 'Pro pace' (Milwaukee Symphony Chorus)


More: http://www.grammy.com/grammy_awards/52nd_show/list...

This week's rehearsal (and next) REVISED

At tonight's rehearsal (Dec. 1) we will sing all of the Messiah choruses. I will focus extra time on those we have sung the least: For Unto Us, His Yoke, and His Yoke. These are the "duet" choruses with all the sixteenth notes. Bring your lean, mean, ready-to-speed, voices tonight. I do hope for a good turnout, despite the rain...

I just emailed Rebecca and she will most likely come to some or all of next week's rehearsal on Tuesday, Dec. 8th.

You should be spending some time EACH DAY in individual work to get ready to sing this annual treat at the level the LPO and our audiences have come to expect from us over the last 25+ years!

Vote for Symphony Chorus of New Orleans!

Silent Monks Sing Hallelujah

Pope Benedict: Beauty can be a path to God

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict met artists from around the world in the Sistine Chapel on Saturday and urged them to inject spirituality into their work, saying contemporary beauty was often "illusory and deceitful."
"Beauty ... can become a path toward the transcendent, toward the ultimate Mystery, toward God," Benedict said.
The Pope told them that in a world lacking in hope, with increasing signs of aggression and despair, there was an ever greater need for a return to spirituality in art.

"Too often ... the beauty thrust upon us is illusory and deceitful ... it imprisons man within himself and further enslaves him, depriving him of hope and joy," he said.

Against the backdrop of Michelangelo's vast fresco of the Last Judgment, which adorns the chapel's altar wall, Benedict lamented that the once-close cooperation between the Church and the artistic community had weakened.

"Faith takes nothing away from your genius or art," he said. "On the contrary, it exalts them and nourishes them."

The Pope told the gathering of hundreds of painters, sculptors, architects, poets and directors, held beneath the vaulted ceiling of the chapel painted by Michelangelo, that he wanted to "renew the Church's friendship with the world of art."

Full story here...

www.lala.com

If you don't know about this site, check it out! Signup is free and allows streaming listening to TONS of music. There are 9 performances of the Beethoven Elegischer Gesang, and even more of the Meeresstille und glückliche Fahrt and Choral Fantasy that we will be performing with Civic Symphony in April.

Lots of Messiah, too. And lots of Poulenc Gloria.

Too good to be true! (Plus any music that streams through your computer can be recorded. But that would be illegal, and I'm not going to tell you how to do it, if you don't know...)

Singers of United Lands Repertoire

I am working hard to find choral music of Estonia, Haiti, Oceania, and Venezuala. Suggestions are welcome! Check out this year's SOUL singers at the link below and to the right:

Messiah - the home stretch

Although we will, increasingly, be aiming at making it through all of our Messiah choruses at each rehearsal, I will try to find the right balance of rehearsal for 1) correct pitches and rhythms, 2) performance details, diction, and ensemble, and 3) run-through for continuity.
Assuming the room is available, we will again have sectionals on the Amen, on Let Us Break Their Bonds, and He Trusted in God. We will also continue to work on intonation, bland, balance (and memorization!) for Since by Man and spend some time on Behold and the Surely, Stripes, Sheep choruses.

One of my favorite Handel quotes:

"I should be sorry if I only entertained them, I wish to make them better."
James Beattie, letter of May 25, 1780, published in William Forbes An Account of the Life and Writings of James Beattie, LL.D. (1806) p. 331. In reply to Lord Kinnoull, who had complimented him on his Messiah, "the noble entertainment which he had lately given the town". Beattie had this on the authority of Kinnoull himself.

This is, of course, the precise intent and meaning of the term "edification."

Rehearsal order for Friday and Saturday...

Dear SCNO singers:

Urah, hanevel, v'chinor! A-irah shahar!

Excellent rehearsal last night! Many had their faces out of the score and most were very responsive to Prieto. Bravo! - let's go for 100% on Friday, Saturday, and (of course) Sunday.

The Bernstein is the first item on the rehearsal order both Friday night and Saturday afternoon.

Call is half an hour before the downbeat: 6:30/7:00 PM on Friday and 1:30/2:00 PM on Saturday. We will undoubtedly get out rather early both days, too.

Reminder: the letter "h" needs to be more aggressively enunciated and articulated. The fricative "h" with a dot underneath and the "ch" need to be MUCH stronger. Please go through your score and make sure you are aware of these consonants.

Hineh mah tov, Umah nayim, Shevet ahim Gam yahad.

Amen!

Rehearsal Info now in Google Calendar

The Google Calendar now includes the complete rehearsal schedule. I copied some events from the LPO service calendar, so they include maps(!).
Let me know if you are having issues with this calendar. You should be able to link it to your personal calendars. It is under my scemusic@gmail.com account.

S.O.U.L. 2009 Pictures and Videos from Mārtiņš

From: Mārtiņš Kiščenko
Date: 2009/10/13
Subject: RE: SOUL 2009 pictures

Hi...

Video with songs and pictures from SOUL 2009 you can see in the following links in youtube.
There is 4 parts because youtube.com accepted only 10 min. long video. So, I had to spilt in 4 different sections.

SOUL video 1
SOUL video 2
SOUL video 3
SOUL video 4

Thank you all for being with us in this American trip...

Martins Kiščenko

New Orleans Civic Symphony Concert

The New Orleans Civic Symphony will perform two concerts: The pieces are Wagner's Prelude to "Die Meistersinger", Wagner's "Liebestod" with soloist Meagan Dearie, Smetana's "The Moldau", and Richard Strauss' "Horn Concerto #1 in E Flat" with soloist Glenn Price. The concerts will be conducted by Dr. James Hammann on Sunday, October 18th at 7:30PM at Gretna United Methodist Church on Whitney Avenue in Gretna and on Monday, October 19th at 7:30PM at St. Clement of Rome Church on West Esplanade Avenue. Both concerts are free.

Haydn Lord Nelson Mass (starts around 20:00)

Write the translation into your score!

I strongly encourage everyone to copy the translation (provided on the handout - see Chistina if you did not receive one) into your score. It will help a lot, if - as you are singing - you can look down and see what the words mean.

Choral Introit: Awake! Psaltery and Harp! I will rouse the dawn!

Mvmt 1: Psalm 100 - Make a joyful noise!

Mvmt 2: Psalm 23 The Lord is My Shepherd/Psalm 2 Why do the nations rage
("Spring will come again" from Skin of our Teeth vs "Mix! Make a mess of 'em. Make the sons of bitches pay!) Sharks & Jets from West Side Story)

Mvmt 3: Psalm 131 Lord, my heart is not haughty - let Israel hope in the Lord...

and, most important (from L.B. himself),
In this atmosphere of humility, there is a final Chorale Coda, a prayer for peace:
Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together. AMEN!

Embody the meaning of the text in our choral tone. If you are thinking about those words, how could you possible make anything but a beautiful, in-tune sound???

Music Theory on the Web (and in rehearsal!) 1.2 and 1.3

I thought the material on Rhythm (Part One Section Two 1.2) was self-explanatory, so did not spend time in rehearsal last week. Let me know if you have questions...

Tonight (9/22) we'll spend a few minutes reviewing simple, compound, and asymmetrical Meter (1.3):

http://smu.edu/totw/toc.htm

there's lots of asymmetrical meter in the Bernstein!

Make sure you work through the online Activities for Review. Music Theory is not just an intellectual thing - it is a set of skills that you need to be able to apply quickly and efficiently.

Next week (9/29), Pitch (1.4) is pretty clear - I'm assuming that all of you can figure it out on your own (again, if you cannot read treble and bass clefs and name the pitches on the staff and on the keyboard, make sure you work through this section and/or ask for help. You should be able to recognize pitches - not have to count up or down from some reference point). I'll try to make time to do Scales (1.5) this week, too, so work ahead!

Notation, Rhythm & Meter

How do you respond to musical notation? Check out this "notation" of Beethoven 5:

Chorus Impact Study on CBS Sunday Morning

Did you all see this clip?

Chichester Psalms Recommended Recordings

1. Robert Shaw, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus on Telarc. The usual excellent Telarc engineering, plus you get Walton Belshazzar's Feast (which we have performed) AND Bernstein Missa Brevis $7.97

http://www.amazon.com/Walton-Belshazzars-Bernstein-Chichester-Psalms/dp/B000003CV7/ref=pd_cp_m_3

2. Bernstein, Israel Philharmonic on Deutsche Grammaphon. A fine performance conducted by the composer, plus you get Bernstein's first two symphonies "Jeremiah" and "The Age of Anxiety" $11.98

http://www.amazon.com/Bernstein-Chichester-Psalms-Symphonies-Nos/dp/B000031WYI/ref=pd_sim_m_4

3. Bernstein, New York Philharmonic and Camarata Singers. Composer conducting the folks who did American premiere, plus you get the "Kaddish" Symphony (which we have also performed) $7.98

http://www.amazon.com/Bernstein-Symphony-Kaddish-Chichester-Psalms/dp/B000009CYI/ref=pd_bxgy_m_text_b

IPA: alas, it's not India Pale Ale

The text, translation, and pronunciation guide that is being distributed today uses the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). I'll explain the basics in rehearsal. For a fuller exploration, see:

http://www.omniglot.com/writing/ipa.htm
(this might be more than you want to know - but if you're curious, have fun!)

For IPA equivalents to English language sounds that will help you decipher the IPA for the Hebrew, see:

http://www.omniglot.com/writing/english.htm

Music Theory on the Web (and in rehearsal!)

Here's the link I promised to the SMU Theory on the Web site:

http://smu.edu/totw/toc.htm

We spent a few minutes at rehearsal tonight (September 8) on SECTION 1: Introduction.

Music is SOUND organized in time.
Pitch is high and low sounds, scientifically measured in frequency (Hz). The orchestra tunes to the oboe's A440. The octave above = A880 (below = A220). The octave is a 2:1 ratio. The E above A440 is E660. A perfect fifth is a 3:2 ratio. A perfect fourth is 4:3, etc. It's all math (thank you Pythagorus!)
Dynamics is loud and soft sounds, scientifically measured in amplitude (Db). In performance (and listening) this is relative.
Timbre (tone color) refers to the quality or character of the sound (bright/dark, oboe vs. violin, etc). Partially related to attack, release, and nature of tone, primarily produced by the OVERTONE signature of each instrument or voice (more on this later).

For Tuesday, September 15th please look at SECTION 2: Rhythm.

After the first few weeks, we'll slow up and make sure you get enough practice and repetition to develop some new skills.

Welcome to the New Year!

Dear Symphony Chorus Singers:

I hope you have had a peaceful and rejuvenating holiday season and offer my best wishes for a happy, healthy, and musical New Year!

I have some good news: within a few days the Arts Council of New Orleans will be announcing that Symphony Chorus of New Orleans will be a recipient of the 2009 Community Arts Award (along with David Cuthbert, Luther Gray, Deacon John Moore, Auselkis Ozols, and WWOZ Radio). If you would like to join in the celebrations, mark your calendar - you will be able to purchase tickets at a later date for an Evening Reception from 6:00 - 8:00 PM on Wednesday, May 6th from 6:00 - 8:00 PM at the Windsor Court Hotel and for the Awards Luncheon on Thursday, May 7th from 11:30 AM - 1:30 PM at the Audubon Tea Room. In any case, pat yourself on the back for this award which recognizes the thousands of hours of effort by singers and board members of the chorus in musical performance and civic engagement. This award is sure to help us attract potential donors, audience members, and new singers.

Speaking of new singers, I will be holding auditions during early January (and again in March), so if you know someone who might like to join us, please have them call Betsy Miller to schedule an appointment with me.

Here is the schedule for our upcoming SOUL Concert:

January 6 NO REHEARSAL (auditions for new singers)
January 13 7:00 - 9:30 PM Regular Tuesday Rehearsal at Loyola
January 20 7:00 - 9:30 PM Regular Tuesday Rehearsal at Loyola
January 27 7:00 - 9:30 PM Regular Tuesday Rehearsal at Loyola
February 3 7:00 - 9:30 PM Regular Tuesday Rehearsal at Loyola
February 10 7:00 - 9:30 PM Regular Tuesday Rehearsal at Loyola
February 17 7:00 - 9:30 PM Regular Tuesday Rehearsal at Loyola
February 24 NO REHEARSAL (Mardi Gras)
March 3 7:00 - 9:30 PM Regular Tuesday Rehearsal at Loyola
March 10 7:00 - 10:00 PM Tuesday Rehearsal with SOUL Quartet at Loyola
March 12 7:00 - 10:00 PM "DRESS" Rehearsal with SOUL Quartet at Most Holy Name of Jesus Church
March 13 7:00 PM call for 7:30 PM CONCERT with SOUL Quartet at Most Holy Name of Jesus Church
March 20 NO REHEARSAL (auditions for new singers)
March 27 7:00 - 9:30 PM Regular Tuesday Rehearsals resume at Loyola

Please visit http://soulands.org/default.aspx to get acquainted with this year's quartet and see their itinerary and repertoire in progress. Our concert repertoire is nearly complete and most of our music is here. You will be able to purchase the packet of music at our first rehearsal for $12.00. Please bring cash (correct change, if possible) or check and arrive a few minutes early so we don't lose our valuable rehearsal time to commerce and record keeping.

The American portion of our program will consist of:
A Jubilant Song - This vibrant 1945 setting of a Walt Whitman text by composer Norman Dello Joio (1913 - 2008) is one of the finest pieces of twentieth century American choral music. A good performance by the Uuniversity of Illinois Concert Choir: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAKfLmVHKW4 There are several other performances available at YouTube. Notice the choirs who look up (some even sing by memory!).

I've Been in the Storm So Long - traditional spiritual arranged by Jeffery Ames in 2006 in response to Hurricane Katrina. Streaming audio of a fine performance from the publisher's website: http://www.waltonmusic.com/Sound9/IveBeenIn/

Worthy to Be Praised - Gospel anthem for chorus and piano by Byron J. Smith. Lots of performances on YouTube. A pretty good one (piece starts about 1:30): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJVYmdkKfqM

The Multi-Cultural portion of our program (so far) is

LATVIA: Dziedot dzimu dziedot augu (arr. Kalnins) SATB div.

Audio performance with scrolling text:
http://www.opentoeverycitizen.net/lv/songs_lv/dziedot_dzimu_dziedot_augu/

To learn more about Latvian history and culture:
http://www.latvians.com/en/index.php

CHILE: TBA

KOREA Arirang (arr. Chen Yi) SATB div.

Streaming audio performance from the publisher's website:
http://www.carlfischer.com/mp3/1-09%20Arirang.mp

To learn more about Korean history and culture:
http://www.arirangeducation.com/main/

KENYA Sigalagala (arr. S. Otieno) SATB div. perc.
(This is a piece from the Luo tribe - the people that Barack Obama's father came from)

To listen to a music clip from the publisher's website:
http://www.earthsongschoralmusic.com/catitem.php?seqnum=100236#

Ululation audtions TBA!