Honors Option Part Two

As part of my honors option for Choral Methods at Michigan State University, I have gone through the Junior/Middle High School Reading Session repertoire packet and reviewed 5 of the pieces that stood out to me as particularly suitable for middle school choir. I have reviewed them based on the following criterion:

Suitability of Range and Vocal Material

Harmonic Interest

Appropriateness of Text

Accompaniment 

Rapsodia Española No.2, Spanish Tongue Twister

Music by Judith Herrington

Unison/Two Part, accompanied

Colla Voce 20-95800

The text, taken from the Spanish Trabalegunas, or tongue-twister, is a challenge for any singer to sing. The bulk of the piece is unison, splitting into two parts for the second verse. Initially, part II sits lower in the register for treble voices, but sings the melody under a descant, allowing each part to have time in the spotlight. The accompaniment is a very rhythmic and percussive mood-setter, taking from traditional Spanish rhythms and harmonics, making the piece authentic and exciting. Written into the octavo are many parts of the musical vocabulary that are always great to teach. Expressive markings, as well as diacritical markings, are abundant and provide great moments for discussion in class.

Music, Lead the Way!

Music by Laura Darnell

S(S)ATB and Optional Descant, accompanied

Carl Fischer CM9294

A gospel style and challenging setting is best used when combining range specific choirs, Music, Lead the way is a piece that is built to teach singing four-part harmony. With repeating material throughout the piece, the sections of material that may be tricky to teach the first time will be translate throughout the work as guide points. The bass part can be a bit rangy, but there are plenty of opportunities to cover their upper notes with tenors (stepwise motion towards them) or to write a different note in the chord. All large chords are covered by the keyboard so adjustments are easy to make. Harmonic interest is in abundance and are mostly in the tenor and bass voices to cover for the lack of mobility. The soprano and alto part splits into three parts often, highlighting the advanced nature of the girls, with optional notes to add even more complexity. A small group is added towards the end, featuring some of your better singers that have high notes.

Annabel Lee

Music by Leeann Ashby, Text by Edgar Allan Poe

Unison/Two-Part, accompanied

Colla Voce 24-96250

Accompaniments are often overlooked in terms of suitability for singers, but this accompaniment adds greatly to the interpretation of the piece. Leanne Ashby uses the piano as an interpretive guide, taking the text and painting the colors and structure in her piano writing. The voices, as well, are set up wonderfully for students to be successful. The melody covers all parts of the range, getting the singers into head voice. Their is an optional descant which allows Part II to have the spotlight for a verse. When it splits (optionally) into two parts, the harmonies are structured stepwise and conjunct, veering away from the traditional thirds based harmony. The text, one of Poe’s simpler, is easy to understand and is assisted by Ashby’s setting. A great first introduction to two part music.

Okro Mch’edelo, Georgian Folk Song

arr. Carl Linich and Clayton Parr

Three part (I, II, Bani), acapella

earthsongs 

Very simple arrangement of a traditional folk song that is a great quick learn. Language will be the most difficult part of learning, but a CD of the spoken language is available for purchase, with IPA available online upon request. The Bani (baritone) part is on two notes. Though not the most interesting part in the world, in gives a great opportunity for a choir who has a few boys with changes/changing voices and gives them something to sing. The upper two parts contain the melody, in thirds. Simple enough to learn, and something acapella to challenge your singers to rely on their own voices. The whole piece sits low for most young soprano’s and altos, and can either be shifted up a few keys with the bass displaced an octave. Could also be sung by a young tenor-bass choir.

Shady Grove, Appalachian Folk Song

arr. Robert I. Hugh

SSA divisi, Optional Mandolin, drum, and washboard, accompanied

Hal Leonard 00124456

For your advanced women, splits into five parts for a short while. An authentic take on a traditional folk song with added quotes of other folk and game songs. Lots of conjunct harmony when homophonic. Every part gets the melody, making every part integral. A large portion of the none homophonic section are basic ostinatos or canons. This piece looks very complex at first glace, but after digging through, it becomes clearer and easier. A fun way to get all of your trebles singing in multiple parts, but very accessible. Accompaniment fits well with the style and all ranges are covered in all of the parts.

Honors Option Part One

For my honors option for Choral Methods, I added a small research project and extended the arrangement project. The following is a copy of my arrangement of the African-American Folksong, Oh, Watch the Stars. This is still getting reworked and revised with the hope of publishing it in the future.


https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9JxjetXninXd3NTQWYzX2lMaWM/view?usp=sharing

Repertory 6

Der Tanz (SAB)
Franz Schubert, arr. Russell Robinson

(Side note, I have not checked this published version with the original on CPDL or IMSLP, it could very well be the same thing and free.)

This piece, being a historical piece, in German, makes it valuable for any student to learn. The voicing is a SAB with the soprano part having the melody the entire time and the baritone part sitting between C3 and A3. This is a true baritone part for changing voices. It would work really well if no tenors have changed voices. This would be great with a middle school ensemble without many boys. Musically, some of the fast moving notes will be a challenge for the sopranos. You also get to teach in German. There is also plenty of dynamic contrast that can be taught. If I were to program this piece. I would take the optional repeat at the end and have the altos and sopranos switch parts. This would get all of the women singing the melody at some point and not get bored with the piece. If there were some tenors, it would be very easy to modify the bass and alto parts to suit them. Flipping back and forth would allow them to sing most of the piece in a very comfortable range.

Repertory 5

Tres canciones de los elementos (Two-Part)
Victor C Johnson

This three movement piece based on Spanish texts by the composer. The accompaniment plays a pivotal role in providing a rich musical experience for fairly simple vocal lines. Multi-language text painting is easily taught in these short pieces. There is a definite split in ranges between part one and part two, but singers can easily switch parts between pieces so everyone is using their head voice. There is plenty of dynamic and articulation contrast between the movements that can be taught as well. The text is simple, but easy to comprehend and sounds very cool in Spanish. This piece would work well for an early middle school or even elementary school ensemble.

Repertory 8

Galop, from Solfege Suite (Unison/Two-Part)
Ken Berg

A perfect closer for any elementary or early middle school choir. All of the text is solfege so it's a great teaching tool for new singers to learn solfege or to secure what they already know. It's also very fast pace so singers will have a fun time learning it and practicing keeping tempo. Range wise, all parts stay around the same range within a C octave and push the upper limits. This makes it difficult for boys with changed voices, so this would work well with an earlier choir. It is also a great piece for teaching accompaniment vs. melody and listening across the choir, if you're doing the two part version. Different harmony parts or modifications to the melody are possible if needed.

http://www.jwpepper.com/10028692.item#.VUPfudNViko

Repertory 7

Goodbye, Then (TBB)
Timothy Takach

I do not own this piece, but I heard it recently and wanted to talk about it. A like to the website is at the bottom.

This piece, written for TBB choir, is great for a young high school men's ensemble. The three distinct parts have very specific ranges, the tenors between a Bb and F, baritones with the smallest range right at the top of the bass clef, and basses cover the low end. The obligato instrument and text are the main reasons to perform this piece. It isn't often that men get to sing about heartbreak in a sensitive manner and this text does just that. Musically, it's a great piece to teach more complex harmonies. They are set up really well so that the piano and clarinet help cover, but the chords don't move in a typical manner. Modification is trickier in this piece, but the parts are close enough at points that someone can move back and forth if needed.

http://www.timothyctakach.com/Works/GoodbyeThen.html

Repertory 2

La Lluvia (SSA)
Stephen Hatfield

La Lluvia is an SSA with descant, short bass part, and percussion. There are a few voicings of this piece but I'm going to stick with the SSA arrangement. This piece seems far more complex than it actually is. The structure of the piece is founded upon 4 small motives that return in every part and are continually layered on top of each other. This piece would work well for any women's ensemble that can read solidly in two-part homophonic harmony and would be a nice challenge. The piece typically is either unison between two parts, or two parts accompanimental and one part melody, simplifying what sounds like a very complex and busy piece. There are no lyrics to this tune, and that makes it possible to teach a lot about the historical aspects of the piece. It also allows for the students to use their collective imagination to come up with ways to create contrast through the different sections. Musically, the piece contains opportunities for different vocal styles and phrasings. The motives are what provide the contrast and the singers can sing them with different weights. Tempo is a big teaching point in this, as the piece can run away if everyone isn't together. In terms of ranges, the Treble I part goes the highest, up to an F# (the descant goes to the G) and all parts need to go to a low B, the Treble III part sits low at points but for an acapella piece, that is sometimes necessary. If you don't have enough singers to pull of the 5 part section (three part canon, descant, and bass) it is possible to only have the singers sing the three part canon, it still sounds just fine.

Repertory 3

Circle 'Round the Moon, from Reflections of Youth (SA)
Mark Hierholzer

Circle 'Round the Moon is a charming two part piece that remains unison for over 5% of the time. The text is the big draw to this piece, with many opportunities for text painting and using consonants to the singers advantages. The melody is light and very easy to sing. The tessitura of the piece sits between e and b with low note for part two being the low b and the top note being a high G for part one. There is really only one line that sits in that low range. This piece would work very well for a young choir, the melody repeats plenty of times and is a charming song to sing. Some older kids may find it too childish though. The text tells a simple story about winter that has tons of imagery that kids can latch on to. That low line where the second part sings in the low b and a range could be rewritten to a higher harmony part to keep the kids out of that low rang for so long.

Repertory 4

Lullaby (SATB div)
Daniel Elder

At first glance, this piece may seem way out of reach for a beginning/intermediate level HS choir. There is a lot of divisi but if you dig into it, it's all prepared very well. I'm thinking of this piece in my situation for next year, where all of the men are in one choir and combine with the advanced women's group for concerts. Musically, the piece is full of text painting and long line that are great to teach. It also is a great introduction to 8 part music. All of the dissonances or splits come from a unison note. There is rarely a leap into a harmony, unless it is part of the melody or outlining a major triad. The women's parts have most of the leaps into harmony, but they are more advanced anyway. The ranges of all of the parts (especially the men's parts) are appropriate. The only times that the men's parts go outside of comfort ranges for changed voices is when they are in unison with the other part. The piece gives opportunity to leave out the low bass if there aren't many, and many of the tenor 2 notes are doubled by the baritones if numbers are low as well. The text is a gorgeous piece, a lullaby, that is very easy to understand and express.

Observation #7

(Apparently I forgot to post publish and hit save instead...)


This week at Holt, I decided to see what it would be like to work with a smaller group of singers, so I ran a section on Barbara Ann (see rep project for score). The teacher said that the Baritone part was having trouble holding their part in the full texture and to solidify the part along with anything else I saw fit. I took the Baritones into a practice room and worked on the following:

Confirm notes
Finding starting pitches
     Audiating patterns to find entrances.
Singing against another part
     Sing one part and play another while they sing a third

We took about 15 minutes on various technique work as well, working through the low flip and not pressing into lower notes. One freshman is going through his voice change as well so we talked about that for a little while as well. During the sectional, everything was great, the guys were nailing all of their pitches (I was incredibly able to play and sing along on the other 3 parts...) so we went back into the large rehearsal and fit them in. I'm not sure why I didn't anticipate it, but the part completely disappeared. What was odd was that as soon as I helped them with one pitch, they were back on track. One singer, the strongest of the three, continually had his part. I moved him from the front of the triangle to the back and all of a sudden, the part held together. We talk a lot about how horizontally, people listen differently, but this small vertical change made the choir stick together and tune better. It's interesting to see how important setting up your choir is. It's part of your preparation to make sure the group has the best opportunity to succeed.

Observation 8 and Final

For my last day at Holt, I decided to bring something musical that means a lot to me and that is Barbershop singing. I was a little concerned at first since I know the ability level of the singers and singing something in four parts is tricky but I wanted to challenge them. We sang a tag that I taught by rote, focusing on tuning.

I love this first tag because each voice part is very contained and allows the freest part of the voice (T1s in falsetto) moving the most. I had each section make small circles (2-3 per part) and taught each part one at time, bass upward, layering in parts. We then brought the singers back to the risers to "perform it." I'm always surprised by the ability level of these boys, especially when they are taught in isolation. When we bring the group together and teach chunks, it takes a lot longer for them to hold onto their part. By going part by part and layering, each guy got to grab onto the newest part while holding firm to what had been developing before.

Observation #6, Teach #2

Lesson:

• Rote teach Somagwaza

Though it's a simple lesson plan, the application of teaching a rote song at the beginning of the day with an inexperienced choir is much more difficult that it seems. First off, they guys are tired, their brains are not working quickly and retaining their part can be difficult. Second, it's easy for you as a teacher to get off track since you are also waking up. The song I chose to teach is an African ceremonial song that Dr. Reed does with the MSU Men's Glee Club at the beginning of every semester, so I know it like the back of my hand. Still, in front of students, I could not figure out when the third part was supposed to enter, and I was the only one singing it! 

The process went something like this: I first spoke the words to every one. We said them a few times to get it into muscle memory, then I started to sing the bass part. The basses would join in when they felt ready and that took about 5 or 6 times through before everyone was in. As the continued, I started to shift towards the middle part, and the bass part would go away. So I would go back and get it going again, start the middle part up, and they would be singing a mix between the bass and the middle part. So I isolated the second part, restarted the bass, added the middle back in, then realized everyone was already singing so I sang the third part alone. It could possibly have been too much for that day anyway so it was a good thing that I sang it. 

It's interesting to see how the brains of singers work, at least the boys in this choir. They like to be completely secure on a part before they even think about singing it out loud. This proved to be difficult as I wanted them to sing text, pitch, and rhythm all at the same time. A few said, I've got it, but I can't put the words to it yet, which I accepted. The best part about teaching this song was that afterwards, they asked if they could keep learning it so they could perform it on their next concert. I'll call that a success.

Observation #5, Teach #1

Lesson Plan:

• Warm up
• Stretch and pat
• Breathing, hiss on eighth note pulse
• Sirens
• Falsetto Lydian Warmup
• Zee ah round 1-5, 4-3-2-1
• Zee, zeh, zah, zoh, zoo, Single Pitch
• Counting, Dynamics

For this fifth visit, I conducted and lead warmups for MOH. As I mentioned earlier, before today the guys hadn't really warmed up to the idea of me teaching. This time around, they expected me more. I had given some comments earlier about their festival set so they knew who I was more. Before I went in to teach, I spoke with the director about what he wanted me to cover. I am a firm believer that warmups are the single best way to teach concepts and technique. As Dr. Snow always says, show it in the air, on the board, in the music. Warm ups act as a way to show it in the air before they realize what is going on. Since the choir was about to go to festival, he wanted me to focus on standard things, tone, part independence, but specifically dynamics and volume change. I added the final counting warm up to fit this need and will go into more detail with that later.

The first few warmups are the standard "warm up." It's a 7:30am class, these boys need to just move and get the mechanism working. I then shifted straight into a high falsetto warm up that Dr. Reed uses often. I wanted to get them out of the habit of just doing a scalular pattern so this lydian mode warm up keeps their brains active while still working on bringing the head voice down. I continued the brain work by having them sing a simple round that also works to build connectivity while leaping through the two ranges that the fifth covers. I had some issues with this one because they were all dropping their sound backward as the leapt up. I added a hand gesture (touch shoulder then have them glide forward) along with a slight squat on the leap to keep the air moving and the sound cleared up very quickly. 

The next warmup involved vowel unification on a single pitch, helping with those that have trouble finding pitch and just unity throughout the choir. I realized that trying to unify all the vowels in one warmup is a losing effort. There is just too much to work on at one time. I feel that it would be more effective to take a day focusing on one vowel, adding a new one on each day, so you can scaffold up to a full vowel set warmup. Each day you can have a specific idea that works for each vowel that you can draw on the next day if the singers slip back into old habits. 

The final warmup is a simple warm up where you count to 5 and back to 1 on a single pitch, dynamics going up with the number. We then used these same numbers and applied them to the music when they were singing. A very quick and effective warmup that can transfer to octavo application.

(Apparently this saved as a draft last week, apologies) 

Observation #4

I'm a bit at a loss as to what to write for today's observation. The rehearsal today was taken up mainly by a few long, drawn out stories that didn't relate at all to the material. So I guess I have a question of philosophy.

Do we teach to teach music or do we teach to teach people? I know that I used that specific word 4 times in that statement but it was well worth it. I'm having a bit of an internal debate over this subject. In my mind, I want an excellent product. I want my students to learn about music, about singing, and have the classroom be a skill based class. It has tangible results and it seems to be validated by the idea that we need to actually "teach" something.

At the same time, I feel the need to sometimes tell stories like what happened today, just to get through to the students. I wouldn't go so far as to say that we should talk about random things and hold a pseudo-fireside chat every week, but I think there needs to be a bit of a human element in there. The students are partially there for you as the teacher. Is that because they like your personality? Or your teaching style? Or the way you run a rehearsal?

Depending on the type of student, you'll draw different populations dependent on which area you focus. Is there a balance? Is there one that will draw both populations and grow your program to the fullest? It you focus one, you'll obviously get the population that resonates with our values and vice versa. If you find a balance, though, is it possible that you'll get less of both because they will be bored when you are in the "other mood?" It's an interesting debate.

Observation #3

The second of three visits this week to catch myself up was very similar to the first two. In this post, I'll be focusing on the operational procedures of the class room.

From observations over this first few visits, there doesn't seem to be any type of grading in the classroom. I don't even notice if the teacher takes attendance. I do not believe I have heard the phrase practice in terms of the music or outside of rehearsal as well.

Throughout the day, Mr. Bishop has five classes for one class that he meets with five days a week. The classes are split up into ability level and gender, except for the Chorale group. Some of the Chorale guys also sing with the Men's ensemble that I visit. Even after asking, any administrative duties that he has are unknown to me. He was not very specific in what exactly he does but I believe he does a hallway shift where he monitors hallways. The relationship with the students is very close, as explained in the last post, and the relationship with other staff is the same. Whenever they enter the classroom for various reasons, he chit chats with them for a while while the choir just sits there. Since I've been there, I have seen no sight reading books, besides old MSVMA contest examples. The ensemble that I'm with, even though they are competing, have not opened them once.

The physical space of the choir room, though, is fantastic. There is a large riser set up with chairs and attached desks. The "audience" wall is a giant mirror that the students can see themselves in. The back of the classroom has four practice rooms with pianos for student use. The tables, however, are littered with music and papers, it's hard to find anything.

To me, it just seems so unfortunate that they have all of the resources but not the best musical environment. The program has everything it needs to succeed at a very high level, I'm just not seeing it in this group.

Observation #2

Since I am on Spring Break, I thought this would be a great time to catch up on some days that I've missed due to my various circumstances. As a quick reminder, these observations are at Holt High school with their Men's chorus.

I found it very hard to answer some of the prompts that were given to us for this observation. There are many great things that the teacher does, but in terms of actually being able to see if everything was planned is tough to tell. For example, each class starts with the Pledge of Allegiance. Even if official class time starts, they wait for that moment so they aren't interrupted. They then move straight into the warm up, which does not really relate to the music they will be working on. It's just singing with no guidance and no forethought. While the exercises are good in it of themselves, it just doesn't relate the way we expect it to.

In terms of the repertoire, the sequence of pieces seem to be in a need based order. If there is something to fix, we'll sing it. Typically, the teacher sits behind the piano, plucking out notes, or standing and listening to the sound while the choir sings to a YouTube recording. The main goal seems to be, sing the notes and have it not sound too bad. It's sometimes frustrating to sit in on because there are some easy fixes in terms of tone or rhythm or pitch and they just blow by it. Conducting rarely happens, and if it does, it is from seated in a chair. All instructions are verbal with some modeling, but without explaining it substantially first. There are also many tangents on very random stories that don't relate to the rehearsal.

While the actual rehearsal can be very frustrating, the students absolutely love their teacher. It's like an adult friend scenario. This makes it difficult to control the students but they will do anything that is asked of them, that is, if it is asked.

Repertory Project 1

The piece I chose for the repertory project is Aaron Copland's, "Shall We Gather At the River," for Unison voice and Piano.

I think that we don't consider unison pieces enough as opportunities for learning. We focus so much and how many parts can we get students to sing as opposed to the quality of singing that happens. I like this piece for it's simplicity and it's ability to be adapted if necessary. This piece could be used for many different levels, as far down as middle school, and still useful in intermediate ensembles. The tessitura is broken up into to distinct sections, one that hovers around G in the staff and the other around D in the staff for treble. The range of each of these sections are also very limited. This makes the piece easily adaptable if some singers can only do one section or another. Musically, there are a lot of dynamic markings and typical music information included in the score. This gives a good opportunity to introduce these terms with such a simple melody. Singing in unison in general also teaches phrasing because of the simplicity and "training" the choir to respond to gesture when they aren't concerned with other parts. The text is also a very traditional text. Yes, you would have to deal with the religious aspect of the text, but the tradition of the song is worth teaching as well.

Finally. Week 1(?)

I didn't even feel tired waking up at 5:30 this morning to get to school. Just too much excitement to get back.

Today was an interesting day and I ended up working with the class that I don't typically work with. Holt High School is combining with two other high schools to put on a concert. I don't have all of the details because Mr. Bishop was running around still setting some things up. Because of this, I lead warm ups just to relieve some of the stress. I unfortunately had no preparatory time but I knew he needed the extra second to breath and check for the buses so I very willingly lead the young women's ensemble. I did have the Pledge of Allegiance to plan so this is what I came up with and a bit of rationale:

Stretching (It's 7:30 am. They need to move)
Quick breathing exercise, pulsing on eighth notes (Part of our standard warmup procedure)
Vocals sighs, to get the breath moving (phonation)
Very bright Mi-eh-mi-eh 5-3-4-2-3-1-2-7-1 (Classic Elizabeth Hermanson warm up to get the resonators moving)
The tone was very breathy during this warmup, even with insistence to make it very nasal, so I moved to a warm up that sings "Zing-a-zing-a-zoo, Zing-a-zing-a-zoo, Zing-a-zing-a-Zing-a-Zing-a-Zoo)" to get their air moving but still focus that sound through the Z consonant.
Since he still wasn't back, I moved to a tuning exercise where one part holds a tonic pitch, and the other outlines a major chord. This worked more effectively in getting a more focused tone.

Since this was an all women's group, the maturity level was significantly higher than the men's group. Talking during rehearsal was strictly about musical ideas and Mr. Bishop let that slide. The set up of the class was interesting, there were small pockets of singers spread out across the choir risers, in chairs with desks. I thought this would be a problem in terms of talking but it seemed to be held to a minimum. Mr. Bishop keeps a very open rehearsal, he allows for lots of questions and listens to his students needs. If someone said they needed help with a part, he would have everyone sing it. It's a very relaxed atmosphere, with him conducting from a chair or from behind the piano.

At this point, the rehearsal was taken over by Prof. Parr from Albion College, the conductor for this combined concert. The students were seemingly less responsive to him as they were to Mr. Bishop, and this may explain why they students were so unresponsive to me. They trust Mr. Bishop so much that it is hard for them to adjust. I do really like this atmosphere though. It is very trusting, and they believe that Mr. Bishop is there to help them. I can only hope that my future students will have that much trust in me, but maybe a bit more respect for a stranger in the classroom.

ZL

Snow Days, Winter Breaks, and Trapped Cars

I don't actually mind the teacher's schedule. I don't mind going to be early, getting up at 5:30, and going to school. It always seems worth it. What's unfortunate, however, is that the past three weeks, I have woken up to messages that have kept me from going to Holt High School for my observations/assistantship. This morning, I had received a text from WILX saying that Holt High School was closed due to the cold. Last week, they were on their Mid-Winter Break for the week. The week before, my car was trapped in it's lot because the lot was an active crime scene due to a shooting that had taken place late the night before. I just want to go to school at this point. I saw an interesting post on my Facebook the other day that was written by a editorialist that says that teachers should go to school on snow days like "the rest of us." The link can be found here:

http://www.phillymag.com/news/2015/02/18/philadelphia-teachers-snow-days/

I wish I could speak with the writer of this article and tell them what I've been experiencing. Yes, it does seem odd that teachers don't report to school on snow days, but I know that if I'm home for snow days, I'll be doing anything but sleeping in and veg-ing for the entire day. Yes, I may sleep in, but the year moves too quickly to take a work day off. Lesson planning needs to happen. Papers need to be graded. The author makes a whole list of things that we as teachers could be doing and you know what? I'd do those exact things, just at home. Why risk the snow and ice when I can do the same things at home. Who's to say if I go to school I'd be productive? I know I probably would but I can do the same at home.

Even now, while I'm writing this, I just want to get back into the school that I visited once. In the hour I was there, I saw so much in the class I was in and just want to work with them again.

I'll be back. Soon. Hopefully.