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.