Seeing Through the Eyes of Others

I love to read.  The habit started early in life and seems to be growing with each passing year.  I’m especially drawn to nonfiction, primarily because it gives me the opportunity to learn something new.  One of my favorite writers is Malcolm Gladwell, a regular contributor to The New Yorker, and author of such best sellers as Outliers, Blink, and The Tipping Point.  Gladwell is essentially a social psychologist who helps his readers think about such diverse topics as the nature of genius, how little things can make a big difference, and the importance of going with one’s “gut feeling.”  In his fourth book, What the Dog Saw, Gladwell has just collected many of his previous essays from The New Yorker and created a series of stories and reflections that allow the reader to see the world through the eyes of others.  I don’t want to give away more of the book because I would prefer you read it, but I will let you know that the title of the book comes from an essay about Cesar Millan, the “Dog Whisperer” of television fame.

You may ask, what, if anything, does all this have to do with choral music?  Well, while I do have thoughts from time to time on subjects non-musical, this one does have a choral theme.  While reading What the Dog Saw and considering how instructive it can be to see through the eyes of others, it struck me that this is what we do everytime we sing a piece of choral music.  We are seeing and hearing through the eyes and ears of the composer and librettist.  The person or persons who wrote the music and the words we are singing had a message to share. We become the vehicle of the sharing when we sing, both with others and with ourselves.  Isn’t that amazing?  The MOS chorus has recently completed a very successful performance of  The World Beloved: A Bluegrass Mass by Carol Barnett (composer) and Marisha Chamberlain (librettist).  For many of my singers this became a transformational piece in that they were able to see music and life in a somewhat different manner following exposure to this unique work.  I’m not saying it made a major difference in anyone’s life, but I am suggesting that in some small way we were all changed by the rehearsal and performance of this music.  Ultimately, I think that is one of the points suggested by Gladwell in his book – that we can be changed (for the better) by taking the time to see the world through the eyes of others.

And Now For Something Completely Different

My life as a musician has been filled with many amazing and gratifying experiences. Many of those experiences have come about through my association with excellent musical mentors. From a high school choral director who instilled in me a life long love of choral music, to a college choral director whose connection with singers was a model for me to emulate, and finally to a twenty-year musical relationship with the foremost American choral director of our age, Robert Shaw, from whom I learned to strive to always give my best effort – I have been fortunate indeed in my musical life. But it all began as an eight year old choir singer in my church and in Sunday evening services where I would sing gospel hymns similar to the ones that will “bookend” the opening concert of The Michael O’Neal Singers 2011-2012 Season. As the centerpiece of the concert, MOS will perform The World Beloved: A Bluegrass Mass by Carol Barnett. The “bluegrass” style was something very familiar to my early days of music making, and while I have journeyed far from that style in the ensuing years, I return to it in this concert with the joy that seems to be in every measure of such music. Carol Barnett explains beautifully what led her to compose the piece with librettist Marisha Chamberlain. Here are Barnett’s words:

“To bring the solemnity of the classical-based Mass together with the down-home sparkle of bluegrass – now there’s an assignment. My highest hope is that listeners coming from one tradition – classical or bluegrass – and perhaps dubious about the other, might discover something new and wonderful in the combination, as I have. Composing the music for ‘The World Beloved’ has given me the chance to write cheery sacred music – all too rare in a medium rife with staid and even lugubrious settings. It’s brought me back to memories of music heard while visiting my grandparents: country music with a church flavor that told stories and came out of a scratchy old record player. Grandma would not have allowed dancing, but under the table I tapped my toes.”

It is my hope that our audience will be tapping its toes as well, as we perform a concert quite different from our normal fare.

Limitless Listening

From time to time I think about the changes that have taken place in the world since I was a child. I’m specifically thinking today about how much easier it is to listen to the music of our choice, and whenever we want to do so. We have the internet, mp3 players, CDs, and seemingly hundreds of music channels on television and satellite radio. In fact, we can go to YouTube and both hear AND see almost any musical performance that can be imagined (whether or not it should be is not the case). I contrast all that to my listening possibilities as a child and young teenager. I played old 78s found in our attic of musicians such as Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald, 45s of Elvis Presley and Ricky Nelson, and 33 LPs of my favorite choral groups (Robert Shaw, Roger Wagner, and Norman Luboff). Yes, I’m afraid I was a choral nerd at the age of 10! Yet, even with that number of listening possibilities, it couldn’t even begin to compare with what we have today. Why, I didn’t even have my first FM radio until I was 13, and it only picked up one station.

So, as I’m feeling nostalgic today, I’m interested in hearing from those in my age group (above 50) what your listening experiences and possibilities were as a child or youth. If nothing else, your responses should provide entertainment for our younger readers!