A Choir Member’s New Year’s Resolutions (reprise)

The Choir Member’s New Year’s Resolutions listed below are a reprint from last year’s blog.   At that time I received some great responses from my readers (including additional resolutions) and I invite you all to participate again this year.   Although Christmas may still be in our thoughts, it’s never too early to be preparing for that first rehearsal of the new year!

A Choir Member’s New Year’s Resolutions

1. I will listen to my director.
2. I will be on time for rehearsal.
3. I will come to rehearsal having studied any assigned spots.
4. I will bring a pencil to rehearsal and will mark my music as needed.
5. I will transfer (outside of rehearsal) any markings provided in a master score.
6. I will pay attention to the vocal sound I make and how it fits into the overall ensemble.
7. I will talk during rehearsal only during approved breaks.
8. I will silence my mobile device prior to rehearsal, and will refrain from reading or sending e-mails or texts during rehearsal.
9. I will resolve to learn something of value at each rehearsal.
10. I will listen to my director (this bears repeating!).

 

Let It Snow!

As Christmas fast approaches, many of us wish for a holiday with snow (especially those of us in the South, where such an event is rare indeed).  I find myself thinking more and more about songs that include “snow” as part of the overall theme.   My favorite secular song is Irving Berlin’s White Christmas.  It is a wonderfully sentimental song and was a tremendous hit with our armed forces when it was first introduced during the Second World War.  Our young men and women, whether serving in the Pacific or in Europe, were reminded of home, family, and what they were fighting to protect when they heard the words by that great American songwriter, Irving Berlin:

I’m dreaming of a white Christmas

just like the ones I used to know.

Where the treetops glisten and children listen

to hear sleigh bells in the snow.

I’m dreaming of a white Christmas

with every Christmas card I write.

May your days be merry and bright,

and may all your Christmases be white.

Many of my favorite carols also introduce the subject of snow.  Consider the exquisite poem by Christina Rossetti, set beautifully to music by Gustav Holst, as well as by Harold Darke.  The piece is In the Bleak Midwinter:

In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,

earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;

snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,

in the bleak midwinter, long ago.

Still, Still, Still is another piece which never fails to move me.  My church choir did a Mack Wilberg setting of this lovely little lullaby at its recent Christmas concerts.

Still, still, still,

One can hear the falling snow.

For all is hushed, the world is sleeping,

Holy Star its vigil keeping.

Still, still, still,

One can hear the falling snow.

I’m sure you have some favorite Christmas/Holiday “snow” selections.  How about sharing them in this blog.  You may even find that your suggestion is included in one of my future concerts!

A Messiah Sing-Along (with a twist)

The Messiah Sing-Along has become a very popular event in many American communities, and especially during the Christmas Season there will be hundreds of these celebrations across our nation. What makes them so popular? I have several thoughts as to why that might be. One is that Handel’s Messiah is a work that most choral singers have performed. Another is that during the Holiday Season a Sing-Along provides a wonderful shared experience, whether one comes to participate as an individual or as part of a group. And finally, I suggest that people enjoy participating in Messiah Sing-Alongs just because they are fun!

As The Michael O’Neal Singers prepares to present its 6th Annual Messiah Sing-Along, there will be something new in how we do it! For the first time we will have the solos, as well as the choruses, sung by the audience! Don’t ask me where I got the idea, for I’m not sure! I just remember waking up one morning thinking about our Sing-Along and considering the possibility of having the solos sung by the vocal sections rather than by professional soloists. The more I thought about it the more convinced I became that it was a wonderful idea! Naturally, the “proof of the pudding” will be this coming Sunday at 3 PM when this interesting experiment takes place. Just imagine 200 tenors singing “Ev’ry valley shall be exalted” or 300 or more sopranos warbling “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion.” The excitement is building as we prepare for the day! This is either going to be remembered as one of my best ideas ever, or not! What do you think?

‘Tis the Season!

The second weekend of December will probably include more church Christmas concerts, cantatas, pageants, and services than any other time in the month. Indeed, my own church choir will be presenting two performances of its concert this weekend. The program will include beautiful Christmas carols and songs, performed by our 115 voice Sanctuary Choir, Handbell Choir, organ, brass, and harp, along with meaningful and tasteful narration and lighting. The music will include settings by such luminaries as Sir David Willcocks, Stephen Paulus, and Mack Wilberg. We will in fact be closing the concert with a fairly recent arrangement of O Holy Night by Mr. Wilberg that promises to touch every beating heart in the audience.

That leads me to my question of the day. There is absolutely so much beautiful Advent and Christmas music available for performance. My challenge each season seems not to be what to select to perform, but rather what to exclude! So, what is your favorite Christmas selection (or selections, if you can’t narrow it down to just one)?

Sensitive Singing by a Responsive Chorus

I was honored to conduct the members of MOS yesterday aftenoon in a concert which featured some absolutely beautiful singing, not only by them, but also by our special guest, The Georgia Regional Girls Choir.  The last several rehearsals for this concert have been especially intense as we have concentrated on refining our sound and performing with a commitment to clarity, precision, and sensitivity.   MOS did all this extremely well yesterday and in so doing gave me an early Christmas present (something highly prized by choral directors, which is the knowledge that the entire chorus is “with” you in your interpretation of the music).  It was a joy conducting the first three pieces of the program:  Kopylov’s Heavenly Light,  Lauridsen’s O Nata Lux, and Whitacre’s Lux Aurumque.  It was also very satisfying to lead the chorus in Rutter’s What Sweeter Music, and I suspect our Associate Conductor, John LaForge, felt equally delighted with how MOS responded to his conducting of Wilberg’s settings of Away in a Manger and Fum, Fum, Fum.

All in all, this was one of those concerts which reminded me how lucky I am to be a choral director.  To be able to study, rehearse, and perform beautiful music with a group of talented, committed, and caring singers is a remarkable privilege, and one I do not take lightly.  Thank you MOS!