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Books > Music > Other types of music > Vocal music > Choral music
In Voice Secrets: 100 Performance Strategies for the Advanced
Singer, Matthew Hoch and Linda Lister create order out of the
chaotic world of singing. They examine all aspects of singing,
including nontechnical matters, such as auditioning, performance
anxiety, score preparation, practice performance tips, business
etiquette, and many other important topics for the advanced singer.
Voice Secrets provides singers with a quick and efficient path to
significant improvement, both technically and musically. It is the
perfect resource for advanced students of singing, professional
performers, music educators, and avid amateur musicians. The Music
Secrets for the Advanced Musician series is designed for
instrumentalists, singers, conductors, composers, and other
instructors and professionals seeking a quick set of pointers to
improve their work as performers and producers of music. Easy to
use and intended for the advanced musician, contributions to Music
Secrets fill a niche for those who have moved beyond what beginners
and intermediate practitioners need.
A History of the Handel Choir of Baltimore (1935-2013): Music,
Spread Thy Voice Around chronicles the history of one of America's
longstanding volunteer choral organizations, one that has followed
in the footsteps of venerable ensembles such as the Handel and
Haydn Society (Boston), the Bethlehem Bach Choir, and the Handel
Society of Dartmouth College. It begins by considering music in the
city of Baltimore, and establishing the reasons surrounding the
choir's formation. Substantial coverage is given to the influence
of Katharine M. Lucke, one of Baltimore's grandes dames-as a
composer, mover, and shaker-and a vital force in Baltimore's
National Music Week from her position on the faculty of the Peabody
Conservatory of Music. Subsequently the book focuses on the
contributions of each of the ten conductor/music directors, the
vicissitudes of funding a volunteer choir, the choir's
contributions to music education in the greater Baltimore
metropolitan area, and the choir's repertoire. The book contains
extensive appendices describing the choir's repertoire, its
presidents, and its unbroken string of Messiah performances.
Throughout more than seventy-five years, the Handel Choir of
Baltimore has remained true to its original charter as an amateur
choral organization that aspires to the highest standards of
artistic excellence. A History of the Handel Choir of Baltimore is
an invaluable resource to those interested in choral music studies,
the running of an amateur, volunteer choir, and other disciplines
of music studies.
This book offers an overview of issues related to the regulated,
formal organization of sound and speech in verse intended for
singing. Particularly, it is concerned with the structural
properties and underlying mechanisms involved in the association of
lyrics and music. While in spoken verse the underlying metrical
scheme is grounded in the prosody of the language in which it is
composed, in sung verse the structure is created by the mapping of
specific prosodic units of the text (syllables, moras, tones, etc.)
onto the rhythmic-melodic structure provided by the tune. Studying
how this mapping procedure takes place across different musical
genres and styles is valuable for what it can add to our knowledge
of language and music in general, and also for what it can teach us
about individual languages and poetic traditions. In terms of
empirical coverage, the collection includes a wide variety of
(Western) languages and metrical/musical forms, ranging from the
Latin hexameter to the Norwegian stev, from the French chant
courtois to the Sardinian mutetu longu. Readers interested in
formal analyses of vocal music, or in metrics and linguistics, will
find useful insights here.
In Singing in Greek: A Guide to Greek Lyric Diction and Vocal
Repertoire, Lydia Zervanos reveals to singers the vast riches of
Greek vocal music. Dating back to 1770, Greek art music-following
the Western European styles, often drawing on themes from folk
music and motifs-long awaits its rightful place in a truly
international vocal repertoire. Modern singers in search of new
musical opportunities will find in Singing in Greek the necessary
tools to locate and perform art songs and arias from this extensive
national vocal repertoire. Concisely written and full of practical
advice, the book opens with an introduction to the Greek alphabet
and pronunciation, navigating the assignment of International
Phonetic Alphabet symbols. Zervanos covers such topics as Greek
vowels, digraphs, consonants, binary consonants, consonant
combinations, palatalization, basic Greek grammatical concepts and
their role in stress and length, syllabification, and
punctuation-all separated into easily referenced chapters and
supported by online recordings of native Greek opera singers. In
the second half of Singing in Greek, Zervanos offers a short
history of Greek art music, biographies of prominent Greek
composers, texts of their most representative works with IPA
transcriptions, and word-for-word and poetic translations, with
arias and art songs chosen for all voice types and levels. This
book also includes indexes of direct vowel-to-IPA and
consonant-to-IPA transcriptions, as well as useful appendixes on
publications, organizations, and famous Greek poets. Singing in
Greek is a must-have resource for every singer, voice teacher,
vocal coach, collaborative pianist, and opera and choral conductor
seeking to perform and teach in this unique language, explore the
wealth of music available, and expand their knowledge of Greek
repertoire.
A History of Western Choral Music explores the various genres, key
composers, and influential works essential to the development of
the western choral tradition. Author Chester L. Alwes divides this
exploration into two volumes which move from Medieval music and the
Renaissance era up to the 21st century. Volume I surveys the choral
music of composers including Josquin, Palestrina, Purcell, Handel,
and J.S. Bach while detailing the stylistic, textual, and
extramusical considerations unique to the topics covered.
Consideration of Renaissance music includes both sacred and secular
works, specifically addressing the growth of sacred music, the rise
of secular music, and the proliferation of sacred polyphony from
Josquin to Palestrina. Discussion of the Baroque era is organized
by geographic location, exploring the spread of Baroque style from
Italy to German, France, and England. Volume I concludes by
examining the aesthetic underpinnings of the early Classical and
Romantic eras. Framing discussion within the political, religious,
cultural, philosophical, aesthetic, and technological contexts of
each era, A History of Western Choral Music offers readers
specialized insight into major composers and works while providing
a cohesive understanding of choral music's place in Western
history.
Late medieval motet texts are brimming with chimeras, centaurs and
other strange creatures. In The Monstrous New Art, Anna Zayaruznaya
explores the musical ramifications of this menagerie in the works
of composers Guillaume de Machaut, Philippe de Vitry, and their
contemporaries. Aligning the larger forms of motets with the broad
sacred and secular themes of their texts, Zayaruznaya shows how
monstrous or hybrid exempla are musically sculpted by rhythmic and
textural means. These divisive musical procedures point to the
contradictory aspects not only of explicitly monstrous bodies, but
of such apparently unified entities as the body politic, the
courtly lady, and the Holy Trinity. Zayaruznaya casts a new light
on medieval modes of musical representation, with profound
implications for broader disciplinary narratives about the history
of text-music relations, the emergence of musical unity, and the
ontology of the musical work.
In 1714, the 29 year-old Johann Sebastian Bach was promoted to the
position of concertmaster at the ducal court of Weimar. This post
required him for the first time in his already established career
to produce a regular stream of church cantatas-one cantata every
four weeks. Among the most significant works of this period is Ich
hatte viel Bekummernis in meinem Herzen (Cantata 21). Generally
known in English as "I had much affliction," Cantata 21 draws from
several psalms and the Book of Revelations and offers a depiction
of the spiritual ascent of the soul from intense tribulation to joy
and exaltation. Although widely performed and loved by musicians,
Cantata 21 has endured much criticism from scholars and critics who
claim that the piece lacks organizational clarity and stylistic
coherence. In Tears into Wine, renowned Bach scholar Eric Chafe
challenges the scholarly consensus, arguing that Cantata 21 is an
exceptionally carefully designed work, and that it displays a
convergence of musical structure and theological purpose that is
paradigmatic of Bach's sacred work as a whole. Drawing on a wide
range of Lutheran theological writing, Chafe shows that Cantata 21
reaches beyond the scope of the individual liturgical occasion to
voice a breadth of meaning that encompasses much of the core of
Lutheran thought. Chafe artfully demonstrates that instead of
simply presenting a musical depiction of the soul's journey from
sorrow to bliss, Cantata 21 expresses the various stages of God's
revelation and their impact on the believing soul. As a result,
Chafe reveals that Cantata 21 has a formal design that mirrors
Lutheran belief in unfolding revelation, with the final movement
representing the work's "crown"-the goal toward which all of the
earlier movements are directed. Complete with full text
translations of the cantata and the liturgical readings that would
have accompanied it at the first performance, Tears into Wine is a
monumental book that is ideally suited for Bach scholars and
students, as well as those generally interested in the relationship
between theology and music.
Camerata: A Guide to Organizing and Directing Small Choruses
distinguishes itself from all other works on choral conducting by
starting at the very beginning the conception and purpose of an
ensemble and continuing through all other aspects of rehearsing and
organizing a chorus to performance and reception. Wenk offers basic
information on getting started, recruiting singers, planning
programs, rehearsing music, publicizing concerts, sharing
responsibilities, financing the operation, knowing the law, and
finally getting better. He also offers detailed suggestions for
creating an executive group to manage the choir as well ideas for
repertoire and programming. In addition to a step-by-step guide,
Camerata provides a wealth of supplementary material including a
prospectus, a statement of goals and means, programs,
organizational documents, a singer s guide, documents for
organizing a folksong competition, a list of websites for
publishers and choral federations, and an annotated bibliography of
works on choral conducting. Wenk also includes more than twenty
original Christmas carols and carol arrangements for performance by
your small chorus. This work will be a valuable resource for anyone
interested in starting a new choral organization or improving an
existing ensemble. Although the book focuses on chamber choirs,
Wenk s practical suggestions, based on more than forty years of
experience as a choral conductor, can be easily applied to any
choral organization."
Ein Buch mit 26 Liedern, gesetzt und teilweise komponiert von
Jobst-Hermann Koch, dem ehemaligen Kantor a.D. der St. Nicolai
Kirche in Lemgo, Lippe, der auch als Musiklehrer am
Engelbert-Kampfer Gymnasium unterrichtete und jetzt weiterhin
Orgelkonzerte gibt. Alle Stucke in diesem Buch sind gesetzt fur
einen vierstimmigen Chor mit Klavierbegleitung. A book with 26
songs arranged, and partially composed, by the retired choir
director (St. Nicolai church in Lemgo, Germany), music teacher, and
organist Jobst-Hermann Koch who continues to give organ concerts.
All songs in this book are arranged for SATB voices with keyboard
accompaniment.
Camerata: A Guide to Organizing and Directing Small Choruses
distinguishes itself from all other works on choral conducting by
starting at the very beginning the conception and purpose of an
ensemble and continuing through all other aspects of rehearsing and
organizing a chorus to performance and reception. Wenk offers basic
information on getting started, recruiting singers, planning
programs, rehearsing music, publicizing concerts, sharing
responsibilities, financing the operation, knowing the law, and
finally getting better. He also offers detailed suggestions for
creating an executive group to manage the choir as well ideas for
repertoire and programming. In addition to a step-by-step guide,
Camerata provides a wealth of supplementary material including a
prospectus, a statement of goals and means, programs,
organizational documents, a singer s guide, documents for
organizing a folksong competition, a list of websites for
publishers and choral federations, and an annotated bibliography of
works on choral conducting. Wenk also includes more than twenty
original Christmas carols and carol arrangements for performance by
your small chorus. This work will be a valuable resource for anyone
interested in starting a new choral organization or improving an
existing ensemble. Although the book focuses on chamber choirs,
Wenk s practical suggestions, based on more than forty years of
experience as a choral conductor, can be easily applied to any
choral organization."
In Choral Masterpieces: Major and Minor, historian Nicholas Tarling
surveys the landscape of choral works, some standard masterpieces
that are commonly performed by choruses around the world, others
deserving a second, closer look. As noted in the foreword by Uwe
Grodd , music director of the Auckland Choral Society, this work
"is a collection of essays about a number of outstanding works,
including Beethoven's Miss Solemnis and Britten's War Requiem, but
he also invites attention to lesser masterpieces. If the choral
movement, which includes both singers and listeners, is to survive,
new works must be created and repertory expanded. The book is an
easy and captivating read even if you are not a chorister." Choral
Masterpieces: Major and Minor features short essays on over 28
works, from major masterpieces such as Handel's Messiah and Bach's
St. Matthew's Passion to off-the-beaten path choral works such as
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's Hiawatha and Frederick Delius' A Mass of
Life. Throughout, Tarling offers assessments that sparkle with
unique insights and at the same time ground listener's in the
historical contexts of the work's production and performance. Each
work is transformed in Tarling's able hands from musical work into
a window into the mind and milieu of the composer. Choral
Masterpieces: Major and Minor mixes choral mainstays with works
that demand revisiting. Choral singers and their audiences, as well
as choral societies and their directions and promoters, will find
ample food for thoughts in these meditations on the choral
tradition.
In Choral Masterpieces: Major and Minor, historian Nicholas Tarling
surveys the landscape of choral works, some standard masterpieces
that are commonly performed by choruses around the world, others
deserving a second, closer look. As noted in the foreword by Uwe
Grodd , music director of the Auckland Choral Society, this work
"is a collection of essays about a number of outstanding works,
including Beethoven's Miss Solemnis and Britten's War Requiem, but
he also invites attention to lesser masterpieces. If the choral
movement, which includes both singers and listeners, is to survive,
new works must be created and repertory expanded. The book is an
easy and captivating read even if you are not a chorister." Choral
Masterpieces: Major and Minor features short essays on over 28
works, from major masterpieces such as Handel's Messiah and Bach's
St. Matthew's Passion to off-the-beaten path choral works such as
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's Hiawatha and Frederick Delius' A Mass of
Life. Throughout, Tarling offers assessments that sparkle with
unique insights and at the same time ground listener's in the
historical contexts of the work's production and performance. Each
work is transformed in Tarling's able hands from musical work into
a window into the mind and milieu of the composer. Choral
Masterpieces: Major and Minor mixes choral mainstays with works
that demand revisiting. Choral singers and their audiences, as well
as choral societies and their directions and promoters, will find
ample food for thoughts in these meditations on the choral
tradition.
In A Conductor s Guide to Selected Baroque Choral-Orchestral Works,
Jonathan D. Green's sixth book-length contribution of guides for
conductors, he offers this companion to his critically acclaimed A
Conductor s Guide to the Choral-Orchestral Works of J. S. Bach. In
this volume, Green addresses works of the Baroque era from
Monteverdi through Bach's contemporaries. In addition to brief
biographical sketches for each composer, Green includes for each
work the approximate duration, text sources, performing forces,
currently available editions, locations of manuscript materials,
notes, performance issues, evaluation of solo roles, evaluation of
difficulty, and a discography and bibliography. Duration
information comes from a variety of sources, but Green turns to
actual recording times of performances. The purpose of this book is
to aid conductors in selecting repertoire appropriate to their
needs and the abilities of their ensembles. The discographies and
bibliographies, while not exhaustive, serve as helpful starting
points for further research. A Conductor s Guide to Selected
Baroque Choral-Orchestral Works should appeal to conductors in
supporting their concert programming. Librarians and music student
will also find this work an ideal reference title for the study of
Baroque repertoire."
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