Music Master of the Middle West

Music Master of the Middle West
Author: Leola Marjorie Nelson Bergmann
Publisher:
Total Pages: 248
Release: 1944
Genre: Choral conductors
ISBN:

Probably only in the fields of sports and music could fifty college undergraduates draw 5000 spectators. The far-famed St. Olaf choir can and does; yearly it amazes concert-goers from New York to San Francisco by its seemingly impossible perfection. For the thousands who already know the choir and its director, for those interested in music and its development, this book has been written. Here are the stories of F. Melius Christiansen, his choir, and the setting of Norwegian-American Lutheranism out of which he grew. Christiansen brought to this country a rich treasure of Norwegian folk music. Years of study in Minneapolis and Europe, of directing band and choir groups in midwestern towns, prepared him for the work that was to bring him fame. The story of Christiansen's contribution to American music, his recognized influence on choral singing form coast to coast, is the story of an Old World heritage shaped and enlarged by the free, wide ways and the deep soul-hunger of the New. "Norway gave me much," says Christiansen, "but America has taught me how to use it." Mrs. Bergmann's account of the choir, its personnel, training, and experience, is full of lively anecdotes as well as technical details. Her own four years as a member of the group, her behind-the-scenes knowledge enable her to convey the spirit of the singers, to discuss frankly both strength and weakness. But always she insists that success "lies not in the superior quality of the voices that make up the choirs, since Christiansen chooses largely the average, untrained voice, but in the nature of the director." Thus it is primarily F. Melius Christiansen's story, concerned with his techniques and methods and, above all, with the vigorous personality which makes him remembered by all who know him.

Choral Sonority

Choral Sonority
Author: Amy Stuart Hunn
Publisher:
Total Pages: 192
Release: 2000
Genre: Choral conducting
ISBN:

Choral Singing

Choral Singing
Author: Ursula Geïsler
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 295
Release: 2014-10-16
Genre: Music
ISBN: 144386904X

What role does contemporary choral activity play in the construction of social and musical meaning? How can historical knowledge and analysis shed light on contemporary choral problems and possibilities? And how can choral research promote the development and expansion of new music today? Questions like these are addressed in this anthology from a wide range of disciplines and perspectives. The book comprises a selection of papers presented at the International Conference on the Concepts and Practices of Choral Singing in Lund, Sweden, in October 2012. The aim of the conference was to highlight the contemporary dynamic developments in choral research, and to explore interdisciplinary investigations and interaction between practice-based and historical approaches. The conference was also the fourth meeting of the network “Choir in Focus”, which was initiated in 2009 at Southern Choral Centre (Körcentrum Syd), a joint venture between Malmö Academy of Music, the Department of Musicology, Odeum (all at Lund University), Malmö Symphony Orchestra and Music South (Musik i Syd), Sweden. The continuous ambition of the network has been to provide a forum for co-operation across national and disciplinary borders and to encourage debates around the musical and social function of choirs in modern society as mirroring collective and individual needs for meaning, music-making and well-being. In the introductory chapter, the editors describe choral practice as a field of simultaneous (re)presentation, (re)production and (re)creation, and suggest that these three aspects may be seen as umbrella themes for the fifteen chapters of the anthology. The authors come from Sweden, Norway, Finland, Estonia, Germany, United Kingdom, Portugal and Belgium, and explore choral practice from differing theoretical and methodological starting points. Together, they contribute to a transdisciplinary discussion about the origins, functions and meanings of choral singing.

Choral Artistry

Choral Artistry
Author: Micheál Houlahan
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 457
Release: 2022-03-10
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0197550487

"The Oxford Guide to Choral Artistry, a Kodály Perspective for Middle School to College Level Choirs, is a practical and organic approach to teaching choral singing and sight-reading. The text is grounded in current research from choral pedagogy, music theory, music perception, and cognition. Topics include framing a 1) choral curriculum based on the Kodály concept, 2) launching the academic year for beginning, intermediate, and advanced choirs, 3) building part-work skills, 4) sight-reading, 5) a progressive music theory sequences for middle to college level choirs, 6) teaching strategies, 7) choral rehearsal plans as well samples of how to teach specific repertoire from Medieval to Contemporary Choral Composers. As part of the Kodály philosophy's practical approach, we include two models for learning choral literature. The first is a "Performance Through Sound Analysis" model for understanding Commercial, Global Folks, and arrangement. The second is a "Performance Through Sound Analysis and Notation" model for learning classical music and recently composed music. Both models delineate an approach to teaching a choral work that significantly improves students' musicianship while at the same time, engages the ensemble in learning the overall composition in partnership with the conductor. The final chapter of the book includes rubrics to assess the effectiveness of a choral program. This book does not purport to be a comprehensive choral pedagogy text. It is a detailed guide to helping choral directors at all levels improve the choral singing and musicianship of their students from a Kodály perspective. We hope that this book serves as a resource for choral directors and inspire further conversations and dialogue concerning the application of the Kodály perspective to choral singing. The research for these publications is not presented as exhaustive nor conclusive; it is offered as a foundation. We encourage our colleagues in the field to continue to add to this research"--

American Choral Music Since 1920

American Choral Music Since 1920
Author: David P. DeVenney
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
Total Pages: 308
Release: 1993
Genre: Music
ISBN: 9780914913283

This book lists nearly 3,000 original choral works written by 76 composers active in the United States from roughly 1920 until the present. Styles range from the lush Romanticism of Charles Wakefield Cadman to the stark, dissonant harmonies of Morton Feldman.