Saturday, April 25, 2009

Men's Choir - Matthew Smyth, Conductor

Men

Combine Choirs Concert - CHORALE

A COOL POST FROM KENNETH WOODS

FIND THE ORIGINAL HERE:
http://kennethwoods.net/blog1/
(GREAT BLOG!!)

What language we sangin’ in, anyway?
Kenneth Woods | A view from the podium | Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

Monday night I saw our Chorale and the members of the Mid-Columbia Master Singers in Richland, Washington. Our first challenge was getting used to a venue nobody had sung in before- the Master Singers’ usual venue was not open. I was a little nervous about having only one rehearsal with the singers before the orchestra rehearsals, although the OES Chorale has been working with our chorus master for a while and the Master Singers recently performed the piece with their MD, Justin Raffa. One of the difficulties of doing such a well known work, one which most of the choir will have sung before, is that everyone comes in with their own history with the piece. This can be enriching, but it also means people are often used to doing things a different way, and sometimes singers need time and incentive to change their ways. The guys who have done the prep work have had my tempi and diction instructions, so I had to trust that the foundations of a unified performance were there.

The sanctuary of the church was warm (not always something you can count on) and the piano was pretty good, but it was a hard room to hear in. The excessive carpet made it sound a bit like everyone was singing through a paper bag at first. I hate carpet.

I’ve asked the choir to sing using Austro-German pronunciation. It’s not the first time for us- we did the Dvorak Stabat Mater that way a few years ago, and our last collaboration with the Master Singers was the Mozart C minor Mass, also in German Latin. It’s never posed any particular problems, but our chorus master this time has made clear he’s not a fan. For me there are two obvious and compelling reasons for using German Latin. First, it seems most likely that this was the language as it would have been sung in Mozart’s time, and perhaps this gets us just that little bit closer to his world. Second, German Latin is a harder, more austere sound-world than Church Latin- I find that austerity and all those hard consonants give the music even more spine and severity, which seems appropriate in this piece in particular.

There is a third reason- left to our own devices, we sing most carelessly in the languages we feel most at home in. American choirs are often at best unintelligible in a piece like Messiah, at worst, our regional accents can come through in Handel’s music to hilarious effect. Church Latin is everyone’s next most comfortable language, and the vowels one hears from many of our choirs are not what Mozart, even with his fluency in Italian and Latin, would have recognized! Of course, it’s every conductor’s job to fix that, but a foray into a different Latin can let us hear plain-old American Latin with fresh ears.

Whatever the language, this piece needs a lot of it. I’ve heard over 100 Mozart Requiems, and only a few of those were really alive on every consonant and vowel. The music is in the language in this piece- it tells you the phrasing and the articulation all the way through. I just heard a very strange performance of the Kyrie the other day- I always have the strings play very marcato in the fugue subject to match the “K” in “Kyrie.” This group was a period ensemble, and the conductor had obviously asked the strings to begin with one of those soft-edged swell-ey bow strokes we all love. In order to reconcile this with the choir, they sang something like “ear ee ay?” Bizarre. I don’t know if I’ll achieve everything I want to in this piece, but you’ll certainly get a “K” on “Kyrie” if I have any say in it….

“Sing the words, not the music, because in the words is the meaning, and in the meaning is the music.” Benjamin Britten

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Recital Annoucement!

Matthew Smyth
Graduate Choral conducting recital

Featuring The University of Oklahoma Chorale

Saturday, May 2nd at 3pm
Catlett Music Building
Gothic Hall


Matthewsmyth.blogspot.com


MatthewSmyth@gmail.com

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Boy oh Boy do I miss NYC

...On Learning Chant

http://media.journalstar.com/comments/?mid=M49dfaba02dd16

Monday, April 13, 2009

Io Tacero

Io tacerò
Io tacerò, ma nel silenzio mio
La lagrime i sospiri
diranno i miei martiri.
Ma s’avverrà ch’io mora,
Griderà poi per me la morte ancora.

In van dunque, o crudele,
Vuoi che’l mio duol e’l tuo rigor si cele,
Poi che mia cruda sorte
Da la voce al silenxio ed a la morate.

English Translation
I will keep quiet, yet in my silence
My tears and sighs
Shall tell of my pain.
And if I should die
Death shall cry out for me once again.

Thus in vain, oh cruel one,
Yearn you for my pain and your harshness to be hidden
Since my cruel fate
Gives voice to silence and to death

Transliteration:
Io tacerò, ma nel silenzio mio
I:o ta ceh roh, mah nehl si lehn tsjo mi oh
Le lagrime e i sospiri
Leh Lah gri mehi sow soz pi ri
diranno i miei martiri.
Di rah Nohi mi-e-i mar ti ri
Ma s’avverrà ch’io mora,
Mah sea-ah veh rra ki-joh moh ra
Griderà poi per me la morte ancora.
Gri de ra po-i pehr me la mohr te ahn coh ra

In van dunque, o crudele,
Ihn vAHn dOOnquEH, oh crOOdEHlEH
Vuoi che’l mio duol e’l tuo rigor si cele,
VwOHi kEHl miOH dwOHl EHl tUOH rEEgOHr si chEHlEH
Poi che mia cruda sorte
pOHi chEH miAH crUdAH sOHrtEH
Da la voce al silenzio ed a la morate.
dAH lAH vOHcEH AHl silEHnziOH EHd ah lah mOHrAHteh

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Simple Gifts
The King’s Singers
Signum Records SIGCD121 (2008; 48’46”)

The King’s Singers fantastic mix of impeccable intonation and striking vocal color is well known to us and it is exciting to hear them sing lighter repertoire on this new disc. This collection consists of popular and folk songs from England and America arranged by Philip Lawson, Bob Chilcott and Peter Knight. The majority of the songs are arranged by one of their own, Philip Lawson. Lawson’s primary goal in arranging these works was to preserve the melody and the song, as we have come to know them. Many of his arrangements are not much more than transcriptions of the music we have come to love. This technique allows the songs accompaniment to truly come alive and makes for very exciting listening. The first track of the album, Billy Joel’s She’s Always a Woman, is a wonderful example of this.
The album was recorded in the studio’s drum room, which gives the entire collection a very personable, rich and warm sound. The final product, although beautiful, constantly confronts us with a sound born in a small space, giving the tracks a good deal of intimacy. Every movement of the mouth is picked up, adding a strong percussive aspect to the singing. The outcome is generally very exciting to listen to in tracks like Crosby, Stills and Nash’s Helplessly Hoping.
Much like the popular albums of the 60’s and 70’s, which The King’s Singers are emulating, there is a very engineered quality to the sound of the album. The over riding sound is very reminiscent of the Beach Boys Good Vibrations Album. For some listeners this make take away from the natural beauty which we have come to love in The King’s Singers sound. However, the album has a refreshing quality about it, it just makes you feel good. Best of all, the music for this album is now published through Hal Leonard so we can enjoy these arrangements with our choirs!

Matthew Smyth
Norman, OK
Hodie
Octarium
Krista Lang Blackwood, artistic director

Octarium’s Hodie is a diverse collection of Christmas songs ranging from exciting new arrangements, like Veni, Veni Emmanuel, to challenging staples such as Poulenc’s Le Temps De Noel. The wide range, and beautiful selection, of music on the recording makes the disk ideal for any director looking for a few more selections for their holiday program!

Octarium, a professional ensemble out of Kansas City, was founded in 2001 under director Krista Lang Blackwood. Hodie was recorded in Visitation Catholic Church in Kansas City adding an extra richness to a tone quality, which is often strongly infused with head voice. Throughout the recording Octarium achieves a beautiful blend and color, although some vowel and intonation issues come through at higher ranges. While the entire recording consists only of a cappella music, many of the arrangements would be suitable for a superior high school, church or college groups. Among the many exciting selections on the disk, one of the most enticing works is the Hamilton arrangement of Veni, Veni Emmanuel which grabs us with surprising and beautiful harmonies, giving more depth to a beautiful traditional work. The obvious musicianship of the group is at times overwhelming, such as in Long, Long Ago or the Rutter arrangement of The Wexford Carol. It is this musicianship that allows Poulenc’s difficult Le Temps De Noel to come across successfully. Moving lines are clear and beautifully phrased and an obvious attention to the text helps communicate Poulenc’s music fruitfully.

Octarium, Latin for “Eight as One,” give us a brilliant collection of Christmas music, in Hodie. Any choral musician can appreciate the fine singing or use the recording to pick out selections for the upcoming season!

Matthew Smyth
Norman, Oklahoma

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Inspiration for today

I have arrived. I am home.
In the here. In the now.
I am solid. I am free.
In the ultimate I dwell.
--Thich Nhat Hanh

Monday, April 6, 2009

SchirmerOnDemand Allows Score Perusal Online
By Molly Sheridan
Published: April 1, 2009
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Perusing a score using the secure Lizard Safeguard PDF viewer.

G. Schirmer, Inc./Associated Music Publishers, Inc. has launched SchirmerOnDemand, an online service that allows registered users to view, and in some case print, select perusal scores from the catalogs of nearly 50 composers. The focus of the service so far is mostly on operas and works for orchestra and wind ensemble by 20th- and 21st-century composers on the Schirmer roster, but the company says its entire catalog of 5,000 works by 300 composers is projected to be online within the next few years.

The system is not an online store; if viewers see something they would like to purchase, they will still have to order it through traditional channels. However, Schirmer says it hopes the service will aid customers in making programming decisions by allowing immediate access to scores of interest.

According to Kristin Lancino, vice president, G.Schirmer/AMP Inc. and an American Music Center board member, "The vision for SchirmerOnDemand crystallized when we at G. Schirmer asked ourselves, 'How can we truly swing open the doors of our music library?’ We concluded that by utilizing technology wisely we could catapult access to the scores of our composers to a whole new realm. What resulted is SchirmerOnDemand, and I believe that as it evolves, the breath of fresh air through those open doors will stimulate music publishing and, most importantly, the world of recent and new music."

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Over the past few weeks, I've taken the new service out for a test drive. Use of SchirmerOnDemand requires one-time free registration via email. The process may take up to one business day, according to the site, but I had received a response with further instructions ten minutes later. Download and installation of a Lizard Safeguard PDF viewer is required, as the score files have been encrypted in a .pdc format to control unauthorized viewing, copying, and distribution.

From there the authorization to access files is exchanged automatically with no need for additional credential entry on the user end (though you must have an active internet connection open to review any score, even after the initial file download). I had some trouble with the software using my MacBook and running OS X (10.5.6)—an occasional error message kept cropping up that prevented me from opening documents—but a second or third try always resulted in success. From there, the process was as simple as viewing any other .pdf file. From Mark Adamo's Alcott Music to Yehudi Wyner's 2006 Pulitzer Prize-winning Piano Concerto "Chiavi in Mano", use of the materials was fast and painless. After ten views, the documents are designed to expire, which they do, and re-downloading the file from the Schirmer site does not get around this. If users need additional access to the score at that point, they are directed to contact the publisher directly via email.

Occasionally, materials listed on the site were not currently accessible. Of the six John Adams works listed on SchirmerOnDemand, only one was actually viewable. For the others, I was told that a perusal score was not available and directed to purchase a score on a page like this.

For files that may be printed, they can only be printed once. In my tests of this option, I could not get my Canon i960 printer to cooperate with the viewer, and there was often minor to major clipping, despite multiple attempts to get the pages scaled down through the "page setup" and "print" dialog boxes. Large-scale works, such as Corigliano's Ghosts of Versailles suffered especially in the transfer to 8.5 x 11 inch paper, with entire lines of the manuscript lost, so some experimentation on the user end and/or use of a larger format printer may be essential in some cases. Since a file may be printed only once, first-time users may want to test things out using a score they don't really need before proceeding. One of my colleagues, using a PC and a more sophisticated Minolta multifunction office printer, had no problem resizing and printing the scores he viewed, so this is a user-end issue. Printouts made on a PC should also display a watermark showing the user's name and e-mail address on every page, according to Schirmer. Though the Mac viewer does not support this function at present, this watermark did not appear during our test prints from a PC either, so again results may vary depending on the user's equipment.

When I had questions, Schirmer was quick to respond to my email requests for help. Customers who experience difficulties while using the service can contact OnDemand@schirmer.com for assistance.

SchirmerOnDemand is also ostensibly a more environmentally responsible approach to score perusal—saving the shipping fuel and packaging, and even the paper and ink if you choose not to print files—and presumably it will save staff time on both ends. Schirmer is to be commended for appreciating a need and being willing to experiment at their comfort level with evolutionary change toward broader access to concert music. The next test, of course, is how well this change is embraced by its consumers.

Friday, April 3, 2009

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Dr. Zielinski

Dr. Zielinski will be in town this coming week and we would like to invite singers from all choral ensembles to join us for a brief meeting with him. There's no specific agenda for the meeting except to allow singers the opportunity to get to know him and hear some of the ideas the choral area will be exploring during his coming tenure as Director of Choral Activities. As you know, I am very excited about his hiring and the possibilities of growth in the choral area in the coming years.

I would appreciate it if you would please announce to your ensembles that they are invited to meet Dr. Zielinksi on Thursday, April 9 from 4-5 p.m. in the Choir Room.

Thursday, April 2, 2009