Who could have known that only after being posted for a few weeks, it has had 2.1K views. I guess that qualifies for singing "O Holy Night" this Christmas. It makes me happy. Merry Christmas to all!
Yesterday I was supposed to sing "O Holy Night" at church. The problem was that I developed a case of shingles in my right eye. That is something I don't wish on my worst enemy!!!! Not only is the pain terrible, but I looked frightening due to the swelling and little red pox on the right side of my face. Nevertheless, people are so caring. I did not want anyone to see me, but they came bringing food and gifts and good wishes anyway. Over the years I have sung "O Holy Night" in many different arrangements from solos, to duets, to SATB versions with small groups, church and community choirs, and even grand choirs like the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square. I feel so bad that I won't be singing "O Holy Night" this year. Maybe I will need to be content with the posting of a recording I did several years ago of the Mark Hayes arrangement for solo voice and piano. Who could have known that only after being posted for a few weeks, it has had 2.1K views. I guess that qualifies for singing "O Holy Night" this Christmas. It makes me happy. Merry Christmas to all!
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Printed and now ready to distribute! Janie Thompson: The Girls from Nowhere Who Went Everywhere is a children's picture book story about the BYU performing groups' legend. Many people remember Janie from being in her traveling show groups such as the Young Ambassadors, the Lamanite Generation (now Living Legends), Brigham Youngsters, Holiday in the U.S. and Curtain Time U.S.A. or watching them perform. She launched many careers and was beloved for her attention to developing talent wherever she found it. Janie was a powerful force for good. She insisted that her shows were filled with clean entertainment, presented in a polished way, and always packed with "heart." When taking one of her first collegiate shows to entertain troops around the world in the early 1950's, she was told that if she didn't include off-color jokes and and plenty of scantily clad women, her performers would be jeered and booed off the stage. She just replied that they would in no way present that kind of show, in fact, she said that they would be heartily applauded and cheered wherever they went, and even be asked to return. That happened many, many times! Much has been written about Janie's professional life, but the story I wanted to tell was about her formative life. She is a model of someone who lived by her standards and never compromised them. Books are available now to order online or, if you live within driving distance to BYU (near where I live), you may private message me to make arrangements to pick up your copies. This keepsake book may help you tell the story of a marvelous lady to your grandchildren! One of the things I admired my Aunt Janie Thompson for is how she helped us as an extended family stay close. And how did she do that? She kept creating opportunities for us to sing together! We did so many shows! We did family shows for almost any occasion, but a lot of shows were at Christmastime. My mother had her children singing practically from birth, as well. And I have tried to keep that tradition going, too. Though, I admit that now that they are all grown up and have families of their own, they aren't my minions to do my bidding at the drop of a hat any more. But there were times when we would sing together and have some good bonding time in the process. For several years while we lived n Maryland, our family joined with two other families and a few other singing friends to do Christmas shows. I finally got smart and insisted that we do some recordings of our efforts. We worked hard and sounded pretty good, if I do say so myself. In those days (the recordings are from 2005 and 2006), the Bailey's, Bullock's, and Perry's had 17 kids and several grandchildren and spouses, plus 5 good friends. So, our group featured about 25 singers, one fabulous dancer, some awesome violinists, and other instrumentalists. I have posted a few of the songs from our shows on YouTube (Festival of Lights Playlist) as a gift for Christmas. Enjoy! Last night I went to a choir rehearsal. We have two concerts upcoming for the Christmas season, one on Dec. 2 and another on Dec. 23rd. We are preparing Christmas music --- a few carols and many of the choruses from Handel's Messiah oratorio. Because my body is still reacting to the change in seasons as well as going back to standard time, I found it hard to talk myself into going to rehearsal last evening. It was dark and all I wanted to do was snuggle up in a blanket. We began rehearsal with some carols that must feature soloists and orchestra, because all we got to sing on our music were "ooh's and ah's." We didn't even have the full score to follow along. It wasn't very fun. But then we started singing some of the Messiah choruses. That changed everything. I love singing all of the melismas (quick notes). It's kind of like singing scales for warm-ups, but much, much better. At first our director made us sing these passages slowly so she could check if we could sing them accurately. She finally let us sing at a proper (fast) tempo. Ah! That was better! And I finally felt alive! In fact I had trouble settling down later to sleep. I have really missed doing shows for Christmas. I especially miss the rehearsals for weeks in preparation. It made me think of being in Maryland and doing concerts for the Festival of Lights concert series at the Washington D.C. LDS Temple Visitors Center. We performed as a family with two other families and a few singing friends. We didn't always get recordings, but in 2006 we did. Here are the Bailey, Bullock, and Perry Families (with our 17 children, at that time) and a few friends. Here is one of our favorite numbers. "Caroling, Caroling" a medley of Alfred Burt Carols arranged by Mark Hayes. I directed with my daughter Kathryn Rock on piano. Wayne Perry and I were the soloists. We had so much fun. I confess. Sometimes I like to watch movies and TV shows just for the scenery. I get a bit nostalgic when I "re-visit" (through the movie) places I have lived or vacationed to over the years. The professional videographers do a much better job of capturing the beauty of those places than I ever could. The colorful leaves of autumn in New England, the green "tunnels" of the trees over the back roads in Maryland and Pennsylvania, the grandeur of snow-capped mountains in Utah, the awesome scenery of the National Parks, the energy of the big cities, watching the waves at the beaches in Monterey, LA or in the Caribbean, and even capturing moments of watching the tiny lizards in the deep South....these are all beautiful places and ones that bring back vivid memories of living near or getting to visit them in my life. Last night, I watched a Christmas movie that was set in Heidelberg, Germany. Since I took a trip there last May, I was especially interested to see if I recognized any of the places they included in the movie. And YES! Seeing the cobblestone streets, the half-timbered buildings, the impressive cathedrals, visiting the Christmas shops, the lights along the river, the stone bridge, and especially the ruins of the castle all took me back to being there! Another movie I watched recently was set in a mythical town in Ohio called Dickens. I can only guess that this Christmas movie was created because Charles Dickens actually visited parts of Ohio in 1842. Many quaint old inns have plaques on their walls saying "Charles Dickens slept here..." And they highly decorate their inns for every season, especially for Christmas. Some even have created "Dickens Christmas Villages" and have special events reminiscent of the Victorian Christmases described in the books and basically created by Charles Dickens. My family lived in Ohio during the 1970s. We loved living in our forest of sugar maples and being able to go sight-seeing to so many historic places. My mother used to pick me up from school sometimes and say, "Where should we go today?" One place we loved to visit was The Golden Lamb Inn and restaurant in Lebanon, Ohio. It has a wall of plaques listing the famous people who visited there like Mark Twain, many U.S Presidents, and of course, Charles Dickens. During our time living in Ohio, the movie Scrooge was released. This movie, particularly the music of Leslie Bricusse and arranged by Ian Fraser, was a huge musical influence on me. We have to watch that movie at least once every Christmas. When I started learning about arranging in my music classes in college, I wrote an a cappella version of "A Christmas Carol." Too bad I never had the foresight to get a video of any of the groups that performed this. Oh well...I did get this recording!
In the workshops and training videos I've attended and watched on making picture book covers, the experts all say that you should have the cover picture represent the title character at a point in time that most matches the target audience. Since I am targeting this story to young grandchildren, I felt that this picture of teenaged Janie came closest to fitting that advice and also matching the title. One of my daughters told me that her family was THE target audience. Her children are ages 11, 9, and 6. When she (as the mom) goes to the library or store to choose books for her kids, she always looks for covers that will be appealing. They need to grab her interest based on title, engaging pictures that represent the age-span of her children, fanciful but readable fonts, and a coordinated color scheme. This cover fit those parameters in her opinion. (Thank you, Katelyn!) Obtaining the official government Copyright and ISBN for the book took a lot of diligence and patience, too. Even though this book is self-published, I have to comply with tax codes and other processing fees to make everything legal. If I was just giving a few copies out to my kids, I wouldn't bother. But Janie was a pretty famous person.
There has been a lot of interest for this book. I just hope that the number of copies I had printed will match the number of orders that people want! Wish me luck! So, I think I just finished writing and illustrating and formatting the book I've been preparing to give out this Christmas. Correction, almost finished. My editors (sisters, daughters, and granddaughters) have been giving me lists of things to fix. The last of these is to agree on which cover (of the four I prepared) to finalize. I think I know which one they'll pick, so I'm pretty sure I'm done! After working for so long on this book about Aunt Janie, it's got me in the mood to think about all of the magical Christmas shows she produced. More importantly, the magical Christmas shows she allowed me to have part in from such a young age. I have vivid memories of rehearsing with Janie when I was just eye-level with the keyboard at her piano. She put me in a kid's trio with older kids Tanya and Cory when I was still just 4 years old! We were learning "Jingle Bells," "The Christmas Alphabet," and "Don't Wait 'til the Night Before Christmas to Be Good" in 3-part harmony. (Posted are my takes on Janie's arrangements which she never actually notated.) I wish I had more pictures of our little trio performing. My mother and aunt were always busy at the piano. If any pictures were taken, it was through the graciousness of other folks. (My memories are in color, thankfully.) Janie told me that I had the highest voice, so I needed to learn the highest part. "You just watch my little finger and sing the notes it plays." I didn't know that singing a harmony part was considered too hard for little children. I was just obedient and followed the notes her little finger played.
Tonight I am going with my sister Bonnie to a Tabernacle Choir party in the Ballroom of the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City. I'm pretty sure that some of Janie's Christmas shows were performed there. Our little kid's trio was used as a "fill-in" act on Christmas shows when she couldn't get enough of her BYU students to do an entire show. (College kids actually like to go home during the holidays, go figure.) That was all right by me. I loved the excitement of performing at Christmas!!!!! By the way, here's what I think we'll agree for the back cover of Janie's book. The young law student stood up in front of the public speaking class in Law School and displayed a poster of a quarter rest. He told the audience that when he was in high school the band director explained that this was the most important element of music the band would play all year. The band director said that observing the rests was just as important, if not more important, than playing the notes. That analogy always remained with the young law student and he went on to relate how a potent pause in public speaking was just like observing the rests in music. The silence, when appropriately observed, is where the audience participation happens. It is where thinking occurs. It is when their information processng catches up with the actor's line delivery. It creates suspense. It is when to expect an emotional reaction, even laughter or applause. It is when the Spirit testifies of truth. The spaces between the notes in music are very important. Much like delivering the punch line of a joke or pausing just enough to emphasize an important point, the rests in music clarify the musical thought, delineate the articulation, build up the suspense, and a host of other great things. If the music went on and on with no rests the effect would be like an entire paragraph read as a run-on sentence. The emphasis and meaning would be lost to the audience. They need the pauses to give them time to process the information. The listener of music needs the spaces of silence to punctuate the meaning of the music. Sometimes the performer or speaker doesn't get it. They ignore the moments of pause or rest and plough right through continuing with their message without giving the audience time to process, react, understand or even applaud. That's when they lose interest. No one likes to be run over by a steam roller! It's the same in music. When the dynamic levels stay the same for measure after measure, the audience gets bored, or worse, offended by the constant onslaught. A performance without variety in effects, tempo, dynamics, and moments of rest is simply ineffective. When the audience is bored or lost or unable to process, they check out and begin to entertain themselves in other ways. The revered Baroque composer, George Frederic Handel, understood the concept of the "potent pause" very well. He often included measures of sudden and absolute silence at moments of important emphasis in his master oratorios. Unfortunately, not all audience members have an appreciation of the highly ornamented Baroque musical style. Once, during a community sing-along performance of Handel's "Messiah," two older women decided they had listened long enough to the very busy polyphonic music and decided to exchange holiday recipes instead. Their conversing got louder and louder so they could hear each other over the music rising to a climax. Then, at the "Grand Pause" in the final measures of Handel's majestic "Hallelujah Chorus," one lady said loudly to the other, "I MAKE MINE WITH LARD!" We as musicians really need to be aware of our performances and how the audience is responding. Hopefully, the audience will be receptive and stick with us. Hopefully we will include times of Potent Pauses for the audience to take in all that we are giving. Hopefully, the performance will be so riveting that no one in the audience will be lost! The best audience will have some knowledge at least of deportment and etiquette! Hopefully they will understand that moments of silence really are golden! An example of using a potent pause for building suspense: In the Halloween song "We Are Out to Scare You," there are pauses for effect between the scary opening of the song and the funny follow-on part. When doing this song with a class, the teacher will ask the children for input of what characters to use in the funny part. The teacher will take those suggestions, but not reveal her choice until the instant it will be sung. She might even hold up pictures. The class will quickly join in. The scary part builds some suspense and suddenly there is a pause that builds more suspense -- and only the teacher will signal precisely when to begin the next part and what character to sing. It's a little like leading the group to the edge of a cliff and trying to hold them back before they fall!
Depending on how effective the teacher is, this pause can be pretty potent and very fun! Getting many voices to sing with unified vowels can take the majority of the rehearsal time. Practically every conductor has his own preferences in the pronunciation of English vowels. Regional dialects win out in most cases. Many conductors tend to prefer the high British choral tradition and train their singers with those sounds in mind. The main object is to get the singers to all agree on the same vowel formation and placement. That is how they will tune successfully. Getting unruly consonants like S, K, and T or the hard to hear consonants like F, Z, V, D, L, and P to be coordinated can be problematic, as well. Conductors often have the choir recite the phrases at various tempos while over emphasizing the consonants to practice being concise. Then they try to transfer those techniques to actual singing. Harnessing and taming the power of individual voices can be a full time job for a conductor, too. Some voices are big and loud and have timbres that come out of the fabric of the rest of the group. These voices may have wide vibrato or possibly a reedy or brassy quality. What is considered desirable in a solo voice, is not necessarily the best for a choral group. Convincing these singers to control their sound while not hurting their delicate artist's egos can be a daunting task. A conductor will want to have good musicians and trained voices in his group, but those singers must learn how to manage their sound quality in order to blend in with the group. They must learn to support their tone quality a little differently in order to blend. The vibrato must be tamed by singing with more breath. The singer must become aware of how to use the light head voice even in the low registers. Those singers will not be happy singing with such control, so the conductor should remember to choose pieces occasionally that will allow those with big voices to let loose and sing with their natural power. Part of breath management is preparing for that first note. This can be the most problematic of all the issues the conductor has to deal with. Getting everyone to take the breath, and time their entrances to come in exactly together is hard. Beginning with a consonant helps, but many times the first syllable will begin with a vowel or a glottal stop. The conductor may spend a lot of time working with the singers to get them to take the breath together on the preparation beat, in the shape of the vowel, to come in exactly on cue. This is tough and takes a lot of practice. It takes the same effort to get the singers to come in together between phrases. Often, the singers relax the rhythm when taking a breath and are late coming in on time in the next phrase. Proper breath management is the key to timing the breaths to fit the rhythm. The good conductor will always be checking to see if what his group rehearses actually transfers to performance! This piece has many choral singer traps. From difficult ending consonants to keeping up with the fast tempo, this arrangement is also very fun to sing. "Have I Done Any Good in the World Today?" SSA (Also available in SATB/SAB)
Already the stores are setting out Christmas items...decorations, gift ideas, clothes, candy. Playing non-stop Christmas music in the store will be next. All weeks before Halloween or even Thanksgiving.
This is not such a new phenomenon for musicians, though. We tend to write, arrange, and start practicing Christmas music in July! Since I am not currently directing a choir, I decided to do a different project in this Christmas "pre-season." I've been working on adding more offerings on my YouTube Channel. A few years ago, I recorded seven of The Mark Hayes Vocal Collection: 10 Christmas Songs. He is a prolific master arranger, composer, clinician, choral conductor, and pianist. The score folio came with a CD of the master himself playing the piano accompaniments. There is nothing quite like singing with the composer himself indicating the exact interpretations. When I first sang through these pieces with the CD accompaniment, I marveled how "in sync" I felt. It was as though he knew how to anticipate the length of time I needed to extend the phrases and even the time I needed to take a breath. It made me feel like he was following me. For vocal students and performers, these pieces are excellent repertoire. Perhaps these recordings will help the student learn them easier. For my other followers, I created visuals to help tell the stories of these beautiful Christmas songs. (Click on the images and it will take you to YouTube to play the videos.) |
AuthorMy name is Betsy Lee Bailey. I enjoy singing and writing all kinds of music. I have performed and directed or taught music all of my life. This blog is dedicated to all of the people who have been encouraging me to write about my experiences. |