As I was scrolling through Facebook today, I came across a post asking Ward Choir Directors what songs they would be singing in the next few months.  As a composer, I am always interested in what songs directors choose in different seasons.  I am also curious about how many rehearsals they plan for the choir to learn them.  Christmas season is pretty predictable.  They choose mostly Christmas carols and arrangements and start preparing in October for the Christmas program.  Easter changes dates each year, so the preparation time really varies.  Patriotic services and Pioneer Day observances happen, but are not nearly as regularly planned.  Other than those seasonal celebrations, the themes for songs mostly center around Christ, as well they should.

          So, as I was reading, I was caught off guard by a director who posted that her choir was learning "Forget Me Not, O Lord," and she had seed packets for the choir members to help them create a memory with the song.  What a wonderful idea!  Such a "spring" thing to do!

          It was such a thrilling experience to create this song.  I was asked to take the words from then President Uchtdorf's talk (newly delivered at the Women's Broadcast in September 2011) and create a piece to be included in the birthday gift basket from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in November (just a few weeks away).  When the song was finished, we gathered some 27 singers from the choir to record it.  I felt that the song needed three verses.  The first, sung by the sopranos, would be from the perspective of the tiny flower.  The second, sung by the altos, would be from the perspective of a woman.  And the third, sung by the men, would be from the perspective of our loving Heavenly Father.  At the end, all of the individual parts would be sung together.  The wonderful singers from the MoTab were so skilled at sight-singing and blending!  We spent just a few minutes learning the song, and then recorded it.  Oh, that every choir I directed had such beautiful and talented singers!

         I am so pleased that "Forget Me Not, O Lord" will be performed next month.  President Uchtdorf was so pleased when he heard it on the CD that he asked me and my husband to come visit with him so that he could thank me in person.  He hoped that the song would be sung throughout the Church for many years to come.  That message was so very special to him.  

​I hoped so, too.  
      
          Like the little flower, you think you are alone,
​                    So lost and insignificant and slight.
          Our Father knows your needs, each child is loved and known. 
                    His precious children are the source of His delight.
          You are known.
          You are loved.
          Though you at times may feel so small,
          He'll ease your pains.
          He'll dry your tears
          And give you power to fill the measure of your being.
   

     Many of you have had varied and interesting experiences conducting choirs for church meetings.  Well, yesterday's adventure hit a new level for me. Stake Conference for our BYU Young Single Adult Stake was held in the student center ballroom.  I was in charge of arranging for the music, so I made my requests for an organ, piano, choir risers and microphones as early as I could.  I just never heard back whether we would have a an organ or just a piano or both.

      When I got there, I found my pianist having lots of fun figuring out sounds and stops on the organ.  He was thrilled to have the opportunity to play the organ for this meeting.  Then I looked around to see where they had set up the choir risers.  This Ballroom is very big and the stage crew had set up the risers on the opposite side of the hall!  It seemed like a football field away from where they had set-up the organ!  My heart sank as I wondered how we would communicate and keep the tempo together from such a distance.  My pianist was more confident, though.  He thought we could make it work just fine.  After all, hadn't I written the closing choir arrangement for the choir and organ?

     The other issue pending was that I really had no idea how many kids would show up to sing in the choir. Would it be 12, or 20 or 50? I had had two rehearsals previous to our performance day, but each rehearsal had a few regulars, but mostly other singers show up.  I had chosen music that I thought would be accessible in two rehearsals, but I had the feeling that we might get a few people who had never come to any rehearsals.  However, I knew that we had many talented singers in our Stake who sing with the most accomplished choirs on campus.  So, I extended an invitation for those good sight-singers to come join us as long as they would do some homework.  I sent out a link to my web site for any who would at least listen to the arrangements beforehand.

    This "warm-up" rehearsal was to run through the songs and add the flute, oboe and string bass into the equation -- as well as learning to arrange ourselves pleasingly on the risers and do a mic check.  We only had about 20 minutes to do all that.  Our first piece was "I Stand All Amazed."  We began the run-through with the piano, flute and oboe and about 18 singers.  By the end of singing, the choir grew to about 35 singers.  The congregation was also starting to fill the hall.  I was anxious to try our second piece.  "How Firm a Foundation" was to be the closing hymn.  This would be our challenge piece.  The pianist ran the gauntlet to get to the organ quickly through all of the masses of people and chairs.  The string bass player got set and more singers filled in on the risers.

     There were some other technical details about this piece: We were going to sing just four of the seven verses -- and we would sing the seventh verse before ending with the 3rd verse.  I would turn to conduct the congregation to join us on this third verse as the sopranos sang a descant.  We would even elongate the ending and have the choir finish out singing a grand "Amen" ending.  Oh, did I mention that we also had a young man providing ASL signing?

​     So many details to keep together!  But it worked!  I stood as tall as I could and waved my hands high to give the cues to the distant organist.  Fortunately, he is an excellent musician, and we could feel the tempos and dynamics together even across that vast expanse of time and space!  Even the choir expanded to fill the risers -- about fifty singers in all!  They did a fantastic job and we were all edified together!

      But if there is a next time, I would really prefer the organ to be closer to the other musicians!

            Last Saturday I attended the funeral for the mother of my first real friend in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Kristin Gerdy's mother had been a music teacher her entire life and was also a true fan of the Choir.  Kristen asked some of her Choir friends to come sing for the funeral.

          As another friend Eric Huntsman put it, "This is another part of our calling to serve in the Choir.  We are FAMILY and we give support wherever we can."  Going to sing for funerals and other occasions special to current (and even former choir members) is how we reach out and help each other."

             Kristin chose Ryan Murphy's arrangement of "The Pilgrim's Song" because it is beautiful and her mother loved it, but also because she knew that all of the choir members had it memorized and could sing it without much rehearsal.  The message of this song was perfect for the funeral.  It speaks of how we endure our journey through life and when the time comes, we are called back home to the  glory of our Savior.  

              When Kristin and I first joined the choir in 2010, Ryan Murphy was newly appointed as Associate Conductor of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  Our Chorale Group was his first to train.  "The Pilgrim"s Song" was one of the pieces we debuted on his first Chorale concert.  Because of this, that song has held deep significance for both me and Kristin.  Our group got to introduce and help teach that song to the "big" choir.  Now it holds a special place in the repertoire of the Choir.

​               Since retiring from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in 2016, I have been privileged to still be included in some very special events.  The funeral was a doubly special opportunity because Kristin asked me to conduct our twenty Choir friends in singing "The Pilgrim's Song."  So glad to be part of special moments with my MoTab Family.

     My very talented daughter Cami is in her first year of teaching music at a charter school.  She teaches orchestra, band, choir and guitar.  I went to the first concert of the year, to support her and was delighted by the events of the evening.  This school caters to many students who have not had their needs met by traditional junior high schools in the area.  

​     That, said, I was surprised at how well the students did their jobs helping set up for the concert (chairs, instruments, stands, mics, etc.) and also taking roll, handing out programs, and managing themselves and their Halloween costumes.  All was not according to intent, though.  The microphones were not working.  Instead of panic, Cami came up with Plan B.  She noticed that the two body mics w/ packs she had for the acoustic guitar players were working.  So, she simply used one of them to make announcements and allow her soloists to sing amplified. The choir did very well.

     Then, she went over to the band.  This is a small school and the band was not made up of the typical ensemble.  She had 6 or 7 percussion players, 4-5 guitars and bass players, 4 clarinets, and one each of trumpet, baritone, flute, oboe, and piano players.  Somehow Cami made it all work.  They played movie score pieces that the kids really liked.  Though not as good as they are abound to get by the end of the year, they pulled off an enjoyable concert.

     And then they systematically joined together to put everything away.  I was so proud!  Good work all!

   But then, Cami surprised us by coming to visit for the weekend . She then proceeded to take apart a small violin.  (She wanted access to her dad's tools.) For her birthday, she got luthier tools and clamps for repairing violins, and by golly, she intended to use them!

   This little violin had a crack on the front.  Cami disassembled the parts and pieces, glued on some "band-aid" strips of thin wood along the underside of the crack, then glued the top back onto violin body.

     Amazing!

 Who knew that my "Tubateer" girl would grow up to also be a luthier (the fancy name for a violin maker and repairer)?  She says that she is expert at breaking instruments, so she thought she had better get some skills at fixing them.

     Spent most of yesterday scouring several online music catalogues for Sacred Christmas Choral music for small church choirs of 15-25 singers.  I am after pieces that have broad appeal, are easily accessible for a moderately skilled group, and adhere to appropriate Church doctrine.  

       After looking at and listening to so many titles, I wondered why so many pieces were given the "Disneyland" or "Hollywood" build-up -- Full orchestra with pages and pages of fanfare, dramatic lead-ins and interludes with lots of rhythm provided by drums and chimes and other color instruments.  It all seemed a bit much -- especially for a small church choir that just wants to sing a neat arrangement of "Joy to the World" or "Hark the Herald Angels Sing."  Who exactly are these composers marketing to?  College concert choirs? Professional choirs?  Really well-funded community choirs?

       I don't know of any church choirs that have full orchestras.  (I have heard of contemporary churches that may have a "Praise Team" made up of keyboard, bass, drum set and a few other instruments, but not a 100+ piece orchestra!)  Or would they actually use the Minus Track to sing to during a worship service? 

       What really frustrated me was finding so few pieces that fit my needs.  And I really wanted some of the "close contenders" to not have such difficult piano or organ accompaniments, or have racing intricate rhythms or close harmony with such dissonance in 6-8 parts, or travel through so many scary keys, or have such terrifically high tenor parts, or contain lyrics that are of questionable doctrine.  But, I didn't want pieces that were so simply put together that they would insult the choir's collective intelligence, either!

     I was looking for beautiful worship music in a variety of styles, with messages of hope in the Savior's life and mission, and put together  with  good musicianship.  Is that too much to ask for?  

         I found some absolutely beautiful contemporary ballads that unfortunately spent 3:00 minutes talking of nothing but "coming to the cradle" or "starlight" or "angles singing on that first Christmas night."  Sure, the was music was lovely but it had no real worshipful message.  Then there were the fun upbeat 6/8 tunes that were fun to sing but had no real doctrinal passages at all.  They might just as well have been secular songs.

        So, I was left with arrangements of the good old Christmas Carols -- so many arrangements of "Silent Night,"  "O Holy Night," "Angels We Have Heard on High" and all of the others!  Way too many to count!  And all very similar, unless the composer had gone ultra modern with dissonance harmonies and crazy rhythmic departures, added orchestration, buried the carol in a medley or mash-up with several other tunes, or just changed the melody entirely.  

     I confess, going through all of these pieces left me mind and heart numb!

Fortunately I found a few gems, but not nearly as many as I had wanted to find!

          From time to time our choir directors will say things like, "Well, that was just ordinary."  "Your singing did not thrill me at all.  The audience will get bored and change the channel."   "Anyone can sing out of tune.  We've got to be better than that!"  "That line needs more shaping."  "Spin the sound!"  "Float the high notes!"  "Now, this section is where we could use some drama!"

          So, I have pondered what being "just ordinary" really means.  We live in a world where performances are recorded and ready to play back at any time ad infinitum.  The people in the professional recording industry do their best to create recorded performances that can live on forever without embarrassing the performers and give the audiences something truly worthy to listen to.  "In tune," "rhythmically tight," "understandable diction," "good balance," and "interpretation" are all buzz words that if followed create that cut above ordinary performance.  But is there ever a time when "just ordinary" is "just right?"

          For years, I led the choirs at church.  Just recruiting enough singers to get a decent blend was an accomplishment in my book.  Of course, we worked hard on good singing techniques such as breathing, vowel formation, diction, and singing in tune.  Most of these people enjoyed singing, but had neither the time or inclination to put in much effort beyond the regular rehearsals.  Occasionally, I created "learning tracks" for them to listen and learn from.  But, most of the time, I had to adjust my expectations to fit what they could reasonably accomplish.  In cases such as these, being "just ordinary" was "just right."  My biggest job was choosing music that would help them sound good -- challenging enough to keep the singers interested, but not so challenging that the audience would cringe at their inadequacies.

          I also work a lot with children.  Young kids are just learning about their abilities, let alone their vocal ranges and tone quality.  The biggest job for me is getting them to sing out loud enough without over singing or using bad techniques.  They primarily need to learn to HEAR -- to get a sense of matching pitch and singing in tune.  They also need to feel the rhythm and be able to join it and stay in step.  My second biggest job is to help them learn to love music -- all different styles and varieties and learn to appreciate the unique qualities of this wonderful GIFT of MUSIC.  When children GIVE THEIR ALL and try so hard to do as instructed, whatever the outcome is, is good enough.  It may be "just ordinary" to the disinterested audience member, but in the moment, the children's performance is "just right."

          This past week I spent editing the footage of three performances of a 70 minute musical into a keepsake video for the families of the cast of "Parizade's Quest."  These kids came from all different experience and talent levels and joined forces to learn this show.  A few of these students had stand-out talents, but many of them were "just ordinary" kids who thought it might be fun to get to do a show.  Some of them worked hard and developed their singing, dancing and acting talents to quite a high level.  Others continued to be "rough around the edges."  Those students may look back and cringe at their performance and wonder why they ever even tried to go out for the school musical.  The ones with natural talent, I think, will be pleased with their efforts.  But the critical point is that, though they all brought different abilities to the project, they all gave their best effort.  In my book, they were not "just ordinary," they were "just right!"   


          

          When a choir director gives the down beat for a performance, he is hoping against hope that the things he put in place from rehearsal will be remembered and come to fruition.  But in reality, that doesn't always happen.
So many things can go wrong.  Mostly, though, it is the singers who fall back into former ways and do not think of the recent "fixes" the director asked for. This occurs especially when a piece has been in the repertoire for some time or the singers learned it previously under different conductors.  A wise director will allow enough rehearsal time to revisit the tricky spots several different times before performance.  This is called "transferring."  The director takes time to check if the performers have transferred the new techniques, skills, interpretation, timing, et al, to reach performance level.  Call it a test, if you will, but it must be done.  The singers need to have enough practice to let the changes seep down deep into the fabric of their being.
          Muscles have memory.  Singers sometimes fight against previous muscle memory in order to put in new or different technique or interpretation.  It is not easy to rebuild the muscle memory, but once achieved, it remains for a long time.  The trick is to put the correct techniques into the muscles from the very beginning.  The most common problems are vowel placement issues, proper support of the tone throughout the varied vocal ranges, and breath management. 
          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.
          Harnessing and taming the power of individual voices can be a full time job for a conductor.  Some voices are big and loud and have a timbre that comes 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 and not hurt 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 the singers must learn how to manage their sound quality 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 entrance to come in exactly together.  Beginning with a consonant helps, but many times the first syllable will begin with a vowel.  The conductor may spend a lot of time working with the singers to get them to take their breath together on the preparation beat, in the shape of the vowel, and 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 and 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!

          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 help them 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 her 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 jump!
                       Depending on how effective the teacher is, 
                     this pause can be pretty potent and very fun!

          Programming is everything.  When you choose songs to perform for a choir concert, talent recital or even a Primary program, how the songs will work together in their order of presentation is very important.  We were singing "Climb Every Mountain" yesterday getting ready for the Music and the Spoken Word broadcast, when our director explained the order of things.  Because "Climb Every Mountain" ends in such a dramatic way, the song that follows it must be something extra special.  "There are not many places you can go after "Climb Every Mountain."  So, he talked a little bit about his thoughts on programming.  "Whether you want to believe it or not, this is show biz." 

          What he meant was that most people associate the Mormon Tabernacle Choir with songs of a religious or classical nature, definitely not with "show business."  And many classical musicians don't even want to think of themselves as functioning in the "commercial world." They serve the art not the public.  Yet, music is meant to be performed for an audience and so it becomes a business, whether you like it or not, to please your "public" and keep them coming back for more.

          So, in programming a finale number on the broadcast to go one step beyond "Climb Every Mountain," Mack had us sing "Come All Ye Nations of the Earth" which indeed goes well beyond the majesty and scope of "Climb Every Mountain."  

          Many school and church choir directors forget that programming is everything.  They may think that it does not matter the order in which the songs are sung, or even their messages, or key relationships, or how much fussing with reorganizing the players or shifting music has to happen in between the numbers.  But those things really matter very much!  The ideal arrangement of songs in a concert should create a nice ebb and flow leading to a climax.  The arrangement of topics, styles and genres should also take the listeners on a harmonious adventure. They should be arranged in such a way to engage the listener and keep their interest over the entire length of the concert without wearing them out.

          So, whether in a choral concert, band concert, piano or dance recital, school chorus concert, church worship service, or even in a Primary Program, how the songs work together really does matter!  It is show biz, whether you want to believe it or not, and PROGRAMMING IS EVERYTHING!

          The acoustics of a room make a big impact on the performance of a musical group.  The natural room amplification might boost certain frequencies and muffle others.  Singers have to be quite vigilant about how they form certain vowel sounds so that they don't pop out of the musical line and get more attention than they should largely due to the room's acoustics.  Well, actually, we cannot blame the room for everything, though.  Some vowel sounds are naturally brighter than others.   For example the "ee" vowel sound tends to be very bright and without some modification, it can stick out of the fabric of the vocal line and draw undue attention to itself.

          Singers work to equalize vowel sounds through modifications of tongue, jaw and lip placement.  The brighter vowels such as "ee" "ay" and the short "a" as in "cat" are cases in point.  These sounds can be modified to match the  more muted vowels such as "ih" and "oh" and "ah" and "eh" and "uh."  The "ee" vowel can be modified  by dropping the tongue slightly to the short "i" position as in "it" and drawing in the the lips from the sides (fish lips).  One of the biggest problems in equalizing the vowels in a phrase is the spread "ee" sound.  Better to use the modification.  It is usually in the upper registers that the vowels need modification the most.  Singers often use the trick of singing the bright vowel in the shape of the muted vowel nearest it in tongue position.  For example, the "ee" as in "bee" goes to "ih" as in "it."  "Ay" as in "play" goes to "eh" (without the diphthong "ee" vanish).  The short "a" sound as in "cat" is a special case.  In its purest form, it can be sung well and sound beautifully equalized.  The problem is that in certain ranges of the voice, the placement is cruelly difficult to maintain properly and the purity is lost making that vowel sound uncomfortable and strained and too bright or mutated.  

Consider the traps in the following lyrics:

Brightly beams our Father's mercy
From his lighthouse evermore,
But to us he gives the keeping
Of the lights along the shore.

           In the first line, the there are three "ee" vowels, two of which are on unaccented syllables.  Then there are three uses of "r" which can swallow the vowel placement into the throat.  The diphthong in "bright" and the "ah" in "Father's" can be placed too far back in the throat to match the forward brightness of the "ee" vowels.  Equalizing the vowels in just this first line can be a huge task for a singer, let alone an entire choir!

          When working with a choir, the director will want to instruct the singers to listen and make adjustments and modifications to help the sound of the choir as a whole.  These little adjustments help the overall intonation of the group.  They will sound better in tune, better together, and their message will come through more beautifully.  Remember to equalize those vowels!