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Agony Felt Good

2/17/2014

Recording week for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir can be intense and stressful, but after all the effort, the results are worth it. So why the oxymoron? Well, no one was really in serious agony. What happened was simply this. We were struggling to sing the word "agony" with the proper lift. Once we got it, our director said, "The agony felt good that take." We were so tired, that silly statement really tickled our collective funny bone and provided the needed levity to help cut the tension. I am sure that our conductor had no idea he was being funny. But at that moment, we really needed a stress reliever. That bit of unintentional humor was welcome indeed.

Good humor is so important in running a rehearsal. When the stress of trying to make everything perfect gets so intense, it can actually detract from getting the hoped-for results. For a singer, the harder you try for perfection, the more stress you can feel. And the more intense the stress, the tighter and tighter your muscles can get. And when the muscles tighten, the tone quality gets pinched. And when the tone quality gets pinched, the conductor expresses in highly pointed language that you seriously need to fix it. And when the conductor is stressed, no one is happy. That is where a dose of good humor can come in handy.

A little laughter can relax tension in the muscles of the neck and jaw instantly. After the laughter come the deeper cleansing breaths so important to efficient, beautiful singing. It doesn't take much good humor to do the trick, and it is a marvelous tool to get the most out of your rehearsals. Don't let the seriousness become so intense that tension mounts out of control. Don't allow your rehearsals become agony. Try a little good humor to cut the tension.
Make the agony feel good!

The reason the word agony was so problematic is that it starts on a troublesome vowel for English speakers with no beginning consonant. The "a" as in "cat" is difficult because we American-speakers do not agree on the formation of that sound. Some sing the short "a" sound with a very flat, spread placement with a nearly closed jaw. Some try to imitate the British high placement but it comes across as a very swallowed, hooty sound in a deep throated "ah" with the jaw locked in an unnaturally dropped jaw placement. In fact, the proper placement for that sound will be "high" (tongue and soft palette) with the resonance focused towards the "mask" of the face with the jaw dropped to the "2-finger" measurement. Singers learn this placement as the Italian "a." (The "2 finger measurement" simply means that the singer should be able to fit 2 finger widths between his teeth when his jaw is dropped.)

Not many songs contain the word agony, but one notable song for Easter does, "Christ the Lord Is Risen Today" with text by Charles Wesley. I have included it in my arrangement of "An Easter Anthem Medley." This piece weaves together thematic material from "All Creatures of Our God and King" with pertinent verses of "He Is Risen" and "Christ the Lord Is Risen Today." It should be a nice addition to your Easter repertoire.

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Articulation

2/10/2014

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George Frideric Handel 1685-1759

Most people would think that ARTICULATION is purely a function of DICTION -- how we form our lips, teeth, and tongue to make intelligible speech. But ARTICULATION can also mean how musicians interpret and execute a musical line to make it understood. Just how the lips, teeth and tongue delineate and make clear the pronunciation of words, the use of techniques such as staccato, legato, tenuto, accents, dynamics, etc., help make the musical line exciting and understandable. Each style era in music is categorized in part by the unique ARTICULATIONS in techniques used during that time. For example, in the Baroque Period, well-known for elaborate ornamentation, musicians relied on exacting ARTICULATIONS to make the very fast counterpoint and decorations clear. Sung or played any other way, and the lines turn to mush and just sound like noise.

Our latest recording project for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir has made us concentrate on learning to execute Baroque-style ARTICULATIONS in how we sing and play. We are working on a new recording of George Frideric Handel's Messiah. For this project, the score has been painstakingly and lovingly edited by Mack Wilberg to be of use for other large choirs and orchestras to follow. Maestro Wilberg has studied the many editions of the score and orchestrations to determine how best for a large choir and orchestra to interpret this Baroque Masterwork in an authentic rendition. He told us that the original notations may have worked well for a typical chorus of the Baroque Era (25-30 singers) with a chamber orchestra (also a small compliment), but does not work well for groups our size (360 singers and 110 players). "You simply cannot multiply each part by 10 and have the parts balance."

He said that the orchestrations to compliment large (100 voice) choirs done by Mozart in his day and Prout in the early 20th Century, even, do not work well for the gigantic choirs wanting to sing Messiah nowadays. In particular, careful attention needed to be paid to the notations of ARTICULATIONS, which were well-understood in Handel's day, but are largely forgotten today. In fact, these ARTICULATIONS were so well understood by the performers in Handel's time, that he wrote in a sort of short hand abbreviation where the singer's could make the customary ornamentations. They were never written in any score exactly. So, to make sense of this and help our large organization sound like a small Baroque group, Dr. Wilberg has written exact ARTICULATIONS for us and explains in great detail how we should work to make the music sound close to authentic.

In order for our gigantic choir to execute the melismas, we have been working on learning to detach each and every note, while still keeping form and arch in the musical line. In each melisma or long string of 16th notes sung very quickly, the singer must ARTICULATE each note by separating or detaching one from the next in the line. This way the notes are clean and do not sound like mush. In some sections, every part is singing a melisma. Imagine the "train wreck" of sound if the lines were not delineated cleanly! We are working on keeping our pick-up notes very short so that the important syllables can have that added stress and brilliance. Careful attention is being paid to the natural dynamics and contrasts that happen with the characteristic layered effects Handel wrote into the score. We are working on controlling our sound so that the "softs" are truly pianissimo and the "louds" are at the largest fortissimo the recording microphones can handle. That is something a small choir simply cannot do! The hope is that even our very large choir can sound as clear as a much smaller Baroque style chorus, but still maintain the grandeur and power of our immense group.

And the key to that is -- ARTICULATION!

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Church Musicians - A Vanishing Breed?

2/3/2014

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As I sit in the loft and sing the glorious music set before me in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, I reflect how in the everyday world of Church Music the reality is very different. I have occasion to visit many different church meetings in many different areas and wonder if church musicians are a vanishing breed. The quality of the organ playing and hymn conducting and choir performances and even the hymn singing of the congregations is generally very low and on its way to vanishing completely.

As a visitor in the congregation, when I open my mouth to sing the hymns, I suddenly realize I am singing a solo. It is a rare occasion indeed when I get to visit a worship service where the congregation is truly uniting their voices in singing praises to God in a purposeful, joyous, and effective way. It isn't that they are unfamiliar with the words or the tunes. They just don't put forth any effort.

No, I do not think I am being a musical snob because I sing with a group of highly skilled musicians. This is not about wishing the lay ministry could be of professional quality. It is more a comment on our society as a whole nowadays. We are a consumer culture. We want to be entertained with no effort on our part beyond turning on our device. We want to do no work and definitely take no responsibility. How very selfish! What we are missing is so great.

Music is a gift from God. It has great power to lift the spirit and calm the soul. It can be used to motivate and influence mood and underscore life's dramatic moments. It can be used for good and evil. It has great power to unite people in a common experience.

Creating music is powerful, too. Live performance in creating worship music is a wonderful thing. It can channel thoughts and influence emotions. It can help invite the Spirit into your life. The simple act of hymn singing can do so much good.

My hope is that the people who play the organ and lead the singing will prepare themselves to reach a higher level of expertise and never stop working to get better and better. I hope that they will encourage better singing in the congregation by their preparation and example. I know that this can happen. I have witnessed it in my own life. We have moved many times in the course of my life. In nearly every place we moved to, the hymn singing and musicianship of the members was pretty lack luster at first. But after a good dose of our family's example and encouragement, things improved. It can be done, but it takes effort and preparation and encouragement and a belief that there is a better way. Being a church musician is a great responsibility. Only you can make sure church musicians don't become a vanishing breed!

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Agony Felt Good

Articulation

Church Musicians - A Vanishing Breed?

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