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The Importance of Ending Consonants

5/28/2024

While on a recent trip to Tacoma to visit my daughter's family, I also got the chance to go visit my brother Ben. All of our siblings are musicians from singing to playing instruments. Our brothers in particular love to play band and orchestral instruments. Bob plays any of the brass especially trombone plus string bass, Bill specializes in all of the various clarinets, and Ben plays any in the Tuba family.

Going to Ben's house is like going to a Tuba farm. You get to meet an ever growing number of tubas from standard sized euphoniums to big "Bertha" tubas. He even has a collection of baby euphoniums and plastic toy tubas that he can actually play. His entire collection is usually out in full view, but his wife had made him put them somewhere else while she was entertaining guests for a party just before I came.

Ben, despite having to deal with some health issues, keeps playing and arranging music. He now plays in three community bands and he enjoys writing arrangements for the various groups. Pretty good for a guy who recently had a stroke.

He is also the Ward Choir director. Because the Wards in the area have been newly realigned, this is a new ward to him. Also new to him is having a choir with no men. He decided to just run with that situation. He is starting out with a double women's trio. Ben decided to have them sing "Lift Thine Eyes" by Felix Mendelssohn included in the old LDS Hymnal.

Our mother made sure her children could sing this piece any time any where from memory a cappella in any combination of voices. Since Benny was a high Tenor, he sometimes sang with the sisters growing up. Anyway, we all know it and can still sing it from memory. Then Ben asked me to sing the first couple of lines. I said okay and began:

"Lift thine eyes, oh, lift thine eyes to the mountains
Whence cometh, whence cometh, whence cometh help."

He then said, "Betsy you did it right. You put an audible "P" sound at the end of 'help.' My singers can't seem to manage sounding the 'P.' Think about it. Without that ending consonant, the entire meaning of the phrase is changed --- and not in a good way!!!!"

Ben is holding a special emergency rehearsal before they sing on Sunday to get them to remember to sound the "P" at the end of "help."

Ending consonants are VERY IMPORTANT!

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Setting a Book of Mormon Text

5/24/2024

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Setting scriptural texts to music isn't easy. Just by the nature of prose, rhyme schemes, regular meter plans, and venerable musical forms mostly cannot be used. Sometimes a composer can make use of short phrases repeating over and over again to provide meter, pattern, and rhyme. Think of Handel writing many of the choruses in "Messiah." He took one or two phrases or even one word and took 5-10 minutes musically expanding them. Think "Hallelujah" or "For Unto Us a Child Is Born."

We don't normally do Baroque stylization in our day. Occasionally though, for emphasis, a composer can get away with phrase repetitions. I find that PHRASE REPETITION is a great way to set scriptural texts. Repeating a phrase of words set to a melodic passage that can be developed is a way to provide pleasing musical structure as well as patterns and rhyme schemes listeners can appreciate.

A few years ago, my friend (Barbara Cramer) asked me to create a song for her to sing using an ancient form of Hebraic poetry. Her brother (John W. Welch) was being honored for finding Chiasmus in the Book of Mormon in 1967. There was a "Chiasmus Jubilee" (50 year anniversary) held at BYU in 2017 where she sang this song.

Chiasmus is a form of Hebraic poetry where the concepts reflect back in contrast to the previous ideas but in reverse order with the climax or most important concept in the center. So, I tried to play around with themes and tonalities that would reflect these contrasts -- darkness turning to light, sin to forgiveness, pain to joy -- going from minor to major and so forth. So, as the text reflected back to a previous thought, I tried to make the musical theme relate back as well, but brighter and more hopeful.

The text is taken from Alma 36 where Alma is telling about his conversion. First, Alma recognizes his sins, he feels exquisite pain and guilt. Then the central and most important part of the song is about his turning to Christ, forsaking his sins, and relying on the Atonement. Then, he tells of his feeling great joy and relief through repentance. He is changed and he then wants to share his joy by preaching of Christ.

The song is titled "How Exquisite Was My Joy."

The only way I could make my setting of this scriptural text work is with using phrase repetitions. This helped with meter and structure as well has providing singable melodic ideas.

Other composers feel very strongly that scriptural verses should be set strictly as they are laid out in the book. As a singer, I find those so hard to sing. I enjoy having notes that soar and phrases that can be repeated to provide some pattern and rhyme. To me, that's much more fulfilling.

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Special Family Songs

5/16/2024

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The Tom Lee Family in Houston, TX about 1964

The first time I remember singing this song was when I was an early teenager living with my family in Houston, Texas. My mother had just gotten a book of classic sacred duets and she couldn't wait for us to try them out. I was just getting skilled enough to sing with her balancing her sound in a more grown-up voice. Because she could play and sing at the same time, it looked as if I was going to sing a solo when we performed together, but we did a duet.

We used to go with my father on his visiting trips to various wards in our Stake. He would have a couple of us kids give short talks, then he'd have my mother sing, then he would give his High Council talk. Sometimes the congregations we visited were quite small. Our family would fill out the Primary and Youth populations that day wherever we went. That's why he always had our family do the entire program. We often sang the closing hymn, as well.

"The Lord Is My Shepherd" by Henry Smart entered our family's repertoire then and has been sung ever since --- in every vocal combination imaginable. She must have introduced it to other branches of the family as well. My cousin has asked me to accompany for her while she and her nephew sing it for Church in a couple of weeks. It had not dawned on me that it was sung beyond our immediate family, yet I have since found out that several of my uncles' families have the tradition of singing it, too.

However, when I pulled out my mother's book that she bought in the 1960's that has the original pencil markings from when my mom and I first sang it, my cousin was dumbfounded. She had never seen the original book. She had only ever had Xerox copies. (Well, I am happy to say that our family always used an original legally acquired source for the music.)

Extended Thompson Family singing for the inauguration of a scholarship in Janie's name at BYU.

We have other "special family" arrangements, too. One is "Families to Match the Mountains" written by our aunt Janie Thompson. We sing it mostly at funerals of family members anymore. I keep a standing supply of over 50 copies ready at any moment.

Another special family arrangement is "America, the Beautiful" that I arranged for my sisters and I to sing back in about 1987. We have since sung it in many iterations from SSA, to SSAA, to SSATB with all sizes of groups. My oldest daughter has five daughters of her own and they sing it together regularly. In fact, she is teaching it to the women of her community choir to sing it for s Memorial Day service at the end of May.

We take delight in singing together as a family and love having our own special family songs!

P.S. My daughter reported back on how her concerts went on Memorial Day in Gettysburg. The women of her choir sang "America, the Beautiful" to many accolades. The audience members said that Kathryn's conducting brought out something in that performance they had never experienced before. (That often happens when you invite the Holy Spirit to help!)

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Appreciating the "Tape and Time"

5/12/2024

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Yesterday the Emeritus Ladies of the Tabernacle Choir had a luncheon. It was a marvelous gathering where we got to see old friends and welcome ladies who are newly retired from the choir. The ones in charge wisely gave us an hour to get our name tags on and go about chatting and smiling but mostly hugging. After we ate and the special guest gave his talk, we got to sing together.

Craig Jessop was our guest conductor. He had formerly led the choir and many of us were thrilled to get to sing under his baton once more. He was so nice to compliment us and say, "You've still got it!" Then he jokingly said, "Okay, the concert is tomorrow. Let's tape and time it." (Crowd erupts in giggles!)

During Thursday night rehearsals for the Music and the Spoken Word broadcasts, the standard practice is to do a run through of each song while the sound guys record it to make sure all the timings for the broadcast work. The best part though is that the recordings are made available online to the choir members. That way, they can listen for a few more days to get the songs memorized.

The way choral conductors often rehearse is to break up the songs into sections. He (or she) may just spot rehearse certain parts, then go on to the next piece and do the same. Most are under a time crunch to get things learned before a concert. They are just trying to get through all of the material and make sure all the spots that need help are addressed. It is so easy to just run out of time.

At the latest concert I performed in, I really don't think we ever sang some of the songs from start to finish. We only sang bits and pieces in a disjointed order. I realized that at the performance was the first time I had sung some of our repertoire from beginning to end without stopping to work on something. That's when I really appreciated the Tabernacle Choir's mandatory "Tape and Time."

Time management when planning a concert and projecting how much time it will take to get the choir to learn everything can be daunting. Sometimes a director may be a bit too ambitious. Your choir will appreciate the idea of a Tape and Time. It's always nice for the choir's sake to get to sing all of their songs all the way through from start to finish before the performance!

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Staggering

5/6/2024

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"Staggering" for singers is a little different from "staggering" or almost falling as you are walking along. But it probably should actually be "un-staggering" or taking a little breath in an obscure part of a phrase so that you won't fall over when you run out of breath.

Composers of choir music expect there to be many singers in a section so that long notes may be held for an impossible length of time or that very long phrases may go on for many measures without any breaks.

Learning how to stagger the breaths is quite a feat for most choir singers. Here are a few RULES that should be followed:

1. Never end the syllable with the finish consonants, especially "s" "t" or "k" when sneaking a breath.

2. Take a breath as silently as possible.

3. Don't breathe at the same time as your neighbor.

4. Use hairpin dynamics --- diminish your sound before the breath and come in softly after your breath.

Another technique that many choir directors promote is to take a staggered breath in the middle of a long word/note while holding the mouth in the shape of the vowel.

For the individual choir singer, marking when to take breaths in the score is a matter of course. Sometimes you even need to consult with your neighbor as to when to breathe so that someone is always covering the note during the long phrase.

Many good directors will practice staggering the breaths during warm-ups before starting choir practice.

Audiences have come to expect a choir to sing impossibly long held out notes with a big crescendo at the end of showpieces. However, they may become uncomfortable if they never hear the choir take breaths at phrases. Be aware that audiences have a hard time understanding the words that choirs sing. Clean diction is better accomplished with adequate breaks for breaths and crisp consonants.

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Singing for Prelude?

5/4/2024

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Yesterday I was asked to direct the hymn singing for one of the Women's Conference sessions held at BYU. I had trouble getting a parking place at the Marriott Center, so I just barely made it down onto the floor in time to do my job. The organist, a friend from TabChoir Nora Hess, was there ready to play. We were instructed by the sound guy what our cues would be. I took a big breath (to try to catch my breath from running in heels several blocks and down the hundred stairs because I was late) and we were ready.

Whoever expected thousands of women to come into a big arena quietly to sing hymns for 10 minutes reverently BEFORE an event SURE GOT THEIR WIRES CROSSED!!!!! These women came in very chatty trying to find the rest of their parties and wanting to catch up and plan their day. They were so excited to see each other. They had absolutely NO IDEA that they should be sitting quietly and singing reverently. They were too busy trying to find seating near their friends.

So there I was singing a solo for 10 minutes waving my arms like a lunatic.

Every so often someone new gets put in charge and tries what they think is a novel idea. They think it is something that has never been tried before and will work splendidly and put everyone in the right frame of mind and will set a reverent mood for the meeting. (Oh, but this has been tried before and has never worked satisfactorily.) At an event like this, ladies need to have time to meet and greet and chat and just be excited with each other.

Even at General Conference in the Conference Center, the General Authorities never ask the Congregation to sing hymns reverently while they are filling that enormous building. Big halls take upwards of 45 minutes to fill. People make noise enough just shuffling around trying to get seated. And after a long drive, having difficulties parking, getting registered, hooking up with their friends, planning what classes to go to, and find seating together --- they just have to talk!!!! People settle down just fine once the actual meeting starts.

This was pretty ridiculous.

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The Importance of Ending Consonants

Setting a Book of Mormon Text

Special Family Songs

Appreciating the "Tape and Time"

Staggering

Singing for Prelude?

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