What do you say about a special program that was well-prepared and the actor/singers gave good performances, but the concert was still lacking? As an audience member, I wanted to give appropriate applause to show the performers that I appreciated their efforts. However, I could not bring myself to give the show a standing ovation.
There seemed to be two major problems. The first was that the individual songs went on too long! Each one was over 4, maybe over 5 minutes. The second problem was that all of the songs used many of the same musical ideas. Those few rippling flute lines and other motives were nice in the first song, but quickly got old by the later songs. And those same accompaniment figures and chord progressions were very reminiscent of the love themes from 1990's soap operas and movies. They just seemed out of place for a sacred program performed in a chapel even when the subject matter included love stories from the scriptures.
Our directors used to tell us during Tabernacle Choir rehearsals that planning a Music and the Spoken Word program, whether you believed it or not, was SHOW BUSINESS. All of the elements had to fit in the proscribed time period and follow accepted norms. However, there always needed to be elements of surprise to keep the audience engaged.
People really have short attention spans. They need to have VARIETY as well as FAMILIARITY. They like what they know and they only stay engaged for the amount of time they expect. Even the best prepared and executed performances can suffer if they stray from certain expectations. Who knows when the audience will decide to lose interest?
So, how does a director or composer put together a pleasing show? According to sources I respect, they should always remember the 2-3 minute attention span limit. Plan VARIETY into the program --- periods of new material followed by familiar material, vary TEMPO, MOOD, ACCOMPANIMENT and MELODIC IDEAS while not straying too far from what is known and expected. This is a tried and true programming strategy.
Some songs CAN go on for more than 3 minutes and still provide enough VARIETY to stay interesting. RONDO, for example, is a song form where one section comes back between other melodic adventures.
"O That I Were an Angel" is a Sacred song in RONDO form. The text is from Alma 29:1-9 and are the words that Alma the Younger spoke as he shared his desire to cry repentance to every people. The repeating Rondo section contains the following text and is used to tie the other sections to the whole:
O, that I were an angel that I might have the wish of mine heart,
O, that I were an angel that I might have the wish of mine heart.
That I might go forth to preach with the trump of God,
With a voice to shake the whole earth!
With a voice to cry repentance to every people, every people!
O, that I were an angel that I might have the wish of mine heart.
There seemed to be two major problems. The first was that the individual songs went on too long! Each one was over 4, maybe over 5 minutes. The second problem was that all of the songs used many of the same musical ideas. Those few rippling flute lines and other motives were nice in the first song, but quickly got old by the later songs. And those same accompaniment figures and chord progressions were very reminiscent of the love themes from 1990's soap operas and movies. They just seemed out of place for a sacred program performed in a chapel even when the subject matter included love stories from the scriptures.
Our directors used to tell us during Tabernacle Choir rehearsals that planning a Music and the Spoken Word program, whether you believed it or not, was SHOW BUSINESS. All of the elements had to fit in the proscribed time period and follow accepted norms. However, there always needed to be elements of surprise to keep the audience engaged.
People really have short attention spans. They need to have VARIETY as well as FAMILIARITY. They like what they know and they only stay engaged for the amount of time they expect. Even the best prepared and executed performances can suffer if they stray from certain expectations. Who knows when the audience will decide to lose interest?
So, how does a director or composer put together a pleasing show? According to sources I respect, they should always remember the 2-3 minute attention span limit. Plan VARIETY into the program --- periods of new material followed by familiar material, vary TEMPO, MOOD, ACCOMPANIMENT and MELODIC IDEAS while not straying too far from what is known and expected. This is a tried and true programming strategy.
Some songs CAN go on for more than 3 minutes and still provide enough VARIETY to stay interesting. RONDO, for example, is a song form where one section comes back between other melodic adventures.
"O That I Were an Angel" is a Sacred song in RONDO form. The text is from Alma 29:1-9 and are the words that Alma the Younger spoke as he shared his desire to cry repentance to every people. The repeating Rondo section contains the following text and is used to tie the other sections to the whole:
O, that I were an angel that I might have the wish of mine heart,
O, that I were an angel that I might have the wish of mine heart.
That I might go forth to preach with the trump of God,
With a voice to shake the whole earth!
With a voice to cry repentance to every people, every people!
O, that I were an angel that I might have the wish of mine heart.
RSS Feed