Music
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Item Prayers From The Old Church(2018) Whitmore, Mary Kathryn Coy; Gibson, Robert L; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Prayers from the Old Church is a three-movement work for SATB a cappella choir and alto soloist based on prayers from the Russian Orthodox Church. Church-Slavonic texts and their translations are taken from the Old Orthodox Prayer Book, which uses pre-Niconian sources favored by Old Ritualists. The prayers were selected due to their significance to the history of the church and to my own personal experience as an Orthodox Christian. The three prayers in the piece come from the Canon to Jesus Christ and the Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom: the Jesus Prayer, the Cherubic Hymn, and the Lord’s Prayer. The Jesus Prayer is based on a Valaam chant, a chant style that developed in the monastery on Valaam in Russian Karelia. The Cherubic Hymn is longer, and more technically demanding, than the outer two movements; it can be parsed into two large sections: the first of more somber quality than the second, set mostly homophonically in four parts, as is traditional for settings of this prayer. The Lord’s Prayer is set wholly in the Ukrainian language, and opens with the choir singing in true unison sotto voce to evoke themes of simplicity, unity, and peace.Item Teaching Sight-Reading to Undergraduate Choral Ensemble Singers: Lessons from Successful Learners(2016) Carlson, Rachel; Maclary, Edward; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study was designed to investigate professional choral singers’ training, perceptions on the importance of sight-reading skill in their work, and thoughts on effective pedagogy for teaching sight-reading to undergraduate choral ensemble singers. Participants in this study (N=48) included self-selected professional singers and choral conductors from the Summer 2015 Oregon Bach Festival’s Berwick Chorus and conducting Master Class. Data were gathered from questionnaire responses and audio recorded focus group sessions. Focus group data showed that the majority of participants developed proficiency in their sight-reading skills from instrumental study, aural skills classes, and through on-the-job training at a church job or other professional choral singing employment. While participants brought up a number of important job skills, sightreading was listed as perhaps the single most important skill that a professional choral singer could develop. When reading music during the rehearsal process, the data revealed two main strategies that professional singers used to interpret the pitches in their musical line: an intervallic approach and a harmonic approach. Participants marked their scores systematically to identify problem spots and leave reminders to aid with future readings, such as marking intervals, solfege syllables, or rhythmic counts. Participants reported using a variety of skills other than score marking to try to accurately find their pitches, such as looking at other vocal or instrumental lines, looking ahead, and using knowledge about a musical style or time period to make more intuitive “guesses” when sight-reading. Participants described using additional approaches when sight-reading in an audition situation, including scanning for anchors or anomalies and positive self-talk. Singers learned these sight-reading techniques from a variety of sources. Participants had many different ideas about how best to teach sight-reading in the undergraduate choral ensemble rehearsal. The top response was that sight-reading needed to be practiced consistently in order for students to improve. Other responses included developing personal accountability, empowering students, combining different teaching methods, and discussing real-life applications of becoming strong sight-readers. There was discussion about the ultimate purpose of choir at the university level and whether it is to teach musicianship skills or produce excellent performances.Item Teaching Registration in the Mixed Choral Rehearsal: Physiological and Acoustical Considerations(2011) Aldrich, Nicole Paige; Maclary, Edward; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)One of the most challenging concepts of vocal technique is registration. In classical Western singing, noticeable changes of timbre over the course of a singer's vocal range are considered undesirable, and much effort is spent in learning how to eliminate these "breaks." Faults in vocal registration can cause unevenness of tone quality, lack of resonance, and instability of intonation. The choral conductor must learn how to address these problems in rehearsal in order to establish good choral sound. Much literature exists which defines the physiological and acoustical adjustments required to create a well-blended, "one-register" voice; however, this literature is aimed at the individual singer or teacher of solo voice. Voice-training resources for choral conductors may mention registration and vowel modification but typically do not explain in any detail the science underlying the concepts. The choral conductor thus must adapt the body of solo voice research for application to a group voice teaching setting. The primary goal of this paper is to propose and describe techniques for teaching registration and vowel modification concepts to choral singers. The paper details the physiological factors at work in vocal registration, including the functions of the intrinsic laryngeal musculature. It also surveys the science of acoustics as it applies to the singing voice, including a discussion of vowel formants and the purposes and methods of formant tuning for male and female voices. This section will draw heavily on existing research in solo singing. The next portion of the paper tailors this knowledge to the needs of the choral vocal teacher. The author describes signs of registration difficulties within an ensemble and their possible causes. Next the author provides a series of vocalises and other tools designed to help the conductor achieve two goals in rehearsal: first, to help both men and women develop the physiological adjustments necessary to reduce obvious registration shifts; and second, to assist singers of all voice types in discovering the vowel modifications which will produce a uniform tone quality throughout the range. Finally, the author explains how the conductor can identify potential registration problems during score study and preparation.Item Requiem for Chorus and Harp: Conductor as Composer, Composer as Conductor(2008) Culverhouse, William; Maclary, Edward; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Western music history is filled with composers who also conduct their own works, and conductors who also devote time to composing. This project will attempt to examine the experience of the composer-conductor by addressing the following questions: First, what is it like to compose a piece of music for a group one conducts regularly? How does one's experience as a conductor influence compositional decision-making? Second, what is it like to conduct one's own music? How does one's experience as a composer influence rehearsal planning and performance conducting? The inquiry will focus on the preparation for and performance on May 16 of three pieces: Advent Antiphons and The Transfiguration, both written for the St. Matthew's Schola Cantorum in 2000, and the Requiem for chorus and harp, begun in January 2007 and completed in April 2008, all with the composer conducting. The completed project will include copies of scores, a DVD of rehearsal excerpts, CDs and DVDs of the performance, and a text document examining the questions mentioned above. The text document will address biographical information on the composer-conductor, focusing on experiences relevant to the inquiry; composition and history of the St. Matthew's Schola Cantorum and of his relationship with them; information about the compositions themselves and the compositional process; and a discussion of the rehearsal process and performance of the pieces.