Cathedral Classics

Bogorodyiste Dyevo", number 6 from S. Rachmananov's "All-Night Vigil" as sung by Portland Symphonic Choir, March 6, 2011),

Power Quartetting

This in my inbox:

Have you ever thought that it would be a lot of fun to learn and sing
such challenging songs as "South Rampart Street Parade" (Westminster),

"You Don't, You Won't" (Crossroads)



or even "Eine Kleine NOT Musik"(Gas House Gang)?


If this kind of challenge inspires you, you could be
the caliber of singer that would enjoy the Power Quartetting weekend.
Check it out at http://www.powerqt.com/portland/

 From: "Harry Buerer" hbuerer@spiritone.com hfbuerer
Date: Wed Jan 26, 2011 4:29 pm ((PST))

Portland Power Quartetting weekend June 3-4, 2011

2120 NE Tillamook St. Portland OR

Making tracks

Gary,

I would very much like to make a demo CD within the next five weeks here in Portland. Is there any chance you would be willing to help me prepare for and record the CD? If so, roughly what would you charge, and if not, is there anyone you can recommend?

Yours, D.

D, What a fine idea for you. I'd be delighted to assist.

You will need the following jobs done to make a good demo:

Track recording job list

Phase one: preparation
~ producer (who hires and pays everyone - probably yourself.)
~ artist (again yourself .)
~ music director (with above, choose, find and pace the material)
~ back-up band and support musicians as needed.
~ recording venue contact (home? studio? remote?)

Phase two: Production
~ Recording venue scheduled
~ Recording engineer
~ Recording conductor
~ performers from above
~ Mix engineer

(from here down, things can be minimal with demo tracks)

Phase Three: post-production
~ Mastering engineer
~ package design artist
~ license & copyright agent

Phase Four: distribution
~ distribution manager, who oversees:
~ media construction
~ packaging construction
~ marketing and promo
~ sales and delivery
~ end accounting

Of the above jobs, which do you need me to help you with?

As you saw on my website, I generally charge $37 for 45 minutes of vocal coaching. I slide that down when more is purchased to as low as $97 for three hours. I generally charge the same for other work I do where I'm expert: vocals, keys, conducting, directing, coaching, producing.

I am not expert at distribution, nor recording or post engineer anymore. I taught sound engineering decades ago, and was expert at it then. Mike technique is the same, but media and post- tools are different. I have no recording venue I use a lot lately, but know of several locally, if you need one, as well as other musicians.

If you have material and a venue in mind, this project might take as little as three hours.

Estimated recording time formula:

For music appropriate to the skill set of the group at hand, plan on recording time of:

~unrehearsed amateur reading musicians: one hour per minute of track.
~concert ready amateur musicians: 15 mins per track plus 30 mins per session plus three minutes per minute of track
~ unrehearsed professional reading musicians: one hour contracts generally limit product to 15 minutes of finished track.

Yours, Gary,

(Mentor@voice-mentor.com) www.voice-mentor.com
Online voice lessons - music, speech, computer support.
My passion. Your art.

Absinthe Party

Portland Symphonic Choir held a series of six dinner parties to raise funds for the upcoming season.

I assisted musically with the final event, hosted by Cindy Sheel, called "the Importance of Being Absinthe", featuring Edmund Stone acting as noted raconteur Oscar Wilde.



For your amusement here are pictures from guest Brenda Ray Scott’s phone. including Cindy and Edmund (who soon married) with myself and singer Nan Haemer. The food was excellent, the drink interesting, the entertainment wonderful, and the guests buoyant.

We will definitely do this again!

Applause

O clap your hands, all ye people; sing unto God with the voice of triumph. (Psalm 47:1)

Despite this verse, applause is an oddity in churches. Many churches explicitly prohibit applause, since it is not a New Testament teaching, distracts from God-centered worship, and foments pride in worship leaders. Other churches encourage hand-clapping because it elevates the joy of worship, adheres to Psalms, and allows open congregational expression. There isn't an easy answer to this little issue, unless it's "follow the leader."

In secular entertainment, applause is a simple indicator of the opinion of the audience; the louder and longer the noise, the stronger the sign of approval. Some performers inspire applause simply entering a stage; others have paid folks to applaud long and loud, inflating their public persona. Sacred music, though, is not to entertain or sensationalize the congregation: singing is to be an act of worship that encourages worship in the congregation.

Choralnet.com, a choir resource group, did a survey about clapping showing that churches and denominations are divided and have become divided, by this issue. The ELCA.org article "Is applause appropriate in worship?" offers a fair answer:

"Liturgically, there are occasional moments when applause is an appropriate acclamation of the action just completed....

There are moments, particularly those filled with highly charged emotion, when spontaneous applause erupts from an assembly because there is just no other possible response....

After a particularly fine offering of music, worshipers may give thanks to God in silent prayer and personally thank the musician(s). Congregational leaders can plan congregational events that allow for such thanks to be given. "

Thus, at St. Timothy's Lutheran Church, we do applaud sometimes. If you are moved or asked to applaud, who would stop you? I'll confess to some pride that enjoys knowing that you were moved. Still, I give my thanks and appreciation to the individuals after worship. I thank God for musicians and the fellowship at St. Timothy's. When there is no applause after our musical offering, though, we musicians are content that we worshiped God, and that you did, too, in silence.

"But the LORD is in His holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before Him." (Habakkuk 2:20)

All the best to you.
Gary Shannon

Timberliner Outfits

The Rose City Timberliners are looking at adding another outfit to their performing costumes.

Currently, the chorus wears a white long sleeve cotton shirt, khaki slacks and black belt and shoes from Company Casuals catalog for 28$. The logo (not shown here) is red with green lettering. This same shirt is available in short sleeve and many other colors.

While the group is easy-going, they want to look uniform and put-together as performers. Unavoidably though, such groups look like a bowling team or a restaurant staff.

For summer, though, the idea is another more comfortable shirt, short sleeves, square cut bottom wearable outside the pants. Each singer wearing a "Hawaiian" style shirt of any print they chose was discussed, but not generally liked. Casuals sells "camp shirts" in white and celery and other colors. Our logo is already on file with them, so there is no new set-up fee for embroidering this onto the shirts.

One suggested we try a "deep rose" color shirt. Color is not available in camp style at Casuals, but another supplier offers it for a new logo fee. Casuals does offer the deep red in a knit sport shirt that might fit the bill for $18.00. This style also has white, ivory and celery and other colors.

The membership will look at these options and decide what, if any, to add to the uniform requirements.

This from Stephen Zopfi, Conductor and Director of Portland Symphonic Choir, September 23, 2009, while preparing to sing Brahm's "Ein Deutches Requiem"

Let us take as a given that pronunciation for singing is different than pronunciation for speech. (Hence, specialized diction classes for singing)

Let us also take as given that what works for solo singing doesn't always work for choral situations (Hence, we adjust choral pronunciation to find what works for a particular choir in a particular musical situation)

Add to that pronunciation can be modified depending on where a particular note sits in the voice, what sequence of vowels and consonants come before and after, where it occurs in the musical line, and even what musical effect is needed.

Then mix in the fact that no two native speakers of most languages agree on the pronunciation of anything.

Then stir.

Well, you can see that it is a difficult situation. IPA symbols can be tremendously helpful but even with IPA, there is a limit to what they can offer. Like musical notation, IPA can point you in the right direction but no notational system can ever capture the nuance and endless gradations of speech.

Therefore, we do the best we can. We establish a standard and train the best we can. We do our best to listen and to adjust. We practice. For those of you who have had singers diction, have sung the work many times before, or who are native speakers - hang in there. We have a new choir with new adjustments, new standards, new interpretation, new things to listen for, to discover.

In choral singing, performing "as one" is more important than performing "right". Ideally, we can achieve both, but art is in the details.