Thoughts on Programming

Recommended reading: Richard Sparks made some great posts in the early months of 2008 on programming - which start here and continue as a thread throughout his posts, I encourage you to read them! The following post is more of a rambling on the process and results of my programming for my chamber choir next season.

Yesterday was a tough day. I have an AGM tonight for my chamber choir, and in that report, I have to announce my season to them. We have our dates planned, carefully trying to avoid conflicts with most of the similar choirs in the city, as well as the two other choirs that I am involved with (a feat in itself), and we've committed ourselves to recording our first CD since I became artistic director. I'm sure there will be more posts on this in the coming year.

Over the past few weeks I have been considering different works, and sets of pieces for possible programs, but have had a difficult time coming up with firm ideas. I have many ideas for feature concerts in the coming years - for example, three years ago we did a concert of Michael Haydn and Mozart during their anniversary years, and the next year we did Rachmaninoff All Night Vigil, and this past year we did a Baroque concert of Handel's Dixit Dominus and a Bach Cantata. I find those concerts quite easy to program, understandably, as usually one work dominates the program, and a few smaller works, if needed, would complete the program. I have a list of pieces that I want to conduct in my life, it is by no means exhaustive, and keeps growing. So this yearly concert program should be easy to manage. Plus composers birth and death anniversaries keep popping up from time to time (note to self - next year is a Debussy year - might have to alter our November program a bit), so I'm good for the next foreseeable future.

The concerts that I find difficult, and I'm sure I'm not alone, are the concerts with a "potpourri" of works. Usually, this coincides with Christmas programs, something that I've been lucky to avoid for the last couple of years. Lately we've done a mid-November program around Remembrance Day, which has been very rewarding, and although challenging to find a full program, they have been quite successful, dealing with the theme of Remembrance, War and Peace. The end of the year concerts I've been able to concentrate on secular works, and poetic themes.

So, a sneak preview for those who read my blog - as my choir will not find out about this program until tonight at the AGM.

November concert "The Spirit Sings" - works by Finzi, Mendlessohn and Violet Archer (Canadian Composer, from Edmonton). The featured work will be Mendelssohn's famous English anthem for treble soloist, choir and organ "Hear my Prayer". We are being joined by the Edmonton Youth Choir, which I hope to draw from their young soprano section for a soloist. Otherwise I will be inviting a young up and coming student to join us for this. The rest of the program will deal will "spirited" music, perhaps even a spiritual. As mentioned above, I should look into Debussy's "Trois Chansons" as well. Violet Archer, known in Edmonton mainly for her piano music, has written some interesting, and challenging, music for choir. Her setting of Psalm 98 is one of her more tonal works, and I believe most accessible for audiences. I haven't sung it since the late '80's, so I'm looking forward to revisiting it.

Our CD project in March will include a Canadian work that we found much success with two years ago, Eleanor Daley's "Requiem". A collection of texts from the Anglican BCP, as well as secular poetry on remembrance - and one other Canadian work, which I'll keep a secret for now. A good Canadian CD I think - attractive from a grant perspective!

The May concert will headline German Romantic composers Rheinberger and Brahms with the former's Cantus Missae (Mass in E-Flat major for double choir) and the later's Zigeunerlieder op. 103. A sort of "Sacred and Profane" idea, hmmm... maybe the Benjamin Britten work of that name would make a nice third piece on that program - if it weren't so ridiculously difficult - another year maybe.

Good luck with all your future programs!

Just as a note - we are off to California in about a week, and then I'm off on a golf trip until the mid to end of July. As a result this blog is likely to go into an extended hiatus for the next month, my family is welcome to check our family blog for updates on our trip, and photos!

Wishing you all a restful summer!

Singing Harmonics and their Effect on the Domestic Cat

My wife and I are singing in a project choir for a colleague's DMus conducting recital. One of the pieces he is doing is a short piece called "I Am the Great Sun" by Jussi Chydenius of Rajaton.

The start of the piece calls for the tenors and altos to sing with overtones at the start, otherwise knows as harmonic singing. I've done a bit of this with some success, but thought I should practice a bit at home. Which made me discover something interesting.

Cats HATE overtone singing! Both our cats ran out of the room in a panic. It was close to feeding time too - and both of them refused to come back into the room to eat - which with these two felines, is a first.

I'm going to try this on them next time they start to scratch the furniture.

Wedding Stories

One of the blogs that I read regularly, and enjoy immensely, is Jason Health's Blog, Arts Addict, found on the Adapistration collection of Blogs (he also publishes the Doublebass Blog, which has a certain amount of cross-over on his Arts Addict blog, but is worth checking in on). He has a knack at telling great gig stories, and his recent account of a wedding where a colleague was to play "Here Comes the Bride" on the double bass is a great example of this.

It got me thinking about a post that I've been meaning to put up here in a while, and I figure that it is time!

I've been playing or singing at weddings for over twenty five years now. At the hight of my wedding playing career, I would sometimes play up to three weddings a day, every Saturday from June to September. I have no idea how many weddings I've actually played in my life, but I figure it's in the neighbourhood of 200 to 250. 99.9% of the time, they go off without a hitch (except for the fact that they actually GET hitched). There are the odd few where a bride, or even groom, cannot get through the vows through the tears, or a flower girl or ring bearer doesn't do what they are supposed to do. There are the fainting groomsmen, and at least one case of "HELP ME" on the bottom of the shoes. This one wedding though - will be one I will never forget.

It was about fifteen years ago, at a small catholic parish in Ottawa. The box of whistles, which they called an "organ", was located in the back gallery of the church, about 2 stories higher that the rest of the church, and well back from the small group of guests. I arrived in good time to find the Father doing a few pre-service duties, including moving chairs, setting up the unity candle, and the elements for Mass. Two things I noticed about the priest. He was so old, I assumed the church was built around him, and his glasses where so thick, that they had to be made from the bottom of 750ml 7-up bottles.

About 20 minutes before the wedding, the first few guests began to arrive, and I opened up my trusty wedding book and started into my prelude music. The only connection I had with the front of the church was a 5x7 inch mirror on the console, giving me a view of about the front third of the aisle and the whole altar. All I really need as the usual cue to start a wedding processional is about 2 minutes after the bride's mum's pew has been seated, and the groomsmen are in a nice straight line with the priest looking down the aisle.

About 15 minutes into my prelude, I happened to glance in the mirror to see the priest lighting the altar candles. The one thing that caught my eye was that the tool he was using to light the altar candles (a typical combination snuffer and lighter, with an extendable wick) had the wick extended to about a half a foot, causing a very large flame to protrude from the top of the device. I kept glancing back and forth from the music, to the mirror. He began to light the candles with the agility of a hippopotamus. slamming the flame into the top of each candle. I looked away for a moment, and then heard an incredible GASP and CLUNK from the front of the church, and looked back in the mirror again to see the entire right side of the altar in flames! A candle had fallen over, and set most of the altar frontal on fire. I stopped playing, and planed my exit. A few of the ushers ran to the front of the church and very unceremoniously stomped on the fire until it was extinguished.



After the commotion had ceased, I resumed the prelude music. The music on the next page? a Suite from Handel's Water Music.

How appropriate.

Monday Laugh

Something here to brighten up the start of the week courtesy of The Onion.