Jonathan Velasco

choral conductor & teacher

When Prof. Andrea Veneracion passed away on July 9, 2013 at the age of 85, it was, as former dean of the University of the Philippines College of Music Ramon Acoymo put it, “the passing of an age”. She was the last among a group of choral personalities who studied in the United States in the 1950s and ’60s. They returned to the Philippines with their knowledge and skills in choral conducting and singing, thus paving the way for the scintillating Philippine choral movement the world knows today.

Veneracion and the Madz: A Life-Changing Experience

A towering presence, Prof. Veneracion elevated the Philippines’ choral reputation throughout decades of excellence with the choir she founded in 1963: the University of the Philippines Madrigal Singers. The choir celebrates its fiftieth anniversary this year. With her perfect balance of choral technique, intuition, and artistic sense, she led the choir to top prizes in the most prestigious European choral competitions. The MADZ, as they are fondly called, have been welcomed in the major concert halls of Europe, North America, and Asia. The world was intrigued: what would a madrigal choir from Southeast Asia sound like? And why are they seated in a semicircle? With her strong musical personality, she led the MADZ as it conquered the hearts and ears of the choral world, from its first performances in the United States in 1969 to annual concert tours around the world for the following three decades.

I was fortunate to be part of this magical semicircle of musicians in the 1980s. I entered as a trainee in 1981, and became its assistant choirmaster a year later. I sang with them until the famous six-month tour of Europe and the United States in 1989, when they won ten first prizes in five competitions, the most reaped by any batch of singers from the ensemble ever. I left the group in mid-tour to start my studies at the Berliner Kirchenmusikschule under Martin Behrmann.

What was it like to be invited to sit in that semicircle? It felt like one had ‘arrived’. At that time, singers never auditioned for the Madrigal Singers. They were invited. One could always come in as a trainee. To get to sit inside the semicircle, a chair or position must first be vacated by a singer no longer able to sing with the group for whatever reason. Prof. Veneracion then invited one of the trainees in. The trainee’s first position in the semicircle would be the chair nearest to Prof. Veneracion. This chair was infamously called the ‘hot seat’. She sat and conducted from the edge of the semicircle and cued the singers with just slight movements of her head and body.

It is fascinating to sing with the group. The singers are seated in STAB formation, male and female singers alternating. From soprano 1, the nearest other soprano is four seats away, and the next soprano 1 is eight seats in either direction.  With this formation, and an almost shoulder-to-shoulder nearness, the singers become aware of everything happening around them, including entrances, breathing, intonation etc.

The choir was led by the musical instincts of Prof. Veneracion, who guided them in performances with her presence, letting the voices communicate directly with the audience without passing through her. With the MADZ as her instrument, Andrea Veneracion was able to communicate her musical intentions with the rest of the world.

Ambassador of Goodwill

Andrea Veneracion’s love affair with the international choral world began with the Madrigal Singers’ 1969 tour of the United States (their first international tour). It was capped by a performance at the Lincoln Center International Choral Festival, to tremendous acclaim. Choirmaster Veneracion took several curtain calls before the audience subsided.

She followed this with international tours and performances spanning three decades. During those trips, she expanded her contacts with the choral world by initiating exchanges and developing ties which eventually led to her being one of the few Asians at the helm of the International Federation for Choral Music. To this day, the choral world equates the Philippines with the name of Andrea Veneracion.

Prof. Veneracion and the Madrigal Singers were excellent ambassadors of goodwill for the Philippines. They were the country’s foremost choral emissaries to the international diplomatic community. Erstwhile Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos brought the Madrigal Singers with him on several state visits, notably during the opening of diplomatic ties with the former USSR in 1976, to showcase the richness of the singing tradition in the country. The MADZ also sang for the state visit of then President Corazon Aquino to Germany in 1989. Every time the country had state visitors, the MADZ were asked to sing for the guests, as worthy representatives of the country’s musical culture.

The Philippine Choral Movement

Perhaps the greatest legacy of Prof. Veneracion is her work for the propagation of Philippine choral music. She encouraged composers and arrangers to write music for the Madrigal Singers. The result was a steady stream of outstanding compositions and arrangements arranged for a cappella chorus. They were hewn for every genre from materials and music concepts from Philippine folk songs, Filipino tribal or traditional music, contemporary song hits, church liturgy, and a wide array of eclectic sources.

She also kick-started the formation of a Singing Philippines through a series of festivals and workshops led by her singers and alumni. As the artists-in-residence of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, the Philippine Madrigal Singers were brought to the countryside to train conductors and choirs. Andrea taught her singers to spread this vision more quickly to eager-to-learn musicians throughout the archipelago. Because of her enormous contribution to the growth of Philippine choral music, she was named National Artist for Music in 1999, the highest cultural award bestowed by the Philippine government to an individual.

The proof of the overwhelming success of her work lies in the unprecedented growth of the Philippine choral movement today. The Philippine Choral Directors Association, whose board is mostly composed of MADZ alumni, is a testament to her energetic vision and legacy. A huge number of former members of the Madrigal Singers are now distinguished choral conductors, composers, arrangers, educators, and musicians.

The country recognized her selfless contributions to the world of choral music, and accorded her a magnificent service at the Main Theater of the Cultural Center of the Philippines. Presented with full military honors at her funeral, she was given her final resting place at the ‘Libingan ng mga Bayani’ (Cemetery of Heroes). The theater was filled beyond capacity with choral singers both on and off stage, in the seats and in the aisles, all singing to the woman who unified them and gave them a voice.

Andrea Veneracion was the voice of her age, and beyond.

Jonathan Velasco was the assistant choirmaster of the U.P. Madrigal Singers from 1982-1989. He is the president of the Philippine Choral Directors Association, and advisor to the board of IFCM. He is a lecturer at the University of the Philippines College of Music, and the conductor of the Ateneo Chamber Singers. Email: choirmaster@gmail.com

Edited by Holden J. Ferry, USA

The 2013 Hong Kong International Youth and Children’s Choir Festival

A report by the 2013 Hong Kong International Youth and Children’s Choir Festival Organising Committee

The Hong Kong Treble Choirs’ Association (HKTCA) proudly presented the 2013 Hong Kong International Youth and Children’s Choir Festival (HKIYCCF), in association with the International Federation for Choral Music (IFCM) and the Chinese Society for Music Education (CSME), on 14-19 July. The HKIYCCF was initiated by Professor Leon Shiu-wai Tong, first Vice-President of the IFCM, Honorary President of the China High School Choral Committee and President of the HKTCA. The aim of the HKIYCCF is to promote choral exchange activities and to encourage singers and conductors to interact with one another, meeting world-renowned choirs in Hong Kong. However, the festival itself could not be run successfully without the efforts of over 200 volunteers and staff, together with 3,000 participants from 70 choirs from more than 20 countries.

The choirs from China, Chinese Taipei, Finland, Hungary, Indonesia, Macau, Malaysia, Russia and the USA gathered in Hong Kong to join this international choral fiesta. The theme of the festival this year was ‘Voices of Harmony, Colour the Rainbow’. The rainbow symbolises hope; the idea of colouring the rainbow represents our growing hope and keeping our dream shining on the stage. The different colours of the rainbow promote the spirit of mutual tolerance and respect among people regardless of nationality and race. Music, as a common language across the world, brings happiness and harmony to everyone while reflecting the uniqueness of the individual.

In order to promote choral music by broadening the repertoire and focusing on creativity, a theme song competition was initiated by the festival’s Organising Committee this year. Works by composers overseas and from the local area were received. The piece by composer Chris O’Hara (United Kingdom), We Dare to Dream, was selected as the festival’s theme song.

The 2013 HKIYCCF offered a rich programme: in addition to the ten competition categories and twelve concerts, there was a conducting Master-class and nine workshops. Six resident festival choirs, including the Cantemus Children’s Choir from Hungary; Club For Five from Finland; the Hong Kong Treble Choir from Hong Kong, China; the Just Vocal Band from Chinese Taipei; and the Shi-kai LI Lahu Family of Pu’er from the Yunnan Province, China, delivered wonderful performances in the Emperor’s Voices and the world-class Choirs Series concerts, leading the audience on an international choral journey. All twelve concerts were held in four concert venues with excellent acoustics. 

The Phoenix TV HKIYCCF Opening Concert inaugurated the six-day festival. Guests of Honour officiating at the Opening Ceremony included Mrs Regina Leung, wife of the HKSAR Chief Executive; Dr Michael J. Anderson, President of IFCM; Mdm. Barbara Fei, SBS, Permanent Honorary President of HKTCA; Mr Bin Wu, President of CSME; Mr Fung-kwok Ma, SBS, JP; Mr Bobby Wan, Deputy Head of the Phoenix TV Chinese Channel and Director of Programme Co-ordination; and Professor Leon Siu-wai Tong, Artistic Director and Chairman of the HKIYCCF Organising Committee. Representing choirs from different countries presented repertoires in the unique style of their homeland. The audience was impressed by their stunning voices and traditional folkdance. Two famous local pop singers, Miss Ivana Wong and Mr Edmond Leung, together with the Hong Kong Treble Choir, presented the songs Brother Song and We Are the World respectively.

Two salute concerts were held, dedicated to the outstanding Hong Kong choirs for their prominent performances in international competitions and their contributions to the development of choral music in Hong Kong. The C.C.C. Kei Wan Primary School Choir, Yuen Long Children’s Choir, Marymount Secondary School Choir and Yuen Long District Arts Committee Treble Choir were invited.

The 2013 HKIYCCF was unique in providing abundant opportunities for exchange among the participating choirs. There were three Friendly Concerts performed by participating teams of primary and secondary schools, universities and overseas choirs. The performers were also the audience, enabling them to learn from one another’s performances. At the end of each Friendly Concert, adjudicators from the professional jury panel gave comments to all participating choirs on how to improve. Furthermore, the leading adjudicators in all the categories shared their comments and suggestions with all participating choirs in the “Meet the Jury” session. As the name implies, choir conductors and members were able to meet the 26 distinguished choral experts and discuss questions or concerns about different aspects of choral music.

Professor Ji-yan Wang’s ‘Hear the Angels Sing’ photo exhibition was held during the festival to inspire more individuals by presenting the highlights of the choral field throughout the last ten years. A musical movie ‘37’ was shown to deliver the message of love and virtue through the breath-taking prairie scenery, the beauty of nature and the indelible children’s voices.

Mr Enrique Azurza, an adjudicator from Spain, believes that the festival is important as it provides the chance to exchange experiences of scores and music among choirs from all over the world, and it is a valuable opportunity for international choral experts to explore the choral field in Asia, China and Hong Kong. He was impressed by the highly ranked performances of choirs from Hong Kong and China. Mr Soma Szabó, an adjudicator from Hungary, believes that the festival is successful in bringing together young people from around the world and facilitating international exchange. Through the power of music, friendships and relationships were built.

Resident Festival Choirs

Club For Five (Finland) challenged conventional wisdom about the capabilities of the human voice. Their unique arrangements and original compositions combined jazz, pop and rock in such a chic and unique way that they created a musical genre all their own.

The Young People’s Chorus of New York City (USA) is a multicultural youth chorus, internationally renowned not only for its superb virtuosity and brilliant showmanship but as a model for an inclusive society that is being replicated globally. They received the highest honour for an American youth programme, the “National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award”, presented by First Lady Michelle Obama at the White House in 2011.

Members of the Shi-kai LI Lahu Family of Pu’er (China) are all from the Lahu Tribe, in the Lancang Lahu Autonomous Country in Yunnan. They are passionate and talented musicians; they played a variety of folk instruments and performed the Lusheung dance –  a listed intangible cultural heritage in China. The song Happy Lahu, composed by the eldest daughter of the LI family, has become one of the most popular songs in China.

The Cantemus Children’s Choir (Hungary) is the international prize winning senior pupils’ choir of the Kodály Zoltán Primary School in Hungary. Since it was set up, the choir has achieved the highest standard in choral performance and has travelled extensively to give concerts, compete and take part in international festivals throughout Europe and the rest of the world.

In 2009, the Hong Kong Treble Choir (Hong Kong, China) received the Outstanding Treble Choir of China Award in the fourth China Treble Choir Festival. In 2010, the choir was offered the Gold Diploma and the Best Conductor Award in the eighth Cantemus International Choir Festival in Hungary. In 2012, the choir participated in the eleventh China International Chorus Festival held in Beijing, and was awarded the Gold Diploma in the Children’s Choir category. In the same year, the choir received the Champion Award in the Children’s category at the tenth International Festival of Choral Art, The Singing World.

Conducting Master-class

The conducting master-class of the 2013 HKIYCCF was hosted by Hungarian Maestro Dénes Szabó from the Cantemus Children’s Choir. Active participants had the chance to conduct the Cantemus Children’s Choir with the guidance of Mr Szabó.

Workshops

First-class musical experts from around the world gathered in Hong Kong to present choral singing workshops with various different themes.

Awards and Prizes

The champions of each category competed for various grand prizes on the Prize Giving & Finalists’ Night. The Resonanz Children Choir from Indonesia received warm applause for their spectacular singing skills and stage performance, and were awarded Choir of the World, Outstanding Conductor Award and Best Stage Effects in the 2013 HKIYCCF.

Lifetime Achievement Award

In appreciation of the outstanding artistic contribution to the development of local and international choral music, the 2013 HKIYCCF presented the Lifetime Achievement Award for Choral Music to Ms Barbara Fei, SBS (Hong Kong, China) and Mr Dénes Szabó (Hungary) from the Cantemus Children’s Choir.

Ms Fei is an outstanding figure in the vocal and choral field. She is dedicated to promoting choral music and developing interest in music among the youth of Hong Kong. She was awarded the “Bronze Bauhinia Star” and “Silver Bauhinia Star” by HKSAR in 2001 and 2012 respectively. Mr Szabó founded the Cantemus Children’s Choir in 1975 and it has grown into a choral institute, beginning to operate as an independent artistic organisation under his direction. He is a leading light in Hungarian choral music and presents Zoltán Kodály and Béla Bartók’s music in the most genuine way. He is keen on holding masterclasses in choral conducting, choral voice production and the implementation of the Kodály method.

Official Website for the 2013 HKIYCCF: http://hktreblechoir.com/hkiyccf/

Edited by Hayley Smith, UK

Fifth IFCM Multicultural & Ethnic Choral Conference, Girona, 2013

Theodora Pavlovitch

IFCM Vice President, choral conductor & teacher

Mare Nostrum (our sea) – this is what the Mediterranean Sea has been called for centuries. This Roman term has always expressed people’s fondness for the beautiful, colourful, unusual area full of contrasts. “For three quarters of the globe, the Mediterranean Sea is similarly the uniting element and the centre of World History.” (Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, The Philosophy of History, p. 87, Dover Publications Inc., 1956.)  The unique position surrounding three continents: Europe, Africa and Asia (Middle East), the mild climate and luxuriant land around it, have made the Mediterranean Sea a cradle of different civilizations, a meeting point of rich cultures and an important route for trade and cultural exchange between the peoples of the region. The cultural and musical traditions of this geographical area are crucial to understanding the origins and development of many cultural phenomena and it was no wonder that this very specific region was chosen as the venue for the fifth IFCM Multicultural & Ethnic Conference. Once its original musical and scientific concept was established, the event received excellent financial support from the European Union Culture Programme and also from the Department of Culture of the Government of Catalonia (Generalitat de Catalunya) thanks to the efforts of the European Choral Association – Europa Cantat (a founding member of IFCM), from Moviment Coral Català (the ‘umbrella’ choral organization of Catalonia, a host of the Conference) and the Mediterranean Office for Choral Singing.

The Conference programme was planned to embrace as many musical cultures as possible. With 22 countries from three continents, three major religious groups (Christians, Muslims and Jews) and their branches, and with the huge economic and political differences and immense cultural diversity in the region, it was quite a challenge to establish the structure of this unique event. The result however was quite amazing: in the four days of the event, the participants and official guests were able to attend nine concerts, seven plenary sessions, three sessions under the title ‘Discovering Mediterranean repertoire,’ and three Documentary screening sessions (prepared by Dolf Rabus, Director of Musica Sacra International Festival and member of the MVC Artistic Committee).

The concert programme of the event presented the diversity of singing practices and traditions in this unusual region. At the beginning there was a magic sound ‘painting’, The Voice of the Bells, by the composer Llorenc Barber – splendid and miraculous music performed by all the church bells in Girona. It brought a sparkling sense of festivity and joy to the participants in the event, citizens and tourists alike. Under the title ‘Balcony to the Sea’, the first evening concert started with wonderful performances from two choirs from Girona: Cor de Cambra de la Deputacio de Girona (conductor Pablo Larazz) and Claudefaula Youth Choir (conductor Quim Bonal) – a welcome gift from the host city followed by Fayha Choir (conductor Barkev Taslakian) from Lebanon – a choir that performed throughout the Conference. Uniting Muslim and Christian singers, this choir is significant not only for its specific repertoire and high quality of singing, but also for its spiritual and human concept. Coming from a country where choirs did not exist until just a few years ago, Fayha is not just a choir: it is a message to the nations, to different ethnic and religious groups – a message for peace and mutual understanding. The conductor Barkev Taslakian has managed to do something that generations of diplomats and politicians still can not achieve.

A pinnacle of the concert programme and a big surprise was Cor Jove Nacional de Catalunya – the brand new National Youth Choir of Catalonia established just few weeks ago. Its ‘parents’ Moviment Coral Català and De Corals Joves de Catalunya (the Catalan Youth Choral Federation) announced: “The Cor Jove Nacional de Catalunya has a dual aim: to offer young choir singers and singing students the chance to work on a pedagogic project in a high level choral music environment and with the best conductors in Europe. The second objective is to give our country a new and useful tool that will help to improve the situation and the prestige of choirs and choral singing amongst young people and adults, and also to all the choirs of Catalonia”. Two world-class conductors have been selected to work with the choir: Vytautas Miskinis (Lithuania) and Xavier Puig (Catalonia, Spain). They had prepared an exciting and high-quality music programme for the choir’s first concert consisting of pieces by Vytautas Miskinis himself for the first part of the concert and a selection of traditional Catalan pieces influenced by Arabian music and arranged by different composers for the second part.

Several more choirs and groups presented their national traditions within the Mediterranean Voices Conference: the amazing Moroccan group, Els mediadors de Deu (conductor Abdelaziz Benabdeljalil), the Israelite Samaritan Choir (conductor Benyamin Tsedaka) from Israel, La Nova Euterpe Vocal Ensemble (conductor Jaume Ayats) from Catalonia and Cant d’Estil group (Valencia) from Spain, Gruppo Spontaneo Trallalero from Liguria (Italy), and Novi Sad Chamber Choir from Serbia (conductor Bogdan Djakovich).                                

A selection of singers provided the opportunity to approach the unique vocal traditions of Spain: Antonio Campos and Juan Antonio Suarez as ‘Cano’ – a duo from Andalusia, Mateu Matas ‘Xuri’ from Mallorca, Josep Antoni Aparicio ‘Apa’ and Josemi Sanchez from Valencia. An emotional concert was followed by a spontaneous singing contest at the end of this concert marathon.

The musicological part of the Mediterranean Voices Conference consisted of seven Plenary Sessions hosted by the Department of Education and Psychology with the University of Girona. The themes ‘Monodic Traditions in Sacred Chant’ presented by Youssef Tannous (Lebanon), Juan Carlos Asensio (Spain) and Fethi Zhgonda (Tunisia) and ‘Multipart Singing in Sacred and Secular Tradition’ by Ignazio Macchiarella (Italy) were followed by  ‘Singing in the Islands’ (Ignazio Macchiarella, Jaume Escandell, Francesc Vicens and Jordi Alsina), ‘Singing for Saying, Improvised Chant’ (Josemi Sanchez and Jaume Ayats), ‘Ressons de l’al-Andalus’ (Xavier Puig and Fethi Zghonda), ‘Singing for Praying’ ( Abdelaziz Benabdejalil and Bogdan Djakovic) and Iberian voices (Jaume Ayats). All the subjects were well prepared and confirmed a high academic level.

‘Discovering Mediterranean Repertoire’ sessions led the participants through different styles of music  – from pieces by the Catalan masters Carles Gumi  and Lluis Guzman (presented by Xavier Boulies and Montserrat Cadevall – President of Federacio Catalana d’Entitats Corals) to the new arrangements of old unknown Catalan folk songs (president Xell Montserrat) by  composers from different Mediterranean countries: Carlo Pavese (Italy), Edward Torikian (Lebanon) and Thomas Louziotis (Greece) – an original idea of Secretariat de Corals Infantils de Catalunya. In the final session the composers also presented some of their newest pieces and the Fayha Choir performed live music by Edward Torikian and Barkev Taslakian – conductor of the choir.

The conference acted as a window on a variety of traditions and modern trends, as well as on the specific influences and reflections in the vocal cultures of the countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. Muchas gracias, Catalunya, Moviment Coral Català, President Marti Ferrer i Bosch and your team, for the warm hospitality, excellent management and fantastic spirit of the event. We hope this will not be the last Voices Conference in this spectacular area. So, see you soon, people of Mare Nostrum…

Theodora Pavlovitch is a Professor in Choral Conducting at the Bulgarian National Academy of Music and at Sofia University. She conducts the Vassil Arnaoudov Sofia Chamber Choir (winner of 22 first and special awards at international competitions) and is a permanent conductor of Classic FM Radio Choir. She was awarded a ‘Golden Lyre’, the highest national prize for music in Bulgaria and she conducted the winter session 2007/2008 of the World Youth Choir. She is a regular member of the jury panels at a number of international choral competitions and a lecturer at various music events in Europe, the USA, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and Israel. In 2005, she led a master class in conducting at the seventh World Symposium on Choral Music in Kyoto, Japan. She has been Vice President of the International Federation for Choral Music since 2008 and was elected as a Chair of the WYC Artistic Committee in 2011. Email: theodora@techno-link.com

Edited by Angelica Falcinelli, USA

Philip L. Copeland, conductor and teacher

There is an undeniable richness in the choral music of Latvia.  A sense of mystery pervades the vertical chords and lyrical lines; listeners find themselves drawn to the sounds and spirits of the composers that emerge out of that part of the world.

In many nations, a formal musical education fails to study, or even mention, the rich music traditions of Latvia and the other Baltic countries.  Few of today’s mature conductors heard much about Latvian choral music in their formative years.  All of that began to change in the early 1990s, when the dawn of the internet age united with Latvia’s independence in 1991.  The unique Latvian culture began to emerge into the mainstream of the world’s artistic consciousness.

The musicians of Latvia have done an excellent job in gathering their resources and making them available to the rest of the world.  Publisher Musica Baltica does a tremendous job in delivering scores and recordings.  Another outstanding business, The Latvian Publishing company, teamed up with Ave Sol, a professional Latvian choir, to produce the distinguished Anthology of Latvian Choral Music, a resource that belongs on every conductor’s shelf.  Professional Baltic choirs share much of this unique music with superb interpretations that are delivered on remarkable recordings.

One of the outstanding cultural events in Latvia is the Latvian Song and Dance Festival.  It is a renowned event, featuring 40,000 singers performing folksongs and classical works.  The massive gathering takes place in the capital city of Riga every five years, a city that will become the European Capital of Culture and also host the World Choir Games in 2014.

This article is a precursor to the 2014 international focus on Latvia.  It brings attention to three prominent composers:  Pēteris Vasks, Uģis Prauliņš, and Ēriks Ešenvalds.  Each of the composers has a full catalog of choral music that varies in difficulty.  This article focuses on some of their most accessible unaccompanied music.

Pēteris Vasks (b. 16 April 1946)

 Most people today no longer possess beliefs, love and ideals. The spiritual dimension has been lost. My intention is to provide food for the soul and this is what I preach in my works. 

Peteris Vasks

Pēteris Vasks, the son of a Baptist pastor, is one of the most important living Latvian composers and his sustained career has had a huge impact on other Baltic composers.  His works encompass nearly every genre, including orchestra, keyboard, and chamber music.  His music makes frequent appearances in performances by elite choral ensembles around the world and his work is often the subject of scholarly inquiry.

Māte Saule was an early work of Vasks and one that the composer describes as “close to his heart.”  It is also a work that contains some of his very early musical strategies that he develops over his compositional career.

Four musical ideas appear in Māte Saule, which makes it a persuasive piece to program: 

1. Use of undulating aleatoric motive as accompaniment and escalation/dissipation of dramatic tension
2. Repetition of small motives to increase intensity
3. Evocation of the Latvian drone through a sustained tone
4. Hymn-like feature to close the work

The work sets a text by Jānis Peters that evokes thoughts about the mystery of morning and the glory of the sunrise.  Marked misteriosamente, it opens with an undulating two-note figure rendered in an aleatoric fashion.  When performed by several singers, the resulting sound has an enigmatic characteristic; it brims with potential.

In Figure 1, the rippling motive sets up a feeling of restlessness and sets up the first entrance of the text.

(Click on the image to download the full score)

Vasks’ undulating motives appear throughout the work.  At times, the motive serves as an accompaniment to other musical ideas, like in the opening measures.  At other times, the aleatoric elements are paired with precise rhythmic entrances, a technique that gives Vasks’ music a unique flavor.  The motives occasionally appear to be a point of dramatic destination, shown in Figure 2.

(Click on the image to download the full score)

These two musical examples (Fig. 1 and 2) also demonstrate Vasks’ use of motivic repetition, a device that adds cohesiveness to the work and builds interest into the music.  The stacking of musical motives in stretto fashion is a common compositional technique; Vasks’ providing an aleatoric destination for these motives is uncommon.  The result is a remarkable sonic high point to the piece, one that falls off into a pedal point drone in m. 36 (Figure 3).

The Latvian drone is an important and distinguishing feature of Latvian choral music.  Vasks’ use of the drone is always dramatic; in this composition it follows a moment of vocal chaos and it sets up an ethereal duet and an effective contrast from the opening section. (Figure 3)

(Click on the image to download the full score)

This work begins to close with a homophonic hymn-like few measures of unresolved dissonances and unique voicing of parts.  (Figure 4)  At the end of the work, Vasks paints a glorious picture of a musical sunrise of fifteen successive notes that ends with the loudest sound possible (ffff). 

(Click on the image to download the full score)

One can explore similar musical techniques in Vasks’ Madrigals (1976), Zemgale (1989), and Three Poems by Dzesław (1994).

Vasks MATE SAULE

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Used by permission of European American Music Distributors Company, sole U.S. and Canadian agent for Universal Edition A.G., Wien

Uģis Prauliņš (b. 17 June, 1957)

“Music and love explain everything. Those must be searched for and shined at all times, since no truth is permanent. Everything is allowed, and nothing can be made an absolute – since nothing is certain, except for love.

That, what thrills, also stays. I directly strive for this kind of music.”

Uģis Prauliņš

Uģis Prauliņš brings a diverse background of skills and former positions to his capacity as a composer.  His training includes formal studies at the Emīls Dārzins Music School and composition study with Jānis Ivanovs in the early 1980s, but he also brings skills he gained from his work as a professional sound engineer at Latvian Radio and as a professional musician in the 1970’s and 80’s as a keyboardist with progressive rock and folk bands.

Prauliņš work as a composer of choral music recently made a splash on the world of classical music when The Nightingale, performed by Stephen Layton and the Danish National Vocal Ensemble, was nominated for a 2013 Grammy award for ‘Best Choral Performance’.  Layton had worked with Prauliņš music before in a Hyperion recording of Missa Rigensis, a compelling work that was originally composed for the Riga Dom Boys’ Choir; the work was premiered in Easter of 2002 at the Riga medieval cathedral.

In Missa Rigensis, Prauliņš sought to compose a work that evoked Masses from the Renaissance in the style of composers that guided him in his school years, including Marenzio, Praetorius, and Orlando di Lasso, to name a few.  The work is also meant to be a ‘rocky choral monument’ to his native city, Riga. 

With Prauliņš, what seems at first to be a traditional beginning ends with innovation.  His fusion of the ancient and modern makes Missa Rigensis a captivating  work that engages the audience from the very first phrase, shown in Figure 5.  At first glance, the music looks like a conventional setting of the Kyrie text.  Closer inspection reveals interesting performance instructions (m. 3), unanticipated dissonances (m. 4), and a phrase that ends on a perfect fourth (m. 60), evoking a mysterious feeling, aided by staggered cut-offs of the upper and lower voices in the final two measures.

(Click on the image to download the full score)

Prauliņš has the ability to infuse the traditional Kyrie text with a spirit of plaintive longing by borrowing modern harmonies and ancient resolutions.  The third statement of the Kyrie, shown in Figure 6 demonstrates this with close dissonant harmonies in each of the measures, followed once again by staggered cut-offs and perfect fourth.

(Click on the image to download the full score)

The entire Missa Rigensis is a fascinating composition; other movements hold an equivalent amount of mystery, beauty, and creativity.  Many of the movements can be extracted and performed as single works, but the work is brilliantly conceived and stands as a unified whole.  The Missa Rigensis is available from Novello; there is an excellent recording of the work by Stephen Layton and the Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge on ‘Baltic Exchange’.  This Hyperion produced recording also features Prauliņš’ Laudibus in Sanctis, another outstanding work for choir.

MISSA RIGENSIS (m. 1-6 & m. 13-18) – Music by Uģis Prauliņš

© Copyright 2002 Novello & Company Limited.

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Ēriks Ešenvalds (b. 26 January, 1977)

“For me, harmony is most important . . . the melodic line is secondary.  Nevertheless, I don’t want to write simple music . . . It is important for me to create sounds that I truly feel.  I conclude that I am constantly changing, searching for new paths, but absolutely not, once having found them, mass producing them.”

Ēriks Ešenvalds

Ēriks Ešenvalds is one of the best known Latvian composers today, especially in choral music.  A father of three children, Ešenvalds has most recently served in the position of Fellow Commoner in Creative Arts at Trinity College at the University of Cambridge, UK.  His experience as a singer with the professional State Choir Latvia gives him an intimate look at the inner workings of great choral music as well as a passion for recreating it.

As a choral composer, Ešenvalds breaks down his choral compositions into several distinct categories:

1. Works most suitable for professional choirs, such as Sun Dogs, Legend of the Walled-in Woman, and Seneca’s Zodiac.
2. Works suitable to the best University choirs, including Long Road, A Drop in the Ocean, and Northern Lights
3. Arrangements, like Amazing Grace, My Picture Frame, and This is My Father’s World
4. Songs for children’s choirs, like The Beginning Emptiness and Spring, the Sweet Spring.

Ešenvalds’ O Salutaris Hostia belongs in the category of works suitable for the best University choirs.  It is a relatively short and accessible piece that possesses a simple beauty, much like Kodaly’s miniature Esti dal.

O Salutaris achieves this simplicity chiefly through the alternating entrances of soprano soloists in alternating lines with occasional duets in paired thirds.  The rest of the choir serves an accompanying position to the soloists, providing a homophonic accompaniment with only the women’s voices at the very beginning. (Figure 7)

(Click on the image to download the full score)

The chorus part is nearly all half notes, and it provides lush harmonies that support the soaring lines of the two sopranos.  At the loudest moments, the composer adds additional singers to the solo lines in an effort to strengthen the melody, shown in Figure 8.

(Click on the image to download the full score)

Ešenvalds’ publisher, Musica Baltica, is supporting the popularity of the composer with the publishing of two collections of his music, Choral Anthology 1 and 2.  Together, they bundle eleven works popular works of the composer, including O Salutaris Hostia, A Drop in the Ocean, Amazing Grace, and Long Road.

O Salutaris (m. 1-4 & m. 21-25) – Music by Ēriks Ešenvalds

© copyright 2009 Musica Baltica Ltd

All rights reserved. International copyright secured

Philip Copeland is Director of Choral Activities and Associate Professor of Music at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama.  His choirs are frequent performers and award winners in international competitions and conferences of the American Choral Directors Association as well as the National Collegiate Choral Organization.   At Samford, he teaches classes in conducting, diction, and music education. Dr. Copeland holds degrees in music education and conducting from the University of Mississippi, Mississippi College, and Southern Seminary in Louisville, KY.  In Birmingham, he directs music at South Highland Presbyterian Church and prepares the Alabama Symphony Chorus in performances with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra.  He is father to triplet nine-year old daughters: Catherine, Caroline, and Claire. Email: philip.copeland@gmail.com

Review by Cristian Grases, composer and conductor

© Parnass Ediciones (2012), Spain

­

Carmen Moreno was born in Cumaná, Venezuela. She holds a degree in Education and Bioanalysis from the Central University of Venezuela and is Professor of Parasitology in the School of Bioanalysis, Faculty of Medicine at the same university. In addition, Carmen Moreno is a lyric soprano and studied in Venezuela (Cumaná and Caracas) and in Spain (Badalona and Barcelona). She is currently active in her work in vocal education and choral directing, and has actively participated as soloist and director in numerous opera productions. Additionally, she serves as juror in international choral festivals and competitions.

 Moreno gives us specific information regarding vocal technique, its mechanisms, and its involvement in the process of phonation. This monograph is organized into nineteen chapters that refer to a range of topics, with the goal of understanding the proper care and handling of the vocal instrument, while creating a didactic and supporting reference, which is geared, in the words of the author, “towards teachers of singing, students, choral directors and/or professionals with a spirit of inquiry.” This book was published by Parnass Ediciones in Barcelona in April of 2012 and consists of 107 pages accompanied by a DVD with pictures, explanations and practical exercises.

 In the preface, entitled ‘Motivation’, Moreno states, among other things, that “the best way to learn any profession in life is to maintain common sense and logic.” This simple reflection is based largely on her studies in the area of science and her close relationship with the scientific method, and is a common thread in her narrative and in her description of the vocal mechanism and the art of singing. Additionally, she asserts that her publication has one clear objective: “to offer educational information that is simple, practical, plain and applicable to vocal technique.” In support of her detailed descriptions, Moreno offers a wealth of high quality illustrations to assist in the understanding of both the anatomy of the instrument and its operation.

 The first chapter provides a detailed description of the breathing process, with all its aspects (ventral, abdominal and clavicular respiration), followed by a second chapter describing, with medical precision, the anatomy of the facial musculature. In the preamble to the book’s content, Moreno explains three basic steps to achieving and maintaining total vocal resonance in the nasal bone (vomer). With this specific objective, Moreno presents a third chapter, which describes, step-by-step, the proper movement of the jaw and lips needed to keep the sound in the right place, and complements it with a fourth chapter devoted to the topic of vocal resonance and the ability of the singer to modify this resonance through the use of the jaw and lips. Chapter five summarizes the ideas of the previous four chapters.

 In chapters six, seven and eight, Moreno points out the importance of the vocalization process and the conditions necessary for vocalization to be effective. In addition, she presents three model exercises with a detailed description of each of the steps to follow for a successful and healthy vocalization, enabling the singer to prepare and develop the vocal instrument. These descriptions are supplemented with musical examples, which present the music to be performed by both voice and piano. In the following chapters, nine, ten and eleven, Moreno applies the mechanics of vocalization to the execution of phrases, and describes the process from the point of view of sensations, or in other words, what the singer can or ought to feel, when the process of phonation is correct. She writes as well about the frequency with which vocalizing should be practiced in order properly to develop the instrument.

 Chapters twelve and thirteen refer to nomenclature. Moreno identifies vocal tessitura and the appropriate vocal terms for establishing precise and assertive communication. The following two chapters (fourteen and fifteen) discuss the direct application of the technique described in previous chapters to the singing process and to the study of pieces to be performed. Moreno continues with a short chapter devoted to vocal technique in choral singing. Chapters 17 and 18 cover the care of the vocal instrument, at both the physiological and emotional levels. Moreno shares a number of observations and advice based on both medical data and personal experience. The book culminates with Chapter 19, where the author provides observations on vocal production or the physical condition of the singer and offers an explanation regarding solving or improving each of these states described.

 Carmen Moreno presents a work that will certainly be very useful for anyone professionally associated with the art of singing. Her precise and detailed approach to each aspect of the art of singing, and the accompaniment of figures, musical excerpts and videos, offer a useful and easily navigable guide for any professional eager for knowledge and who is interested in improving on his/her particular activity (singer, teacher or director).

Cristian Grases earned his Masters in Choral Conducting under the tutelage of Alberto Grau and María Guinand in Caracas, Venezuela, and his Doctorate in Choral Conducting at the University of Miami. Grases has won awards for his work as a composer and is active as guest conductor, juror, workshop facilitator and educator in North and South America, Europe and Asia. Grases is a member of the Board of Directors of the International Federation for Choral Music (IFCM) and leads the committee on Multi-Cultural and Ethnic Affairs of the Western Division of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA). Grases currently serves as assistant professor at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles, California. Email: cgrases@gmail.com

Translated from the Spanish by Joel Hageman, USA

A Choral Festival on the Verge of Two Continents

Andrea Angelini, ICB Managing Editor, choral conductor and teacher

Ekaterinburg rides the line of the recognised border between Europe and Asia, placing it in a unique location as a transcontinental city. Dividing the largest landmasses in the world, Europa and Asia, the Ekaterinburg area boasts monuments celebrating the meeting of East and West.

I arrived at Koltsovo airport on a early flight out of Helsinki. Just like in old movies featuring Hawaii, where arriving passengers are greeted by locals in hula skirts, I expected to be greeted in Ekaterinburg with a bowl of borsch and shot of vodka. Incidentally, I did not see any Russian drinking vodka during my entire trip. Maria and Anna, who were waiting in the arrival hall, drove me to my hotel, just in front of a very busy railway station. My first impressions of the city were the familiar ones: trams and trolleybuses, Soviet-style block apartments, construction works, and there was even a tent at the end of the street selling Uzbek food. Going beyond the familiar signs and wonders I began to encounter some surprises. First were the businesses. Banks and fur shops are the on almost every corner, Gucci and Givenchy stores…Next were the people: warm inside and very gentle, ready to help you on every occasion.

The International Choral Festival and Competition Eurasia Cantat (this was the second year) is in the international scene quite a new event. It would be all too easy to complain. Instead I was pleasantly surprised to see that entire organization, at whose summit sit Helena Bartnovskaya and Natalia Egorova, worked like a Swiss watch.

I was really impressed by the venues of the competition. All the categories of the competition took place in the historic and quite fascinating concert hall of the Ekaterinburg Conservatoire of Music. The closing ceremony was held in a splendid and capacious cultural centre, with a huge stage, plenty of backstage facilities and comfortable seating. Between one event and the next there was also time for some official meetings with the city officials, who thanked the organizers of the festival for their dedication and commitment.

The total number of participating choirs was really high, not often seen in such a contest: I counted 75 choral groups that competed in the various categories. This demonstrates that Russia (which will be discussed in detail in the next ICB) enjoys excellent health and still evinces a ‘desire to sing’.

Ekaterinburg is today best known as the place where Tsar Nicholas II and his family were murdered in 1918. The house where they lived was demolished in 1977, on the orders of Boris Yeltsin, who then was a local Ekaterinburg leader. Yeltsin later, in 1998, represented the people when the Tsar and his family finally we granted a state funeral; the family members are now buried at the Peter and Paul Cathedral in Saint Petersburg. At the very location where their house stood one can, since 2003, still find the ‘Church on Blood in Honour of All Saints Resplendent in the Russian Land’, commemorating the Romanov family and their sainthood. Visiting this place is touching and it can easily evoke ghosts from the past. I recommend one visits too Ganina Yama, 16 Km away from the city, a huge monastery still being built on the site where the remains of the last Tsar and his family were found. It is but a shallow pit where the Soviet revolutionaries had attempted to dissolve, burn and otherwise erase any evidence of the bodies after the execution.

Due the big number of participating choirs it would be impossible to nominate all the winners of the several categories. I just want to mention some of them that impressed the members of the jury, consisting of the President Milan Kolena (Slovakia), Jean-Claude Bernard (France), Nina Grigoryevna Groshikova (Russia), Andrea Angelini (Italy), Victor Emel’yanov, Vladimir Zavadskiy, Elena Nakishova and Dmitriy Rozvizev (Russia). First of all the best choir selected, Vita in Canto, directed by Yuliy Kopkin, then the winners of the category ‘children choirs up to 16 years’ (choir Rainbow, conducted by Oksana Abakumova) and of the ‘youth choirs SATB’ (Orpheus, conducted by Svetlana Dolnikovskaya). The entire list of the award winning choirs can be found on the festival website at www.eurasia-cantat.ru/en/.

The organizers really hope and count on the support and enthusiasm of the city administrators to launch the next festival in order to share the joy and music shared between the two oldest continents (at as far as culture is concerned) of the Earth.

Edited by Graham Lack, Germany

By Jeffrey Sandborg, Director of Choral Activities and Wade Professor of Music, Roanoke College

Belgian conductor Paul Van Nevel (b. 1946) is the artistic director of Huelgas Ensemble, which he founded in 1970. He and his ensemble specialise in the vocal music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Van Nevel studied at the Maastricht Conservatory and is currently a guest lecturer at the Musikhochschule (Conservatoire), Hanover, while also a guest conductor of the Danish Radio Choir and the Netherlands Chamber Choir.

 Van Nevel is a recognised authority on cultural history, early music notation and performance practice.  His extensive scholarly choral activity has led to the rediscovery of important composers such as Gombert and Ciconia, the latter being a representative of the ars subtilior, a repertoire of immense performance practice challenges which Van Nevel and Huelgas have brought to light.

Huelgas derives its name from the Cistercian Monastery near Burgos, Spain (which houses the Las Huelgas Codex), where Van Nevel examined manuscripts during his student days. The core of the Huelgas Ensemble is made up of ten singers but the group may expand to accommodate the repertoire, as they do, for example, in performances of Thomas Tallis’ forty-voice Spem in Alium.

 Huelgas’ acclaimed and award-winning discography of over fifty recordings spans the early Middle Ages and early Baroque period; the most recent recording is of the Eton Choir Book.

 Web site:  http://www.huelgas.be/

Jeffrey Sandborg: Is this your full-time job?

Paul Van Nevel: It is.

JS: How many concerts do you stage per year with the Huelgas Ensemble?

PVN: We do not do more than twenty five to thirty concerts  and we do one recording per year. My team works a year in advance of the season, organising and planning. 

JS: Does Huelgas receive any assistance?

PVN: We receive 220,000 Euros from the Flemish government.

JS: Who are the singers in Huelgas? Are they all from Belgium?

PVN: They are all full-time singers but not all are from Belgium.  For example, the countries represented in yesterday’s concert were France, England, Holland, Italy, Germany, Spain, Austria and Belgium.

JS: How do you select your singers?

PVN: Every year, for the past thirty-five years, I have held auditions in order to find exactly the right voices for the music I am planning. 

JS: What type of voice are you looking for, in general?

PVN: For the music we are performing, you need voices with perfect intonation, and a perfect feeling for the most complicated rhythms and the old pronunciations of Latin and French. I am not looking for singers in the spirit of the 19^th-century chorus singer. We approach the music not as a chorister but as a soloist, in the same spirit as the composers of the music, all of whom were also singers. The goal is to blend together as well as possible so that there is unity in every part of the piece. Polyphony is the most egoistic of written music; every line has to be read on its own with a shared understanding of accents and rhythms. So, I need singers who share these same ideas. For instance, in the harmonic music we sang yesterday (15^th and 16^th century polyphony), the singers have to make sure that they are singing the same thirds and the same fifths – that is the only way to sing this transparent music.

JS: How do you audition specifically for these qualities?

PVN: In Europe, the Huelgas auditions are famous. It is a twenty-minute audition, after which I know all that I need to know. I want to know if the performer can sing a hexachord without changing intonation, if they can sing Pythagorean leading tones and mean tone leading tones. If singers come in and ask, “Where is the piano?” they can leave immediately. I let them read a text from a Petrarch poem and then ask them to sing that text on each tone of a hexachord.  At the end, it should be in tune but most will go sharp or flat. I accept that this can happen, they may have had a long trip, or they might be nervous, but it is important for them to know if they are high or low. If they do not know, then they do not have the combination of ear and voice that is needed.  Most auditions do not uncover any singers who are able to do these things.

JS: What else do you evaluate?

PVN: What I have mentioned so far takes ten minutes. For the rest, I ask them to sing some very complicated rhythms from the ars subtilior. Then I ask them to sing something of their choice. The good ones sing plainsong.

JS: Do these singers gather for specific projects and then return home?

PVN: Exactly. 

JS: Do you use the same system of tuning for all repertoires or do you change it, depending on the style?

PVN: I change it. For instance, tomorrow night, in the medieval repertoire we use Pythagorean tuning for the Machaut, using very high leading tones; the same for Pérotin.

From approximately 1460 onwards, we have used mean tone tuning from the last works of Dufay. From the period of Josquin des Pres, we have used mean tone. 

JS: Why was this shift required?

PVN: Because you have fauxbourdon style with chains of sixths, so it cannot be Pythagorean. In the music of that period, Pythagorean tuning would have been all dissonant.  Composers would have heard this as mean tone in their own ears.

JS: How do you decide how many voices to use per part?

PVN: It depends on the kind of chapel for which the piece was written. For instance, if you have repertoire from Ockeghem or Josquin des Pres, we know that we are in Italy, in Milan, with the Sforzas, but also Mantua and surely in the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. There were up to four singers per line. The negative thing about our interpretation ideas comes from the English early music groups which, for financial reasons, made every line a solo.  However, this does not have anything to do with original distributions. So when I stage that repertoire, I use two singers per line, always.  Only very rarely would I make it solo and then only if that particular repertoire requires it.

JS: How can you be sure about the original distributions you mention?  Do you have sources?

PVN: Exactly.  Archives, where we can see how many singers were paid and when, who went away, who replaced whom, who died, who came back, and so on. A fixed ensemble never existed at that time. We must not think of it as a paradise.  The Vatican choir changed every three weeks.  Now, I am speaking of sacred music; the madrigal and the chanson are strictly solo.

JS: What about medieval repertoire?  Pérotin, for example?

PVN: We know that in approximately 1200, there were sixteen male singers in the chapel of Notre Dame, Paris, and there were eight choir boys.

The space in which organa were sung, Viderunt Omnes for example, has nothing to do with the space we see today. The choir stood behind a huge wall, separated from the space where the people were, so the musicians could be heard but not seen.  The space in which the music was sung was actually small compared to the rest of the cathedral.

Organa such as Viderunt Omnes were always sung during feasts, not during normal days of the week. During feasts, the wall against which the choir sang was covered with tapestries and that made the acoustic much drier. The echo in Notre Dame takes nine seconds but the Viderunt Omnes would have been sung with something closer to a three- or four-second echo. That tells us a lot about the tempo. Many think you cannot sing it quickly because of the acoustics we hear today, but these acoustics are not what Pérotin was working with.

JS: I know that you have made interesting comments about how music says important things about the people who made it, and gives deep insights into life as it was centuries ago. Can you expand on some of these ideas?

PVN: In the history of painting, we find that the cubism of Picasso could not have been done by Memling or Rubens. In the development of style, what a painting says about somebody or about life is very clear for us. In music, it is perhaps less well known or thought about, but the same idea is still there. For instance, the feeling for perfect tuning and perfect rhythm, a mathematically perfect rhythm, was much easier at that time than now. I see this in my auditions.  Young singers have more and more difficulty singing exactly, mathematically, what is written.  A dotted note with two double crotchets (dotted eighth, two sixteenths) sounds like a triplet. And so with the famous canon of Josquin des Pres in Qui habitat, if the singers do not have the feeling of singing perfectly on the tactus, the architecture of the building begins to move. The clarity and perfection is the same as we might see in a Japanese ink drawing. It is so perfect. Beauty was congruent with perfection. Said another way, perfection was seen as beauty. With Josquin des Pres, if you cannot sing it rhythmically perfect, it becomes something anyone can do and is not in the spirit of the composers of this style. Even with no watches or computers, these musicians were deeply sensitive to all aspects of time.  Believe me, Josquin des Pres knew exactly when it was 8:15 and not 8:20. And this feeling for time was much more sensual and bound to life than it is now. For instance, in the 15^th century, the hours were not the same in winter as in summer.  In winter, day and night were equal but an hour at night was much longer than sixty minutes in their minds, and so time had a certain flexibility which could be felt in the sensitivity to time in music. Today everyone, from the time they are born to the time they die, is accompanied by a beat. Our children live their whole lives with a battery, with rock music: beat, beat, beat. But they have lost their own feeling of what a second is. The beat of a computer or a watch is external and so there is no independent thinking.

JS: It has been my understanding that ‘the beat’ of this music is derived from the human pulse.

PVN: Yes, but do not forget that the pulse is not the same as it was in the sixteenth century. It is faster now.

JS: Because of increasing blood pressure?

PVN: Yes. And urban life probably plays its part too, as is the case here in New York. The whole environment has affected our body. I will give you an example. In the time of Lassus, Josquin des Pres and Dufay, a boy’s voice broke at eighteen years of age.  Now, in Europe, it happens at age eleven or twelve – at least five years earlier than in the 15^th and 16^th centuries. There are actually studies on this. It has to do with food and preservatives which have all influenced our hormonal life. Then there was a certain quietness to life, less stress and the same schedule every day and so the body did not have to adapt. Here is another example of this physical change. A few months ago we recorded the Eton Choir Book.  This is considered to be the most rhythmically complicated polyphony that exists. The top lines are incredibly difficult; you cannot do them with children today.  Eleven- and twelve-year-old children cannot do it, but at that time they had already had eight years of education and they could sing it.

Another thing to understand is how they used memory. We can see this by how they put music together. Composing was additive. Brumel never saw the score we sang last night. Only in the 16^th century did musicians feel it necessary to write the parts out together, vertically. Singers had only their part which made them absolutely focused on intonation. They were forced to listen. When we began using part books in Huelgas, the singers said, “Paul, you’re making life difficult for us”. After three rehearsals they realised that we were spending much less time focusing on intonation. The singers were listening more carefully, just as they would have in the 15^th century. Music was in the air and it was controlled by the ears.

JS: How do you organise your rehearsals and prepare the score?

PVN: I talk a lot at first, having already made choices about underlay and ficta, for example, but after we have begun it is better for the singers to find themselves and there is always discussion. I do prepare the score, but not as a final copy, as a working vehicle.

JS: I almost forgot to ask you about your musical training.

PVN: From the ages of twelve to eighteen, I sang two hours a day in the bishop’s college choir in Hasselt.  Afterwards, I went to the conservatory to learn technique. 

JS: Vocal technique?

PVN: I learnt the recorder and the ‘dulcian’ (baroque bassoon).  I have never had a voice lesson. I was the first singer in Huelgas, but the critics were not impressed. (Laughter.)

Edited by Hayley Smith, UK

International Symposium on Children and Youth Choral Music: The World of Young Singers

By Zimfira Poloz, choral conductor and teacher

The First Xinghai International Choir Championships were held between November 8^th and 14^th 2012 in Guangzhou, China, a large city of some 16 million citizens and one which has its own flourishing choral culture.  Not only did the Hamilton Children’s Choir participate in the competitive level of the festival’s competition, but it also contributed to the symposium The World of Young Singers, under the auspices of INTERKULTUR. With a panel of choral expertise, this International Symposium on Children and Youth Choral Music  focused on the important aspects that conductors and music directors need to consider or incorporate with regard to children and youth choral singing.

With 164 choirs participating from 43 different countries and regions at this particular event (with more than 7,000 singers present), we were mesmerized by the stunning costumes, smiling faces and wonderful music performed. This event was co-presented by the CPC Guangzhou Municipal Committee and the People’s Government of the City of Guangzhou/Canton.  Despite the diversity of languages and cultures, we could feel the connection between one another.  We were all in China for the same reason: our love of singing and performing as a choir.

After travelling 30 hours and arriving in China with a surprise dress rehearsal on the day of our arrival, we managed to rest before a performance at the Guangzhou Opera House as part of the official opening ceremony. We were proud to learn that Canada’s Consul-General in Guangzhou, Mr. Weldon Epp, was in the audience. For the next few days we focussed on the competition performance and their ‘Summit of Voices’ gala concert performance, both held on November 10th.  We performed twice and it was such a gift to have the audience respond so positively.  We were joined by Xing Sheng Choir (Xinghai Conservatory of Music Dept), Pro Musica Chamber Choir (Sweden), CantAnima – Landesjugendchor Steiermark (Austria) and Novo Conertante Manila (Philippines).

 The competition included eleven categories, offered in open competition and a Grand Prix, competing choirs here ranked as Gold or Platinum, according to their scores.

The experts on the symposium panel shared information and insights, and included Fred Sjöberg (Sweden), Katalin Kiss (Hungary), Henry Leck (USA),  Johan Rooze (Netherlands/Korea), André van der Merwe (South Africa), Romans Vanags (Latvia), Yang Hongnian (China), Lei Guangyao (China), Zimfira Poloz (Kazakhstan/ Canada) . The premise of the symposium, patronized by Christian Ljunggren (Sweden) and Meng Dapeng (China), was to share information following the progression from the young child to singing as a young adult, with consideration given to the various stages of human development, both psychologically and musically. This was an interactive event and topics included:

1. the young child in the choir – the influence of multi-developed choral music in the world on Chinese choirs, musical education in the Baltic States, vocal techniques for the young singer and the specifics of a boys choir
2. the teenager in the choir – the boy’s expanding voice, developing flexibility in vocal valour for young singers, results of traditional Kodály music education in Hungary
3. the young adult in the choir – “to sing or not to sing” (Hamlet?), the sociological importance of choral music for the young in a multi-cultural and democratic South Africa, bringing young people from different nations together – can music bridge cultural diversity? The development of choral repertoire in a multi-cultural South Africa, how good music education can be combined with having fun.

The symposium inspiring and it was comforting to learn about new approaches while discovering the challenges in conducting children and youth choirs.

Professor Yang Hongnian invited spontaneously an exchange with the Xinghai Conservatory of Music University Girl’s Choir following the symposium.  Both the HCC and Chinese Girls’ Choir shared warm up exercises, techniques and musical performances that were attended by other local conductors – a tour highlight and an intimate experience with wonderfully talented people.

We attended an extravagant open-air closing ceremony held at the base of the Guangzhou TV Tower, one of the tallest buildings in the world. It opened with fifty grand pianos on stage, played simultaneously at various points of the night.

We then travelled to Shenzhen, one of China’s newer cities – only thirty-three years old and with eleven million people. The Chinese choral community is extremely dedicated to learning the craft of singing.  In addition, the Chinese choral community has a wealth of resources including magnificent concert halls such as the Guangzhou Opera House, Xinghai Music Conservatory Symphony Hall, Xinghai Concert Hall, and the Shenzhen Concert Hall.  As a choral conductor, it is such a thrill to be able to perform in such remarkable venues where each performance is warmly welcomed by a full house.

This tour was a life-changing experience for the Hamilton Children’s Choir.  It strengthened the overall choir as a team but just as importantly, this tour gave each chorister the opportunity to develop a better understanding of Chinese culture, its music and choral community.  As an organization, this particular event has opened new doors for the Hamilton Children’s Choir in all aspects including an invitation for a country-wide tour throughout China that would offer performances, workshops, competition and choral exchanges.

Edited by Theresa Trisolino, UK

By Philip Brunelle, IFCM Vice President, VocalEssence Founder & Artistic Director

The year 2013 marks the centenary of Benjamin Britten’s birth, and for a greater part of the composer’s career Boosey & Hawkes was his publisher.  A number of Britten choral works have gratifyingly either been re-issued or made available for the first time – each with historical preface and new music engravings.

Hal Leonard is exclusive distributor of Boosey & Hawkes publications for North and South America, Australia and New Zealand.  Schott is exclusive distributor of Boosey & Hawkes publications for Europe, Asia and Africa.  These new publications were created and printed at Hal Leonard/USA but can be imported by Schott.

SATB

• Canone ed Ostinato and Corale con Canto (from Cantata academica, Carmen basiliense)
  SATB and piano reduction.  Never before available separately.  (48021234)
• Festival Te Deum
  SATB and organ.  Replaces existing edition.  (48021233)
• God moves in a mysterious way (from Saint Nicolas)
  SATB and piano reduction.  Never before available separately.  (48021285)
• The Holly and the Ivy
  SATB a cappella.  Replaces existing edition.  (48008925)
• Hymn to St. Cecilia
  SSATB with solos a cappella.  Replaces existing edition.   (48008930)
• A Hymn to the Virgin
  SATB double chorus a cappella.  Replaces existing edition.  (48021230)
• The Morning Star (from Spring Symphony)
  SATB and piano reduction.  Never before available separately.  (48022502)
• Rejoice in the Lamb
  SATB solos, SATB chorus and organ.  Replaces existing edition.  (48008987)
• Two Part-Songs:  I lov’d a lass & Lift Boy
  SATB and piano.  Both in one publication.  (48022504)

SSA

• Missa Brevis in D
  SSA and organ.  Replaces existing edition.  (48022501)
• Now until the break of day (Finale from A Midsummer Night’s Dream)
  SSA and soprano solo.  New choral transcription.  
• A Ceremony of Carols
  Each movement now available separately with historical preface.

UNISON

• Fancie
  Unison and piano.  Replaces existing edition.  (48022498)

TBB

• The Ballad of Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard
  TBB and piano.  Replaces existing edition.  (48021286)

Philip Brunelle

IFCM Vice President, VocalEssence Founder & Artistic Director

Christmas carols have been part of holiday celebrations for centuries.  The question is – how to keep carols fresh and interesting? Exactly 15 years ago VocalEssence, the choral organization in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA launched a Carol Competition opened to composers of all ages whose permanent residence is North America.  The carol (maximum 3 minutes) could have a sacred or secular, medieval to present-day text appropriate for a concert setting.  Proof of public domain or author’s written permission for use of text is required.

Each year the competition features choirs with a different instrument and the results have been fascinating.  With the American Composers Forum promoting the competition and collecting the entries we have had between 75 and 150 entries each year.  The list of instruments during these 15 years includes harp, string orchestra, percussion, recorder, cello, acoustic guitar, celesta, French horn, viola, hand-bells, English horn, flute and piano.  In addition one year’s competition featured carols with audience participation and another was a cappella.  

Applications and scores are screened for completeness by the American Composers Forum staff with final selection and programming decisions made by VocalEssence Associate Conductor Sigrid Johnson and me.  Of course, we reserve the right not to make an award.  However, that has never been the case and each year we have had two winners, each of which receives a cash gift of US $1000.  In most cases the composers have come to Minnesota for the premiere, have been interviewed by the local media AND have had their carol broadcast nationally on American Public Media the following Christmas.

Each year the ‘Welcome Christmas’ concert is performed five times and the new carols appear on all programs.  Most of the carols have subsequently been published by various publishers and have received numerous performances nationwide.  For more information on this exciting program please consult the VocalEssence website: www.vocalessence.org

Philip Brunelle, artistic director and founder of VocalEssence, is an internationally renowned conductor, choral scholar and visionary. He has made his lifelong mission the promotion of the choral art in all its forms, especially rarely heard works of the past and worthwhile new music. Under his leadership, VocalEssence has commissioned more than 150 works to date. Philip has conducted many major symphonies as well as choral festivals and operas on six continents. Over the past decade Philip has been deeply involved with the International Federation for Choral Music (IFCM). He served as president of the Sixth World Choral Symposium, held in Minneapolis in 2002. He is a Vice President of the IFCM Board and is currently serving as Executive Director for the 2014 World Choral Symposium to be held in Seoul, South Korea. Philip holds five honorary doctorates and has been recognized for his commitment to choral music by the countries of Norway, the United Kingdom, Hungary, Sweden and Mexico. Email: pbrunelle@vocalessence.org