Bruce's Blog

When I conducted college choirs, money was provided for rehearsal accompanists, so I always had one. Most were not thrilled to work with me—I did not let them play very much. Pianists want to play; the better they read and play, the more they wish to be constantly active.

My principle college conductor, Weston Noble, used a pianist very sparingly. Our choir was large, 70-75 singers; we sang primarily a cappella music, we rehearsed five times a week, and we had ridiculously high standards. Mr. Noble felt that piano accompaniment, past warm-ups, initial pitches, and help in learning difficult passages, would actually weaken our learning, and our final product. Never, ever, did the pianist “just play along,” supporting the group’s singing. Even when we worked on music which would be accompanied in performance, we would learn it without keyboard help. This enabled the conductor to hear what was happening; it also forced singers to be responsible for their own pitches and rhythms. (more…)

The “which Latin?” issue rears its head, relative to the Mahler 8 first movement (Veni, Creator Spiritus). When I was in college, this issue did not exist, at least in Iowa: we pronounced the language one way in Latin class (weni, widi, wiki), and another in choir (veni, vidi, vichi). The choral pronunciation we termed “ecclesiastical Latin;” only later did I learn that we were using an Italiante pronunciation, greatly influenced by our upper Midwestern vowels. I first encountered German Latin several years later, under Margaret Hillis, and became accustomed to singing the Latin settings by German composers with this pronunciation. Through a rather intense immersion in early music, especially under the influence of Belle Bouche, Bel Parleur ( I have lost track of this book, even of the proper spelling of its title), I learned about German, French, English, even Swedish Latin, as well as appropriate pronunciation shifts related to dates and religious influences. The options, as well as the consequences of making a wrong choice, mounted alarmingly. I found myself wallowing in a morass of strongly held opinions, lacking the background to do anything with confidence. About this time I landed a teaching job back in Iowa—and happily returned to the “ecclesiatic” pronunciation people out there were using.

I didn’t stay in Iowa for long; but, because I did not return to a specifically early music-oriented milieu, I continued with my Iowa Latin: I had enough trouble teaching my college-age choirs the proper notes, and had little energy left to hound them about their Latin. (more…)

I began rehearsing the Mahler 8th Symphony this past week, with both groups, Chorale and CMAC. Beastly big! Our performance isn’t until April 19th—and I’m glad; we need time to digest and understand it.

Physically/vocally it is very challenging: Mahler composed for two equal choirs, each choir often divided into eight or ten parts; the tessitura in each voice is quite challenging; and the dynamic requirements are enormous—the orchestra is very large, with lots of winds, especially brass, competing with the singers, necessitating a very full sound from the chorus, top to bottom. But, as well, there are many lyrical, pianissimo sections, often in the difficult upper range—and these sections occur as often as not after a forceful, fortissimo passage, leaving the singers no good chance to return to piano mode. Music in this Germanic, dense, post-Romantic idiom requires very clean pitch in all voices if Mahler’s exquisite, expressive harmonic movement is to come across with any clarity—but that clarity is exactly the thing singers lose, when they are operating at top volume: less fortunate singers tend to push, distort, and lose pitch identity, even if they hear things accurately; and even the healthiest, best-trained singers, under this sort of pressure, can lose control of good choral technique, allowing their individual, idiosyncratic sounds to over-express themselves, thereby losing the pitch and rhythmic accuracy so integral to good choral singing. A work of this magnitude is a draining, constantly challenging physical workout, requiring healthy vocalism, lots of preparation, and an iron will to accomplish the composer’s intentions (more…)