i've seen it rainin' fire in the sky
Mar. 13th, 2007 09:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
phineasjones12 march 2007
how appropriate that rach called me out into the backyard so i could snap a picture of a pretty denver sunset on the very day that rocky mountain high became colorado's (second) official state song. right up there with that oldie but goodie, where the columbines grow.
it's not really weird to be back but it's weird that we were ever not here. that we were at the frickin beach days ago. that's weird. but we brought the weather home with us. well, almost. it was in the 70s yesterday and will be again today. nice.
before i head back into the choral/academic fray that is my tuesday, i want to try to get down and organize some of my thoughts on the convention. i'll try to get them into nice, tidy little categories.
highlights
1. christopher hogwood's interest session. he didn't exactly teach me anything i didn't already know. but he's an interesting person with a lot of experience and there's always something to gain from hearing someone like that talk. he focused a bit on what one can learn from recordings. he played a snippet of the first recording ever of a choir. fascinating. and a recording of the last castrato. also fascinating and a very strange sound. he played a snippet from a rehearsal with aaron copland which was pretty great (had him asking for a crescendo basically because he'd heard other people do it in performance and he liked it - wasn't in the music). and, my favorite, really, a recording of nimrod from elgar's enigma variation with elgar as conductor. fascinating! fluctuating tempos, almost no vibrato, tons of string portamento. really, very interesting.
2. myrtle's interest session. some of what i have to say about this will go in my ACDA section and some in my mentors section, but there were some things worth mentioning as highlights. it was enlightening to see how loved myrtle is by other conductors. the cat's meow, seriously. she was talking about three pieces - a monteverdi madrigal (she's the woman on conducting monteverdi, oddly enough), a brahms song and two of morten lauridsen's "fire songs." so, morten lauridsen was there. he came to all three sessions of her talk to chat about his pieces and play some bits and such. and omg. now i know who morten lauridsen's biggest fan is. it's morten lauridsen! and rachel, who was assisting myrtle, said in one of the other sessions, he quoted someone's review of his pieces in which they called him a genius. ! wow.
3. parker, texas elementary school choir performance. holy crap, this kids were good! i mean, the choir was a children's choir, just really well done. very polished, very together, but still children having fun. but what blew everyone away was their little instrumentalists. this little girl, maybe 8 years old? came down and picked up her violin and i don't know exactly what i was expecting to hear but it wasn't a completely mature, professional sound. i mean... whoa. and then they had a percussionist, a cellist and a sax player. all extremely tiny and good. they got one of the longest standing ovations i'd seen in a concert session.
4. milliken university choir and yale schola cantorum. i had never even heard of milliken. but they kicked ass. both of these choirs just had such gorgeous sound and perfect presentation... i'm jealous. but they were lovely to listen to.
5. the atlanta symphony and chorus. they played some debussy... something i've already forgotten the title of (wasn't my favorite piece, well-performed though) and vaughan williams sea symphony. that was great. a 200-person chorus and an OMG stunning soprano. who is canadian! :) a great end to the convention. (seriously, please, go look at pics of that soprano. so fucking gorgeous.)
ACDA
ACDA is a weird organization. the weirdness comes from its all-encompassingness. there are music teachers of all levels, choir directors for elementary schools up through universities, churches, community choirs, professional ensembles. music ed students, choral conducting students - undergrad through DMA. it makes for quite a mixed up bunch of people. the weirdness came home to me in two interest sessions. one was called something like "multicultural music; breaking down the global beat" and it was supposed to be something about teaching world musics to choirs. it was CRAP. all the music they worked with was cheezy schmultz written by the two guys running the session. stuff i would never program if i had even the slightest choice. they had a good high school demo choir but it was clearly geared toward high school choir directors. i learned nothing. but it was a full room and lots of people seemed into it. and then, two, there was the session with christopher hogwood, a world-famous scholar and conductor. sparse attendance. ? i couldn't believe that. but that's ACDA. if you're not coming to choral conducting from an academic angle... why would you care? i guess. maybe. hm. just weird.
and that was something weird about myrtle's session too. i mean, i thought it was "analysis lite" of the pieces she was talking about. but it was one of the more scholarly sessions i attended. maybe that's my fault. maybe i wasn't picking the right sessions. i don't know. anyway. it's weird. if you're a choral conductor and you don't go, people think it's very strange. but... there's a lot at the convention that really doesn't feel like it has anything to do with me.
mentors/professors
i had the strange pleasure of seeing all three of my conducting professors while at the convention. we'll call them myrtle (current), hojo (masters) and the horn (undergard). i barely saw the horn, just ran into her in a hallway as she was bustling by (she always bustles, it's her thing). she's newly retired and had only come there because she was looking for some chinese conductors she needed to talk to. ? i don't know. then she bustled away.
i saw hojo at her interest session and bumped into her again a few other times. and myrtle at her interest session and the CU reception later that day. one thing seeing them all in a short span of time reminded me was that i am seriously lucky to have had three women conducting profs. there really aren't all that many out there. good for them! and good for me.
most of the thinking i've been doing is about myrtle and hojo. they are close in age, both well-known and respected. and they are so, completely different. even just their clothing. hojo wore a navy blue, pin-striped pant suit to give her session. myrtle wore a bright pink skirt-suit. hojo had this no-nonsense way about her as usual. she makes you afraid of her a little at the same time she makes you really want her to like you and say good things about you. myrtle's presentation was calm and gentle and charming. you get the feeling she does like you.
of the two, myrtle is the scholar and hojo is the performer. hojo's conducting is worlds beyond myrtle's and i feel lucky that i studied with her first. but hojo is a throw-you-in-the-water-and-see-if-you-can-swim kind of prof. and if you can't swim, oh well, see ya. where as myrtle will keep you afloat if she can, though she has no clue how to get you out of the water. wow, did i work that metaphor hard enough?
i just... neither of them is anywhere near perfect. together, they'd make a pretty great teacher. they've both frustrated the everloving crap out of me in their own ways. i don't know what conclusion i have to draw from this, maybe just more mulling.
how appropriate that rach called me out into the backyard so i could snap a picture of a pretty denver sunset on the very day that rocky mountain high became colorado's (second) official state song. right up there with that oldie but goodie, where the columbines grow.
it's not really weird to be back but it's weird that we were ever not here. that we were at the frickin beach days ago. that's weird. but we brought the weather home with us. well, almost. it was in the 70s yesterday and will be again today. nice.
before i head back into the choral/academic fray that is my tuesday, i want to try to get down and organize some of my thoughts on the convention. i'll try to get them into nice, tidy little categories.
highlights
1. christopher hogwood's interest session. he didn't exactly teach me anything i didn't already know. but he's an interesting person with a lot of experience and there's always something to gain from hearing someone like that talk. he focused a bit on what one can learn from recordings. he played a snippet of the first recording ever of a choir. fascinating. and a recording of the last castrato. also fascinating and a very strange sound. he played a snippet from a rehearsal with aaron copland which was pretty great (had him asking for a crescendo basically because he'd heard other people do it in performance and he liked it - wasn't in the music). and, my favorite, really, a recording of nimrod from elgar's enigma variation with elgar as conductor. fascinating! fluctuating tempos, almost no vibrato, tons of string portamento. really, very interesting.
2. myrtle's interest session. some of what i have to say about this will go in my ACDA section and some in my mentors section, but there were some things worth mentioning as highlights. it was enlightening to see how loved myrtle is by other conductors. the cat's meow, seriously. she was talking about three pieces - a monteverdi madrigal (she's the woman on conducting monteverdi, oddly enough), a brahms song and two of morten lauridsen's "fire songs." so, morten lauridsen was there. he came to all three sessions of her talk to chat about his pieces and play some bits and such. and omg. now i know who morten lauridsen's biggest fan is. it's morten lauridsen! and rachel, who was assisting myrtle, said in one of the other sessions, he quoted someone's review of his pieces in which they called him a genius. ! wow.
3. parker, texas elementary school choir performance. holy crap, this kids were good! i mean, the choir was a children's choir, just really well done. very polished, very together, but still children having fun. but what blew everyone away was their little instrumentalists. this little girl, maybe 8 years old? came down and picked up her violin and i don't know exactly what i was expecting to hear but it wasn't a completely mature, professional sound. i mean... whoa. and then they had a percussionist, a cellist and a sax player. all extremely tiny and good. they got one of the longest standing ovations i'd seen in a concert session.
4. milliken university choir and yale schola cantorum. i had never even heard of milliken. but they kicked ass. both of these choirs just had such gorgeous sound and perfect presentation... i'm jealous. but they were lovely to listen to.
5. the atlanta symphony and chorus. they played some debussy... something i've already forgotten the title of (wasn't my favorite piece, well-performed though) and vaughan williams sea symphony. that was great. a 200-person chorus and an OMG stunning soprano. who is canadian! :) a great end to the convention. (seriously, please, go look at pics of that soprano. so fucking gorgeous.)
ACDA
ACDA is a weird organization. the weirdness comes from its all-encompassingness. there are music teachers of all levels, choir directors for elementary schools up through universities, churches, community choirs, professional ensembles. music ed students, choral conducting students - undergrad through DMA. it makes for quite a mixed up bunch of people. the weirdness came home to me in two interest sessions. one was called something like "multicultural music; breaking down the global beat" and it was supposed to be something about teaching world musics to choirs. it was CRAP. all the music they worked with was cheezy schmultz written by the two guys running the session. stuff i would never program if i had even the slightest choice. they had a good high school demo choir but it was clearly geared toward high school choir directors. i learned nothing. but it was a full room and lots of people seemed into it. and then, two, there was the session with christopher hogwood, a world-famous scholar and conductor. sparse attendance. ? i couldn't believe that. but that's ACDA. if you're not coming to choral conducting from an academic angle... why would you care? i guess. maybe. hm. just weird.
and that was something weird about myrtle's session too. i mean, i thought it was "analysis lite" of the pieces she was talking about. but it was one of the more scholarly sessions i attended. maybe that's my fault. maybe i wasn't picking the right sessions. i don't know. anyway. it's weird. if you're a choral conductor and you don't go, people think it's very strange. but... there's a lot at the convention that really doesn't feel like it has anything to do with me.
mentors/professors
i had the strange pleasure of seeing all three of my conducting professors while at the convention. we'll call them myrtle (current), hojo (masters) and the horn (undergard). i barely saw the horn, just ran into her in a hallway as she was bustling by (she always bustles, it's her thing). she's newly retired and had only come there because she was looking for some chinese conductors she needed to talk to. ? i don't know. then she bustled away.
i saw hojo at her interest session and bumped into her again a few other times. and myrtle at her interest session and the CU reception later that day. one thing seeing them all in a short span of time reminded me was that i am seriously lucky to have had three women conducting profs. there really aren't all that many out there. good for them! and good for me.
most of the thinking i've been doing is about myrtle and hojo. they are close in age, both well-known and respected. and they are so, completely different. even just their clothing. hojo wore a navy blue, pin-striped pant suit to give her session. myrtle wore a bright pink skirt-suit. hojo had this no-nonsense way about her as usual. she makes you afraid of her a little at the same time she makes you really want her to like you and say good things about you. myrtle's presentation was calm and gentle and charming. you get the feeling she does like you.
of the two, myrtle is the scholar and hojo is the performer. hojo's conducting is worlds beyond myrtle's and i feel lucky that i studied with her first. but hojo is a throw-you-in-the-water-and-see-if-you-can-swim kind of prof. and if you can't swim, oh well, see ya. where as myrtle will keep you afloat if she can, though she has no clue how to get you out of the water. wow, did i work that metaphor hard enough?
i just... neither of them is anywhere near perfect. together, they'd make a pretty great teacher. they've both frustrated the everloving crap out of me in their own ways. i don't know what conclusion i have to draw from this, maybe just more mulling.
