One of my greatest joys over the past year was serving as the R&S Chair of Ethnic and Multicultural Music for the Iowa Choral Director's Association. Part of the fun was sifting through all of the new octavos published by the various music publishers in the past year and determining which had value. That was also a major part of the burden of the position. "Value" is a difficult label, because much of what is published does not excite me as a "choral snob", but one must look at each score from different perspectives to determine its merit. To be perfectly honest too much of what is published is not worth performing.
First and foremost, one must determine the intended audience of each octavo. Was this piece written for elementary choir or an advanced collegiate / professional ensemble (or somewhere in between)? How well does this piece serve the purpose for the given ensemble? Admittedly, there is a lot of music written for elementary and middle school choirs that lacks substance and quality, and I as an educator would avoid programming many of these pieces. There are composers and arrangers for young voices who do outstanding work to create worthwhile octavos for those embryonic performers. (Christi Cary Miller is an arranger that is outstanding for young choirs.) Conversely, there is also repertoire written for advanced ensembles that appear composed as a compositional exercise, and fail to move me as a listener. Difficulty for the sake of difficulty.
How do we find pieces that inspire and move? None of what I will say here is ground breaking. In fact these are beliefs "stolen" from teachers and colleagues with whom I have had the fortune to come in contact over the course of my career. Often these same inspiring mentors unabashadly admit they "stole" their successful ideas from someone else. I am merely paying it forward.
My first qualifier is the text. Do the words inspire me? Now granted there are moments in concerts where we as directors will program pieces from the popular or broadway repertoire that are meant to humor or entertain an audience. But, if you look closely, even those pieces grab us because of the lyrics.
My second qualifier is the part writing. Is the melodic line that the composer shapes memorable? Are the harmonic parts accessible for the interior voices without being too dull (poor altos). Are the root movements in the bass line singable for those men? Are the different voice parts written in a manner that all components can be heard, or is the part writing too dense to reveal the true beauty of the piece.
My third qualifier is generally a result of the sum of the previous two: Does the piece have a moment that leaves the audience moved in some way (awestruck, shaken, smiling, or entertained)? For a piece of music to be memorable for conductor, performer, and audience alike it needs to have a moment that stands from the rest, some sort of "climax" if you will. However the climax does not have to be loud or audacious, it can be as simple as one lone voice pleading for forgiveness.
Over the course of my time writing this web-log, I intend to look through my stacks of choral rep (multicultural or otherwise) and give my thoughts on the subject. If anyone follows, it would be great to hear your thoughts on the manner. I wish I had started this venture sooner, I am excited for the intellectual stimulation it may create. Admittedly, I will post about other aspects of a life as a choral director and educator, but as my graduate school mentor Dr. Brad Barrett always said, "Repertoire, repertoire, repertoire."
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