MMEA Mid-winter Clinic - Day 2, Part 2

Day 1 posts in three parts posted in the following links:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Part 1 of Day 2 is posted here.

     On Friday, February 13th, Dr. Brad Holmes of Millikin University in Decatur, IL led an interest session entitled: Which Choir is this Anyway? A Practical Approach to Variety in Sound. Many choir directors (including me) have longed admired Dr. Holmes' work with the Millikin University Choir. Dr. Holmes excels at encouraging his choral singers to use a variety of timbrel colors in their singing through a varied selection of repertoire, but grounding these vastly different vocal colors in a healthy pedagogical approach.

     During his presentation Dr. Holmes, with the benefit of handouts and recordings, illustrated his approach to programming a wide variety of tonal colors for his choirs.  He first does this through repertoire selection.  Below is a picture of the chart that Dr. Holmes created placing different genres of choral music on a grid system.

      In this chart, Dr. Holmes places various genres of vocal / choral repertoire in relation to the desired shape of the singers vowels to the amount vibrato present in the voice.  He places vibrato on the "x axis" with less vibrato on the left and more vibrato on the right.  On the "y axis", he places accepted vowel shapes from wide (horizontal) on the bottom to long (vertical) on the top.  Holmes readily admits that this is his interpretation of his observations of accepted performance practice, and one can debate where each genre is placed.  Looking at the chart I tend to agree generally with his interpretation of these genres.

     In creating a program, Dr. Holmes will often begin with a piece that sits in the "core" sound which utilizes a moderate level of vibrato with vowel shapes leaning toward vertical placement, but not overly so.  He then will pick pieces that will branch out in a certain plane away from the core, return to a genre that utilizes a core sound, and then program pieces that plane away in another direction.  He always returns to a core sound to allow his singers to recalibrate his or her instrument.  Below is a picture laying out a sample program using recordings from 2014, 2012, and 2010.  Please excuse my notes in the margins cluttering up the diagram, but the program when compared to the above chart illustrates the use of the core sound to create balance.

     Dr. Holmes gives a lot of credit to his colleagues on the Millikin University Vocal Music faculty for working hand in hand with him to help teach his singers sound and healthy pedagogical approaches for creating all of the desired choral timbres.  As a collegiate choral director, he is still dealing with relatively immature and developing vocal instruments.  So he feels it is important to be aware of where each singer is on his or her vocal development.  To negate wear and tear on the instrument he will strategically place rests in the music for individual singers.  He finds this especially necessary for lighter or higher passages in the music.

      In the end, this session was probably the one I was most looking forward to attending during the Mid-Winter Clinic.  Strangely, I had never previously had the opportunity to learn from Dr. Holmes, and I thoroughly enjoyed learning from him.