Topic: Pedagogy - Vocal Rhythm
Continued from previous post dated 21 August 2018
Notes on Movement
Bonita High School
The choir was standing of three risers and executed choreographed moves. The drummer was seated on the floor in front, and the boys with the shaker and triangle were in the choir. The grand piano was on the floor to their right. The director stood by the piano and used both arms symmetrically to conduct. He and pianists were the only ones with music.
Illiana Christian High School
The choir was standing on three risers with the director standing in front. The upright piano was to their left and the three instrumentalists were at the right. They and the pianist were the only ones who had a music; the women with the triangle and shaker stood, while the male drummer was seated. The choir faced the audience with their arms at their sides. The director used both arms symmetrically to direct.
Martin Luther High School
The choir was in three rows on two risers with the director conducting from the grand piano to their front right. A boy stood next to him to turn pages. The three instrumentalists were at stage left with a music stand. The drummer was seated and the others stood. No one else had music. The choir faced the audience with their arms at their sides. A few girls at the end of the first row moved between diagonals.
Mission Viejo High School
The choir stood facing the audience on three risers with the director in front. The grand piano was to their left and drummer was seated near the piano. The director used both arms symmetrically to direct. She and the pianist were the only ones with music.
Notes on Audience
The video of Martin Luther’s concert cut off with the last note. The audiences for the other three were heard applauding.
Audience Perceptions
The only video to attract comments was posted to YouTube by Illiana. They included the usual notes of appreciation in English, French, Portuguese and Polish, as well as religious discussions. Rhode Lopez remembered "singing this in 6th grade." [1]
Some whites complained about the whiteness of the group singing with percussion. One wrote:
"Ok, first of all that was beautiful.
Second. I can’t keep a straight face when any group of people that White bread, sings an African song. (The darkest kid in the group looked maybe Sicilian or Hispanic)
Third, Acapella means.....Oh, never mind......" [2]
His YouTube logo was the fife and drummers from Archibald Willard’s painting, The Spirit of ‘76.
A gamer suggested "Need some Kumbaya Dubstep...
add some bass ‘woo woo woo woo, wowwowowow, wowow wowowow, woo woo woo’." [3]
to which a white video-game composer responded "qoaa shut up u wierdo , dubstep is wack, it would spoil it lol." [4] He also observed "there is no black guys there." [5]
For the most part, they seemed to be saying Ginsberg’s attempt to combine legato singing with Cuban percussion diluted the rhythm. However, since several of the criticism were made by people who promoted the idea of a coming war, it’s hard to know if they were serious, disdained whites adopting African-American rhythms, or were being ironic. One other person who used a Russian moniker wrote: "If you turn up the Tempo to 1.5 it sounds with a Better Rhythm!!!!!" [6] He also posted videos about trucks.
Notes on Performers
Ginsberg earned his music degrees from the Hartt School at Hartford University and Brooklyn College. [7] He taught at Brooklyn Friends and Essex Academy High School in New York, and worked on Broadway and Hollywood projects. [8] He said another composition, the theme to "From Israelite to Jew," was meant "to demonstrate my commitment to 21st century media and my religion." [9]
La Verne, California, was orange-grove country until the end of World War II. [10] Its first high school opened in 1903. By 1959, it was overcrowded and Bonita High School was built. [11] Today it has just under 2,000 students in four grades [12]
The school had five "auditioned choral ensembles" directed by Todd Helm. [13] The "Concert Choir is a select vocal ensemble of approximately 70 singers in grades 11-12." [14] Helm’s music degrees were from UCLA and California State Fullerton. He also directed the music program at St. Juliana Catholic Church in Fullerton. [15]
Mission Viejo was south of La Verne in Orange County. It was located on dry lands used for grazing before Donald Bren turned it into a planned community. The high school was built in 1966, [16] and served just over 2,400 students. [17]
Sarah Norris oversaw four vocal groups. The entry level ones were the mixed-voice Concert Choir and the all-female Diablo Chorus. The more advanced ensembles required auditions. [18] She earned her music degree from Chapman University and the directed the choirs at San Clemente Presbyterian Church. [19]
Martin Luther High School was built by Lutherans in 1961 to provide religious education for families living on the south side of Milwaukee. [20] Many of the area’s original religious leaders were born in Germany. [21] One group within the Wisconsin Synod rejected the imposition of Reformed Practices and joined the Missouri Synod in 1872. The latter adhered to the confession of the older Lutheran tradition. It originally required all its hymns "be in harmony with the Bible and Book of Concord" [22] and accompanied by an organ or piano. Recently, some congregations have accepted more contemporary religious music, including guitars and praise bands. [23]
Great Schools reported the school located in Greendale, Wisconsin, had just over 300 students in four grades. [24] The high school offered a "Jazz Band, Brass Choir, Flute Choir, Clarinet Choir, Woodwind Ensemble, Sax Choir and Pep Band. Martin Luther also has a choir program comprising four choirs, including a men’s and women’s choir and two mixed choirs." [25] The choral director, Tim Franz, earned his music degrees from Concordia University, Nebraska and Concordia University-Wisconsin. [26]
Lansing, Illinois, the home of Illiana Christian High School, was founded by German and Dutch farmers in the 1840s. [27] Dutch Calvinists maintained a separatist tradition when they seceded from the Reformed Church in 1857. One reason they left was they still sang psalms rather than hymns. [28]
Most Reformed children only attended religious primary schools until World War II; those who wanted a secondary education went to a religious school in Chicago. A number of Dutch Reformed communities located south of Calumet in Illinois and Indiana joined together in 1945 to establish a local secondary school [29] controlled by the parents, not the church. [30] One teacher explained:
"Reformed Christian education is about so much more than chapel and Bible class. It’s about how the Lordship of Christ affects every area of life, every subject, every action, every recreation. So Illiana Christian High School emphasizes that science and history, business and band, lunch time and basketball practice all have to do with our faith in God. There’s no area that’s not sacred; there’s no part of school life where we can hang up a ‘Keep Out’ sign for God." [31]
Illiana enrolled 520 students in four grades. [32] The choir director was Erin Lanenga, who graduated from Calvin College in Music Education and Spanish. At the time she was at Illiana, she was working on a masters from Northern Illinois University, and left for Timothy Christian School in Elmhurst, Illinois, in 2011. [33]
Availability
Neil Ginsberg
Sheet Music: Neil Ginsberg. "Kumbaya." Santa Barbara: Santa Barbara Publishing Company, 2001.
Bonita High School Choir, La Verne, California
YouTube: "Kumbaya." Uploaded by mychannel on 14 October 2009.
Illiana A Cappella Choir, Lansing, Illinois
YouTube: "Kumbaya." Uploaded by abajkl on 31 October 2008.
Martin Luther High School Concert Choir, Greendale, Wisconsin
YouTube: "Kumbaya." Uploaded by Paul Kiyono on 29 May 2013.
Mission Viejo High School Concert Choir, Mission Viejo, California
YouTube: "Kumbaya." Uploaded by Mission Viejo on 22 June 2014.
End Notes
1. Rhode Lopez. YouTube comment on Illiana version, 2012. "awwww!!!!! i remember singing this in 6th grade :')"
2. Tony Dadon. YouTube comment on Illiana version, 2013. SysExDump also complained about an a capella choir using instruments. He wrote: "Somebody needs to look up a capella...." (YouTube comment on Illiana version, 2012.)
3. qoaa. YouTube comment on Illiana version, 2012. Dub step was a fast form of syncopated electronic dance music that emerged in London in the late 1990s. (Wikipedia. "Dubstep.")
4. Music Composer - Daniel J.K. Hill. YouTube comment on Illiana version, 2012.
5. Music Composer - Daniel J.K. Hill. Different YouTube comment on Illiana version, 2012.
6. Ivansky1. YouTube comment on Illiana version, 2012.
7. "GIA Publications." Its website.
8. "Neil Ginsberg." Santa Barbara Music Publishing website.
9. "Musical Director/Pianist." Neil Ginsberg’s website.
10. Wikipedia. "La Verne, California."
11. Wikipedia. "Bonita High School."
12. "Bonita High School." Great Schools website.
13. "Mr. Todd Helm." Bonita High School website.
14. Choir class description. Bonita High School website.
15. Helm.
16. Wikipedia. "Mission Viejo High School."
17. "Mission Viejo High School." Great Schools website.
18. "Mission Viejo HS Choir Program." School website.
19. "Mrs. Sarah Norris." Mission Viejo High School website.
20. "History of Martin Luther." School website.
21. Wikipedia. "Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod."
22. The Book of Concord "published in German on June 25, 1580 in Dresden, the fiftieth anniversary of the presentation of the Augsburg Confession." It was compiled by Jakob Andreae and Martin Chemnitz to resolve disputes that arose after Luther died, and is taken as the "doctrinal standard of the Lutheran Church." (Wikipedia. "Book of Concord.")
23. Wikipedia. "Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod."
24. "Martin Luther High School." Great Schools website.
25. Wikipedia. "Martin Luther High School."
26. "Tim Franz." LinkedIn.
27. Wikipedia. "Lansing, Illinois."
28. Wikipedia. "Christian Reformed Church in North America."
29. "Our History." Illiana website.
30. "Governance." Illiana website.
31. Mary Lagerwey. "What Does It Mean to be Reformed?" Illiana website. January 2006.
32. "Illiana Christian High School." Great Schools website.
33. "Erin Lanenga." LinkedIn. Timothy Christian was a Dutch Reformed school.
Showing posts with label School Martin Luther. Show all posts
Showing posts with label School Martin Luther. Show all posts
Thursday, August 23, 2018
Tuesday, August 21, 2018
Neil Ginsberg - Kumbaya
Topic: Pedagogy - Vocal Rhythm
The dichotomy persists between schools that insist children must read music to sing and the musical aesthetic children absorb by listening to radios and watching videos. When choral composers wanted to do something modern, the best they could imagine was adding percussion instruments to traditional vocal arrangements.
Thus, Neil Ginsberg’s version of "Kumbaya" began with a piano arpeggio to sound the tones needed by the singers. He added a conga when the lower male voices began singing "kumbaya, k-k-kumbaya." The score showed the conga pattern for one measure, then said "conga repeat pattern ad lib." By the sixth measure, three parts were singing, and the score was marked legato, meaning "in a smooth flowing manner, without breaks between notes." [1]
When the group began the "someone’s crying" verse, the score showed the conga and shaker parts for one measure with the comment "continues pattern." The percussion didn’t appear again on the conductor’s version until "someone’s singing when the triangle was added, and again the instrumentation was shown for one measure. Rhythm details reappeared on the last page for the final two measures when the group was repeating "kumbaya" twice.
The sporadic appearance of the instruments with the instructions to continue left some room for interpretation by a conductor. Most of the high school groups who uploaded performances of Ginsberg’s arrangement followed the score and had the drum begin on the second measure, but Martin Luther High School in Greendale, Wisconsin, began with the drum.
Most stopped the drum in places, then began it again when they reached the last line of a verse. Bonita High School in La Verne, California, made this obvious because the singers moved to diagonals during the verse, then stood still. They resumed moving with the drum.
Ginsberg created his arrangement in 2001 when African instruments were scarcer than they are today, and so specified drums associated with Latin music. Illiana Christian High School in Lansing, Illinois, and California’s Mission Viejo High School used djembés instead. [2]
All four high schools had pianos, but differed in their choices of shakers. Martin Luther used a metal instrument shaped like a maraca, [3] while Illiana used a Native American gourd rattle. A young man in the back row of the Bonita choir shook a metal circle like a small tambourine. Mission Viejo used only the drum.
Only one high school, Martin Luther, recognized "k-k-kumbaya" was a rhythm vocal part. The others simply sang "kumbaya," perhaps thinking the repeated "k" was offensive to people who stuttered. The rhythm part ended when they began the "someone’s singing verse," and the lower voices took over the melody while the upper parts sang a descending descant during the held notes. The final verse, "someone’s praying" used four part-chords, then expanded to more parts in the final repetitions of "oh Lord, kumbaya."
The percussion parts fit within the confines of a 4/4 measure, but with some complexity in accents. The drum alternated an eighth note and two sixteenths with two sixteenths and an eighth. The accents were on the first eighth note and the first sixteenth of the last set, making the strong beats "four one." The triangle underscored the pattern by playing the last two sixteenth notes of a measure and the first eighth of the next bar. The shaker played even eighth notes.
The drummers who could be seen used their right hands for the accents and their left hands for the other notes. Because of the acoustics in the concert halls and capabilities of the individual video cameras, only the strong drum beats and the shakers could be heard on YouTube.
Performers
Neil Ginsberg
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: SATB
Instrumental Accompaniment: piano
Rhythm Accompaniment: conga, shaker, triangle
Credits
Neil Ginsberg
arr. Neil Ginsberg
© copyright 2001 by Santa Barbara Music Publishing
Bonita High School
No credits
Illiana Christian High School
arranged by Neil Ginsberg
Martin Luther
No credits
Mission Viejo High School
by Neil Ginsberg
Notes on Lyrics
Neil Ginsberg
Language: English
Pronunciation: k-k-kumbaya in places
Verses: kumbaya, crying, singing, praying
Vocabulary
Pronoun: someone
Term for Deity: Lord
Special Terms: none
Basic Form: four-verse song
Verse Repetition Pattern: none
Ending: Oh Lord, oh Lord, kumbaya, kumbaya
Unique Features: none
Notes on Music
Neil Ginsberg
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Time Signature: 4/4
Tempo: Andante, quarter note = 92 beats per minute
Key Signature: four sharps
Basic Structure: theme and three variations
Singing Style: clear, pure tones with one syllable to one note, except for one "singing" in the descant
Notes on Performance
Bonita High School
Occasion: concert, 2009
Location: auditorium stage
Microphones: floor mikes
Clothing: white shirts and black skirts, shorts, or slacks. The male director was wearing a black shirt and slacks.
Illiana Christian High School
Occasion: fall concert, 28 October 2008
Location: acoustic shell in the gymnasium
Microphones: none
Clothing: mint green robes with long white stoles. The female director was wearing black slacks and white shirt with a black overtop.
Martin Luther High School
Occasion: Sacred Concert, 2013
Location: Hales Corners Lutheran Church. Hales Corners was the village directly west of Greendale. [4]
Microphones: floor mikes
Clothing: sage green robes with white V-stoles and white borders along the robes’ front openings
Mission Viejo High School
Occasion: closing number of Spring Festival concert, 2014
Location: acoustic shell on stage
Microphones: two floor mikes
Clothing: cerise robes with white V-stoles. The female director was wearing a black jacket and slacks.
To be continued in next post
End Notes
1. "Legato." Oxford Dictionaries website.
2. Martin Luther used a conga-style drum. The boy playing the drum for Bonita was seated below the stage and his instrument didn’t appear in the video. Djembés were discussed in the post for 28 August 2017.
3. I couldn’t see enough in the video to know if the shaker was a calabasa.
4. Wikipedia. "Hales Corners, Wisconsin."
The dichotomy persists between schools that insist children must read music to sing and the musical aesthetic children absorb by listening to radios and watching videos. When choral composers wanted to do something modern, the best they could imagine was adding percussion instruments to traditional vocal arrangements.
Thus, Neil Ginsberg’s version of "Kumbaya" began with a piano arpeggio to sound the tones needed by the singers. He added a conga when the lower male voices began singing "kumbaya, k-k-kumbaya." The score showed the conga pattern for one measure, then said "conga repeat pattern ad lib." By the sixth measure, three parts were singing, and the score was marked legato, meaning "in a smooth flowing manner, without breaks between notes." [1]
When the group began the "someone’s crying" verse, the score showed the conga and shaker parts for one measure with the comment "continues pattern." The percussion didn’t appear again on the conductor’s version until "someone’s singing when the triangle was added, and again the instrumentation was shown for one measure. Rhythm details reappeared on the last page for the final two measures when the group was repeating "kumbaya" twice.
The sporadic appearance of the instruments with the instructions to continue left some room for interpretation by a conductor. Most of the high school groups who uploaded performances of Ginsberg’s arrangement followed the score and had the drum begin on the second measure, but Martin Luther High School in Greendale, Wisconsin, began with the drum.
Most stopped the drum in places, then began it again when they reached the last line of a verse. Bonita High School in La Verne, California, made this obvious because the singers moved to diagonals during the verse, then stood still. They resumed moving with the drum.
Ginsberg created his arrangement in 2001 when African instruments were scarcer than they are today, and so specified drums associated with Latin music. Illiana Christian High School in Lansing, Illinois, and California’s Mission Viejo High School used djembés instead. [2]
All four high schools had pianos, but differed in their choices of shakers. Martin Luther used a metal instrument shaped like a maraca, [3] while Illiana used a Native American gourd rattle. A young man in the back row of the Bonita choir shook a metal circle like a small tambourine. Mission Viejo used only the drum.
Only one high school, Martin Luther, recognized "k-k-kumbaya" was a rhythm vocal part. The others simply sang "kumbaya," perhaps thinking the repeated "k" was offensive to people who stuttered. The rhythm part ended when they began the "someone’s singing verse," and the lower voices took over the melody while the upper parts sang a descending descant during the held notes. The final verse, "someone’s praying" used four part-chords, then expanded to more parts in the final repetitions of "oh Lord, kumbaya."
The percussion parts fit within the confines of a 4/4 measure, but with some complexity in accents. The drum alternated an eighth note and two sixteenths with two sixteenths and an eighth. The accents were on the first eighth note and the first sixteenth of the last set, making the strong beats "four one." The triangle underscored the pattern by playing the last two sixteenth notes of a measure and the first eighth of the next bar. The shaker played even eighth notes.
The drummers who could be seen used their right hands for the accents and their left hands for the other notes. Because of the acoustics in the concert halls and capabilities of the individual video cameras, only the strong drum beats and the shakers could be heard on YouTube.
Performers
Neil Ginsberg
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: SATB
Instrumental Accompaniment: piano
Rhythm Accompaniment: conga, shaker, triangle
Credits
Neil Ginsberg
arr. Neil Ginsberg
© copyright 2001 by Santa Barbara Music Publishing
Bonita High School
No credits
Illiana Christian High School
arranged by Neil Ginsberg
Martin Luther
No credits
Mission Viejo High School
by Neil Ginsberg
Notes on Lyrics
Neil Ginsberg
Language: English
Pronunciation: k-k-kumbaya in places
Verses: kumbaya, crying, singing, praying
Vocabulary
Pronoun: someone
Term for Deity: Lord
Special Terms: none
Basic Form: four-verse song
Verse Repetition Pattern: none
Ending: Oh Lord, oh Lord, kumbaya, kumbaya
Unique Features: none
Notes on Music
Neil Ginsberg
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Time Signature: 4/4
Tempo: Andante, quarter note = 92 beats per minute
Key Signature: four sharps
Basic Structure: theme and three variations
Singing Style: clear, pure tones with one syllable to one note, except for one "singing" in the descant
Notes on Performance
Bonita High School
Occasion: concert, 2009
Location: auditorium stage
Microphones: floor mikes
Clothing: white shirts and black skirts, shorts, or slacks. The male director was wearing a black shirt and slacks.
Illiana Christian High School
Occasion: fall concert, 28 October 2008
Location: acoustic shell in the gymnasium
Microphones: none
Clothing: mint green robes with long white stoles. The female director was wearing black slacks and white shirt with a black overtop.
Martin Luther High School
Occasion: Sacred Concert, 2013
Location: Hales Corners Lutheran Church. Hales Corners was the village directly west of Greendale. [4]
Microphones: floor mikes
Clothing: sage green robes with white V-stoles and white borders along the robes’ front openings
Mission Viejo High School
Occasion: closing number of Spring Festival concert, 2014
Location: acoustic shell on stage
Microphones: two floor mikes
Clothing: cerise robes with white V-stoles. The female director was wearing a black jacket and slacks.
To be continued in next post
End Notes
1. "Legato." Oxford Dictionaries website.
2. Martin Luther used a conga-style drum. The boy playing the drum for Bonita was seated below the stage and his instrument didn’t appear in the video. Djembés were discussed in the post for 28 August 2017.
3. I couldn’t see enough in the video to know if the shaker was a calabasa.
4. Wikipedia. "Hales Corners, Wisconsin."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)