NCCO Choral Scholar Vol. 61-2

FA L L 2024

Volume 61 | Number 2

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Table of Contents

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Executive Leadership Editor Letter

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Recording Reviews Morgan Luttig, editor contributors: Nick Matherne, Kyra Stahr

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Envisioning a More Inclusive Choral Literature Curriculum Carolann Buff

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Choral Reviews Nathan Reiff, editor contributor: Joshua Cheney, Alexandra Grabarchuk

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Book Reviews Andrew Crow, editor contributors: Jon Arnold, Leann Conley-Holcom

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NCCO Executive Leadership Katherine FitzGibbon PRESIDENT

Katherine FitzGibbon is Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities at Lewis & Clark College, where she conducts two of the three choirs, teaches courses in conducting and music history, and oversees the voice and choral areas.

Dr. FitzGibbon founded Resonance Ensemble in 2009, a professional choral ensemble presenting powerful programs that promote meaningful social change.

Dr. FitzGibbon has also served on the faculty of the summertime Berkshire Choral International festival and conducted choirs at Harvard, Boston, Cornell, and Clark Universities, and at the University of Michigan. She was a previous member of NCCO’s National Board and Mission and Vision in Governance Committee.

Merrin Guice Gill PRESIDENT-ELECT

Dr. Merrin Guice Gill is the Director of Choral Activities at Bethel University. Her choirs have received international awards including first and second prizes in the Riva Del Garda International Choral Competition, Silver Medal at the World Choir Games, and as finalists in the American Prize for Choral Performance. She is an accomplished soprano in opera and new music, frequent guest clinician, and scholar whose research has been presented widely. With NCCO, she has served on the National Board, published in The Choral Scholar, and presented “Feldenkrais Method and Mental Health in the Choral Room” at the 2023 National Conference.

Coreen Duffy VICE PRESIDENT Coreen Duffy is Director of Choral Activities at the University of Montana School of Music, where she conducts Chamber Chorale and University Choir, teaches conducting and choral methods, and supervises student teachers. She also directs the UM-Missoula Community Chorus. Under her direction, UM Chamber Chorale has performed at the Marktoberdorf Competition, in Saarbrücken and London, and at NWACDA. She is an active clinician and frequently published. A specialist in Jewish music, Duffy has presented at ACDA, NCCO, NAfME, and internationally. With NCCO, she was an editorial board member of The Choral Scholar and served on the Task Force on Expanding Choral Pedagogy. Duffy is President-Elect of NWACDA.

Michael McGaghie TREASURER Michael McGaghie serves as Associate Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities at Macalester College, where he conducts the college’s two choirs and teaches courses in conducting, musicianship, and Passion settings from Bach to the present. He also directs the Isthmus Vocal Ensemble and the Harvard Glee Club Young Alumni Chorus. His recognitions from ACDA include an invitation to conduct the Macalester Concert Choir at the 2016 North Central division conference, an ICEP fellowship to China, and the Julius Herford Prize. Prior to his elected term as Treasurer, Dr. McGaghie served on NCCO’s National Board and as an inaugural member of the Mission and Vision in Governance Committee.

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Cordara Harper SECRETARY Dr. Cordara Harper is a native of Cove City, North Carolina, the Director of Choral Activities, Voice Area Coordinator, and Assistant Professor of Music Education at Grambling State University. Harper is an international presenter and acclaimed versatile musician active as a music educator, choral conductor, instructional leader, and vocal musician. Dr. Harper completed a Ph.D. in Music Education with a cognate in Choral Conducting at the University of Memphis.

EDITOR OF PUBLICATIONS Angelica Dunsavage CHIEF (ON LEAVE)

Dr. Angelica Dunsavage (she/they) serves as Assistant Professor of Music and Director of Choirs at Tennessee State University, where she conducts the TSU University Choir and the Meistersingers and teaches courses in conducting and music education. Prior to her appointment at TSU, Angelica taught music education and choral/vocal classes at Washington State University. She received her DMA in Choral Conducting and Music Education from University of Arizona, her MM in Choral Conducting from Bowling Green State University, and her BS in Music Education from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Nathan Reiff INTERIM CHIEF EDITOR OF PUBLICATIONS Nathan Reiff is Director of Choirs at Swarthmore College, where he also teaches courses in choral conducting and literature, musicianship, and music theory. From 2017 to 2023, Reiff served as Resident Conductor of the Harvard Glee Club and Choral Studies Faculty at Boston Conservatory at Berklee.

Beginning in 2019, he was also Music Director of JourneySongs, an interfaith hospice choir, and founding member and co-facilitator of Cambridge Common Voices, the first neurodiverse choral ensemble in the Cambridge, MA area.

Reiff’s scholarly projects have focused on the intersection of polystylism and incrementalism in Alfred Schnittke’s Concerto for Choir, the practice of hospice singing, conducting gesture, and holistic wellbeing practices for teachers. He holds a DMA and BA from Yale University and an MM from the University of Michigan.

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From the Editor

Reimagining Our Relationship With Repertoire

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Nathan Reiff

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ne of the most important decisions we make as conductors is the repertoire we bring to our singers. The works and composers we program set the stage for our dayto-day music-making, establishing the types of demands we ask of the singers and informing our work to aid our ensembles in developing related skills. The selections we make set the tone for a performance and help our students to deepen their relationship with centuries of choral music history.

Repertoire fuels our creative expression and allows us to draw connections between pieces and texts that may have been created in vastly different times and places. This edition of The Choral Scholar and American Choral Review explores repertoire— not only through specific works, composers, and recordings, but also in terms of how we think of choral literature as a field of study and how we can perform repertoire most authentically.

Buff suggests a variety of frameworks that teachers of choral literature can use to explore tokenism, appropriation, institutional racism, colonization, the concept of a canon itself, and other factors that inevitably come into play in this subfield, whether intentionally or otherwise. This article includes both high-level discussion of broad pedagogical questions as well as detailed, practical suggestions for reframing choral literature classes and assignments.

The score reviews in this edition include works by well-known U.S. composer Andrea Ramsey and Iceland’s Hreiðar Ingi Þorsteinsson, the latter of whom contributes a gripping, dramatic, and rhythmically energized piece called Rauði Riddarinn . In the recording reviews section, readers will see evidence of choral excellence at the collegiate level with a recording by the University of South Dakota Chamber Singers as well as a model for cross-ensemble collaboration in a recording by the professional chorus EXIGENCE and the avocational Eugene Concert Choir.

In this edition, Carolann Buff’s article Envisioning a More Inclusive Choral Literature Curriculum digs into critical questions about the ways we learn and teach about choral literature. At a time in which conductors around the world are seeking to challenge and broaden the choral canon to include traditions, works, composers, and geographic regions that have been historically underrepresented, Buff makes the case that choral literature pedagogy itself is ripe for reimagining.

The book reviews portion of this edition features recent publications on 19 th -century choral performance practice by David Friddle and the use of dialect in African American spirituals by Felicia Barber. These two works provide crucial context for conductors looking to broaden

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their understanding of historically informed performance practices for pieces from each of these repertoire traditions.

last several months. As always, our publication welcomes your ideas and contributions of all kinds.

Please reach out to us at editor@ncco-usa.org for more information and view our submission guidelines at ncco-usa.org/publications/thechoral-scholar-american-choral-review.

It has been a privilege and joy to step into the role of Interim Chief Editor of Publications in the preparation of this edition of The Choral Scholar and American Choral Review, and I wish to express my deep gratitude to each of the contributing authors, to the editorial and design team, to the NCCO executive leadership, and of course to Chief Editor of Publications Angelica Dunsavage for graciously handing me the reins over the

Warmly, Nathan Reiff Interim Chief Editor of Publications

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Recording Reviews Morgan Luttig, editor

Immediately changing moods once again, the next piece on the album is Pinto Fonseca’s Muié Rendêra. This recording is faster than most in both the initial set-up and the subsequent groove sections and has the same great energy that is presented throughout the album. The next two pieces, Kenneth and Kirsten Lampl’s Dirshu Adonai and Stacey Gibbs’ arrangement of Sit Down Servant, show varied interpretations of spiritually inspired music. Beginning with the Hebrew text of Psalm 105, performed with sensitivity, this pairing then shifts back to the familiar energy and passion of this choir through the medium of a spiritual.

I Carry Your Heart

University of South Dakota Chamber Singers David Holdhusen, Conductor NV6203

(2019, 72’53”)

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ith 18 tracks and almost 73 minutes of music, David Holdhusen and the University of South Dakota Chamber singers show breadth and depth of choral singing throughout I Carry Your Heart.

The album, recorded from 2016–2018, features a wide variety of styles, tonal colors, regions, and languages, all consistently presented with passion in the singing. With clear and concise notes, the album centers on living composers and highlights several recent works. Bookended with live recordings, the title piece, a setting of e. e. cummings’ i carry your heart with me, sits at the center of the album, serving as a focal point for the message presented.

Continuing on a tour of choral music from around the world, the next recording is Hugo Alfvén’s festive arrangement of Och jungfrun hon gar i ringen, a Swedish dance. This recording is delightful, light, and finished almost as soon as it started. The title piece for the album, Connor Koppin’s setting of i carry your heart, returns the listener to a more introspective choral sound.

The piece transmits a message within this album, recorded over three school years, of the impact that each member of a choir leaves on the group long after they are gone.

Student soloist Justin Boulware’s joyful voice rings out to begin this album. The energy of the group is immediately felt in J. L. Ames’ arrangement of Tshotsholoza, from the rhythmic percussion, to the strength of the voices, to the delightful vocalizations from the choir. As powerfully as the first piece begins, so gently do the voices enter in Zander Fick’s Die Onse Vader, the first of two settings of the Lord’s Prayer on this album.

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Listed as the group’s “effective composer-inresidence,” Jonny Priano is one of only two composers on this album to be featured more than once. Priano’s Lullaby is tonally rich and shows off the choirs’ depth of sound. Another spiritual, Ain’t That A Rockin’, arranged by Stacey Gibbs, follows, once again showcasing the energy of the group while retaining the fullness of tone heard in the previous track. Sicut Cervus, the second piece by Jonny Priano, is marked by an intensity of musical line which compliments the choir’s sound well.

setting of a Christina Rossetti poem. Both Priano’s writing and the performance by the choir allows for this hauntingly beautiful text to carry an immense emotional weight, clearly connected to the central theme of the album.

The antepenultimate and penultimate pieces on this album return to reflections on religious themes. Joshua Shank’s David’s Lamentation showcases the dynamic range of the group. The ability of the group to create a presence at a soft dynamic is impressive and makes one’s hair stand on end. The second of the two settings of the Lord’s Prayer follows with Otche Nash, a Russian Orthodox interpretation by Alexander Gretchaninov.

Dwijavanthi is a considerable departure from the western choral tradition in many ways, but Ethan Sperry’s arrangement of the Indian raga for choir is accessible while allowing for the integrity of the source material to shine.

The group performs this piece expertly and the effect is incredible. If you are intrigued by this performance, Vishwas Gaitonde has published several articles in Serenade Magazine that further delve into choral performances of Indian music and Sperry’s arrangements.1

Another live performance, There Will Be Rest

by Frank Ticheli, finishes the album. The performance has an incredible precision which almost makes it feel like it is not live, but you can almost hear applause in your mind in the fullness of the silence after the choir releases their final note. I Carry Your Heart is available wherever you stream music and contains a wide variety of repertoire in which you are surely able to find something which resonates.

The next few recordings return squarely to the modern western choral tradition with André Thomas’ Keep Your Lamps! and a piece by Nick Myers entitled Jenny. The piece fits nicely into the modern choral tradition and allows for the tone color of the choir to be at the forefront. The space generated by this choir is sublime at times and gives a sense of floating.

— Nick Matherne University of Melbourne

Nick Matherne is a PhD Candidate at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music in Australia, where he is studying motivation for lifelong choral singing. He has served as a director for the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa University Chorus and has conducted choirs across the United States and Australia. As a conductor, Nick is a champion of choral-instrumental collaborations, including the world premiere of a new choral setting of Nigel Westlake and Lior’s song cycle, Compassion, which he premiered with Choral Edge and the Victorian Youth Symphony Orchestra. Nick is an active researcher and presenter

Idumea provides a nice respite from sustained choral sounds with an excellent violin introduction, followed by a nice shift in tone.

The versatility of the choir was highlighted by the placement of Idumea between Jenny and Jonny Priano’s final piece on the album, Remember, a 1

“When Western Choirs Sing Indian Music - Part 1,” Serenade Magazine, https://serenademagazine.com/when-western-choirssing-indian-music-part-i/

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The Eugene Concert Choir’s mission is to engage, inspire and enrich the community through performance of choral masterworks, diverse artistic experiences, and educational outreach. The Eugene Concert Choir gives adult avocational singers the opportunity to perform at a professional level so that the beauty and power of choral singing is enjoyed and appreciated by all.2 This album, which aligns with their values of collaboration, community engagement, and artistic achievement, features works by Black composers, highlighting the triumphs and struggles of the Black community.

at regional and international conferences including the National Association for Music Education Biennial Conference, the Symposium for Research in Choral Singing, and the Hawai’i Music Educators Association conference. Nick holds a Master’s degree in Music Education from the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa and a Bachelor’s degree in Music Education from James Madison University.

Black is Beautiful

Eugene Concert Choir & Orchestra, Diane Retallack

The album opens with a striking and poignant solo, declaring, “My country ‘tis of thee, you’ve not been good to me.” This powerful statement is from Stacey V. Gibbs’ The Hymn!, a piece rooted in the Battle Hymn of the Republic. Gibbs masterfully blends this theme with elements from Lift Every Voice and Sing and My Country, ‘Tis of Thee. The piece is a compelling call for freedom and justice, building anticipation through the use of snare drum, dynamic interplay between treble and bass voices, harmonic shifts, and innovative vocal techniques in tone, style, and color. The Hymn!, performed by EXIGENCE, embodies the essence of the entire album: musically exceptional, cathartic, emotional, intentional, and a profound testament to the Black experience. Gibbs has described The Hymn! as “his most pointed piece,” ending with a statement calling upon us all to “live in harmony and unity.”3

EXIGENCE, Eugene Rogers NV6599

(2024, 1’09”)

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he album “Black is Beautiful” is a live concert recording that celebrates the richness and resilience of Black lives through classical music by Black composers. This powerful album is a collaboration between the Eugene Concert Choir and Orchestra, directed

by Diane Retallack, and the professional vocal ensemble EXIGENCE, under the direction of Dr. Eugene Rogers.

EXIGENCE is a professional vocal ensemble of Black and Latino artists, founded by Eugene Rogers. The name EXIGENCE is inspired by the definition of the word—‘an urgent need or demand.’ Like its definition, EXIGENCE believes that vocal concert music continues to need more voices at the table from varied backgrounds and perspectives. EXIGENCE seeks to foster that perspective through the lens of professional vocal artistry within our communities.1

One of the incredible strengths of this album is the vocal flexibility and agility demonstrated by the performers. The four works require great range in terms of contrasting styles, emotional investment, 2

“About Us,” Eugene Concert Choir, https://eugeneconcertchoir. org/about-us/mission/

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Eugene Concert Choir. (2023, June 6). Community forum: Significance of black is beautiful repertoire – hosted by the Eugene Concert Choir. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=yqt2TupKrg4

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“EXIGENCE,” EXIGENCE Vocal Ensemble, https://www. sphinxmusic.org/exigence-vocal-ensemble

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and technical precision, while navigating the educational and emotional backgrounds. The album is the record of a powerful collaborative performance, driven by technical precision and daring artistry as a testament to the Black community, from the first piece to the last.

“Glory,” by Common, John Legend, and Rhymefest is arranged for choir by Eugene Rogers. This performance features a breathtaking soloist who tackles an emotional message while navigating a large range and variety of vocal timbres. The work combines both choirs and features a charismatic rapper who integrates complex wordplay, groundbreaking messaging, and a call for the audience as she pleads, “I’m talking living as one.”

Joel Thompson’s Seven Last Words of the Unarmed quotes the last words of seven African American men tragically killed by police or authority figures. Thompson says he originally composed the piece as “a diary entry; a way for [him] to process these very difficult emotions, dealing with the intersection of [his] identity with this scourge of police brutality,” and did not plan to publish the work.4 Before composing, Thompson created two columns of words; one with the seven last words of Christ and the other with selected text from the #LastWords project by Sharon Varghese to fit with the order of the liturgy. After the murder of Freddie Gray, Thompson felt called to share the piece, saying, “I was losing a sense of my own humanity and this composition was a way for me to hold on to my own identity and my own self-worth in the wake of dealing with all this tragedy.”5 The performance captured on this album is hauntingly beautiful; an artistic gesture of grief fueled by education and two communities performing as one. The piece concludes with the powerful words of Eric Garner, “I can’t breathe.” However, it intentionally transitions to a poignant piano solo that introduces the Academy Award-winning song “Glory” from the film Selma. The directors explained, “we didn’t want this concert to be a lament for those we’ve lost, but a call for action.”6

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The album concludes with the oratorio by Undine Smith Moore, Scenes from the Life of a Martyr.

Composed between 1975 and 1979, the 16-part oratorio was written in memory of Martin Luther King Jr. and is divided into four main sections covering major stages in King’s life. Moore described the work as “a comment on the private life of King,” and masterfully combines text from Dr. King, passages from the Bible, and other quotations and poetry excerpts. Scenes from the Life of a Martyr is scored for mixed choir and includes solos for soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, a spoken-word narrator, and orchestra. This performance featured the resonant voice of narrator Marques Jerrel Ruff throughout. Of the concert experience, Ruff says “I feel as though I have to be an ambassador for these men, and more who are not named, who are not here to tell their story. It fills me with great pride to be able to do that.” The work contains a variety of musical styles that represent the span of King’s life. The text humanizes Dr. King, grappling with the complexities of his life and emphasizing that he was not largely popular during his time.

Striking solos guide listeners through Dr. King’s story, a work that is particularly poignant on the 60th anniversary (August 2023) of his “I Have a Dream” speech. Undine Smith Moore concludes the oratorio with a message that permeates throughout this entire album, one of spiritual uplift and celebration. The exquisite voices of EXIGENCE and the Eugene Concert Choir bring long-overdue justice to this masterpiece, along with the other works on this album, delivering a performance that is both triumphant and unforgettable.

Ibid.

Ibid.

Ibid.

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—Kyra Stahr

motivates ensembles with authenticity, courage, and determination. An active guest conductor, clinician, and presenter, she has shared her expertise at international conferences, including the 2023 World Symposium on Choral Music. She holds an M.M. in Choral Music from the University of Southern California and a B.M. in Vocal Performance and Music Education from Miami University. Upcoming presentations include FLACDA, FMEA, TMEA, and National ACDA. Stahr co-founded and co-hosts the podcast conduct(her), amplifying women’s voices in the choral world.

University of Melbourne

Kyra Stahr is a visionary conductor, educator, and vocalist passionate about the transformative power of choral music. A DMA candidate in Choral Conducting at the University of Miami, she serves as a Graduate Teaching Assistant and Assistant Conductor of Seraphic Fire. Stahr is Instructor of Record for choral conducting and the premier treble ensemble, Bella Voce. She believes in the transformative power of choral singing and

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Envisioning a More Inclusive Choral Literature Curriculum Carolann Buff

What might a more inclusive college choral literature curriculum look like?

What are the ways one might rethink what the musical canon is and if one is needed at all?

Is it possible to engage with multiple threads of discourse based upon inclusive concepts rather than exclusive exceptionalism?

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ecently there has been an increasing awareness of a significant lack of diversity and inclusion in the university music curriculum. There are many barriers to transforming curricula to be more inclusive including significant anxiety that there is not room to deviate from a fixed-content canon that is traditionally recognized as essential to a good music education. But it is urgent that music courses are universally reevaluated according to best practices regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion. One must ask why and how certain repertories are taught. Who makes the decisions to include or exclude certain musicians or works?

What might be assumed about the narrative of Western European art music that is nearly exclusively white, male, and Christian?

Another is to have a frank conversation about why canonic works are established as normative and essential at the expense of excluding others.

The existing curricula for choral literature courses are orientated around the perception that the study of music is one that is both teleological and chronological. But it is prudent to find creative ways to explore topics and repertoire that have been considered outside the traditional canon and normalize them in one’s syllabi. It is possible to integrate non-canonic works by shifting the emphasis away from simply a series of epochs that favor white, male “geniuses” to units that focus on musical genres. This modification allows students to both develop critical listening, score study, and writing skills—a healthy learning outcome for any syllabus—as well as recognize repertory and associate specific genres, styles, and forms with major composers, geo-political regions, and chronological eras. These learning outcomes are better served by an intersectional and analytical

This article will empower instructors to take voluntary measures to remedy past discriminations. The task is to reshape the curriculum and incorporate more equitable accounts of underrepresented musics and composers. The courses that are taught at institutions of higher learning must prepare future musicians, researchers, and teachers to meaningfully engage with a diverse body of repertoire. One way of doing this is by altering the repertoire that is discussed in the classroom.

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approach that reveals how the intellectual and cultural histories of underrepresented minority composers have contributed to the world.

Teaching beyond the traditional canon requires an awareness of the biases of both instructors and students, so it is essential for there to be ground rules for how to discuss complex issues in culturally sensitive ways. Plan to make time for mediated follow-up after each assignment. Advise students to avoid making absolute statements, even if it is their own truth, and instead encourage them to ask questions. Model scholarly inquiry that challenges assumed norms. Acknowledge that there are opportunities to learn entirely new things as well as to revisit and rethink things that might be familiar. Establish that offensive language is never tolerated even if materials from an earlier period use vocabulary that is no longer acceptable in modern discourse.2 Do not assume any student can represent their culture, identity, ethnicity, or religious background. Recognize that not everyone arrives at college with the same amount of previous knowledge. Some students have never experienced critique of the canon, let alone the reasons why it might be necessary to transform or look beyond its arbitrary boundaries. Also be aware that students come to choral literature courses with a wide variety of experience in previous courses that are often culturally framed such as music history or world history.

An inclusive choral literature curriculum is supportive of good pedagogy. Students can learn a broader set of skills and methodologies beyond memorizing lists of dates and works. Students can explore online resources.1 They can utilize research centers and archives as resources for scholarly study, many of which now include remote access enabled through audio, video, and visual digitization projects. Students can learn to uncover for themselves the broader, richer, and infinitely more diverse repertoire available to them as musicians.

Some instructors responsible for the choral literature curriculum have expressed anxiety that a restructured curriculum might throw out the Western musical canon entirely. This article does not advocate that any works or composers need to be “canceled” simply to make room for new or diverse voices. Instead, I argue that it is healthy to include people with differing characteristics, beliefs, experiences, interests, and viewpoints.

Creating access can undo generations of neglect of marginalized composers, performers, and audiences. It is good to recognize that certain voices have been silenced and historically excluded. Music history was invented by scholars who tacitly or even overtly asserted that Western European culture was inherently superior to any other. Black, female, and other marginalized voices were silenced not because of inability but instead because of prejudiced intentions. One might be in danger of repeating this false narrative of intellectual history if scholarly conversations about institutionalized racism, sexism, and other forms of bias are not allowed.

Challenges present themselves as one starts to look for inclusive representation in scholarly research, published scores, and high-quality 2

A good resource is Sean Price, “Straight Talk about the N-Word,” Learning for Justice 40 (2011). www.learningforjustice.org/ magazine/fall-2011/straight-talk-about-the-nword. Instructors need to be prepared to provide contextualization and have an open discussion about racist language in the classroom, especially as it could be confusing and distressing to students engaging with this repertoire. For instance, an important source of early Spirituals, Slave Songs of the United States, contains several works with offensive texts. One must acknowledge this issue in advance so students can have a better context for conversation about why this collection was created, by whom, and what was included.

By having students read the printed introduction to Slave Songs instructors can show how race and the racialized understanding of Black music in mid-19th century USA was governed by white paradigms, even if the preservation and publication of this repertoire was well-intentioned by the editors of this volume.

See Slave Songs of the United States, William Francis Allen, Charles Pickard Ware, and Lucy McKim Garrison, eds. (New York: A. Simpson & Co., 1867). https://archive.org/details/ slavesongsunite00allegoog/page/n9/mode/2up.

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https://www.mlagmusic.com/research/beyond-elijah-rock, https://inclusiveearlymusic.org/, composersofcolor.hcommons. org, and https://www.musicbyblackcomposers.org/resources/ music-theory/.

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recordings. 3 There is a historical precedent of ignoring representations of others that has created entrenched patterns of historical and scholarly invisibility. The perception is that these othered identity groups did not exist, did not participate, or had no significance. This leads to the misguided focus on white composers and performers without addressing the structural barriers that were constructed for those of other backgrounds. Efforts to improve this issue are ongoing, but there is still a serious imbalance of accessible and scholarly research on topics beyond the canonic repertoire.4 Fortunately, unprecedented access to online databases and encyclopedic websites has supplemented much of the basic biographical detail that was inaccessible a few short years ago.5 Both instructors and students need to be flexible and open to diverse ways of engaging with repertoire. If a score is not available, but a recording is, students should still be challenged to generate reasonable analyses of repertoire by ear. Similarly, if a score is available and there is no recording, students can still engage meaningfully with the music. This is a skill that a conductor can use beyond the classroom as they become sophisticated interpreters of the music they perform.

completely rethink what is taught and how. Thus, in this article are some suggestions to inspire a broader renovation of the choral literature curriculum. The remainder of this essay highlights techniques, methodologies, and frameworks that may help enable others to create their own inclusive pedagogy or scholarship. Detailed descriptions of my own research and classroom instruction are intended to inspire others to create their own instructional modules and design courses within already existing research or individual expertise. Remember that one is only limited by creativity, so these examples serve only to help an instructor find a path towards more inclusive courses.

The following examples fall into three methodologies based upon the greater learning goals for choral literature courses—Theoretical Frameworks, Teaching Using Musical Repertory, and Teaching Genres or Topics Instead of Chronology. Each unit is designed to make historical connections between works and stylistic eras already familiar to students. Each two-class module is multi-layered and designed around basic principles of educational objectives.6 The first class of each unit typically consists of a lecture providing background for the students (historical contexts, concurrent social or political events, art movements, etc.) and time for guided in-class listening and conversation with modeling for ethical discussion and analysis. An at-home reading, listening, and/or response is guided by “questions to ponder.” The second class of the unit includes presentations of repertoire or student-led conversations, with instructor follow-up on the topic.

The ideal of a more inclusive curriculum may sound hopelessly optimistic. Instructors have neither infinite resources nor infinite time to

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Elizabeth Schauer, Director of Choral Activities at the University of Arizona, addressed these issues when recently redesigning their choral literature sequence. I am grateful to her for sharing her syllabi and other materials with me at the National Collegiate Choral Organization’s conference panel “Expanding the Canon” (NCCO9 online 2022).

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For instance, Grove Music Online is slowly adding and expanding its entries, but it is a massive task to keep thousands of records up to date even in its online incarnation.

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Some helpful online sources are Marques Garrett, “Beyond Elijah Rock: Non-Idiomatic Choral Music of Black Composers,” https:// www.mlagmusic.com/research/beyond-elijah-rock; Composers of Color Resource Project, https://composersofcolor.hcommons.org/; “Diversity in Music Theory,” Music by Black Composers, https:// www.musicbyblackcomposers.org/resources/music-theory/; and Inclusive Early Music, https://inclusiveearlymusic.org/.

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It is imperative that there be ample time for meaningful followup and discussion, not only at the unit level, but throughout the semester, especially for more challenging topics that engage with racism, anti-Semitism, colonialism, or any other issues that might arise.

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Unit Module: Theoretical Frameworks

minority culture by members of a dominant culture. By teaching about cultural appropriation and ways to recognize when elements of a marginalized community are unsuitably borrowed, instructors can help students to think about ways in which cultures or identities that are not their own can be fairly and respectfully represented.

Although it may be tempting to begin a choral literature course by diving right into musical repertoire, it might be more fruitful to establish at the outset theoretical frameworks that students can focus on over the semester. Instead of describing repertoire through a traditional, chronologically unfolding, linear, and genealogical approach, shift attention to historically layered thinking. Early in the semester, establish a position that enables you to take apart long held assumptions about the “norms” of the canon. Have students read and then discuss a series of articles about theoretical issues that engage with institutional racism, colonialism and post-colonialism, tokenism, or cultural appropriation. Bring in repertoire as appropriate but begin the conversation to help students see what or whom may have historically been neglected or marginalized.

Recently the issue of cultural appropriation arose when Tanya Tagaq, an Inuk singer and songwriter, criticized Caroline Shaw for the use of katajjaq (traditional Inuit throat singing) in her Pulitzer Prize winning Partita for 8 Voices, created for the vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth.7 One of Shaw’s compositional techniques is to explore a vast range of vocal timbres and she utilizes many kinds of vocal practices in all her works.

Most of these techniques have distinctive cultural and ethnic identities including Tuvan throat singing, Korean p’ansori, and Georgian choral vocalisms. See Figure 1 for Shaw’s notation of these elements in Partita.

Below are several suggestions for more detailed units that are designed to engage with theoretical frameworks that one might consider including in a choral literature course.

Tagaq’s complaint about Partita is simple: katajjaq belongs to Inuit women from the Arctic Circle and not to Shaw or the performers in Roomful of Teeth. Shaw’s use of the singing technique was problematic because there had been neither explicit recognition of the culture from which it originated nor any sufficient compensation for its use. Taking this music out of the mouths of Inuit women is particularly harmful because the originating culture is in danger of extinction.

After this confrontation by Tagaq, Roomful of Teeth has been carefully conscious of

• Examining the White Racial Frame: What is Institutional Racism?

• The Problem of Canons and Recentering the Curriculum • Music’s Relationship to Colonization and Post-Colonialism • Cultural Appropriation and Interculturality • Tokenism: Music Education and Marketing by Choral Music Publishers

7

Jane George, “Acclaimed American choir slammed for use of Inuit throat singing,” Nunatsiaq News, 23 October 2019, https:// nunatsiaq.com/stories/article/acclaimed-american-choirslammed-for-use-of-inuit-throat-singing/. See also a response to the controversy by Will Roseliep, “What’s mine is mine, what’s yours is ….” Classical Dark Arts, 30 November 2019, https:// classicaldarkarts.com/2019/11/30/whats-mine-is-mine-whatsyours-is/ Although the score for Partita is not yet commercially available, a video of Roomful of Teeth performing the work in 2016 can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=NDVMtnaB28E&feature=emb_logo.

Cultural appropriation and interculturality An important conversation to have with students is one that engages with the inappropriate or unacknowledged adoption of elements of a 13

Figure 1. Caroline Shaw Partita: “A few notes on the less-usual notes…” 8

These are textured breaths, related to the Inuit throat singing tradition.

They are featured primarily in Courante.

Audible exhale. Typically on “ah” Audible inhale. Typically higher in pitch, and on “oh” An inhale-exhale gesture, as in Inuit throat games. These can be more or less “noisy” depending on the dynamic context.

A gentle, natural close-mouthed sigh, glissing up to the pitch that follows.

It is an abstraction of a P’ansori articulation. stretch pitch slightly in either direction, drawing from the intonation of Georgian singing an expressive P’ansori gesture, involving diaphragm accentuation and pitch inflection

acknowledging the “singers and teachers that have inspired [their] creativity, strengthened [their] 8 instruments, and expanded [their] understanding of what’s vocally possible…” from death metal to yodeling.9 Included on their list of master teachers is Akinisie Sivuarapik, an ambassador of Inuit culture and a teacher of throat singing to young people in Nunavik and Nunavut.

the score, addressing the wide variety of vocal timbres and techniques that marks Shaw’s fruitful and interesting collaboration with Roomful of Teeth for many years now. Partita is an excellent example of what the human voice is capable of, and consequently is entrancing. Shaw manipulates textures throughout in a fashion that makes all the sounds, even a quotation of the old American hymn “Shining Shore,” sound completely new and refreshing.11 But, recognizing the distinctive resonance of the katajjaq-style singing in Partita, one is obliged to share this First Nations tradition and to foreground a tragically hidden and consciously destroyed history of a living indigenous culture of North America.12

Shaw’s justification of the use of katajjaq in Partita felt somewhat defensive and has not entirely satisfied Tagaq.10 But teaching about this controversy allows instructors to help guide students through a thoughtful analysis of 8

Caroline Shaw, Partita for 8 Voices, ([unpublished reference score], 2009–2012), 9. For information about licensing please visit Caroline Shaw Editions: https://caroline-shaw-editions. myshopify.com/.

9

11

Further information about “Shining Shore” can be found in the Hymnary.org database, https://hymnary.org/text/my_days_are_ gliding_swiftly_by.

https://www.roomfulofteeth.org/the-organization

12 Some examples of First Nations people performing katajjaq are available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=DLMlkjnYe0U&t=117s (with commentary); https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnGM0BlA95I.

10

Public statement by Brad Wells, artistic director of Roomful of Teeth, and Caroline Shaw, singer and composer, https://www. scribd.com/document/431605620/Public-Statement.

14

Classroom Activity 1

have observed initially in class. Students should be able to identify p’ansori and the vocal timbre of Georgian singing.15

Have students listen to Caroline Shaw’s Partita for 8 Voices.13 While listening, students can write down descriptions of what could be described as “extended vocal techniques” as well as any musical events that might sound like borrowed material.

Assign the readings, “Acclaimed American choir slammed for use of Inuit throat singing,” and “What’s mine is mine, what’s yours is ….” in preparation for an in-class discussion.16 Graduate students or advanced undergraduates should also read the essay “Decolonization is not a metaphor” for a more sophisticated problematization of the issue of non-indigenous use of indigenous art and culture.17

Discuss with the students what they noticed while listening and have them identify what be examples of extended vocal techniques (Sprechstimme; bright, belted, non-bel canto style singing; unfamiliar articulation of pitches; overtone singing; audible in-out breathing in hocket; growling; glottal exhale; vocal fry). Have them also discuss what they identify as borrowed or pre-existing material (titles of movements that look like they are from a baroque partita such as “Courante” and “Passacaglia”; fragments of an old American hymn).14

Classroom Activity 2 A second class session is recommended in order to discuss the issues raised after learning about cultural appropriation and the question of how one engages with musical borrowing. For instance, once the students are familiar with Tagaq and the practice of katajjaq, an instructor can guide a discussion about how they perceive the “Courante” of Partita and other kinds of borrowing Shaw includes in the work and if this might be considered cultural appropriation or not. Have a conversation about what is and who are at risk. Ask students to respond to the idea that not all music is “allowed” to be performed by everyone, but also ask to whom does the music belong and how one would know.

Explain that not all is as it seems. Play Karin and Kathy Kettler’s video that describes katajjaq and repeat a short section of the “Courante” movement. Discuss why one might describe this as an as “an extended vocal technique.” Start a conversation about the unspoken Euro-centric ideal of singing technique. Return to the list of extended techniques that students identified above and encourage them to consider that these might also be borrowed from cultural traditions outside of canonic norms.

Roomful of Teeth currently has a robust list of acknowledgments to master teachers who coach them on various singing styles. 18 Have

For Homework Share Shaw’s “A few notes on the less-usual notes …” (Figure 1, above.) Have students write about what they now hear in Partita that they may not 13

15

There are numerous examples of p’ansori available on YouTube, including the following with commentary: https://youtu.be/8Kt7 YdXsWzg?si=Dhs2cmT5UFWJ2Jeh (with commentary). Similarly, one can find many examples of Georgian vocal singing online such as the following performance: https://youtu.be/3M7YAfc1BU?si=4dQ7OCYqyIVL5TdI.

16 George, “Acclaimed American choir slammed for use of Inuit throat singing”; and Roselip, “What’s mine is mine.”

Roomful of Teeth performance, presented by Music

on Main and Push International Performing Arts Festival, 25 January 2016. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=NDVMtnaB28E&feature=emb_logo.

17 Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang, “Decolonization is not a metaphor,” Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society 1, no.

1 (2012): 1–40.

14

18 See the band’s website: https://www.roomfulofteeth.org/theorganization.

Some students may recognize overtone singing as a Mongolian or Tuvan practice.

15

students discuss if they think ensembles who perform music using traditional or indigenous vocal techniques owe anyone for their use in performance. Define the role of a culture bearer—one who resides within a specific culture and can responsibly share their expertise of that culture to those outside. Acknowledge that some vocal techniques can be shared cross culturally even if they are not ancestrally or geographically linked such as overtone singing or what in Western European art music is described as Sprechstimme. Take a moment to share examples of choral works that use these techniques like Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Stimmung (overtone singing), and Darius Milhaud’s Les Choephores or Krzysztof Penderecki’s St. Luke Passion (Sprechstimme). Also be sure to recognize that performers will arrive with their own ethnic or cultural heritage and may be able to share their experiences such as learning p’ansori or yodeling for fun.

American Suite are important not only in terms of representation but also because they focus on telling the untold stories of America’s past.21 If graduate students have been assigned the article “Decolonization is not a metaphor,” plan to discuss what postcoloniality is and the desire to erase the ugly history of colonization. Ask what might be lost when one ignores the unpleasant effects of colonizer/settler relationships with indigenous peoples and address the role music had/has in colonization.

Unit Module: Teaching by Musical Repertory As with the module on Theoretical Frameworks, an instructor can continue to work within a chronologically organized course sequence, but separate units into larger collections of repertory organized around a specific geographical location, historical event, or cultural community such as the following:

For follow up and conclusion of this unit after the discussion, the instructor can focus on cultural appropriation and where lines might be drawn between borrowed materials and collaborative creation made through the interaction with culture bearers. The goal in this discussion is to reveal shadow histories that can be obscured if a culture is only represented by appropriative borrowing within a Western art tradition. 19 Discuss strategies that students can find spaces for collaborations for indigenous composers and performers focusing on equal participation. For instance, Indigenous American composer Brent Michael Davids is an advocate for a process that is called “intercultural” or “transcultural.” 20 Davids’ works The Un-covered Wagon and Native

• Gospel Music: The Study of Music without a Score • “Non-idiomatic” Choral Music of Black Composers • Jewish Sacred Music from the 17th Century to the End of the 19th Century • Latin-American Music, Ancient and Modern • African Choralism 21

For more on Davids, see his webpage: https://filmcomposer. us/?fbclid=IwAR3osP4euInsIgegNGn-xjQ7YmSL4nQ60Ua4HJ7sJqupLUE6VNOtuNzp7M, as well as a separate site describing his ongoing project Requiem for America. See also Sarah Eyerly and Rachel Wheeler, “Music in Unexpected Places: Hearing New Histories of Early American Music,” in Sounding Together: Collaborative Perspectives on U.S. Music in the 21st Century, Charles Hiroshi Garrett and Carol J. Oja, eds., 21–50 (University of Michigan Press, 2021).

A starting point for those interested in exploring more choral repertoire by Native American composers can be found at Mary Daugherty’s website: https://marydaugherty.com/nativeamerican-choral-composers-; as well as Daugherty’s summary of her work with the New York Choral Consortium, https://www. newyorkchoralconsortium.org/diversity-in-action.

19 For the use of the term “shadow histories,” see Ayana O. Smith, “Editorial,” Eighteenth-Century Music 18, no. 2 (2021): 245–251 at 245. See also Ayana O. Smith, Inclusive Music Histories (Routledge, 2024), 12.

20 For more on the theory of interculturality and Native American music and musicians, see Dylan Robinson, Hungry Listening: Resonant Theory for Indigenous Sound Studies (Minnesota University Press, 2020).

16

Jewish sacred music from the 17th century to the end of the 19th century

restricting Jews to live in appointed areas and wear distinguishing clothing. In 1782 Emperor Joseph II announced the Edict of Tolerance, a set of religious reforms that not only allowed free movement of and worship by Protestant Christians within the Catholic empire but also marked the beginning of Jewish emancipation in Europe. It was during this new period of relative freedom when the Jews in Vienna were given permission to build the Seitenstettengasse Temple in Vienna where the composer and musician Salomon Sulzer was appointed as hazzan (cantor).24

In her book Inclusive Music Histories Ayana O. Smith presents an excellent class plan for discussing Jewish music in Europe from antiquity until the mid-17th century.22 Smith’s model for creating layered pathways by connecting multiple events across time allows her to contextualize 17th-century Mantuan composer Salamone Rossi’s position outside the restrictions of the ghetto and pair his work with those of his contemporaries.

The following module is designed to build on Smith’s design and to reveal the rich history of Jewish music in Europe extending from the time of Rossi until the end of the 19th century in a similar fashion.

One of Sulzer’s tasks for the new synagogue was to compile a massive two-volume set of sacred music. This collection, Shir Tziyon, incorporated many elements already a part of Jewish worship and was instrumental for establishing a framework for the various sections of musical rituals such as weekly Shabbat services and the observance of important Jewish holidays such as Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. Sulzer included hundreds of works that either he composed or he commissioned from his colleagues, including Joseph Drechsler (Kapellmeister at Vienna’s St. Stephens Cathedral) and Franz Schubert.25

Classroom Activity 1 An introduction to Jewish sacred music in the early 19 th century requires some historical contextualization.23 Instructors should address the inhospitable environment in Austria in the late 18 th century, including severe laws

22 23

Smith, Inclusive Music Histories, 1–6.

For background see the extensive and detailed article

on music and Judaism, Edwin Seroussi, et al., “Jewish music,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed 30 May 2024. https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/ view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo9781561592630-e-0000041322; as well as The Cambridge Companion to Jewish Music, Joshua S. Walden, ed. (Cambridge University Press, 2015); and websites such as The Jewish Music Research Center (Jerusalem), https://jewish-music.huji.ac.il/ en; Joshua Jacobson, Jewish Choral Music, jewishchoralmusic. com; and The Milken Archive of Jewish Music, https://www. milkenarchive.org/. For an introduction to Jewish choral repertoire see Joshua R. Jacobson, “Great Choral Classics You’ve Never Heard Of,” The Choral Journal 60, no. 5 (2019): 20–37; and Neal Zaslaw, “Choral Music in the Liturgy: Synagogue Music Rediscovered,” American Choral Review. Part I: 14, no. 2 (1972): 21–28; Part II: 14, no. 3 (1972): 30–35. An immeasurably useful resource for translations, transliterations, and pronunciation of Hebrew as well as a simple yet comprehensive explanation of Jewish worship services is Ethan Nash with Joshua Jacobson, Translations and annotations of choral repertoire, volume VI: Hebrew Texts (earthsongs, 2009).

24 Coreen Duffy, “‘So Wild and Strange a Harmony’ Synagogue Choral Music of Salomon Sulzer,” The Choral Journal 53, no.

9 (2013): 28–39. Sulzer (1804–1890) was Oberkantor of the new Vienna synagogue, known as the Stadttemple or the Seitenstettengasse Temple, from its dedication in 1826 until 1881.

25 Joshua R. Jacobson, “Franz Schubert and the Vienna Synagogue,” The Choral Journal 38, no. 1 (1997): 9–15; Sulzer had also communicated with Ludwig van Beethoven about an unrealized project for the synagogue. See Peter Gradenwitz, “Ludwig van Beethoven und die hebräische Liturgie,” Menora: Jahrbuch für deutsch-jüdische Geschichte 2 (1991): 215–244.

17

In-Class Listening and Discussion

direct consultation with Sulzer. 28 The text of Psalm 92 is typically said at the beginning of Sabbath services and Sulzer indicates that this setting is appropriate for “particularly solemn occasions.”29

Salomon Sulzer Psalm 111 “Halleluyoh” (version with or without harp ad lib.)26 Sulzer’s setting of Psalm 111 with a cantorial-style solo—possibly sung

by Sulzer himself—resembles the traditional practice of Jewish music for worship. Yet, the choral writing is very clearly in an early 19th-century style in its arrangement for four mixed voices as well as its harmonic language.

For both psalm settings, situate the texts, the music, and the stylistic features in terms mid19th century vocal part writing. Consider if there are any notable compositional issues that may have been particular for use in Jewish worship, especially the solo voices that may have been intended for a cantor. Psalm settings are used in both Jewish worship and all types of Christian worship, so have students consider if these pieces could be appropriate for use elsewhere with a German or a Latin text.

Franz Schubert Psalm 92 “Tov Lehodos”27 Schubert composed his setting of Psalm 92 in Hebrew, scored for unaccompanied SATB choir and SATB quartet. Having Cantor Sulzer in mind, he also included a cantorial-style baritone solo. As with Sulzer’s Psalm 111, Psalm 92’s style is evocative of the homophonic part songs that were then popular in Vienna. It is not likely that Schubert knew Hebrew, so this setting was probably made in

For Homework30 For this assignment students prepare an in-class presentation on a work of their choosing from a pre-selected list of repertoire that is related to the unit and submit research materials such as a bibliography of scores and recordings and a score analysis (see a list of suggested repertoire and rubrics below). The primary task is to explore new repertoire by finding scores, recordings, translations, a transliteration of the text if in Hebrew (and consider how to pronounce the text—Sephardi versus Ashkenazi or others), and information about the context of the text (use during worship or another festive event; festival/ holiday being celebrated).31

26 Recording: Majesty of Holiness: Masterworks from the Great Nineteenth-Century Synagogues of Berlin, Paris, and Vienna, Zamir Chorale of Boston, Joshua Jacobson, HZ912-CD. Notes and translations for Zamir Chorale’s recording are available on their website: https://zamir.org/wp-content/uploads/ mp3/912-ProgramNotes.pdf. Scores: Salomon Sulzer, Schir Zion, 2: gottesdienstliche Gesänge der Israeliten (Engel & Sohn, 1865), No. 389: 252–258. http://sammlungen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/ freimann/content/titleinfo/1365040; and Salomon Sulzer, Schir Zion: Gesänge für den israelitischen Gottesdienst, ed. Joseph Sulzer (Kaufmann, 1905), No. 493: 401–414; with additional harp ab lib. http://sammlungen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/freimann/content/ titleinfo/1364256. It is not known if Joseph Sulzer’s edition, published after his father’s death, reflect his own arrangements or revisions that his father had made late in his life. This may be particularly relevant to the inclusion of an organ part for accompaniment as well as other instrumental additions reflecting continuing modernization of musical practices in synagogues. Text and Translation: Nash and Jacobson, Hebrew Texts, 88–90.

28 29

Jacobson, “Schubert and the Vienna Synagogue,” 13.

Sulzer, Tzir Zion 1, 28: “Bei besonders feierlichen Gelegenheiten.”

27

Recording: Majesty of Holiness, Zamir Chorale; Scores: Salomon Sulzer, ed., Schir Zion, 1: gottesdienstliche Gesänge der Israeliten (Engel & Sohn, 1865), No. 6: 28–32. http://sammlungen.ub.unifrankfurt.de/freimann/content/titleinfo/1364812; and Sulzer, Schir Zion, ed. Joseph Sulzer (1905), No. 2: 514–517. Text and Translation: Nash and Jacobson, Hebrew Texts, 149–152.

30 This project is modeled on one Elizabeth Schauer has created for her students at the University of Arizona.

31 If translations are not published with the score, students can also look at CD liner notes and/or consult Nash and Jacobson, Translations and annotations: Hebrew Texts.

18

For in-class presentations, students should prepare the following:

Carlo Grossi (ca. 1634–1688) Cantata ebraica in dialogo “Achai verenai” 168133 This cantata was composed for the lay religious organization “The Sentinels of the Dawn” in the well-off Jewish community of Modena.

• Brief overview of composer (no more than 5 minutes) including: • Bulleted bio • Summary of works and genres • Categorization of works within genre type with examples including: • Compositional characteristics of the group of works • Compositional characteristics of the composer

Benedetto Giacomo Marcello (1686–1739) Psalm 18: Coeli enarrant “I cieli immensi narrano” from Estro poetico-armonico, volume 3, 172434 Marcello set each verse of Psalm 18 as a separate movement, some of which were freely composed, and others based upon a cantus prius factus that have remarkable origins. 35 The 1724 print includes transcriptions of these original melodies.36 In Verse 8, Marcello borrowed a Venetian setting of a hymn for the festival of Simchat Torah. Interestingly, the transcription of the Hebrew melody is notated from right to left to correspond to the Hebrew text. This is different from the prints of Salamone Rossi’s works, where each word is written in its right-to-left order in Hebrew, but the music is notated

• List of performing forces • Overall outline/analysis of the work (melodic and textural materials, movements if appropriate, texts, text sources, key areas, forces, form, texture, issues regarding origin) • Detailed analysis of one movement of the work, especially to demonstrate stylistic characteristics • Performing suggestions if appropriate (not performing decisions to be made) • Links to recordings and scores/score research • Bibliography including sources and critical editions in which the works are found

33

Recording: Musique Judeo-Baroque, Boston Camerata. Score: Carlo Grossi, Cantata ebraïca in dialogo, voce sola e chore, ed. Israel Adler (Israeli Music Publications, 1965); images of the title page and table of contents of the 1681 print are available here: https:// cantataitaliana.it/scheda/5548. Text and Translation: Nash and Jacobson, Hebrew Texts, 67–69.

Suggested works for presentation:

34

Recording: Benedetto Marcello: Salmi, Il Continuo, Isidoro Gusberti, Datum, DAT80022, 2018.This is not the highest quality recording production, but this might be an opportunity to challenge someone to create a more improved version. Score: Benedetto Marcello, Estro poetico-armonico Parafrasi sopra Salmi 1724–1726, ed. Maria Antonietta Cancellaro and Andrea Coen, Vol. 3 of 8 (Ut Orpheus, 2013). Text (in Italian) and Translation: https://www.normanjanis.com/marcellos-settings-of-psalms.

Louis Saladin (17th century) Canticum hebraicum32 Canticum hebraicum was a commissioned from Saladin for the celebration of a circumcision in a 17th-century Provençal Jewish community.

35

Eleanor Selfridge-Field with Edwin Seroussi and Don Harrán, “Marcello Psalms,” Center for Computer Assisted Research in the Humanities, 2017, https://wiki.ccarh.org/wiki/Marcello_Psalms.

32

Recording: Musique Judeo-Baroque: Rossi. Saladin. Grossi.

Boston Camerata, Joel Cohen. Harmonia Mundi: HMA 1901021, 1988. Score: Louis Saladin, Canticum Hebraicum, ed. Israel Adler (Israeli Music Publications, 1965). Text and Translation: Nash and Jacobson, Hebrew Texts, 69–71.

36 Original print by Domenico Lovisa, Venice 1724 at IMSLP https://imslp.org/wiki/Estro_poetico-armonico_(Marcello%2C_ Benedetto).

19

from left to right.37 Verse 15 is based on the “Hymn to Demeter” attributed to Homer. In the final verse, Marcello constructed his composition upon the 8th ecclesiastical tone in a cantus firmus style reminiscent of polyphony composed in the previous century. The print includes an incipit of the chant melody using square chant notation.

praise suitable for the morning service for Sabbaths and Festivals.

Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791–1864) Hallelujah (before 1815)42

Abraham Caceres (fl. 1718–1738) Hishqi hizqi between 1720 and 174038

Samuel Naumbourg (1817–1880) Etz chayim44

Meyerbeer probably intended the Germantexted “little cantata” Hallelujah for the private reformist synagogue in Berlin that was led by his father, Judah Herz Beer.43

At the time of his appointment as first hazzan of the Paris Jewish Synagogue, Naumbourg was commissioned to compile a definitive Jewish musical service which resulted in his monumental 3-volume Zemirot Yisroel (vols. I–II, 1847; vol. III, 1857). These collections comprise mainly his own compositions, but Naumbourg, like Sulzer, invited other composers to make their own contributions to his compendia, including Fromental Halévy and Meyerbeer.

Caceres was a Dutch-Jewish composer working in Amsterdam, an unusual center of religious tolerance in the 18th century.39 The short Hishqi hizqi was composed in commemoration of the 1675 dedication of the Great Synagogue in the city.

Cristiano Giuseppe Lidarti (1730–after 1793) Be-fi yesharim40 Like Caceres, Lidarti was associated with the Portuguese Jewish community in Amsterdam.41 Be-fi yesharim is a song of 42

Recording: Giacomo Meyerbeer Hallelujah: The Choral Works, Rheinische Kantorei; Hermann Max, dir.; Published by CPO (NX.555065-2), 2016. Score: Giacomo Meyerbeer, Hallelujah (Schott, 2013). Text and Translation: Liner notes to Giacomo Meyerbeer Hallelujah.

37

Joshua Jacobson addresses the orthographic issues of prints of Rossi’s music in Joshua Jacobson, “Salamone Rossi’s Synagogue Motets The 400th Anniversary,” The Choral Journal 63, no. 2 (2022): 9–23 at 12.

38

Recording: Dove in the Clefts of the Rock: Synagogal Music in the Baroque, The Jewish Music Research Centre, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, AMTI CD 9401, 1994. Score: Oeuvres du répertoire de la communauté portugaise d’Amsterdam, ed.

Israel Adler, Vol 4 (Israeli Music Publications, 1965). Text and Translation: Israel Adler, liner notes to Dove in the Clefts of the Rock. https://online.fliphtml5.com/hbkid/riig/#p=1.

43

The Grove Music Online entry for Meyebeer mentions his Jewish heritage and includes the cantata Hallelujah on his works list but has no other discussion about his musical relationship to Judaism. Instead, more information on Meyerbeer’s Hallelujah and his setting of the Sabbath text Uvnucho yomar can be found in the article by Edwin Seroussi, et al., “Jewish music,” Grove Music Online (2001). Uvnucho yomar was published in Samuel Naumbourg’s compendium Zemirot Yisroel under the title Le-shalosh regalim ye-la-yamim ha-nora’im, 2ème partie ([selfpublished],1847), No. 166, 206–208. https://sammlungen. ub.uni-frankfurt.de/freimann/content/titleinfo/1358784.

Naumbourg’s collection is discussed in more detail below. For more on the Beer synagogue see David Conway, Jewry in Music: Entry to the Profession from the Enlightenment to Richard Wagner (Cambridge University Press, 2012), 156–157.

39

“Caceres (Casseres), Abraham,” Jewish Virtual Library. https:// www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/caceres-casseres-abraham. For more detail about the Jewish community in Amsterdam see Miriam Bodian, Hebrews of the Portuguese nation: conversos and community in early modern Amsterdam (Indiana University Press, 1997).

40

Recording: Dove in the Clefts of the Rock. Score: Oeuvres du répertoire de la communauté portugaise d’Amsterdam, ed. Israel Adler, Vol. 2 (Israeli Music Publications, 1965). Text and Translation: Israel Adler, liner notes to Dove in the Clefts of the Rock. https://online.fliphtml5.com/hbkid/riig/#p=1.

44

Recording: Taste of Eternity—A Musical Shabbat, Part II: A Saturday Morning Service, Western Wind Vocal Ensemble, The Western Wind, WW-1899, 2008. Score: Samuel Naumbourg, Shire kodesh / Nouveau recueil de chants religieux à l’usage du culte Israëlite ([self-published], 1864), no. 88: 106. This edition is Naumbourg’s completely revised version (with a new title) of Volume I: “Sabbath Music” of his compendia Zemirot Yisroel. https://sammlungen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/freimann/content/ titleinfo/1359036. Text and Translation: https://zemirotdatabase. org/view_song.php?id=206.

41

Lidarti’s entry in Grove Music Online neither mentions his work with the Jewish community in Amsterdam nor includes any Hebrew-language pieces on his works list.

See Giudo Salvetti and Ellen Grolman Schlegel, “Lidarti, Christian Joseph,” Grove Music Online, 2001; Accessed 16 May. 2024. https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/ view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo9781561592630-e-0000016596.

20

• The Myth of Palestrina, Savior of polyphony

Louis Lewandowski (1821–1894) Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen (Psalm 84)45 or Halalujoh (Psalm 150)46

• Marianna Martines and her friends, Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Nichola Porpora, Pietro Metastasio, and Padre Martini

Polish-born Lewandowski was appointed music director and choirmaster of the Neue Synagogue on Orangenburgerstrasse in Berlin in 1866. 47 Lewandowski’s compositions in his collection Todah w’simrah (1876–1882) are still sung today in Reform and Orthodox synagogues.

The myth of Palestrina, Savior of Polyphony At first glance, a unit focused on music related to Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, the Council of Trent, and the Counter-Reformation may not appear to be the place to find much diversity. But deeper examination of the shadow histories of the traditional narratives of this period allows for a much broader and inclusive perspective of 16th– century music. In his 2002 article, “The council of Trent revisited,” Craig Monson argues that modern musicologists have misrepresented Palestrina as saving polyphony from banishment. 48 He demonstrates that there has been a long history of misrepresenting what impact the Council of Trent had—or perhaps did not have—on music. An indepth examination of repertoire of the period reveals that there was no one stylistic trend, such as the much-celebrated “pure” counterpoint of Palestrina that was favored by church musicians.

Current research on significant Catholic centers demonstrates that through the support of strong regional customs the repertoire of the late 16thcentury Counter-Reformation church was diverse and heterogenous.49

Unit Module: Teaching By Topic Instead of Chronology The advantage of teaching by a single genre is that most instructors already have a syllabus in hand. Creating a more inclusive syllabus is simply a matter of adjusting a few topics that are already part of the curriculum. Following is a list of suggested modules based upon genres or topics that can be transformed by more inclusive practices: • Spirituals and other part songs • The Choral Symphony: Beethoven to Bernstein • Depictions of Others in music: Orientalism and more • Teaching The Passion: From 18th century Leipzig to Black Lives Matter 45

Recording: Die Stimme der Synagoge, Louis Lewandowski: Liturgische Psalmen und Orgelpräludien, Vol. 1, Chor Peter und Paul, Knaben- und Jugendchor St. Michaelis, Andor Izsák, dir., Bella Musica 884463877917, 2016. Score: Louis Lewandowski, 18 Liturgische Psalmen, ed. Andor Izsák (Breitkopf & Härtel, 1994): 35–44. Text (in German). All the settings in Lewandowski’s 18 Liturgische Psalmen are in German, including Wie lieblich (Psalm 84). Note that there are variations of vocabulary that do not match the Luther-German Bible (and the better-known setting of this text in the Brahms Requiem). The themes of the text are similar despite the variation.

48

Craig A. Monson, “The council of Trent revisited,” Journal of the American Musicological Society 55, no. 1 (2002): 1–37.

49 Several modern studies demonstrate the influence of local councils and provincial synods over liturgical reforms after the Council of Trent in Salzburg, Dresden, Munich, Milan, and Venice.

These include C. Michael Porter, “Salzburg Chorbuch W.b. XIV Magnificat Traditions in Post-Tridentine Salzburg,” The Choral Scholar 3, no. 1 (2013): 17–44; Mary E. Frandsen, Crossing Confessional Boundaries: The Patronage of Italian Sacred Music in Seventeenth-Century Dresden (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006); David Crook, Orlando di Lasso’s Imitation Magnificats for Counter-Reformation Munich (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994), especially Chapter 2 “Sixteenth-Century Vespers Polyphony for the Bavarian Court, the Use of Freising, and the Tridentine Reforms,” 33–64; Christine Suzanne Getz, “Music and Patronage in Milan, 1535–1550, and Vincenzo Ruffo’s First Motet Book” (PhD diss., University of North Texas, 1991); and Lewis Lockwood, The Counter-Reformation and the Masses of Vincenzo Ruffo (Vienna: Universal Edition, 1970). Note in particular Lockwood’s comments about Venice’s musical practices and refusals to obey orders from the Papacy and its agents, 116.

46

Recording: Die Stimme der Synagoge. Score: Louis Lewandowski, Todah W’Simrah, Teil 2: Festgesänge (Bote & Bock, 1882), No. 202, 227–233. Text and Translation: Nash and Jacobson, Hebrew Texts, 87–88. Although principally in Hebrew, several works in Todah w’simrah are set with both Hebrew and German texts such as Psalm 150.

47

“Louis Lewandowski,” Jewish Choral Music. https://www. jewishchoralmusic.com/composers-bios/2019/6/24/louislewandowski

21

As Monson reveals, the eighteen-year-long council said a lot about church doctrine, but little about music. There were discussions that deplored music that obscured the text or was based upon secular and lascivious models, but these were never manifest as decrees by the Council. 50 Music and singing were only mentioned twice in the published texts of the Council.51 Other than suggesting that one should keep away from compositions where there is intermingling of the sacred with the impure, there was no mention of intelligibility of text or of any demonstration of well-composed polyphony by Palestrina.52

close to prohibiting polyphony for female religious orders. Cardinal Carlo Borromeo was not only actively interested in the issue of text intelligibility (as evidenced on correspondence) but was also concerned about the musical activities of nuns in his home diocese of Milan. Prior to and during the council, Borromeo had expressed grave concerns about the use of polyphony in convents, even to circulating proposals rejected by the council regarding monastic reform. 55 By the 1570s, Borromeo had moved toward an even more restrictive stance regarding nuns who continued to practice polyphonic singing and performance with instruments against his express directions.56 It is well documented that in the 16th and 17th centuries nuns were actively singing polyphony accompanied by instruments as well as the organ.

Evidence of the vibrant and active communities of women making music in convents not only in Milan, but also in Bologna, Siena, Ferrara, and colonial Peru, has been explored by several scholars and is worthy of further discussion in the choral literature classroom.57

Despite the Council of Trent’s relative lack of comment about music, teaching students about how music was discussed allows an interesting opportunity to problematize what one might assume about sacred music from the 16th century.

Instructors can take a closer look at Palestrina’s Agnus II of the Missa Papae Marcelli that defies the appeals for simplicity by setting it in seven voices with two parts created by canon. Students can also engage with any number of Palestrina’s masses based upon secular models.53

An additional topic that can be explored within the context of musical reform during the period of the Council of Trent is the 1551 dispute between theorists Nicola Vicentino and Vicente Lusitano

Another layer of complexity regarding the Council of Trent is that the values of those advocating for little or no polyphony were not the values of church musicians at large.54 Banning polyphony outright would be extremely difficult to enforce.

But one discussion at the Council of Trent came 50

55 56

Robert L. Kendrick, Celestial Sirens: Nuns and their Music in Early Modern Milan (Clarendon Press, 1996), 58–71.

57

Milan: Kendrick, Celestial Sirens. Bologna: Craig Monson, Disembodied Voices Music and Culture in an Early Modern Italian Convent (University of California Press, 1995), esp. 36–38; and Craig Monson, “Disembodied Voices: Music in the Nunneries of Bologna in the Midst of the Counter-Reformation,” in the Crannied Wall: Women, Religion, and the Arts in Early Modern Europe, ed.

Craig Monson (University of Michigan Press, 1992), 191–209.

Siena: Colleen Reardon, Holy Concord Within Sacred Walls: Nuns and Music in Siena, 1575–1700 (Oxford University Press, 2001).

Ferrara: Laurie Stras, Women and Music in Sixteenth Century Ferrara (Cambridge University Press, 2018); and Laurie Stras, “Sisters doing it for themselves: radical motets from a 16thcentury nunnery,” The Guardian, 10 March 2017. https://www. theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2017/mar/10/radical-motetsfrom-16th-century-nunnery-musica-secreta-lucrezia-borgia. Cusco, Peru: Geoffrey Baker, “Music in the Convents and Monasteries of Colonial Cuzco,” Latin American Music Review/Revista de Música Latinoamericana 24, no. 1 (2003): 1–41.

Monson, “The council of Trent,” 7–8.

51 The complete texts of the decrees can be found in English translation online. See Session XXII, https://en.wikisource.org/ wiki/Canons_and_Decrees_of_the_Council_of_Trent/Session_ XXII/Things_to_be_observed_and_to_be_avoided_in_the_ celebration_of_the_Mass and Session IV, https://en.wikisource. org/wiki/Canons_and_Decrees_of_the_Council_of_Trent/Session_ XXIV/Reformation.

52 53

Monson, “The council of Trent,” 11–12 and 26.

For instance, Palestrina’s Missa Già fu chi m’ebbe cara, two settings based on Io mi son giovinetta, Missa Je suis deshéritée, two setting on L’homme armé, Missa Nasce la gioia mia, Missa Petra sancta (based on Palestrina’s madrigal Io son ferito), Missa Qual è il più grand’ amor?, Missa Quando lieta sperai, and Missa Vestiva i colli.

54

Monson, “The council of Trent,” 27.

See footnote 49 above.

22

about the use of chromaticism.58 Another topic is the intensified fervor of post-Tridentine Catholics to spread Christianity to colonized regions around the world.59 The conversion of indigenous people was both essential for colonization as well as the justification for colonization. Music was central to Catholic rites and rituals and was a key element of conversion. Music was brought by missionaries from Europe in the form of composed and printed sources, and musicians traveled alongside soldiers and priests, teaching instrumental performance, singing, and the rudiments of theory and composition to indigenous peoples and African slaves. Occasionally new music was created by and for indigenous peoples, preserved with texts in their native languages, but also with significant erasure of their pre-colonial musical practices and identity.60 See below for a list of composers that students can research for an in-class presentation on these topics.

A discussion about Counter-Reformation motets and villancicos and their relationship to Christianized colonialism can generate an interesting space for students to examine questions about race and religion. While making space for analysis of repertoire (contrapuntal differences between imitative counterpoint and homophonic chorale; text expression before the seconda prattica; emergence of chromatic motion and unresolved dissonance), the narrative can be shifted out of a Euro-centric orbit. One must remain honest about the issues of colonialism, but the conversation can include the involvement of historically underrepresented groups in music such as women, people of African descent, Indigenous Americans, and others.

One word of caution must be said about a specific subgenre of the villancico, known as the villancico negro. Students may encounter texts that feature stereotypical characters speaking distinctive and invented “dialects” that were intended to parody African slaves speaking in Spanish.61 They also often include strongly syncopated rhythms and other musical elements that depicted the music and dance of Black people. Notable also are the typically high tessituras of the voice parts that may indicate that they were sung by choirboys, sometimes in blackface. 62 It is advised that students examine these works in detail only after having a serious conversation about racialized caricature and mockery.63

58

Lusitano did not consider his highly chromatic motet Heu mihi to be performable. Instead, this was a model for how not to compose properly. Heu mihi does not appear on Lusitano’s works list in Grove Music Online as the editors treat it as a theoretical example instead of a composed work, just as one would treat an example in a modern music theory textbook.

Bonnie J. Blackburn, Garrett Schumann, and Joseph McHardy, “Lusitano, Vicente,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed 31 May 2024. https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/ view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo9781561592630-e-0000017205.

Lusitano’s name has been better recognized recently as he is often proclaimed as the first published Black composer. Robert Stevenson, “The First Black Published Composer,” Inter-American Music Review 5, no.1 (1982): 79–103; and Garrett Schumann, “A Black Composer’s Legacy Flourishes 500 Years After His Birth,” The New York Times, 5 January 2023. https://www.nytimes. com/2023/01/05/arts/music/vincente-lusitano.html. Lusitano is described in contemporary sources as a “pardo,” a Portuguese word for a person of color. For more on this term see Esperança Cardeira, “Preto and negro, pardo, mestiço, mulato,” in Colour and Colour Naming: Crosslinguistic Approaches, eds. João Paulo Silvestre, Esperança Cardeira, and Alina Villalva (Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, 2016).

61

Sometimes these works are called villancico negro, negrillas, negro, guineo, or negrito, but not every problematic work is clearly identified as such. Care should be taken to review all texts before assigning a villancico to a student for presentation.

59 The Society of Jesus, also known as the Jesuits, was formed in 1540 during the height of the Council of Trent, and almost immediately departed Europe for missions to Portuguese India (Goa) and Macau, China.

62 E. Thomas Stanford, “Negrilla,” Grove Music Online (2001).

Accessed 29 May 2024. https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/ grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo9781561592630-e-0000019692.

60

Ireri E. Chávez-Bárcenas’ forthcoming book Singing in the City of the Angels: Race, Identity, and Devotion in Early Modern Puebla de los Ángeles, an expansion of her 2018 dissertation from Princeton University, addresses the complexities of the multi-racial formation of a post-Trindentine religious community in Puebla, Mexico. See also Cesar D. Favila, Immaculate Sounds: The Musical Lives of Nuns in New Spain (Oxford University Press, 2023).

63 Instructors can prepare for this discussion by reading Smith’s chapter on representational tropes in Inclusive Music Histories, paying particular attention to the graphic “From Mimesis to Mockery” on page 41. One can frame the examination of the villancico negro in the same way that one might frame blackface performances of minstrel music.

23

Classroom Activity 1

by the intersection of music from Iberia and that of enslaved Africans. Have students note in the text where there are examples of parody, caricature, or mockery of African languages.

Discuss how the characters are portrayed (noble and respectful or behaving inappropriately).

Problematize these issues further by describing how these songs were likely performed by choirboys with blackened faces.

For this unit, students should read in advance Monson’s “The Council of Trent Revisited.” In class, discuss the myth of Palestrina addressing what one might assume about Palestrina’s music and his role as the “savior of polyphony.”

Encourage students to rethink the concept of “High Renaissance Style.” Address the heterogenous trends in music composed for Catholic use after the Council of Trent. Note that the proposed prohibitions on polyphony in worship were eventually omitted in the final version of the canons despite several proposals to the contrary.

For Homework Student Presentation Assignment: For homework, students can prepare an in-class presentation of a piece to share with their colleagues. See the rubrics for presentations described above in the unit on Jewish sacred music. As with that assignment, the challenge is to bring together information on the composer if known, their cultural milieu, corresponding historical events, and a brief description the work.

Listen to some examples of sacred music used in Catholic services from around the time of the Council of Trent (1545–1563). Start with movements from Palestrina’s Missa Papae Marcelli (the Kyrie in imitative counterpoint; the Gloria, with more prominent homorhythmic textures and sections in a reduced number of voices; and the seven-voice Agnus Dei II in canon). Also listen to more progressive motets such as Orlande de Lassus Timor et tremor, Claude Le Jeune Tristitia obsedit me, Adrian Willaert Lauda Jerusalem, or Andrea Gabrieli Benedicamus Dominum à 12.

Compare different compositional techniques and have students discuss how each of these works might (or might not) exemplify a mid-16thcentury concern for clarity of text and simplicity of counterpoint.

Classroom Activity 2 For the unit on the Council of Trent, instructors can suggest works that are representative of more inclusive research especially music composed by underrepresented ethnicities and women, recognizing that a work composed in Puebla or Lima may simply be a transferal of the same Western European musical sensibilities heard in Madrid or Porto.

• Suor Leonora d’Este (Ferrarese nun)

For students who are sufficiently prepared to have a sensitive and mature conversation about caricature and mockery, read the text of and listen to Antonya, Flaciquia, Gasipá.64 Consider what elements of the music may have been influenced

• Compare and contrast the use of chromaticism in the music of Lusitano and Vincentino (or Cipriano de Rore, Orlande de Lassus, Luzzasco Luzzaschi, Luca Marenzio, Carlo Gesualdo)

64

Recording: Villancicos y Danzas Criollas de la Iberia Antigua al Nuevo Mundo 1550–1750, La Capella Reial de Catalunya and Hespèrion XXI, Jordi Savall, dir., Alia Vox, AV9834, 2003. Text (in Spanish): “Guineos, Negros, Negrillas o Villancico de Negros,” MusicaAntigua, 26 Dec 2023. https://musicaantigua.com/guineosnegros-negrillas-o-villancico-de-negros/

• Manuel de Sumaya (Mexico) • Ignacio Jerúsalem (Mexico)

24

• Juan Gutiérrez Padilla (Mexico)

analyze and identify previously neglected works by composers of color, female composers, composers who are LGBTQ+, and other underrepresented communities. Finally, establish best practices for writing about, talking about, and performing music that expands the canon into one that is more diverse, more equitable, and more inclusive.

• Manuel José de Quirós (Guatemala) • Rafael Antonio Castellanos (Guatemala) • Gaspar Fernandes (Guatemala, Mexico) • José Cascant (Colombia) • Juan de Araujo (Peru)

— Carolann Buff

• Tomás de Torrejón y Velasco (Peru)

Carolann Buff is a scholar, teacher, and musician regarded for both her research on late medieval motets and expertise in historical performance. Her principal research interests include 14th- and early 15th-century musical style, but she is equally at home in the study of choral music repertoires from all eras. Her dissertation, “Ciconia’s Equal-Cantus Motets and the Creation of Early-Fifteenth-Century Style,” and her essay “The Italian Job: Ciconia, Du Fay, and the Musical Aesthetics of the FifteenthCentury Italian Motet” (in Qui musicam in se habet: Essays in Honor of Alejandro Enrique Planchart), explore the motet genre in the period between the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the musical Renaissance. As conductor, Buff has led performances as far afield as Aix-en-Provence, France, at the 12th-century Silvacane Abbey and in the UK at St. Alban’s Abbey, Lichfield Cathedral, and Westminster Abbey. As a vocalist, she is a founding member of the renowned medieval trio Liber unUsualis, heard on their critically acclaimed CDs Unrequited: Machaut and the French Ars Nova and Flyleaves: Music in English Manuscripts.

She has toured internationally with the Boston Camerata, the Waverly Consort, Renaissance choir Cut Circle, and the women’s ensemble Tapestry.

Buff is an assistant professor of music in choral conducting at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and an affiliate with the Historical Performance Institute. Previously assistant professor of choral musicology at Westminster Choir College of Rider University, Buff holds a Ph.D. and an M.A. in Musicology from Princeton University, an M.M. in Early Music Performance from Longy School of Music, and a B.M. in Vocal Performance from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

• Mission music of California • Works from the Oaxaca codex, Trujillo manuscript, or Coimbra collection • For students who have discussed the villancico negro, they could explore some other negrillas represented on recordings such as Hespèrion XXI’s Villancicos y Danzas Criollas de la Iberia Antigua al Nuevo Mundo 1550–1750 Conclusion An instructor wishing to expand the canon of a choral literature curriculum should keep in mind that a syllabus includes learning outcomes not tied to content but upon skills learned. The ultimate goal is that students gain insight as to why a musical work’s history is important and to be able to articulate their understanding through oral presentations or scholarly writing. Although it is a challenge to overcome hundreds of years of prejudice, increased inclusion of underrepresented composers and performers is important work.

A bit of effort on everyone’s part will begin to dismantle the walls of racism, misogyny, and homophobia that limits understanding of music and musical cultures. Challenge students to identify and discuss the racialized perception of the evolution of music, especially in terms of a biased understanding of Western European art music. Explore the terminology associated with the historical development of music and how that is linked to a white racial frame. Take the time to 25

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Die Stimme der Synagoge, Louis Lewandowski: Liturgische Psalmen und Orgelpräludien, Vol. 1, Chor Peter und Paul, Knaben- und Jugendchor St. Michaelis, Andor Izsák, dir., Bella Musica 884463877917, 2016.

Taste of Eternity—A Musical Shabbat, Part II: A Saturday Morning Service, Western Wind Vocal Ensemble, The Western Wind, WW-1899, 2008.

Villancicos y Danzas Criollas de la Iberia Antigua al Nuevo Mundo 1550–1750, La Capella Reial de Catalunya and Hespèrion XXI, Jordi Savall, dir., Alia Vox, AV9834, 2003.

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Choral Reviews Nathan Reiff, editor

Rauði Riddarinn (2005, rev. 2018)

Perhaps Þorsteinsson’s most famous work is Rauði Riddarinn, or Red Rider. The work was composed in 2005 for the Flensborgarkórinn, an ensemble associated with the Flensborgarskólinn, a school in Hafnarfjörður, Iceland. The text was written

by Davið Stefánsson, a poet from the 20th century who is well-known in Iceland. Rauði Riddarinn is from his book of poetry entitled Ný kvæði (New Poems), which was published in 1929.

Hreiðar Ingi Þorsteinsson SATB divisi / SA divisi / TB divisi (c. 2”) Text: Icelandic, Davíð Stefánsson

Thorsteinsson Publishing Recording: Philharmonic Choir of Iceland and Magnús Ragnarsson

The short text in three verses deals with “a rider in red clothing, riding a pink horse” with “smoldering scythe in hand,” bringing to mind the horses and riders from the Biblical Book of Revelation.

Following a first and second verse introducing the character and depicting its “spread throughout the lands,” the third verse concludes with the rider victorious—“the rider raids the home, blood drips from the scythe.” Rauði Riddarinn’s graphic and frightening text make it appropriate for thematic programming on ghosts or fantastic monsters, or perhaps as a more serious reflection upon humankind’s most disturbing tendencies.

Full Score Preview (all voicings)

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ne of Iceland’s prominent conductors and composers is Hreiðar Ingi Þorsteinsson (b. 1978), who currently serves as the Choir Director at Menntaskólinn við Hamrahlið, a leading secondary school in Reykjávik. He is only the second director of the nationally renowned group, having been in the position since 2017. Þorsteinsson is also the conductor of Ægisif and Kammerkórinn Huldur, leading chamber ensembles based in Reykjavík.

The work is cleverly crafted in a verse-chorusverse-chorus format, akin to a modern pop song, while making use of schematic elements common to epic Icelandic poetry—this creates an engaging rhythmic diversity unique to the piece. Each verse,

Þorsteinsson is a prolific composer, having written several works for choirs and the solo voice.

His works are self-published via Thorsteinsson Publishing, where one may find folksong arrangements and original works both sacred and secular. While the larger portion of Þorsteinsson’s work is for mixed voices, there are several art songs and settings for treble choir and tenor-bass choir available.

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written in alternating measures of 7/8 and 3/4, is set in a poetic form called ferskeytt, a fairly common form of rímnahættir, which are metric forms used in Icelandic epic poetry (called rímur).

Ferskeytt (literally, ‘four-cornered poem’) consist of alternating lines of four stresses and three stresses—Rauði Riddarinn makes additional use of a duple stress to create a repeating eighth note rhythm of 4–3–4–2. This repeated eighth note pattern accounts for Þorsteinsson’s use of 7/8–3/4. Each chorus is 8 measures of common time, much like a chorus in a pop, rock, or dance track, and the alternating ferskeytt and common time metric shifts infuse the work with a rhythmic feel that is both ancient and modern.

other beat before intensifying to every beat in the fourth measure of the chorus and continuing to the section’s conclusion.

This highly dramatic and exciting work is accessible to skilled high school and collegiate ensembles but is most certainly entertaining and engaging enough for community and professional choirs as well. North American musicians will likely be most challenged by the Icelandic language—particularly the sopranos, who carry the majority of responsibility for text declamation during the verses. The piece is also most effective when performed from memory, as this allows the hands to be free to clap. The composer, having anticipated this issue, makes diction rehearsal tracks available upon purchase. Both a challenge and a joy to perform, Rauði Riddarinn should be strongly considered by choral conductors for future programming.

Each verse begins with a rhythmic ostinato in the bass voices. The alto and tenor voices join 2 measures later, following the first iteration of the ferskeytt 4–3–4–2 rhythm. All three lower voices repeat the words ‘rauði riddarinn’ repeatedly, strongly emphasizing both their role as harmonic underpinning and rhythmic vehicle. The soprano voices enter following the second iteration of the rhythm, carrying both the melody (presented in perpetual parallel 5ths that also establish the mode of D Dorian) and the verse text. The verses conclude with alto, tenor, and bass voices joining the sopranos in the last line of each verse’s text over three measures that move out of the ferskeytt rhythm (m. 11–12) and into common time (m. 13) before the true beginning of the chorus at m. 14.

— Joshua Cheney Joshua Cheney, a native of Fayetteville, North Carolina, is Assistant Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities at Gardner-Webb University in Boiling Springs, North Carolina. He is responsible for the leadership and administration of GWU Choirs, to include the direction of the Concert Choir and Reach Worship. Joshua teaches Aural Skills, Music Survey, and courses in conducting, voice, and guitar. He is an active performer and has sung professionally with the North Carolina Master Chorale Chamber Choir, Bel Canto Company, Red Shift, Coro Vocati, and Blue Ridge Consort. Joshua holds the B.A. in Music Education from Campbell University, the M.M. in Choral Conducting and Church Music from Mercer University, and the D.M.A. in Choral Conducting from Louisiana State University. Joshua is married to Rebekah Cheney, who serves as the Director of Annual Giving at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina. Joshua and Rebekah reside in Asheville, North Carolina.

In the chorus, which is homorhythmic and fortissimo throughout, all voices simultaneously declaim the text. The composer shifts the texture from SSATB to SATBB, adding harmonic thirds and fifths in the baritone and bass that create added weight for texture. The first chorus concludes with a direct return to the verse, while the final chorus adds a tag ending that might be analyzed as a 3–measure codetta. Perhaps most excitingly, the chorus slowly builds through its eight measures with added stomps and claps; they begin every

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Set for SATB chorus with piano and cello, “Canto” opens with a reverent upward minor sixth doubled in octaves in the piano’s right hand, underneath a slowly unfolding cello line which leads us upward through a minor mode.

Despite the two-sharp key signature, all Fs are natural in this brief instrumental introduction, lending an air of mystery and solemnity to the opening of the piece. The treble voices enter, settling into an A major tonality, yet continuing to dip down into the F natural as they descend.

The tenors and basses join, echoing the trebles’ opening, and settle into their own F natural on the final word of “Let me be your real singing in this world.” Despite the fact that the text deals with “our world,” that pitch becomes a clear marker of a special harmonic dimension, creating an otherworldly minor iv chord (D minor in the key of A major) within the piece.

Canto

Composer: Andrea Ramsey (b. 1977)

Voicing (duration): SATB chorus w/ piano and cello Text: English Text by Rishma Dunlop Score Recording

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ndrea Ramsey is that prized rarity within the landscape of 21st-century American music-making: a full-time composer. She has previously held academic positions in music education and conducting and has been an active scholar, presenting at national conferences and symposia, as well as co-authoring articles published in Choral Journal and Journal of Research in Music Education. Her website biography reads: “Andrea has experienced in her own life the power of music to provide a sense of community, better understanding of our humanity and rich opportunities for self-discovery.

The melody continues to unfurl upward, echoing the opening cello line, as the upper voices beseech, “Let me be your beloved choir,” answered by the tenors and basses with “a chant, a chorus of wings.” On the word “wings,” we enter a new section of the piece, set in a slightly slower tempo, which text-paints the flapping of wings within each voice part using small descending and ascending intervals akin to a baroque sigh motive. Homophonic writing takes all four voices into a reprise of the opening, in which the sopranos fly a bit higher than before, skimming G above the staff as they sing about weightlessness and a “crescendo of stars.”

Ramsey’s Canto, setting a text by Rishma Dunlop, provides a beautiful exploration of the second tenet listed above—a better understanding of our humanity. An award-winning Canadian poet of Punjabi Sikh origin, as well as a playwright, essayist, and translator, Dunlop passed away in 2016 after a long battle with cancer. Although she was a Professor of English and Education at York University in Toronto, Rishma Dunlop cared deeply about music, a fact demonstrated by her autoethnographic lyric essay, “Music Lessons and Other Stories: Partial Inventory,” in which she explores the concept of “acute listening” as an “embodiment of hearing music across cultural, environmental, and geographical spaces.” It is this connection that links a Canadian poet of Indian descent with a composer of new music from Arkansas.

In the next section, the text continues its mirrored conceit of “Let me be your…” as the altos and tenors join for a sweet duet, singing, “Let me be your aubade, a song in the opening of each day.”

This is followed by what feels like the first F# in the whole piece, the second in a set of quarternote triplets on the striking phrase “octaves of light” as the piano accompaniment dips for one brief, stunning moment into G major. We are

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then immediately thrust back into the world of F naturals on the ascending sequence marking the word “rising.” The ensuing section, mostly homophonic, builds a thickening texture as piano, cello, and all four voice parts crescendo poco a poco, into the emotional and sonic climax of the piece—“Let me be your song to die in.”

evolution and introducing a permanent stability that will “not be broken by the world’s darkness.”

Sometimes meditative, at times earth-shattering, Canto ultimately strikes an excellent balance between lush voicing and limited divisi, decidedly landing on the side of accessibility rather than exclusion. Appropriate for community, collegiate, and high school choruses, this contemplative exploration of the human experience is enhanced further by its highly expressive cello part, which helps bridge the multiple harmonic worlds created within Ramsey’s sonorous universe.

Commissioned for the Southeastern Louisiana University Concert Choir and their performance at the 2019 Louisiana Music Educators Association, it is unclear whether Andrea Ramsey wrote this piece with a particular person in mind, or whether Rishma Dunlop’s incredible poem can be in some way read as her own take on the role of music within the human experience, and its inevitable end in death. What is clear is that this setting paints an intense and compelling picture of the intimacy between two human beings, breaking open the human experience to show both its beautiful and its terrible moments. In the closing section of the piece, the basses incorporate the previously appearing F# into their descending line on “Let me be your psalm of faith,” which is then echoed and expanded by the other voice parts, bringing about the “sacred vernacular” about which they sing. The piece ends on a D major chord, restoring the strange harmonic imbalance we’ve traced throughout the piece’s

—Alexandra Grabarchuk Alexandra Grabarchuk, PhD, is a Ukrainian-born conductor and musicologist. Alex currently holds the position of Director of Choral Activities & Assistant Professor of Music at Whittier College in Southern California. She has previously served as Visiting Assistant Professor of Choral Direction & Musicology at Earlham College, and has held adjunct positions at UCLA, Chapman University, Chaffey College, Mt. SAC, and the Claremont University Consortium. Along with her husband, Alex also serves as the Co-Director of Music & Fine Arts at Claremont United Church of Christ, as well as Co-Conducting Chair of the Contemporary Choral Collective of Los Angeles (C3LA).

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Book Reviews Andrew Crow, editor

practices. The first chapter includes sections on vibrato, articulation, ornamentation, portamento, phrasing, tempo, and rhetoric. As those familiar with HIP literature would expect, these discussions draw largely on primary sources, although Friddle does incorporate some modern scholars, such as Clive Brown. Topics that present 19th-century sources directly—specifically ornamentation and tempo—are the clearest, but the author sometimes leaves conflicting opinions or ambiguity unresolved. The weakest section is the discussion of rhetoric, which is disorganized and contains few explicit connections to the Romantic period.

Sing Romantic Music Romantically: NineteenthCentury Choral Performance Practices

David Friddle

Lexington Books, 2022

418 pages; $125.00 hardcover $50 ebook ISBN: hardcover 978-1-66691-117-6 ISBN: ebook 978-1-66691-118-3

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ince the beginning of the historicallyinformed performance (HIP) movement, scholars have published many volumes focusing on the Renaissance, Baroque, and Classical periods. David Friddle’s Sing Romantic Music Romantically is an effort to fill a gap in literature by examining the practices of the 19th century. Friddle holds doctoral degrees in organ performance and choral conducting. His edition of Franz Liszt’s Christus is published

by Bärenreiter, and it contains an extensive preface on performance practice, a precursor to this book.1 In addition to Sing Romantic Music Romantically, Lexington Books also published Friddle’s Choral Treatises and Singing Societies in the Romantic Age in 2022.

The longest chapter of Sing Romantic Music Romantically covers pronunciation of an impressive number of languages, including regional pronunciations of Latin. Most sections contain helpful practical tables, but also dense philological discussion that is difficult to follow for the amateur linguist. Many of the charts helpfully distill the information, but others miss the mark by not aligning equivalent sounds or excluding important dialects.2 Readers looking for a quick IPA answer may have to search elsewhere. The number of languages and sources 2

The chart of Latin pronunciation on page 237 omits French and German.

Sing Romantic Music Romantically is divided into four major chapters: expressive devices, pronunciation, instruments, and ensemble 1

Franz Liszt, Christus, ed. David Friddle, BA 7680 (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2007).

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covered, however, results in a broad resource in pronunciation and linguistics that could serve as a starting point for many musicians.

Music Romantically is valuable as a broad compendium that could increase our attention to performance practice of the period. Friddle’s text is recommended for conductors studying 19th-century repertoire as well as teachers of graduate choral literature, conducting, and performance practice.

The chapter on instruments examines the evolution of standard orchestral instruments as well as percussion, harp, and harmonium. Little of this information can be applied directly to the average modern ensemble, but it is helpful to understand 19th-century composers’ sound world.

The final chapter, entitled “Quires, Bands & Where They Sit,” is primarily concerned with the practice of placing choirs in front of or flanking the orchestra when possible. There is other valuable information here, including orchestra rosters and the standardization of pitch in the 19th century.

A study of notable concert halls has few practical applications but contains interesting drawings and photographs.

—Jon Arnold Jon Arnold is Director of Choral Activities and Assistant Professor at Simpson College, where he conducts the College Choir and Chamber Singers and teaches courses in conducting, choral methods, and diction. Jon holds degrees from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Emory University, where he studied with Drs. Andrew Megill and Eric Nelson.

In addition to written documents, scholars discussing 19th-century music have the benefit of early audio recordings. Friddle cites one comparative study of such recordings primarily for its findings with regards to vibrato. The book also includes URLs that point to audio and video examples, but most of these are modern recordings led by Friddle himself, Sir Roger Norrington, and Sir John Eliot Gardiner. The most helpful media are videos demonstrating period instruments (natural horns, oboes, and the ophicleide). One wishes the author had included early recordings or specific demonstrations of the various practices advocated in the text.

A New Perspective for the Use of Dialect in African American Spirituals: History, Context, and Linguistics

Felicia Raphael Marie Barber Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, 2021 276 pages

ISBN: 9781793635365

The question of when, whether, and how to perform African American spirituals has become, unfortunately, fraught with apprehension among many conductors and performers. Dr. Felicia Raphael Marie Barber’s recent book A New Perspective for the Use of Dialect in African American Spirituals: History, Context, and Linguistics provides an excellent resource for those seeking to learn about best practices for performance. Barber examines the African American English (AAE) dialect, detailing the history of its development, use in early performance practice, sociolinguistic significance, and recommended application.

Friddle’s writing style is verbose and sometimes meandering. Some sections feel disorganized, lacking connections between passages or containing jarring insertions. 3 Nevertheless, the author is successful in compiling a wealth of resources. Despite its flaws, Sing Romantic 3

The most egregious example is an insertion about orchestral seating in the United States in between paragraphs about Wagner’s stage design in Dresden, pages 336–339.

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The book presents extensive research on dialect usage in spirituals as demonstrated in written scores, transcriptions, recordings, and research.

In addition to useful line-by-line analyses of specific texts and pieces of music, Barber provides cohesive applications for performance practice recommendations. Chapters 2–7 each close with lists of structural and systematic simplifications of phonological and grammatical features discussed in the presented research.

(IPA), which “standardizes the representation of sounds found in oral languages” (p. 32), should be used in AAE pronunciation guides.

Chapters 3–5 establish performance practice using foundational research of published studies, scores, and recordings. Chapter 3 outlines early researchers’ contributions to the practice of AAE dialect and its documented usage in performance of spirituals. Barber specifically discusses the research of Natalie Curtis Burlin, R. Nathaniel Dett, and James Weldon Johnson.

Early publications and development of the concert spiritual are outlined in Chapter 4. The author examines how dialect is put to use in the text settings of three early spiritual arrangements, concluding that the “rules governing most dialect usage in spiritual texts are very consistent” (p.

80). In Chapter 5, the author explores early performance recordings, noting that “early traveling ensembles were key in the development, preservation, and spread of the spiritual genre” (p. 84). Materials presented support the author’s thesis that AAE dialect was in widespread use in early performances.

Chapter 1 argues for change in the cultural narratives about dialect through the lens of sociolinguistics. The author describes how AAE dialect was weaponized in minstrel shows and post-Civil-War literature to romanticize the antebellum South and to negatively portray formerly enslaved African Americans. The author explains dominant language ideology as the belief that “certain languages are inherently superior to others” (p. 2), which, in the United States, prizes Standard American English (SAE) and leaves many multilingual and multi-dialectal individuals to carry the heavy burden of frequent code-switching. Barber counters with what she labels “linguistic truisms” (p. 10), emphasizing the basic equality of all languages. She urges readers to “preserve and promote this dialect for its beauty and equity within linguistics rather than holding onto the negative ideals and biases we were taught” (p. 11).

The author undertakes a major survey of texts from spirituals in Chapter 6, examining the inclusion or exclusion of dialect over a 150-year period. She notes that AAE dialect inclusion in musical scores was common in the first 50–75 years, tapered (seemingly in correlation with the civil rights movement) in the 1960s, and has experienced a slight resurgence in the past decade.

She notes that “with no consistent practice it varies greatly from arranger to arranger” (p. 154).

Chapter 2 covers regional dialects in the United States and acknowledges correlations between AAE and Southern States White English (SSWE).

The acquisition of language by formerly enslaved African Americans is discussed, noting that the impact of instruction is difficult to trace, given that it was “best characterized as inconsistent and at worst nonexistent” (p. 17). She sets a foundation for forthcoming material, arguing that the use of SAE transcriptions of AAE pronunciation leads to inconsistent performance practice. The author reasons that the International Phonetic Alphabet

Helpful charts in Chapter 7 encapsulate the author’s overarching recommendations into directly useful references for modern performers.

Ten well-known spiritual texts are given individual and detailed treatment, including IPA transcriptions and notes on performance practice. Chapter 8 revisits the philosophical

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question of the use of dialect and includes several contemporary arrangers’ insights, including André Thomas, Rollo Dilworth, and others. Barber presents general strategies for introducing spirituals to an ensemble and encourages apprehensive readers to engage outside resources. She maintains that readers must pass along our learning to audiences and administrators, “so that we are able to educate and change perceptions on a broader scale” (p. 198).

as thoughtfully with it as they would a foreign language, treating it with scholarship and respect.

This text is a valuable new reference for educators and singers alike looking to engage with African American spirituals with intentionality.

—Leann Conley-Holcom Leann Conley-Holcom is Assistant Professor of Music at Seattle University, where she serves as Director of Choral Activities and Music Program Director. In addition to conducting and teaching, she performs as a freelance professional singer with many of the nation’s top ensembles.

In such divisive times, Barber de-politicizes the use of dialect and implores conductors to engage

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