Dear our beloved Candlelight VOX community, I hope you are all travelling as well as you possibly can in this utterly chaotic year, and that you and your loved ones are healthy and safe! It's been a delight to see some of you over our Friday Zoom hangouts and to stay connected as best as we can. I am writing to you today from a quintessentially-quirky Melbourne café, with a lot of love in my heart for our journey together over the past three years - but I have some very bittersweet news for you today. As of January 2021, I am stepping aside from my position as Co-Artistic Director of Candlelight VOX. But - I am also beyond delighted to announce that Sam Cook and Aragorn Keuken will be joining Aidan on the Artistic Direction team for the 2021 season! I have full confidence that they will flourish working with you, and that you will guide each other through teaching and learning the way VOX does best. They've both already taken to the ideas and brainstorming phase like ducks to water!! A little on where this decision has come from… At the end of last year, Aidan and the committee and I sat down to have a very careful think about what we wanted the future of Candlelight VOX to look like - whether we wanted to aspire to become a professional ensemble, or remain true to Aidan and my original aims - that is, to be an environment exclusively for the learning and growth of its members. You may have noticed this solidified in our updated mission statement and goals at the start of the year. We went through various models of what this might look like - including a version where Aidan and I stayed on to artistic direct for the foreseeable future whilst helping other students plan their own programs each season - but ultimately realised that the best thing about our growth VOX has been not having the instruction of older peers or teachers spoon-feeding us the solutions to musical problems. It really hit me as we were preparing the PAUSE program last year that, yes - I'd learnt what I could learn in your beautiful company, that VOX had grown beyond just Aidan and I begging our friends to sing for us (in that everyone was coming forward with the most exquisite creative offers and owning the rehearsals as a shared space - just as we'd intended!!) - and that it was time for me to "take the leap" and look for further conducting opportunities. That being said - particularly for our first two programs - it would have been very helpful to have a kind voice to "nudge" us gently in the right direction when the water started to boil! So at Aidan's extremely kind suggestion, I'm moving into a "Conductor Emeritus" relationship with the choir, and perhaps for my own FOMO I'll run as General Assistant in next year's AGM, and continue to sing with the choir as a deputy (to come and help out occasionally - but in a way very conscious of following Sam, Aragorn, and Aidan's leadership.) With that in mind, the worst-kept "secret" plan for 2020 was for Path of Miracles to be my final program as Co-Artistic Director. The plan for this program at this stage is for me to continue solely with the smaller ensemble that had commenced work already, for a 2021 program as an independent project (stay tuned!!). Then, assessing the situation at the time, I'll potentially come back in a post-vaccine world to do the "big thing" as a massive music nerd-out with as many VOX singers and friends as possible. Wishing you all the love and light for the summer - and I look forward to seeing you all about very soon! Kindest, Grace x Also please enjoy the below videos from Ascension and PAUSE in 2019 - my technique may now be significantly cleaner... but these still remain some of the most profound days of my musical life :)
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With the help of Zoom calls, lock-down has brought us together from far apart, writes our baritone and unofficial Chief Entertainment Officer, Keelan Murphy. Now more than ever it feels like for me that Candlelight VOX is a community as much as it is a choir. Just as we started our rehearsals for Aidan’s Liberty concert, it was put on hold indefinitely. Our choir is full of wonderful people who have all become connected through music, and even though we could no longer practise together, we still wanted to keep up that connection. To maintain that connection, we had to go from in person to on-line. At first it was awkward; Facebook messenger video calls were janky, and Discord was a bit too much for us non-gamers, but after some trial and error, we (along with the rest of the world) came to realise that Zoom was the medium of choice for our online hangouts. Like before, we used our Fridays to close our university weeks, but now from the comfort of home and instead of singing, we were playing Cards Against Humanity and eating takeout.
For me knowing that I’m able to see my friends every week truly means the world to me and if it wasn’t for our Friday hangouts, I wouldn’t know what day it was. During the cold winter months when I would barely even leave my room (let alone the house) for days at a time, having the quiet support of my friends who I’d see each week really helped me survive lock-down at its toughest. For this I am forever grateful for the Candlelight VOX community. After a little hiatus between lock-downs (due to work commitments) our VOX & Friends hangouts returned better then ever. With some helpful suggestions from the committee and regulars, we now had planned activities each week for when we got back to our second semester of online classes. Now we would have guests host different activities each week to have a change. Some highlights include baking cookies and muffins, having a drawing lesson taught by Amelia Sheppard, and an origami lesson with Lisette Bolton. Sam de Castella even hosted a quiz with VOX related trivia!
Written by Sam (left) and Emily (right). Our two Soprano 1s have written us blogs ahead of this week's PAUSE program!
It’s also been really interesting to see how even when I think I can’t really relate to a text, when you really break it down into the basic human emotions and experiences there’s almost always something that strikes a chord. Two pieces that spring to mind are Paul Mealor’s Stabat Mater that we did in the previous program, and Péteris Vasks' Pater Noster that will be in our upcoming program. Both are easy to write off as arrangements of religious, Latin texts that just sound gorgeous, but this is doing the pieces an injustice. Just because the texts are Christian doesn’t mean the core experiences within them can only be understood by Christians - the Stabat Mater speaks of a mother watching her son die, with pain so intense it is like a sword splitting her soul in two. Going from learning the notes and simply matching them to the Latin, to really connecting with this really quite intense, harrowing idea, was a really full on but rewarding experience. Again in our upcoming program, it’s easy to just think of the words to the Pater Noster as the Lord’s Prayer that many of us have chanted in school chapel more times than we can count, but I know I for one have realised I’ve never really paid attention to the words. When we spoke about the ideas in it - approaching someone tentatively, knowing you have something heavy to say but easing into it, then finally getting it out and getting a carried away before realising the affect your words have had - it’s suddenly something that I find deeply moving. I love this about music, the way it can be used to show us how fundamentally these ideas are common to us as humans, how even when we think a message is completely alien to us when you look at the basic human emotions behind it it is very rare not to feel at least some of them. It’s exciting to see how music can allow us all to connect to the same thing using different experiences, and this is something I very much look forward to continuing to explore with Candlelight VOX in the future, as well as hopefully sharing with those who come to see our performances! SAM WRITES: Starting first year, I found university a much lonelier place than expected. I was also much less busy and less connected than I thought I would be. I trudged through the first semester, unsure of where I sat and how I was going, unsure of who I could reach out to and where I could find support. Creatively, I felt quite unfulfilled. Sure, I was enjoying the repertoire we were singing in Chamber Choir, but the technical exam doesn’t foster feelings of true artistry and I was yet to feel close enough with anyone in my course to connect deeply about my love of singing. Over the winter recess, I responded to a call for more sopranos in Candlelight VOX. Honestly, I hadn’t heard of the group and wasn’t quite sure what I was getting in to. Also, as soon as I had said I would do it I began to regret this decision, worried that I would once again, come October, feel like I had overcommitted and be overwhelmed. When I joined VOX, I instantly knew that this was a community that I will be a part of for a while. The PAUSE program is comprised of music that I feel I can connect to, on a deep level. Working on the Stabat Mater was one of the best artistic challenges I’ve encountered. The space that Grace provided us, to actually feel a visceral response to the text and the music guaranteed that we gave a wonderful, heart-wrenching performance, one that will stay with me forever. The PAUSE program is just the same, we are challenged to truly connect with the music that we are sharing, and to search deeper for the authentic truths that we find in old texts. Grace’s guidance felt so warm and safe, but yet she still challenged us to perform the works with real care for the content. Grace has since become both a friend and a mentor to me. I could not be any more grateful to be provided this opportunity. To be able to make truly meaningful art, not only with like-minded individuals, but with a group of people that, for me at least, feels like a real family is all I can ask for as a musician, and I am so grateful to have found a group like VOX as soon as I have. Written by Grace Gallur I’m constantly talking about how much I’ve learnt running Candlelight VOX. This coming program is our fourth, and over this semester, I’ve felt a significant solidifying of my leadership style. I wanted to write about some of the techniques that I’ve learnt to employ in the rehearsal space regarding vocal health and acting pedagogy, the value of self-directed learning, and how the choir has created a space for myself and other singers to discover our artistic identities.
The choir doesn’t require singers to change or modify their sound to best “fit in” to the sounds around them - rather I ask the singers to be aware of the sounds that are around them - and simply by opening their ears to their fellow singers, the overall sound naturally becomes more unified.
We do not choose “easy” repertoire - but I explain to the singers that the music is best served when they only sing what is comfortable. I allow the singers to guide me on what is possible for them on any given day. I’ve received positive feedback from the singers that indicates they have understood this message clearly and are always mindful of how they are using their voice in rehearsals - and are subsequently learning more about their technique. Acting pedagogy I’ve also been able to apply much of my training at 16th St Actors’ Studio in the choir. I try to avoid telling the singers how the music "should" make them feel, to avoid them “muscling in” and projecting a performative idea onto the music. Instead, I do my best to facilitate an environment which allows them to have their own emotional response to the music, and then encourage them to act on the need to speak that the music and the text inspires in them. This was a particularly powerful technique for semester 1’s repertoire; Paul Mealor’s Stabat Mater demands an understanding of the weight of the text. Instead of allowing the heaviness of the content to swamp the singers, I spoke to them about feeling empathy for the text and then being driven to action, BY that empathy - not an easy thing to ask, but the choristers definitely rose to the challenge. This kind of thinking can feel uncomfortable at first, because it requires one to be open to being moved by the content of the text (and the harmony, and the melody, etc). Take, for example: Cujus animam gementem/contristatam et dolentem/petransivit gladius (literally: through soul weeping/compassion and grieving/passed a sword). Mary is in such agonising grief that she feels as if her soul is being split by a sword; this is not a text for the faint-hearted. The knee-jerk reactions in the face of this discomfort can be to laugh, distract other choristers, or deflect away from the power of the text. These are all very tempting, but the artistic rewards of breathing through the physiological reactions inspired in the choir by the text, and then "demanding" compassion and understanding from the audience (quis non posset contristari?) is, for me, where the gold lies. The effect on the choir's sound, when fuelled with an un-"performed" urgency and passion, was enormously powerful. I found "actioning words" very useful here; as a text, the Stabat Mater searches, sobers, steadies, offers, strips, demands, and enlists the listener. (Inadvertently, as Janice Chapman describes, when one is connected to the “emotion” or truth of the idea, the sound is “connected up” and ultimately more vibrant and healthy and "primal". There is a whole PhD in this idea regarding the usefulness of 20th century acting pedagogy specifically to operatic singers, which I intend to write one day!!) The value of self-directed learning In my own private singing lessons, if I report on something feeling as though it doesn’t work properly, my teacher will quickly reply: “and what do you normally do when that happens?”. In that moment, a shift happens: I am required to independently self-evaluate and problem solve. We’ve been working together since the start of this year, and it’s now reached the point that I’ve found myself saying “I don’t know what’s happening here. I think it’s [x y z]” - in the same breath as finding myself confused by a problem, my brain has kicked into gear to find a solution. This same mechanism is what I find myself facing behind the conductor’s music stand in Candlelight VOX rehearsals. When starting rehearsals in 2018, this was hugely intimidating. Up until that point, I hadn’t been required to come up with solutions independently (and quickly!) before. There is something to be said for working without immediately being given a solution; the nature of Candlelight VOX is that we are on our own in rehearsals and there’s no-one standing behind us with a map telling us where to go. Learning how to “take up space” and give directions unapologetically had ginormous payoffs for my musicality, and subsequently, my musical confidence, as I detailed for CutCommon last year. With every program, my ear is becoming more fine-tuned and I’m arriving at solutions to musical problems. I’m also opening the floor to the choir to ask them what they would do to improve the sound, and for fine-tuning work I send the choir into sectionals where each section works as a team to troubleshoot their part. We’re all becoming vastly more independent musicians from this. How the choir has allowed us to find our own artistic identity Being in a leadership position has allowed me to discover what is unique about the way that I work. This awards me some sanity as a soprano in the face of entering an infamously competitive industry! Through the choir, I’ve been able to discover that I’m driven by my passion for story. Realising that my “way in” to music is to contact artistic honesty - through serving what the music naturally asks the performer to do, and allowing oneself to be therefore moved to expression - was first articulated in VOX. It’s been very exciting to hear members of the choir also start to say “what I normally do” also. Together, we’ve created a space in which experimentation is encouraged, so that failure is celebrated and unique perspectives are found - and then learnt from in the next rehearsal. I’m so proud of the work that everyone is doing together. Applying what we've learnt in a performance environment I'm very excited to be applying what we've learnt this year in concert in November. Nothing beats actually doing the work; I find the more I get up and perform, the deeper-engrained the lessons I'm learning become. I'm thrilled that the choir is now at a point where everyone is collectively contributing towards the vision of a program; George has written us the most fantastic pieces for bowed vibraphone, and Anna is performing a couple of pieces with her string quartet also. The concert also features the work of a smaller ensemble extracted from VOX who have been working with two of the Con's composition students on their works, conducted by Nicole Marshall. We've all missed Aidan while he's been away on exchange - but we're all excited to hear what music he's discovered while away! We've been working on a program that is entirely centred around creating a blissful, meditative experience for the audience. We chose the Norla Dome in the Mission to the Seafarers for its incredible acoustic - it's a hauntingly resonant space. I've chosen pieces that take advantage of the fact that human voices singing sustained seconds and suspensions sounds utterly MAGICAL. I'm itching to get into the Dome for our dress rehearsal to watch the singers' faces light up when they hear the massive 10-second echo. We're singing a number of pieces surrounding the audience to allow the sound to wash through the entire space. Amongst the end-of-year busyness, we'd love to help you to close your eyes and breathe - even if just for 80 minutes. It would be my pleasure to share this experience with you and I hope to see you there :) Grace PAUSE TICKETS: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/candlelight-vox-pause-tickets-73077991239 Written by Amelia, with generous help from Tatjana, Keelan, Lisha, and Mattie.
Being part of a choir is truly a unique experience, as is sharing the music you’ve been working on in concert. To perform music you’re praying you’ll make it out of alive, or that you’ve polished within an inch of your life, is exciting and cathartic. But, as anyone who’s been a part of any kind of performance knows, it’s all about the rehearsal. Being part of an ensemble, rings its challenges, but it also brings incredible rewards. So, we thought we’d give everyone a chance to be a part of the process, and as we prepare music to share with you, share a glimpse of what it’s like on the other side. Here’s what being a part of Candlelight VOX means to us. How did we first come to hear about Candlelight VOX? “I found about VOX through Aidan inviting me along” – Mattie. “I was personal friends with Aidan, one of the founders of Candlelight VOX and was essentially recruited by him.” – Lisha. “I first heard about Candlelight VOX when Grace approached me, asking if I would be interested in being a part of it! This was at the very beginning of its inception!” – Tatjana. “I heard of VOX through my lovely friends Tiernan and Amelia. I knew that they were having a blast with the choir.” – Keelan. What made us decide to join? “I was new to Melbourne on study abroad, so it gave me a way to meet new people who had similar musical interests.” – Mattie. “I was already looking for some creative outlet as a diploma student and the choir seemed like a natural transition for me as I already knew a few of the members.” – Lisha. “I joined the choir as I knew it would be an environment in which I could grow. I hadn't been a part of an ensemble group long-term, and so I was eager to commit myself. I wanted to challenge myself to be learning more repertoire, and I also **keenly wanted to develop my ensemble skills.**” – Tatjana “Being choir-less for about six months at the time I was desperate to sing again! The choir was so welcoming and friendly I just knew I had to join.” - Keelan What do we get out of being in the choir? Practice, relaxation, or socialisation? “All of the above! I love coming 'home' to the choir each week. Last year when I found myself going through a very challenging time, being at choir was really grounding for me. It was a place I returned to each week, where I was surrounded by supportive, down-to-earth people - where we were present with one another, in the music, away from it all.” – Tatjana. "I enjoy rehearsals because it is part of my professional practice as a music student.” – Mattie. “Music has always been an integral part of my identity, and despite choosing not to pursue music professionally, being in Candlelight VOX has allowed me to maintain and even further my personal musical development. It’s such a wholesome community to be in and I’m grateful for the opportunity to be a part of such an independent and flexible group.” – Lisha. “I love the choir because of the wonderful people. We all love singing and together we form a choir that I’m very proud to be a part of.” – Keelan Is there anything about the experience of being a part of Candlelight VOX that is unique to this group? “Being a part of VOX is different to most other choirs because you can tell the conductors are gaining as much out of it as the choir. The program is chosen by people who are genuinely passionate about the music they've picked.” – Mattie. “I’ve never been in a group this independent. It’s wonderful to see other music students stepping up to the challenge and taking the initiative to secure their own performance opportunities. Grace and Aidan and other committee members do everything by themselves from finding music, to purchasing scores and booking performance venues. It’s amazing honestly.” – Lisha. “As I haven't been a part of many ensemble experiences - performing in an operetta and having a short stint in my high school's blues band - I don't know if I can aptly compare Candlelight VOX to similar ensembles. What I appreciate is our groundedness, comradery, and commitment to the text-music, and I sense that it is rare, or at the least very precious, to possess and promote all three in any group.” – Tatjana. “My previous choir experience was all within school. With VOX its’ different because everyone of us is passionate about performing contemporary music.” – Keelan. Before we go, we thought we’d leave you with some of our favourite music we’ve had the pleasure of performing with Candlelight VOX. After all, it’s why we’re all her in the first place (or at least one of many reasons, as we’ve discovered). Contemporary classical music, we’ve found, is underrepresented, whether it be on the radio or in concert; try looking around for contemporary choral music and the offerings become evermore sparse. As such, it’s important to us to share the joy we’ve found in our craft with as many people as possible – especially you. If you’re reading this, please know that you are very important to us, and we think you’re worth all the hard work. So, here are some of our favourite pieces: “Stabat Mater by Mealor is the best piece of music I've been introduced to through Vox, the harmonies are beautiful.” – Mattie. “I don’t really have a “favourite piece” of music but I really enjoy the big numbers we perform like “Southern Star” or “Stabat Mater”. The more layered the score, the greater the enjoyment!” – Lisha. “A number of pieces from our last program, From Darkness to Light, were and remain very poignant to me: Fiat Lux, Seek Him that Maketh the Seven Stars, Stars, and Sure on this Shining Night.” – Tatjana. “While I love all the music we perform at the moment I am particularly enjoying O salutaris Hostia.” – Keelan. Many thanks to the choir members whose contributions made this article possible. Lisha Ooi, second alto. Mattie Richards, tenor and occasional bass. Tatjana Brandson, mezzo-soprano/alto, and General Assistant in the Candlelight VOX committee. Keelan Murphy, first bass. Written by George
Part of our choir’s goal as an ensemble is to foster relationships with active contemporary composers, and to provide opportunities for composers and singers to develop by workshopping newly-written pieces together. Last semester we had the privilege of rehearsing and performing a work for choir and piano called The Surfer, written by one of our directors, Aidan McGartland. This week we began learning one of my new pieces. The themes we are exploring for this semester’s concert are “Stars” and “From Darkness to Light,” so my first task over the winter break was to find an appropriate text for this subject. I was initially drawn to William Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 14,” which begins Not from the stars do I my judgement pluck; And yet methinks I have astronomy, Here stars are being invoked for their connection to fate and fortune-telling. Shakespeare’s speaker begins by insisting that they do not have knowledge derived from the stars or the expertise to read them. However, the speaker does have a different kind of knowledge of the future, or “astronomy,” about raising a child with an unnamed addressee. The ironic twist to this poem is that the speaker derives this knowledge from the “constant stars” that are their lover’s eyes. Cute. I did not settle on this work because the twist in Shakespeare’s form depends on an extended build-up to the final couplet, which would take up too much time in a choral work. One principle I had to bear in mind in choosing a text was that four lines of pentameter can be read out in about 15 seconds, but that they could take up to a minute to sing at a moderate tempo. In choral works, therefore, there is little time for prosy anticipation or extended description. With this in mind, I settled on the following shorter and much more image-rich text by nineteenth-century American poet Emily Dickinson (1830–1886): The Red – Blaze – is the Morning – The Violet – is Noon – The Yellow – Day – is falling – And after that – is none – But Miles of Sparks – at Evening – Reveal the Width that burned – The Territory Argent – that Never yet – consumed – Like Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson’s poetry frequently makes use of reliably iambic metrical structures. She favours the shorter tetrameter and trimeter, however, so much of her poetry is reminiscent of hymn tunes and occasionally ballads. This kind of regular metre is a premium when you are setting words to music. My piece aims to draw out the colours and the images described in the poem by lingering on chromatic chords, but it preserves the metrical structure with regular phrases and a slow, even lilt. Unlike Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson famously organised her poems through a highly idiosyncratic approach to punctuation, and many early editors of her work attempted to straighten it out through the imposition of more conventional symbols. The text that I have reproduced above follows the editorial principle established by Thomas H. Johnson, amongst others (for it is a complex and ongoing scholarly task), of observing Dickinson’s use of dashes and capital letters. Reading it when it has been thus faithfully edited is a quite different experience: in this poem, where the only punctuation mark is the dash, syntactic ambiguity abounds. I have attempted to play on this in my setting of the text through the dramatic repetition of some key phrases, particularly “that burned,” which makes it more obvious how some of the sentences can be read as grammatically connected, and therefore that some of the images, likewise, can take on different aspects or blend into each other. I think this is appropriate and effective given that the poem is about the passage, blending, and transformation – some might say the transubstantiation – of the day into the night. In order to get the most out of developing this piece in conjunction with a contemporary choir, I will also be conducting it, which is something I have never done before. Fortunately, our directors Grace, Aidan, and Lily all have conducting experience and are supportive sources of guidance and technique while I am on the invisible podium. Being a part of the choir means that I know many of the members well and have grown familiar with our particular sound and our strengths in performance. These are features which I hope my piece will draw on, and they make conducting less daunting too. Probably I recommend taking to the podium as a salutary exercise for composers: I know that one reason I avoided including too much in the way of rhythmic complexity was to make the piece more straightforward to learn and lead. An easier piece grants you more time to work on polish and memorisation, and since mine draws on the textural qualities of the closely harmonised chorale, it probably will not suffer piano accompaniment. Hopefully it is a kind of brief, colouristic moment of escape in a program that boasts many more structurally consummate contemporary works. If you’re interested in my slight comments on poetry and music please follow me on Instagram, @gc4483. -George Written by Tatjana
Being a part of Candlelight VOX is such a rewarding and beautiful experience: giving me the opportunity to develop my ensemble and harmonisation skills and agility as a responsive musician. These capacities are cultivated each week in our rehearsals, and last week’s was no different! Grace and Aidan began by leading us through our warm-ups and technical practice, with focus again on articulation of the i e ɛ æ a vowels while working on blending. I personally find this exercise very valuable, as we practice isolating our vowel production to our mouth (particularly our tongue and lip positioning); and on not utilising our jaw in the effort. This can actually be quite challenging, because often as singers we are seeking to rewire sound production habits that have developed over the course of our everyday lives. Remaining in our blending circle around the piano, we began work on my favourite piece from our current program! Seek Him that Maketh the Seven Stars is an absolutely beautiful song that soars and swells from the inside out – realising this music together is certainly a special experience. In the Alto section, I felt that we hadn’t quite internalised a phrase with some unintuitive 2nd intervals, and so we worked on clarifying this phrase using the piano before bringing the Soprano, Tenor and Bass parts back into the equation. Being able to realise music together in a supportive and constructive environment is not only peaceful but also deeply productive at the individual and ensemble levels. Another challenge met during this session was for the Sopranos who, in a time signature change, have to sing crotchet-triplets against the piano’s semi-quaver sextuplet rhythm. Grace shared a clicking exercise, where the hands initially click in the accompaniment’s rhythm but then adjust to only click the pulses that the Sopranos’ would sing. The effect of practising this exercise for a few minutes, followed by vowel-only singing, meant that the Sopranos were able to affirm their rhythm and stay true to it against the challenging accompaniment! After, in another piece, Stars, we clarified our breathing to stay true to the phrasing of the text and deliver its intended affect. To ensure pure-vowel articulation, we also sung through the piece using only the vowels of the text; which further helped to clarify where the piece was going within and across the phrases. Harmonically speaking, the most challenging aspect of the rehearsal was introducing ourselves to Southern Star’s Christmas movement. After listening to the piece, we note-bashed out each of the voices’ parts in chunks of several bars at a time. An exercise employed in helping us affirm our lines included vocalising each note and holding them until each Part (SATB) settled in harmony. To finish off, Aidan led us through Sure on this Shining Night to consolidate work from previous rehearsals. Revisiting pieces like this helps to let us know how internalised a piece is, and how aware we are of the meaning of the text. This proved valuable and has given us direction for our own practice before meeting again! -Tatjana Written by Grace
Candlelight VOX is well and truly back into rehearsing for our second program! Last week, we had our third rehearsal, followed by a committee meeting. During the rehearsal, Aidan led us through warm-ups and sight reading practice with some Bach chorales and Elgar. I then worked on blending. We worked on keeping a uniform vowel shape, and distinguishing between the front vowels [i e ɛ æ a]. Aidan then worked with us on learning "Real and Right and True", which is the final movement of Southern Star. We particularly focused on the English pronunciation; singing in English isn't as intuitive as you would initially think, especially when your default word shapes are Australian! We worked on making all of the vowels pure, and minimizing the length of diphthongs. "Diphthongs" are when there are two vowel sounds next to each other in a word, and a glide between the two vowel positions occur. The first line of "Real and Right and True" is "Go your way now", which George noted the occurrence of a diphthong in every word. Aidan also discussed consonant placement. Where there is a consonant at the start of the word, it needs to occur before the note value begins. The word "Real" often occurs in the first beat of the bar, so we worked on putting the consonant before the bar line, so that as much of the note value as possible was taken up by the vowel. Lily then worked on the "Gul Gul" movement with us. Lily noted how the individual lines of the piece did not present a huge challenge, but rather, it was the piecing together of the lines at the right time that was more difficult. The basses have the really interesting job of chanting a low, drone-like A for the majority of the movement. This serves as the harmonic foundation from which all of the other parts pitch their notes. The sopranos 1s found pitching the top G#s, As, and Bbs quite difficult, both due to the chromatic movement of the soprano 2s underneath, and also the increased difficulty of vowel modification in the upper register. However, the choir felt as though we'd made significant progress on this movement - and we'll be able to now respond more to Lily musically now that most of the notes are in. We finished with me leading a first read of Dove's "Seek Him that Maketh the Seven Stars". As well as note-bashing through the A section, I was able to communicate the shaping I wanted across each phrase. We also worked on clarity of entries, difficulty of rhythms, and crisp diction. When we worked on our tone, I could feel the blend work from the start of rehearsal paying off. I'm particularly excited to hear this piece with the organ. Following the rehearsal, the committee stayed back to recap some of our most recent progress, and plan out the next chunk of administration necessary for running smooth rehearsals. We also prepared for the upcoming SGM involving the full choir. -Grace
The diatonic cluster chords were especially fun. There’s a beautiful moment in the piece in which every member of the choir begins on the same note, but as the choir sings up a scale, one person is left behind, until everyone has peeled away from the main sound and is singing their own note. The work we had done on blend, balance, and vowel shape while singing a semitone apart paid off tenfold here. You can watch the video about that work here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bw6xUXuBfMM
Aidan and I have learnt a great deal taking conducting lessons together. Aside from the technique (which requires practice and time to obtain!), we’ve been tutored on rehearsal management and have learnt how to draw up a rehearsal plan and maintain focus in the rehearsal room. Being more assertive when leading has been a challenge for me. Our teacher talks about leading a rehearsal like stepping into a different skin; you need to have a “rehearsal persona” to feel comfortable in. There’s no room for second guessing yourself; if your hand stops moving, the music stops! I’ve learnt that a quiet, calm approach works for me to maintain focus (and am learning to maintain an aura of “calm” externally when I am absolutely not feeling calm!). When the group is losing focus, I don’t like to raise my voice, but find that when I wait calmly for quiet, a sense of stillness will emerge. I have also found that reminding the choir to check in with their breath is a quick and efficient way of bringing everyone back into the present. The whole team learnt a great deal from an administrative point of view. Skills in effective communication, time management, data sharing, and teamwork were all challenged and developed. It’s amazing how much time admin can soak up - I wasn’t prepared for this going into the project! Having successfully completed one concert has shown me what is required and the order that the pieces have to come together in. Now, I’ve been able to draw up a timeline for these tasks for next semester. We’ve already had our first committee meeting ahead of the next concert, and all of our tasks have been distributed out and everyone knows what has to be done, and by when! The most challenging part of admin was co-ordinating membership. It is difficult to organise 20-odd uni students with conflicting schedules and busy lives - many of whom have other musical commitments to attend to. I’m confident now in our core group of members and am excited to work on the next program with them. I feel incredibly privileged to be working on this project with a team of musicians who inspire me. The rehearsal room is a dynamic and energetic space because of the fantastic musicians who are lending their minds and voices to make this work. There is a vast array of knowledge in the choir - different approaches to singing technique, music analysis, and performance preparation - and it’s a joy to watch that knowledge being put into action. -Grace |
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