Helen in Irkutsk

Dec. 19, 2009 8:20 am

We’re on the 4:20 train, pulling out of the station in Karsnoyarsk, headed for Irkutsk. Yes, you read it right; it’s 8:20 am in Krasnoyarsk, but we entered a new time zone when we stepped on the train. All along the Trans Siberian, to avoid the confusion of seven different zones, the clocks are coordinated with the time in Moscow. This morning is the mildest day since I arrived, with a light snow, no real bite to the air. We’re hoping that this weather follows us east. We’re in second class, where the beds are configured like the train in Some Like it Hot: rows of bunks in two levels. A short, uniformed woman with Asian features checked our tickets and gestured for us to enter, welcoming us tersely with the number of our seats: “Twenty five.” “Twenty seven.” We whispered as we moved our things about, settling into our bunks in the dark cabin, amid occasional snores, other whispered conversations, muffled announcements over the PA in the station. As the train gains speed, the light grows, and the outskirts of Krasnoyarsk are dimly visible; gusts of snow smear the passing shapes of factories, power lines, telephone poles. For the first couple of hours, we see improbably large, strangely configured pieces of heavy machinery along the road, and an almost continuous thread of buildings. By noon we are in more open country, with great crowds of birch trees pressing in against the tracks. Further in the distance, their delicate upper branches are washed out to gray by the dusting of snow – faint brushstrokes semi-transparent against the pure white of the hillside.

Here's a picture of celebratory New Years' ice house being built in Listvyanka, a town on the banks of Lake Baikal

Atlanta

Here we are in Atlanta on a long layover before our flight to Manaus. (In the picture from the left, Angela, David Campbell, Karen Lowell). We fly through the night and arrive early in the morning. The sattelight picture of


Brazil looks like it's covered with red popcorn--thunderstorms across the entire continent spread evenly, not in a frontal system as in North America. It looks like the rainy season has begun.



-- Posted from my iPhone

Smolensky and Rachmaninov

As we prepare to perform portions of the All-Night Vigil, I thought I’d offer some information on the work as a whole. Rehearsal time is so precious; I tend to avoid doing a lot of talking. There is a lot to say about this music, however, so this blog is a useful alternative. –These are meant to be rather informal comments just to give you some background.

Rachmaninov’s Vigil can be seen as the culmination of large-scale cultural project begun roughly in the last quarter of the 19^th century, and continuing until 1917, when it was abruptly and brutally shut off. The Moscow Synodal School was the primary focal point around which this campaign took place. Rachmaninov dedicated the Vigil to Stepan Smolensky, and it was Smolensky, more than anyone else, who spearheaded the exploration of Russia’s musical past, and the invigoration of Russia’s indigenous musical culture. Pavel Chesnokov, in a private letter, writes about Smolensky,

The [Moscow Synodal School] where I studied from age seven to eighteen, was headed by a prodigious musician, a profoundly educated man and the first expert in the field of ecclesiastical chant—Stepan Vasilievich Smolensky. Smolensky reformed the Synodal School to such an extent, placed scholarship at such a high level, provided for the Synodal Choir so well with its celebrated conductor Vasily Sergeevich Orlov, that the School began graduating the best choral conductors, and the superb performances of the choir compelled all composers to write works for the church, thereby giving birth to a ‘new direction’ in church music. (While he was director of the Synodal School and Choir, Smolensky was at the same time a professor at the Moscow State Conservatory, teaching the “history of ecclesiastical chant.” His pupils include: S. Rachmaninov, Yuri Sakhnovsky, Gliere, and others.)

Moreover, this very same Smolensky, besides his great work in the school and with the choir, also collected old manuscripts of church music. For this purpose, he was often sent by the synod on journeys to monasteries and abbeys, from which he gathered his main materials. He collected about two thousand manuscripts, and each manuscript is a thick book in wooden bindings covered with leather.[i]

Chesnokov refers to the great achievements of the Moscow Synodal Choir, which was indeed a spectacular ensemble. Elsewhere, Chesnokov makes it clear that the ideal choir that he describes in his book on choral conducting had its embodiment in the Synodal Choir under the direction of Orlov.

Knowing that you are unlikely to read an overly-long blog posting, I will draw your attention to four brief points: 1) Rachmaninov’s use of ancient Russian chant in his work should be seen as part of this larger project – indeed, many view the Vigil as the culmination of this broad campaign led by Smolensky. 2) Rachmaninov takes these spare, simple, austere chants, and, by bringing together harmonic vocabulary from European musical traditions, and adding elements of his own distinctive stylistic voice, he creates a new synthesis. 3) Rachmaninov and choral composers of his generation tended to treat the choir as an orchestra of voices. The Russian church has always forbidden the use of instruments in worship, so in the Russian choral tradition, the choir increasingly came to take on the techniques of orchestral writing: multiple octave doublings, the fullest possible deployment of the choir in terms of its range, etc. 4) The spectacular achievements of Russian choral music were brutally suppressed in 1917. The magnificent Synodal choir was dismantled; sacred music was severely repressed during the Stalinist era. The destruction of this tradition is one of the most devastating cultural losses ever to occur in the world of choral music.

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[i] Quoted in Milos Velimirovic, “Some Letters of Pavel Chesnokov in the United States,” in Slavonic and Western Music: Essays for Gerald Abraham, ed., Malcolm Hamrick Brown (Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1985), 264.

One Giant Leap

Here's the poster for our October 2 concert, "Mrs. Winter's One Giant Leap for Humankind."

The dedicatee had no idea of the true import of the occasion when John Dowland wrote his delightful lute piece in her honor, and named it “Mrs. Winter’s Jump.” At this special concert, after Mrs. Winter takes the initiative, one small step after another will follow: from the sweet melancholy of John Dowland’s lute songs, sung by John Rommereim, baritone, with Christopher Gainey, lute, to Shostakovich preludes arranged for guitar and piano, to Rachmaninov’s famous vocalise arranged for choir and ethereal ebowed electric guitar, to a spiritual arrangement featuring jazz saxophone virtuoso Damani Phillips, and arriving at Rachmaninov’s All-Night Vigil (selections), sung by the Grinnell Singers.

I'm not a real angel; I just play one in a choir

Here are some pictures from last week's Grinnell Singers picnic.

"Pieces of music are wormholes that we can enter to escape our normal experience of time." (Robert Spano)

It did seem that after we took in that thought we were able to perform the glacial tempo on the "mironositsi zheni" [myhrr-bearing women] section of Movement nine more convincingly. Sometimes I think we do need be intentional about getting ourselves into an alternative (non-drug-induced) mental state. We can't always proceed successfully using just our normal day-to-day waking state.

Rachmaninov's vocalize -- performed by ebowed electric guitar (solo) and choir: thank you for being open to it. It will be fun to try out different versions of this piece: we have an accomplished whistler in the choir who might attempt it; sopranos take a look at it; other instruments are also possible. I need to prepare a complete transposed score, which will help me keep track of things. Chris Gainey will be coming back next Tuesday to play with us at the beginning of rehearsal at 4:30. Damani will also be coming again soon to play jazz saxophone with us.

Here is the cover to the choral conducting treatise by Pavel Chesnokov that Musica Russica will be publishing later this fall

Grinnell Singers Rehearsal September 15

I was very pleased that we were able to make such progress on the "Great Doxology " (Rachmaninov movement 12). That movement is in itself a major undertaking; it was so satisfying to hear the group starting to absorb some of its richness. There are many beautiful moments in that piece, but one favorite for me is measure 73. In the passage leading up to that moment, we are singing, "Let Thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us, as we have set our hope on Thee." While we had been predominantly in E Flat, on the word "Tia" (Thee), we arrive at that sublime G Major chord. That tertian relationship (from E Flat major, moving up a third to G Major) has such a mind-bending effect. (Granted, C minor is interposed in m. 70, but G Major and E Flat major are close enough together in time for the tertian effect to be present). Coming before God -- or that which is holy, or larger, more majestic than we are -- translate it in a way that might work for you if the religious phraseology is off-putting for you -- coming into this presence, we are transformed, thrown into a new key. Tallis's Spem in alium, you'll remember, has a similar moment at the climax of the work where the material in C major abruptly ends, and suddenly all forty voices enter with an A Major chord -- again, the tertian relationship, this time moving downward. The passage that follows in the Tallis intones "look upon our humility" (respice humilitatem nostram). In the Rachmaninov, the altos offer a supplication that is similarly humble, and filled with the desire to find the right path in life ("teach me your statutes"). I know that most in the choir are not religious; I hope nonetheless that we can still probe this work with some intensity, and that the emotional and spiritual journey that takes place within it can be absorbed by each individual.

Nice job also on Anders Paulsson's "Deep River." It will be fun to put this together with the jazz saxophone with Damani on Thursday.

Grinnell Singers rehearsal Sept. 13

Here is the quotation that I alluded to at the beginning of the rehearsal:

Again, one may go wrong in many different ways (because as the Pythagoreans expressed it, evil is of the class of the infinite, good of the finite), but right only in one, and so the former is easy, the latter difficult. Aristotle, Ethics, Book II page 15/28 (project Gutenburg, [read on iphone])

It seemed as if we were confronted rather more with that pesky class of infinite evil than the elusive, finite good during today's rehearsal. I thought our run-through of movement 9 was reasonably successful (what an exquisite piece.) On the other hand, I know that for several of the passages in Rach. movement 12, the words were getting in our way; we had some difficulty with flatting; we had a lot of people missing etc. etc. I just want to make an observation that I suppose is obvious: we are attempting something that is difficult. There's no getting around the fact that the All-Night Vigil is a major undertaking; it just takes a lot of effort to absorb it -- especially the text which is so foreign to most of you. If we all stay on task, we can do this; within a few weeks all of this hard work will start to bear fruit and we will begin to make music for longer stretches of time.

Even though we had a tough rehearsal today, I still feel so privileged to have this opportunity to work with you, and I am thoroughly enjoying this musical adventure with you. You are very welcome to take your scores with you and work on them between rehearsals. If you have some idle moments, one easy, somewhat mechanical task that you can do is to pencil the translation into your score. If you all complete this tedious task, you surely will have a more complete, satisfying experience. Practicing the text is something that is also relatively easy to do on your own; you don't even need a piano or a practice room. I'm hoping you will begin doing this work so often that people will begin to take notice of the strange, bewitched students mumbling in a backwards-sounding language as they walk across campus.

Pavel Chesnokov's Advice to Young Conductors

Here is an excerpt from Musica Russica's forthcoming translation of Pavel Chesnokov's The Choir and How to Direct It. This list of 29 suggestions for the young conductor appears at the very end of the book. Some of them are a matter of common sense, but I think others contain some valuable and important suggestions. Number eleven, for instance, is one many conductors ignore to their discredit: "Don’t become obsessed with just one composer; it will create monotony. Choose the best and most valuable works from every composer." The very last piece of advice, "Remember that the choral art is but one manifestation of human culture," received a bizarre rebuke from the Soviet editor of the second edition in 1952 (Chesnokov's book was published in 1940, with new editions in 1952 and 1961). The editor wrote in a footnote: “This characterization does not call forth an understanding of the choral art in the social-cultural life of our people. The choral art, tightly entwined with the labor and social life of the Soviet people, is one of the active means of communist education.” Isn't it remarkable that the editor couldn't leave Chesnokov's profound statement alone, but instead felt the need have the final word, and to blow this last gust of political hot air?

1. Technique assists inspiration, so the first task is to teach the choir to achieve technical mastery of a given composition.

2. Do not undertake work on a composition that you cannot fully apprehend yourself, either intellectually or emotionally.

3. If, when working on a piece, you notice that the choir does not take to it because it is below the choir's abilities, remove that composition from the rehearsal schedule. If a piece is too hard for the choir, abandon it for a time. Develop and perfect the group by working on easier pieces, and then at a later date, return to the difficult piece.

4. Remember that your job is to lead. A personal sense of responsibility will help you overcome many difficulties.

5. Do not go to the choir with a piece that you have not studied beforehand and analyzed thoroughly.

6. If the choir sings poorly, do not blame them; blame yourself.

7. When conducting a choir, you must always be at least to some degree in an inspired, enthusiastic state. The absence of enthusiasm weakens performance.

8. Do not depreciate the value of a composition by too-frequent rehearsal. If you notice a worsening in the quality of performance, and the appearance of mistakes, take the piece off the rehearsal schedule for a couple of months, then work on it a second time.

9. Do not add weak works, or works with low artistic value to the choir's repertoire.

10. Never be rude in working with the choir; it lowers you in their eyes, and it will cause only injury. Be enthusiastic, inventive, discerning; gain the confidence of the choir by engaging them in interesting tasks and by directing them toward the artistic performance of the pieces being studied.

11. Don’t become obsessed with just one composer; it will create monotony. Chose the best and most valuable works from every composer.

12. Working the choir to the point of exhaustion is ill-advised; if the choir is tired, they won’t work productively.

13. Before entering the stage, take two or three deep, slow breaths; it will have a beneficial effect on your nervous system.

14. As you enter the stage, do not survey the crowd, and do not attempt to quiet them. Once you have taken your position, assume a good posture, wait for a full quiet to come upon the hall, and for the choir to focus their attention; avoid, however, an overly long pause.

15. Thoroughly and in detail, instruct the choir regarding their entrance and exit, as well as their behavior in front of the audience. An outward order creates the impression of seriousness and discipline.

16. The first time you approach a new choir, don’t forget that the group has its own history, its own habits and traditions. Be careful not to disrupt the group precipitously: examine the group; create improvements, and gradually the flaws will be transformed into virtues.

17. Don’t be verbose with the choir; say only that which is necessary and that which has a practical purpose. Remember that verbosity is wearisome to the choir; be judicious both in gestures and in words.

18. Avoid making the choir repeat things without a purpose. When you repeat something, explain why you are doing it; otherwise the choir’s trust in you will gradually diminish.

19. Maintain strict demands on yourself, both as a conductor and as a person; this will guarantee a normal relationship with the choir.

20. Support an atmosphere of artistic camaraderie and unity of spirit in the choir.

21. Be an old comrade for the choral singer, in the best sense of the word; at the same time, be demanding in your work.

22. In studying a piece with the choir, show the singers the best musical ideas and details that it contains; by doing this, you will plant within them an artistic sensibility.

23. If you don’t succeed in eliciting a feeling of inspiration regarding the artistic value of the composition performed, your work with the choir will not achieve the desired goal.

24. A conductor who cannot succeed in calling forth a feeling of exalted surprise on the part of the listener is not an artist.

25. If you don’t yourself experience delight, and don’t find joy in your work, then you won’t give anything to the singers. You should consider work of that kind to be pointless.

26. Try to bring liveliness and interest to every dry technical task.

27. Study every singer as an individual; investigate his unique psychology and approach him in a way that is consistent with his personality.

28. Value and respect the choral singer if you want to be valued and respected by the choir; mutual respect and goodwill are a necessary underpinning for artistic work.

29. Remember that the choral art is but one manifestation of human culture.