My Collegium Singers from UNT (well, 14 of them) were invited to perform at the Berkeley Early Music Festival through the auspices of the Early Music America Young Performers Festival. June 7 we sang Tomas Luis de Victoria's Officium defunctorum (Requiem).
It can be found here, thanks to Charles Coldwell, who did a wonderful job recording.
Huge thanks to my singers, who did a fantastic job and worked really hard (and had fun!) prepping for the Festival and giving a wonderful performance.
Friday, June 22, 2012
Friday, May 4, 2012
A colleague dies
I knew Roger primarily as a member of "Liederkranz," an organization that is a wonderful mix of fellowship and love of the choral art. I was a member of this group of conductors for about 8 or 9 years, which met in the Columbia River Gorge each fall. Roger was notable for his great sense of humor--the "seminar" the first evening at the local bar was always a place for the telling of new (or old) jokes and Roger always had some. The picture below captures him beautifully. He will certainly be missed. The article tells much that even I didn't know.
PORTLAND, OR -- The University of Portland community is mourning the
loss of Roger O. Doyle, a colorful and beloved professor of music at the
University of Portland for nearly forty years and cheerful sturdy
pillar of the music community in Portland, who died Monday, April 30 of
complications from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis – ALS, “Lou Gehrig’s
disease.” Doyle was 72 years old and is survived by his widow Kay Reboul
Doyle, as well as his stepmother Lucille and stepsister Elizabeth, and
his nephews Kevin and Christopher Sanborn.
Born in Wichita, Kansas, on Christmas Eve, 1939, the younger of Daniel and Minnie Doyle’s two children, Roger earned his undergraduate and master’s degrees in music education at the University of Wichita (where he was also a noted singer and tuba player, and served six years in the Kansas Air National Guard), and a doctorate on conducting and choral music from the University of Colorado. He taught in high schools in Kansas and at Saint Mary of the Plain College in Dodge City before arriving at the University of Portland in 1973, where he became legendary for his energy, creativity, exuberance, tireless energy for conducting choirs and orchestras, and booming laughter.
But for all his excellence as a teacher and admired colleague on The Bluff, Doyle’s energy and influence ranged much further than the campus. He directed Portland’s Choral Arts Ensemble from 1976 until his final concert with that group in 2010. He served as president of Portland’s classical radio station, KQAC (formerly KBPS) – famously persuading the station’s board to purchase the broadcast license from Portland Public Schools and become an independent station. He founded and directed the Mock’s Crest Productions professional light opera run every summer in the University of Portland’s Mago Hunt Theater. He was often a guest lecturer for the Oregon Symphony. He lectured and conducted in Japan, Austria, Denmark, and Ireland, twice conducting the National Chamber Choir of Ireland. He conducted the Multnomah Club Balladeers for 35 years, from 1975 to 2010. He was a board member of the Metropolitan Youth Symphony Orchestra for nearly thirty years. He was president of the Oregon Choral Directors Association. He wrote graceful essays and articles about music and composers for many periodicals. He founded the annual Best in the Northwest Choir Festival, which has brought thousands of talented high school students to Portland. He presented more concerts in and around Portland than can be easily counted, among them a series of famous sacred music events at Saint Mary’s Cathedral. He persuaded Aaron Copland to donate his scores to the University of Portland, he sang with Barry Manilow, studied with Robert Shaw, and taught thousands of students to sing and to savor and appreciate music and musical theater.
And among the many dreams and sweeping ideas he had that came to fruition, he finally did conduct Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, in 2008 in Saint Mary’s Cathedral in Portland, with the University Singers and the Choral Arts Ensemble, in two legendary performances; he finally did spend months in his ancestral Ireland, on a research sabbatical in 1998, where, among other entertainments, he conducted high school choirs and met the famous Irish composer Roger Doyle; and he did finally conduct at the farewell concert his wife Kay had always envisioned for him at the University, in 2010, with more than a hundred of his students and former students singing their hearts out for the professor who had changed their lives.
Yet for all his sweeping accomplishments and myriad projects, Roger’s legacy at the University and in the city of Portland is his character and cheer, his irrepressible humor and open friendliness, and the absolute integrity of the way he lived his life. He loved music, he loved his wife Kay, he loved bringing music to people and people to music. He was an unforgettable man with an immense heart, a lovely tenor voice, and a kindness bigger than an ocean. When he retired from the University of Portland in 2010, beginning to suffer the effects of his illness, the University community paid him the usual honors: emeritus status, scholarship gifts gathered in celebration of his work and spirits, an award for community service established in his name. But the most telling events, perhaps, are the stream of visitors, letters, calls, and notes to him from friends and admirers, so constant and dense that Kay had to resort to scheduling callers in advance; and that June 2010 farewell concert for him, organized by his current and former students, among them the wonderful Portland singer Julianne Johnson. During the show Roger sat on stage, beaming, as wave after wave of the young people he taught brought music back to him as a balm, a prayer, an expression of deep love and respect.
Gifts in memory of Roger may be directed to the Roger and Kay Doyle Scholarship Fund at the University of Portland, a scholarship devoted to students of music.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
NY Times obit for Gerre Hancock
Find it on the Times here.
I was looking for the obituary for several days and surprised not to find one, since Gerre was such a major force in music in NY for over 30 years. But here it is.
I was looking for the obituary for several days and surprised not to find one, since Gerre was such a major force in music in NY for over 30 years. But here it is.
Monday, January 23, 2012
Gerre Hancock, 1934-2012
It was sad news to hear that Dr. Gerre Hancock just died just a month or so short of his 78th birthday. He was certainly a giant among organists and Anglican musicians--his 30+ years at St. Thomas Episcopal in NY were an inspiration to many. Last night at Church of the Incarnation we dedicated the Evensong Service to his memory, singing Gerre's setting of the Preces and Responses as part of the service.
The connection with Gerre became a personal one because it was my joy to work with him at our two services of Lessons and Carols at the Church of the Incarnation in December. He did a short organ recital before the service and played all the hymns during the service itself. We had time as he prepared over several weeks when he came up from Austin (where he's been teaching since retiring from St. Thomas) to chat and reminisce, and Keith Franks, our Associate organist, also had a dinner at his house with Gerre, Keith's mother, and Kathryn and me after one of the services. Gerre and I discovered of course, that even though we hadn't met in person, our lives had crossed many times in the ways they tend to in the small world of musicians. When I taught at Mt. Holyoke College (1980-83) the choirs did their Christmas concerts at St. Thomas each year and whenever I visited NY (which was fairly frequent), I tried to take in a service there.
With Seattle Pro Musica (1973-1980) the Evangelist for my first St. John Passion was Greg Carder, who soon after moved to NY and has sung ever since as one of the professional singers in the St. Thomas Choir. Richard Lippold, a former student of mine from PLU, has been a regular soloist at St. Thomas for years. And in the organ world, of course, we shared many friends and colleagues.
It was great fun to discover that Gerre's job before coming to St. Thomas was at Christ Church Episcopal Cathedral in Cincinnati, where I did a short interim in 2006 while a guest professor at CCM/University of Cincinnati. Gerre also told stories of his 6 months in England, shortly after he went to St. Thomas, shadowing David Willcocks to learn more first-hand about the Anglican choral tradition. Gerre spoke of sitting on the floor with Sir David as he was writing and organizing the descants for the first book of Carols for Choirs--the very descants we were singing at the services.
I have to say, Gerre was one of the sweetest men I've known. I've never heard anyone speak in any way but positively and with love of him as as a person, as well as a musician.
Dr. Hancock’s ashes will be interred beneath the floor of the chancel at St. Thomas, where their choir directors stand to lead the choir. I can think of no more fitting place.
The connection with Gerre became a personal one because it was my joy to work with him at our two services of Lessons and Carols at the Church of the Incarnation in December. He did a short organ recital before the service and played all the hymns during the service itself. We had time as he prepared over several weeks when he came up from Austin (where he's been teaching since retiring from St. Thomas) to chat and reminisce, and Keith Franks, our Associate organist, also had a dinner at his house with Gerre, Keith's mother, and Kathryn and me after one of the services. Gerre and I discovered of course, that even though we hadn't met in person, our lives had crossed many times in the ways they tend to in the small world of musicians. When I taught at Mt. Holyoke College (1980-83) the choirs did their Christmas concerts at St. Thomas each year and whenever I visited NY (which was fairly frequent), I tried to take in a service there.
With Seattle Pro Musica (1973-1980) the Evangelist for my first St. John Passion was Greg Carder, who soon after moved to NY and has sung ever since as one of the professional singers in the St. Thomas Choir. Richard Lippold, a former student of mine from PLU, has been a regular soloist at St. Thomas for years. And in the organ world, of course, we shared many friends and colleagues.
It was great fun to discover that Gerre's job before coming to St. Thomas was at Christ Church Episcopal Cathedral in Cincinnati, where I did a short interim in 2006 while a guest professor at CCM/University of Cincinnati. Gerre also told stories of his 6 months in England, shortly after he went to St. Thomas, shadowing David Willcocks to learn more first-hand about the Anglican choral tradition. Gerre spoke of sitting on the floor with Sir David as he was writing and organizing the descants for the first book of Carols for Choirs--the very descants we were singing at the services.
I have to say, Gerre was one of the sweetest men I've known. I've never heard anyone speak in any way but positively and with love of him as as a person, as well as a musician.
Dr. Hancock’s ashes will be interred beneath the floor of the chancel at St. Thomas, where their choir directors stand to lead the choir. I can think of no more fitting place.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Vivaldi Gloria is up
You'll find it here.
UNT Collegium singers & Baroque Orchestra (all students, undergrad and graduate).
UNT Collegium singers & Baroque Orchestra (all students, undergrad and graduate).
Monday, December 5, 2011
NCCO and Bach/baroque music - Jesu, meine Freude
I was able to attend the NCCO (National Collegiate Choral Organization) conference in Colorado Springs in early November.
It was a marvelous conference with both excellent concerts/choirs and sessions.
Paul Carey has posted beautifully on content of the sessions on his Musical Mayhem blog, so I won't attempt to do that.
Helmuth Rilling was the headliner, working with James Kim's excellent CSU Chamber Choir. Everyone knows Rilling's work, of course, from his Gächinger Kantorei and Bach-Collegium Stuttgart and his work since 1970 with the Oregon Bach Festival.
Certainly, his work had a big impact on me. As an undergraduate I was tremendously interested in baroque music and got to know his recordings and those of Wilhelm Ehmann, among others. In 1971 the University of Washington Chorale, under the direction of Rod Eichenberger, took part in one of the Vienna Symposiums organized by Paul Koutney. This meant two weeks in Vienna, each of the seven American university choirs doing a concert in a different church, plus combining for performances of the Kodaly Psalmus Hungaricus in the Rathaus and Mahler's Symphony #8 in the Konzertverein (quite a fabulous experience, with the Vienna Boychoir). Afterwards, the choir toured, ending up in Paris. I stayed over after that, among other things going to Ehmann's Westfälische Landeskirchenmusikschule (unannounced, I should add, as were all the things I did on that trip--more about that in another post!).
When I was in Herford, I mentioned to one of the German students that I'd really like to see Rilling work . . . and they said, well, we'll call him and find out what he's doing! So I found out that he was doing a Kantat-Fest at the Gedächtniskirche the following weekend, then the weekend after rehearsing with the Gächinger Kantorei for the first time on some repertoire for a concert about a week after that. So, off to Stuttgart I went.
The first weekend I watched rehearsals on Saturday for the Kantat-Fest, which simply meant that anyone who wanted showed up on Saturday to rehearse a Bach cantata (about 100 people) and they would then sing it in the service the next day. I didn't stick around for the service, as I'd already arranged to visit two friends from the choir, Greg and Nancy Vancil, who would be studying at the Mozarteum in Salzburg for the next year, but enjoyed watching the rehearsal. I then came back to Stuttgart for the rehearsals with the Gächinger Kantorei the following weekend. The Choir was doing an unusual program for Rilling as I knew his work, all a cappella: Debussy and Ravel Trois Chansons, Schoenberg Friede auf Erden, Schumann Talismane, and Genzmer Südamerikanische Gesänge, if I remember correctly. Great fun!
The next summer, 1972, I attended the Oregon Bach Festival, which was truly a mountain-top experience for me in many ways. We sang an all-Schütz program (big Schütz year) and Bach's Mass in B Minor. The Bach, in particular, was life-changing in many ways. By that point, I'd already conducted Christ lag in Todesbanden, and was about to start doing a project inspired by the Kantat-Fest weekends. But it was Rilling's knowledge, expertise, and passion which truly inspired. At that time, he told us it was the 50th time he'd conducted the Mass--one can hardly imagine how many times it's been now! The style was fairly romantic, compared to what he or we would do now (although not at the time). It's also been interesting to see how his style has changed: the phrasing in the opening Kyrie fugue, for example. While I never went back to the OBF as a participant, I've occasionally gone to hear a few concerts and, in fact, heard the Mass when the Gächinger Kantorei came to the OBF for their 50th anniversary. Fascinating to hear how the concept has changed, and what has remained not too far from what I remember way back when.
(I should also say that I was able to catch Rilling sitting outside of the hotel one afternoon and thank him for the inspiration he's provided and mention that long-ago couple of weekends in Stuttgart, as well as the early OBF experience--it's always nice to be able to do that!)
Since I've done lots of work with period instruments (it's one of the reasons the job at UNT was intriguing to me, and certainly one of the reasons I got the job)--the Bach Ensemble in Seattle from 1978-80 began using period instruments--my ideas about performance have changed as well.
With that in mind, it was interesting to listen to the concert at the NCCO, which had two motets (Singet dem Herrn and Jesu, meine Freude) plus the Magnificat. I found that there were two things that struck me most strongly: some aspects of phrasing and the tuning of major thirds. As I mentioned, Rilling has certainly changed many things about the way he phrases baroque music (with the example of the Kyrie in the B Minor), but there are other aspects where my way of phrasing has changed.
In addition, I've gotten so used to different tuning systems that my ear now wants a considerably lower/pure major third, particularly at cadences. For me, the thirds I heard in Colorado were far too "jangly," the only way I can describe the difference between the "beats" of a tempered third and the beatless relative calm of a pure third (the purity refers to a major third which matches the third heard in the natural harmonic series.
Since I'd just done Jesu, meine Freude with my Collegium Singers at UNT, that was very fresh in my mind. Given what I've said, it's only fair that I provide a link to what we did, not that I'm claiming anything for it, but it represents in a more concrete way what can only be expressed poorly in writing. You can find that performance here: the Bach begins at 1:04 (that's one hour, four minutes). You'll know it's live, not only because it's on video with no possibility of editing, but also because our organist (the fabulous Christoph Hammer) played a decidedly non-picardy third at the end of one of the movements! We were using Vallotti for tuning the organ, a decent compromise for this program, which was mostly mid-baroque from northern Germany (Buxtehude, particularly). For other repertoire (Monteverdi Vespers, for example) we've used quarter-comma meantone, which has extremely pure thirds (in some keys!).
We'll shortly have a video up with a performance of the Vivaldi Gloria with this choir and our period instrument baroque orchestra and I'll post a link when it's up. Strangely, I'd never conducted the Vivaldi before (perhaps because I'd heard so many terrible performances!), so it was great fun to approach in as fresh a manner as I could. More about that later.
It was a marvelous conference with both excellent concerts/choirs and sessions.
Paul Carey has posted beautifully on content of the sessions on his Musical Mayhem blog, so I won't attempt to do that.
Helmuth Rilling was the headliner, working with James Kim's excellent CSU Chamber Choir. Everyone knows Rilling's work, of course, from his Gächinger Kantorei and Bach-Collegium Stuttgart and his work since 1970 with the Oregon Bach Festival.
Certainly, his work had a big impact on me. As an undergraduate I was tremendously interested in baroque music and got to know his recordings and those of Wilhelm Ehmann, among others. In 1971 the University of Washington Chorale, under the direction of Rod Eichenberger, took part in one of the Vienna Symposiums organized by Paul Koutney. This meant two weeks in Vienna, each of the seven American university choirs doing a concert in a different church, plus combining for performances of the Kodaly Psalmus Hungaricus in the Rathaus and Mahler's Symphony #8 in the Konzertverein (quite a fabulous experience, with the Vienna Boychoir). Afterwards, the choir toured, ending up in Paris. I stayed over after that, among other things going to Ehmann's Westfälische Landeskirchenmusikschule (unannounced, I should add, as were all the things I did on that trip--more about that in another post!).
When I was in Herford, I mentioned to one of the German students that I'd really like to see Rilling work . . . and they said, well, we'll call him and find out what he's doing! So I found out that he was doing a Kantat-Fest at the Gedächtniskirche the following weekend, then the weekend after rehearsing with the Gächinger Kantorei for the first time on some repertoire for a concert about a week after that. So, off to Stuttgart I went.
The first weekend I watched rehearsals on Saturday for the Kantat-Fest, which simply meant that anyone who wanted showed up on Saturday to rehearse a Bach cantata (about 100 people) and they would then sing it in the service the next day. I didn't stick around for the service, as I'd already arranged to visit two friends from the choir, Greg and Nancy Vancil, who would be studying at the Mozarteum in Salzburg for the next year, but enjoyed watching the rehearsal. I then came back to Stuttgart for the rehearsals with the Gächinger Kantorei the following weekend. The Choir was doing an unusual program for Rilling as I knew his work, all a cappella: Debussy and Ravel Trois Chansons, Schoenberg Friede auf Erden, Schumann Talismane, and Genzmer Südamerikanische Gesänge, if I remember correctly. Great fun!
The next summer, 1972, I attended the Oregon Bach Festival, which was truly a mountain-top experience for me in many ways. We sang an all-Schütz program (big Schütz year) and Bach's Mass in B Minor. The Bach, in particular, was life-changing in many ways. By that point, I'd already conducted Christ lag in Todesbanden, and was about to start doing a project inspired by the Kantat-Fest weekends. But it was Rilling's knowledge, expertise, and passion which truly inspired. At that time, he told us it was the 50th time he'd conducted the Mass--one can hardly imagine how many times it's been now! The style was fairly romantic, compared to what he or we would do now (although not at the time). It's also been interesting to see how his style has changed: the phrasing in the opening Kyrie fugue, for example. While I never went back to the OBF as a participant, I've occasionally gone to hear a few concerts and, in fact, heard the Mass when the Gächinger Kantorei came to the OBF for their 50th anniversary. Fascinating to hear how the concept has changed, and what has remained not too far from what I remember way back when.
(I should also say that I was able to catch Rilling sitting outside of the hotel one afternoon and thank him for the inspiration he's provided and mention that long-ago couple of weekends in Stuttgart, as well as the early OBF experience--it's always nice to be able to do that!)
Since I've done lots of work with period instruments (it's one of the reasons the job at UNT was intriguing to me, and certainly one of the reasons I got the job)--the Bach Ensemble in Seattle from 1978-80 began using period instruments--my ideas about performance have changed as well.
With that in mind, it was interesting to listen to the concert at the NCCO, which had two motets (Singet dem Herrn and Jesu, meine Freude) plus the Magnificat. I found that there were two things that struck me most strongly: some aspects of phrasing and the tuning of major thirds. As I mentioned, Rilling has certainly changed many things about the way he phrases baroque music (with the example of the Kyrie in the B Minor), but there are other aspects where my way of phrasing has changed.
In addition, I've gotten so used to different tuning systems that my ear now wants a considerably lower/pure major third, particularly at cadences. For me, the thirds I heard in Colorado were far too "jangly," the only way I can describe the difference between the "beats" of a tempered third and the beatless relative calm of a pure third (the purity refers to a major third which matches the third heard in the natural harmonic series.
Since I'd just done Jesu, meine Freude with my Collegium Singers at UNT, that was very fresh in my mind. Given what I've said, it's only fair that I provide a link to what we did, not that I'm claiming anything for it, but it represents in a more concrete way what can only be expressed poorly in writing. You can find that performance here: the Bach begins at 1:04 (that's one hour, four minutes). You'll know it's live, not only because it's on video with no possibility of editing, but also because our organist (the fabulous Christoph Hammer) played a decidedly non-picardy third at the end of one of the movements! We were using Vallotti for tuning the organ, a decent compromise for this program, which was mostly mid-baroque from northern Germany (Buxtehude, particularly). For other repertoire (Monteverdi Vespers, for example) we've used quarter-comma meantone, which has extremely pure thirds (in some keys!).
We'll shortly have a video up with a performance of the Vivaldi Gloria with this choir and our period instrument baroque orchestra and I'll post a link when it's up. Strangely, I'd never conducted the Vivaldi before (perhaps because I'd heard so many terrible performances!), so it was great fun to approach in as fresh a manner as I could. More about that later.
A long time gone!
Far too long gone from blogging!
My excuse (such as it is) is taking on a big church job beginning in late August: Interim Choirmaster at Church of the Incarnation (http://www.incarnation.org/). This large, Episcopal Church is a vital and interesting place. Choral music, traditional Anglican liturgy, traditional Anglican music are all important parts of the life of this church (if you peruse the website, you'll see there is also a very active contemporary worship/music component of Incarnation). This means that the choir sings for two services Sunday morning and we also do Evensong (1662 Book of Common Prayer) almost every Sunday during the academic year. Anglican chant (Coverdale Psalter) is also an important part of the 11:15 and Evensong services.
This has certainly meant a busy schedule for me this fall in addition to my UNT schedule. I go in for staff meetings Tuesday mornings, choir rehearsals Wednesday evenings, and Sunday is an all-day affair. Since I also have to do some administrative coordination for newly re-constituted or new children's choirs, youth choir, and handbell choir, as well as the Music Series, there's always something that needs doing.
We did the Durufle Requiem for All Soul's as part of the music series, in the version for small orchestra (strings, harp, 3 trumpets and timpani) and organ, which was a lovely experience.
Traditional Lessons and Carols (following the King's College model) are the next two Sundays (Dec. 11 and 18 at 5 PM, with a pre-service organ recital by Gerre Hancock, for many years organist/choirmaster at St. Thomas in New York. If you're in Dallas, do come, it'll be wonderful.
Christmas Eve is also full of services: noon, 2, 5, and 10:30, with the choir at 5 and 10:30, children's, youth, and handbell choirs at the earlier services.
I'll attempt to get back to a more regular schedule of blogging, although it's likely to go up and down as my commitments do!
My excuse (such as it is) is taking on a big church job beginning in late August: Interim Choirmaster at Church of the Incarnation (http://www.incarnation.org/). This large, Episcopal Church is a vital and interesting place. Choral music, traditional Anglican liturgy, traditional Anglican music are all important parts of the life of this church (if you peruse the website, you'll see there is also a very active contemporary worship/music component of Incarnation). This means that the choir sings for two services Sunday morning and we also do Evensong (1662 Book of Common Prayer) almost every Sunday during the academic year. Anglican chant (Coverdale Psalter) is also an important part of the 11:15 and Evensong services.
This has certainly meant a busy schedule for me this fall in addition to my UNT schedule. I go in for staff meetings Tuesday mornings, choir rehearsals Wednesday evenings, and Sunday is an all-day affair. Since I also have to do some administrative coordination for newly re-constituted or new children's choirs, youth choir, and handbell choir, as well as the Music Series, there's always something that needs doing.
We did the Durufle Requiem for All Soul's as part of the music series, in the version for small orchestra (strings, harp, 3 trumpets and timpani) and organ, which was a lovely experience.
Traditional Lessons and Carols (following the King's College model) are the next two Sundays (Dec. 11 and 18 at 5 PM, with a pre-service organ recital by Gerre Hancock, for many years organist/choirmaster at St. Thomas in New York. If you're in Dallas, do come, it'll be wonderful.
Christmas Eve is also full of services: noon, 2, 5, and 10:30, with the choir at 5 and 10:30, children's, youth, and handbell choirs at the earlier services.
I'll attempt to get back to a more regular schedule of blogging, although it's likely to go up and down as my commitments do!
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