Philip Ledger dies

Ledger was best-known to most of us as conductor of the King's College Choir from 1974-82, following Sir David Willcocks.

He had a distinguished career, as one can see from his Wikipedia post:

Sir Philip Stevens Ledger CBE (12 December 1937 – 18 November 2012) was a British classical musician and academic, best known for his tenure as director of the Choir of King's College, Cambridge between 1974 and 1982 and as director of Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama from 1982 until his retirement in 2001. He was also a composer of choral music and an organist.
Sir Philip was born in Bexhill-on-Sea in 1937 and educated at King's College, Cambridge.^[1] When appointed Master of the Music at Chelmsford Cathedral in 1961, he became the youngest Cathedral Organist in the country.^[1] In 1965 he took up the post of Director of Music at the University of East Anglia where he was also Dean of the School of Fine Arts and Music and responsible for the establishment of an award-winning building for the University’s Music Centre, opened in 1973.^[1] In 1968 he became an Artistic Director of the Aldeburgh Festival with Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears, conducting at the Snape Maltings on many occasions including the opening concert after its rebuilding, and playing in first performances of works by Britten.^[1] He appears as continuo player on Britten's recordings of Bach and Purcell.

He was Director of Music at King’s College, Cambridge from 1974–1982 and Conductor of the Cambridge University Musical Society from 1973-1982. During his years in Cambridge, he directed the Choir of King’s College in the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, made an extensive range of recordings and took the Choir to the USA, Australia, and Japan for the first time.

He was subsequently Principal of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama from 1982-2001 where in 1988 new premises for the Academy were opened by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. Since that time Ledger has appeared as a conductor throughout the United Kingdom, North America, and Asia.

He is also an organist and keyboard player and has conducted many leading orchestras. He has made numerous recordings with artists such as Benjamin Britten, Dame Janet Baker, Paul Tortelier, Pinchas Zukerman and Robert Tear.

Compositions

Ledger is also noted for his original compositions and arrangements, particularly for choir. After succeeding David Willcocks as director at King's, he wrote a number of new descants and arrangements of Christmas carols, as well as new settings of popular texts such as Adam lay ybounden and A Spotless Rose. His arrangement of "This joyful Eastertide" for mixed voices and organ has been widely performed and broadcast. Many of his compositions and editions have been published by Oxford University Press, Encore Publications, The Lorenz Corporation (USA), and The Royal School of Church Music. His Requiem (A Thanksgiving for Life) is written for soprano and tenor soloists with mixed choir and may be performed with either orchestra, or with chamber ensemble or with organ.

The first recording devoted entirely to his choral compositions, including his Requiem - A thanksgiving for life was recorded on 7 and 8 December 2008 by Christ's College Chapel Choir, Cambridge, directed by both David Rowland and Sir Philip Ledger. The album (Regent Records) was released 16 November 2009.

Ledger has also composed an Easter cantata with carols entitled "The risen Christ". Published by Encore Publications, his new work is composed for soprano, tenor and baritone soli, choir and chamber ensemble. The words of have been compiled from various sources including original texts by Philip Ledger, Robin Morrish and Robert Woodings. The piece also contains words by anonymous authors, two settings that have been adapted from texts by G.R.Woodward and Christopher Wordsworth, as well as a short extract from a poem by Olivia Ward Bush-Banks. The cantata portrays three appearances of the risen Christ. The first of these is to Mary Magdalene at Christ's tomb, the second to Cleopas and another disciple on the road to Emmaus, and the third to Simon Peter at the Sea of Tiberias. The US premiere took place at Washington National Cathedral on 7 May 2011 in a concert by Cathedral Voices, conducted by Jeremy Filsell. The first UK performance was given at Canterbury Cathedral on 8 May 2011 during Evensong sung by the cathedral choir, conducted by David Flood.

In 2012, Ledger composed another cantata, "This Holy Child", which is a setting of the Christmas story with five original carols, "Jesus Christ the apple tree", "The voice of the angel Gabriel", "In the bleak mid-winter", "Hush! my dear, lie still and slumber" and "A little child there is yborn". The words have been compiled from various sources including poems by Selwyn Image.

New music magazine

Is Sinfoni. Check it out.

Also courtesy of Norman Lebrecht's blog, which is consistently interesting. Well worth adding to your reader (if you don't have one to follow blogs--including mine!--try google.com/reader--it's easy to use and blog posts can be found at one bookmark).

Dangerous times for music -- The Netherlands

As Norman Lebrecht reports in this blog post:

As part of the Dutch government’s plans to dismantle the Broadcast Music Centre in Hilversum – plans that also involve the abolition of an orchestra and chorus – one of the biggest sheet music libraries in western Europe is going to disappear.

Unless the MCO library can raise independent funding in the next nine months, the scores will be sold to dealers or turfed out into the street. About 5,000 have been digitized, the rest will be lost. You can read more about it here (in Dutch).

What a shame that such a cultural resource would be destroyed or scattered in such a way that they would no longer be generally available.

Creating a Positive Culture in your Choir - III

Last time I discussed Doug Lemov's 100% idea: "There's on acceptable percentage of students following a direction: 100 percent. Less, and your authority is subject to interpretation, situation, and motivation."

So, what are his principles for getting to 100%?

He says there are three principles to ensure "consistent follow-through and compliance in the classroom." The first of these is to use the least invasive form of intervention, and this is so you don't have to interrupt teaching (your rehearsal) to deal with a student who isn't following through (talking, not paying attention, slumping in his/her chair, music in their lap, not engaged, etc.) with your 100% expectation. He then gives a list, starting with the least invasive techniques, which means you should start as close to the top of the list (use the least invasive technique which will get the job done):

• Nonverbal - gesture/eye contact - keep teaching
• Positive group correction - quick verbal reminder ("sit tall" "focus" "eyes up")
• Anonymous individual correction - quick verbal reminder, but makes it explicit that not everyone is doing what they should ("Two people are still looking down")
• Private individual correction - if you have to name names, if possible do it quietly and privately (after rehearsal, at lunch or some other time after class)
• Lightning-quick public correction - name the student and quickly give the correction ("Quentin, I need your eyes") - you can also follow up with a positive ("Looking sharp, back row! Thanks, Quentin, much better.)
• Consequence - external consequences should be used as sparingly as possible, but sometimes it's the only way to deal with an individual (Lemov's further explanation: consequences should be delivered quickly and in the least invasive emotional manner; don't allow it to interrupt instruction/rehearsal; have a scaled list of consequences, so you can match the significance of the response to the level of disruption)

I have to say, there's so much more and the book is well worth reading, so take a look if you find what I've shared from Lemov interesting . . . or perhaps it could be a great dissertation topic for some DMA or Music Ed PhD--adapting some of the principles specifically to the choral situation or observe and/or video "champion teacher/conductors."

Again, a reminder that the goal is not "power" -- as Lemov states, "Students need to follow directions quickly and completely so that they can be assured of having the best chance to succeed." Interruptions, lack of focus, singers who don't use good posture or vocal technique, who are disengaged, lead to a poorer musical experience for all your singers. A choir which is focused, doesn't chat, consistently follows principles of good musicianship and vocal health gets much more done . . . and frankly, the experience is a better one for everyone. It allows you to concentrate on teaching: good technique, wonderful sound, musicality, and expression. Isn't that what we want for all our students?

Finally, why the "thumbs up" at the top of the page when I've been talking about interventions for disruptions to whatever you feel needs 100% compliance? Well, you should also to reinforce those students who are doing what they should. That can be to the group ("great focus today!" "what a fantastic sound you just made!" "did you hear how beautifully that chord was in tune?!"), but can also be to individuals ("I love the way you watch, Megan!" "Thanks for the great posture, Mike"). But I also (usually after talking about something like looking up) find a non-verbal way--and yes, I do use the "thumbs up"--while conducting to a student whose eyes are with me. It tells them that I noticed, that I care about what they're doing . . . and that also makes a difference.

Creating a Positive Culture in your Choir II

Once again, the idea behind this series is how to build a positive culture in your choir.

 

John Wooden, the most successful college basketball coach in history, was famous for the structure that he built into his practices (rehearsals) and the clear expectations for each player on the floor. He was amazingly detail oriented and believed that "little things make big things happen" (the title of one chapter in his book, Wooden on Leadership). For example, he talks at one point about how at the beginning of the year he personally taught his players how to put on their socks and tie their shoes--because if their socks were not put on properly, the player could get a blister and affect his performance--and shoes not tied properly could come undone in a game and cost points.

 

A few thoughts about "little things" to build into your choir's culture:

• be on time (how does your choir expect to begin the rehearsal? In seats? quiet and ready to work?)
• be prepared: have your music and pencil
• use your pencil (which means teaching choir members how to mark their scores)
• how to sit ("tall," feet on the floor)
• how to hold your music (up so you can see music and conductor)
• how to focus during rehearsal (is talk/chatter tolerated?)

One could go on -- I'm curious about what things you think are essential "little things." Let me know!

 

But once you've decided what your choir will "look/act like" in terms of those little things, fundamentals (or whatever you wish to call them), how do you build them into the choir's culture?

 

Doug Lemov's Teach Like a Champion is a really wonderful book. Lemov is managing director of Uncommon Schools and concerned with how to take lessons learned from master teachers and teach young teachers to do this same. If you're interested, check out the website for the book, which has video examples and excerpts. The book itself comes with a DVD that contains real-life examples illustrating the principles in the book (the subtitle is "49 techniques that put students on the path to college").

 

One of the techniques is simply called, "100%" (technique #36, by the way!). The key idea is, "There's one acceptable percentage of students following a direction: 100 percent. Less, and your authority is subject to interpretation, situation, and motivation." Here's a bit more of what he says:

 

The assertion that the standard, not the goal, is 100 percent compliance may sound terrifying and draconian: a power-hungry plan for a battle of wills or the blueprint for an obedience-obsessed classroom where little but grinding discipline is acheived. The classrooms of champion teachers belie this expectation, however. They finess their way to the standard with a warm and positive tone. They are crisp and orderly; students do as they're asked without ever seeming to think about it. Yet the culture of compliance is both positive, and, most important, invisible. Not only can these two characteristics be part of a classorom with maximum order, but in the end, they must. Discipline that is most often positive and invisible (that is, a matter of habit) is, arguablly, the only sustainable variety.

 

Note the statements, "Yet the culture of compliance is both positive, and, most important, invisible. Not only can these two characteristics be part of a classorom with maximum order, but in the end, they must. Discipline that is most often positive and invisible (that is, a matter of habit) is, arguablly, the only sustainable variety." Those are my italics, of course--it is building a positive culture (habitual ways of doing things) that reinforce themselves . . . ultimately leading to a much more positive (and effective) experiene for everyone in the choir.

 

This is getting long, so I won't outline Lemov's ways of achieving 100% here (next time!), but you may say, "This just seems like the old lessons in classroom management." Well, that's true, in part. But unless these "little things" and the concept that everyone in your choir will do things a certain way takes hold, it's very hard to achieve what you want musically.

 

But just to show that the "cultural" things I'm discussing are not just "classroom management," but can musical habits as well, an example from several years ago when I guest conducted the wonderful Exsultate Chamber Singers in Toronto. At that time conducted by John Tuttle, the choir's musical culture was decidedly Anglican/British choral tradition. One thing I noticed right away was that they took a "lift" after every single instance of punctuation (comma, semi-colon, period, etc.). It was their culture to do this. Any new member coming into the choir would have figured it out quickly and done the same. This meant I didn't have to tell them every time I wanted them to breathe or take a lift in a phrase. In fact, I needed to tell them if I didn't want a lift, but to carry through. However, it meant that this musical element was automatic with the choir.

 

Let me know what you think!

Creating a positive culture in your choir

This will be a short series about the idea of creating a  "culture" in your choir.

I've thought about this a lot over the years. By "culture," I mean those things about the way the choir operates, what the singers do, that become normal and expected--and once established are "enforced" or maintained by the culture. When a new member joins the choir, how much do they pick up about how to behave in this choir simply by being a part of it for a few rehearsals? If you've ever had a cultural anthropology class, you know that cultures develop ways of interacting, social strata, and behaviors that don't need to be externally enforced, but are simply a part of that culture, so anyone growing up in that culture learns many (not all) of those expectations by osmosis, rather than direct teaching or rules.

Of course, one can build a negative culture as well as a positive one!

I remember a few years ago having a great discussion about this topic over pizza with Robert Vance, a terrific young choral conductor, now the Associate Director of Choral Studies at Baldwin Wallace University Conservatory of Music, but then a student at CCM/University of Cincinnati, where I was a guest professor. The discussion ranged widely over ways to do this (he'd just done an interim posiition or sabbatical replacement), what to expect of your singers and how to change an establlished culture. Since he'd been a student of Joe Miller, who'd fairly recently moved to Westminster, we talked about the things Joe had built in his previous position and how that would translate to Westminster, which had gone through a couple interim years after Joe Flummerfelt (who'd built his own, great culture) retired. Having been part of transitions myself, I know how important it is to think of what to build into the new culture (and to be aware of what aspects of the pre-existing culture you might wish to change).

So, what are some things to think about? A few examples:

What does your choir expect to do when they walk in the rehearsal door?

What about posture in rehearsal?

Attention/focus?

Do they talk?

What do they know to do in terms of choral sound/vocal approach?

What's the approach to working on a new piece?

And one could go on and on.

How much do you consciously build the habits, behaviors, approaches that you expect from your choir, so the way the choir works (or older members of the choir) inform newer members about what it means to be in that choir? How much can ultimately happen without having to talk about it?

These are just a few of the things I'll talk about in the next few posts.

Beginning a series on ChoralNet

I'm now beginning a series of blogs on choralnet--here's the first:

Helping your singers feel like their contribution is important

Date: October 18, 2012

by Richard Sparks

Hi everyone,

 

Many thanks to Philip Copeland for the invitation to share with you through the ChoralNet blogs! Let's get to it.

 

Since coming to the University of North Texas in 2009, one of my choirs was a chamber choir (24-32 voices), the 2nd of the 3 mixed choirs at UNT. This year, for a variety of reasons, Jerry McCoy and I decided to make it a larger choir, around 65.

 

My own background, especially in the past 12 years or so, has had me conducting chamber choirs, often around 24 singers, not larger groups (unless guest conducting). So this forced me to think of more ways to make sure each member of the choir understood and felt that their contribution is important. Instead of being one of 6-8 in a section, now they're one of 15-17. So it's been a fun process to work to create an atmosphere that says to each singer in the choir: you're important and what you do is crucial!

 

When I took over the Choir of the West at Pacific Lutheran University, I inherited a number of practices from Maurice Skones, my predecessor. One was that he almost always had the choir in quartets--and in fact, always in double choir (both sides balanced as to divisi and color/weight of voices), since the traditional opening piece while on tour was for double choir. Even though I hadn't studied with Maurice, I knew (or learned) a fair amount about his methods.

 

Of course, simply singing in quartets makes the singers much more independent by itself--they can't "lean" on someone singing their part right next to them. So I put them in quartets very early (I know this isn't possible for everyone--you may have to do a lot of work in sections before moving them into quartets). Furthermore, one of Maurice's rehearsal techniques was to sometimes work with one choir (of the double choir) at a time--this has several benefits: the other half of the choir gets to listen to what's happening, and can more easily hear for themselves what I'm talking about (are they together? was that chord in tune? was the phrasing musical?), start to make their own musical judgements as well, and there's also a small element of competition (each choir wanting to outdo the other).

 

I've taken this a bit further, often having just the front or back two rows of choir 1 or 2 sing, or even one row. That exposes the individual singer even more--which means it's important that I give positive feedback about what I hear. I don't want to shut them down or have them fear singing in front of others! I've also had just a quartet, or in a couple of cases, just one singer come up in front of the group to sing and work on a passage. All of this reinforces the importance of what every single singer does . . . and also gives each singer a chance to show what they can do. More about this process later, since I have a few models in mind who have done this extraordinarily well.

 

Finally, this week I started rotating the rows, so the same row isn't always in the front or back--this means I hear the individual voices much better and know what they're doing--again, it's harder to "hide." And since they're in quartets, it works perfectly well, although it could work to rotate in a sectional formation so that the same group isn't in back or front all the time.

 

As I say, it's been a fun process! I've enjoyed re-thinking my approach to rehearsals, it keeps me creative, and from falling into the same rut I've done for . . . well, a lot of years!