Archive for the ‘Choir’ Category
As an Alum of Fairfield University and its renowned chorus, the Fairfield University Glee Club, I can’t believe that the club is performing its 65th season this year. When I was a student, I had the opportunity to be part of the 50th anniversary season and now its almost 15 years later.
The Glee Club or Glee as it has become known on campus, is comprised of approximately 100 members and conducted by Dr. Carol Ann Maxwell. It holds potentially two titles, the oldest club on campus and really the only unofficial mixed fraternity. Just like any other organization on a college campus, any member after graduation can quickly can ask “Were you in Glee Club?” Of course, there are the initiations as well, but in a musical manner.
The one thing I can say about having been a member of the Glee Club for four years and now being an alum, the Glee Club is made up of one of the best groups of kids around. What really gets interesting is how many alumni actually stay involved with the Glee Club and have music as part of their everyday lives. I guess one can say, “You can take the person out of the Glee Club, but you can’t take Glee Club out of the person.”
Before closing out this post, I thought it would be appropriate to include a link to our Alma Mater which becomes engrained in every person’s brain. FOREVER.
With the Fox TV series Glee, there has been an increase in choir and especially show choir. People seem to gravitate to what they know and are most comfortable with and that is no different with pop music. People are always willing to be a part of something they are familiar with and being able to see and experience a familiar song fits right in.
Also, there is a segment of the the population which does not have an attraction to athletics. These are your performing arts loving individuals. Anything they can get their hands, eyes, and ears on they will and make it their own. Unfortunately, there are very few avenues for this group of people. They sort of get lost in the crowd when not in their own element.
With the explosion of Glee, many have been establishing glee clubs to perform the types of music which have been done on the TV series just to have fun. Over the last few days, I have been thinking, “Why can’t this concept be tweaked to work with busy adults?” I think it can and those of us who belong to the performing arts club should begin creating such organizations as a means to share music and also as a social medium. Just because we’re adults doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be able to continue to have fun and socialize with music as our core objective.
I would invite anyone who is a member of a college or university chorus to share their thoughts below in a comment.
We all know and have heard choral music. Sometimes it can be A Capella or with accompaniment. However, I’d had some thoughts about the creation of a choral piece that would be accompanied, but in a different way.
This may sound crazy, but it would be interesting to arrange a choral piece with a techno/club beat behind it. The arrangement would be original as well as its lyrics. Depending on how it is put together, it would either be an A Capella piece sung over the techno track or with a melody line composed in harmony with it.
The composition would definitely fall into the contemporary or avante guard category which would be subject to scrutiny due to its uniqueness. However, musicians and vocalists who live for this kind of challenge will embrace it and bring forth the true message and vivacity.
A little over a year ago, I had first heard this piece performed at a Pops concert performed by the Fairfield University Glee Club. The song was composed by Christopher Tin for the menu of the Civilization IV video game, but was also incorporated into the opening of the Lion King II movie. The lyrics to the song are Swahili for the Christian prayer, Our Father.
I have since done some research on it and reflected on it and its structure. The lyrics are Swahili for the christian prayer, “The Lord’s Prayer” or “The Our Father.” In a time where we need to foster peace in the world, this song should be at the top of the list.
With the earthquake that devastated Haiti, Quincy Jones went back into the archives and revived “We Are the World” which Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson co-wrote in the mid-1980s. The big difference was what the song was for this time. The original version was written for the children starving in Africa in the 80s. This version struck a different chord which aimed to unite the world to help in raising money to help the Haitian people who had lost what little they had.
Of course, since it has been over 20 years since the first release of the song, new artists had to be rounded up to sing the new revised recording. The funny thing was is that even though the talent had changed, the feeling that they put into the various parts was similar to the original energy which was displayed.
Depending on the arranger, this song has the potential not only to be a demonstration of famous talent, but also the everyday talent of moonlight musicians and vocalists. All music groups could perform this piece in a unique manner that would demonstrate the individual talent and hopes of those singing and performing it.
The song has a powerful message to it that has meaning far beyond its original intention. No matter what the cause, we should always try to strive for peace and help out each other no matter where we are in the world. We all share this world for a very short time and while we are here we should work together in peace.
If we look at music groups that are offered over the course of a life time, one will find that there are youth choirs, high school choirs, college choirs and…. adult choirs. Notice, the hesitation between college choirs and adult choirs. Most adult choirs consist of singers who are middle aged. Very few members are young adults just out of college and vivacious. There is a whole gap that could be filled with young adults that would be thrilled to be able to continue in choir.
A choir consisting of young adults needs to be established several reasons. Of course, the first reason is for the musical benefit. But, there are other reasons too. Generally speaking, musicians are their own breed of artist and have very unique personalities. Musicians and choristers, especially, tend to cling to their own kind. The problem at hand is that there are very few outlets for this group of individuals to turn to after college to find others similar to them. The last thing that a young adult choir would help to fulfill is the education factor. Since the members of the choir would consist of young families, having their parents in a choir would teach by example the importance of music and the arts in their lives.
Musicians definitely have their own social network and having a choir of young musicians would help build a very needed networking portal that is critical to the young adult just out of school. Musicians all know their is a secret fraternity among themselves. If there is something you need, guaranteed someone, whether an instrumentalist or vocalist, knows someone. Hence, word-of-mouth advertising goes along way in the music world. To say it succinctly, musicians all have people that know people and young musicians need to get to know more people like them.
Educationally, we can never learn enough about music. That is part of the fun of learning music. Whether we’ve never heard a piece or heard it hundreds of times, there is always something new that can be learned from the same piece. That concept is what needs to be taught informally to our young children and they will learn that lesson quickly through observation from their parents and other grown-ups. Therefore, a choir of young adults, would not only serve the young adult community, but would also create a community among the children of the members.
There are many more reasons that I can think a young adult choir would be beneficial to the society and I’ve only named a few. Hopefully, there are others who feel the same way, but have just never thought it out and noticed the void needed filling. Rome wasn’t built in a day, but together those of us who feel this way could bring musical solutions to the world.