Where Are You When You Sing? Proprioception for Beginners

Proprioception is the awareness of one’s body in space. It’s the sense that we all use continuously (otherwise we would wander into walls and tip over sideways all the time).  The problem is that we don’t use it consciously.  Using this “Sixth Sense” consciously in preparing to sing can give you both support and freedom of movement that will improve your sound and your stamina.  If you’re also a director, effectively communicating this to your singers will take the ensemble up a notch.
 (Perfect singers and ensembles need read no further.)

We’re told endlessly to “stand up straight” or “put your shoulders back.”  At that command, many snap into a parody of military attention for a few seconds. Others just shuffle about.  Melanie Malinka gave her ensemble at this summer’s CMAA Colloquium the best directions I’ve ever heard and which are now engraved in my heart.  Ms. Malinka is the Director of Music at the Cathedral of the Madeleine in Salt Lake City.  She works with bright and able children.  You can’t give them vague directions; they want specifics.  And here they are:

1. Stand with your feet under your shoulders, hip width apart.

2. Put your weight over the arch in your feet.  This is critical!  You may feel as though you’re falling forward because most of us lean back on our heels.  Don’t worry – you won’t fall down.

3. Tuck your tailbone under.  Check this by putting your hands behind you and making an inverted triangle with your thumbs and index fingers at the base of your spine. A nicely tucked tailbone will engage your core muscles.  It will also help raise your sternum, getting rid of the curled-up slump that most of us have from driving, working at the computer, etc.

4. Bring your chin down and lengthen the back of your neck.  Again, we tend to crank our necks heads back (counterbalancing the slump).  Balance your head by putting your hands on the two “bumps” on the back of your head and feeling them rise to their natural position as you lower your chin.  You can look down at your music without bending over it.  Lower your eyes.

5. When singing without music, e.g., warm-ups, put your hands even with the side seams on your pants.  That will also help move your shoulders gently back and raise your breastbone (aka sternum). (This is a suggestion of my own.)

You and your singers will have a supported frame for your singing, the space for your lungs to do their job, and an open passageway for the sound.  Your body will be working with you, not against you.

“Wait, wait,” you cry.  “I can’t remember all of that and it will take me forever to get lined up. Choir rehearsal will be over before we ever get ready.”  Okay.  Start with steps 1 and 2.  Take your time.  Add an additional step each week.  And keep up the reminders.  Be a bit of a “body nag.”  If you can, write these steps in abbreviated form on a white board or poster in the front of the room.

Remember to practice what you preach.  And may Melanie Malinka and her singers live long and prosper!

Liturgy of the Hours Hymnal

New on Lulu from Fr. Samuel Weber, O.S.B. is his Hymnal for the Hours.  It’s a print-on-demand published by the Benedict XVI Institute of the Archdiocese of San Francisco.

Have I seen it yet?  No.  Do I look forward to it?  Of course.  This is just a sweet and short heads-up for those who are interested.  More later.

Here’s the link over at Lulu.  I didn’t find much of a preview except “front matter,” as we call it in the trade.

NEWS FLASH – 14 pages from inside the hymnal have been uploaded as a sample for your viewing on Lulu, thanks to Peter Kwasniewski.  And don’t forget the point of sampling is buying!

The Golden Record in Interstellar Space – What’s Missing?

Sometimes we forget to check out what the rest of the world thinks of sacred music.  Heck, doesn’t everyone think about it all the time as we do?  Hmmm, maybe not.

Some who read this blog are probably not old enough to remember the launch of the Voyager spacecraft in 1977.  Both Voyager 1 and 2 are now in interstellar space.  The Golden Record they carry contains a collection of sounds of earth in case the spacecrafts ever encounters another civilization.

You can read about the Record and see its contents on the JPL site devoted to the mission.  It’s fascinating and wonderfully optimistic.  And who doesn’t remember Carl Sagan? When you look at the music selections, what’s missing?

Ave Maris Stella – Setting by Frank La Rocca

This composition is a delight.  With its base in the traditional chant and then taking off into rich harmonies, I couldn’t stop listening.  The Young Women’s Choral Projects of San Francisco has great voices and focus.  If you don’t know Frank La Rocca‘s compositions, look this up.  If you love treble voices as I do, you’ll want to listen and learn about this fantastic choral program for young women.

Upcoming at the CMAA XXIV Summer Colloquium – Choral Evensong

Choral Evensong at Christ Church Cathedral, Indianapolis

Our conference hotel, the Sheraton City Centre Indianapolis is across the street from the Episcopal Christ Church Cathedral.  The Cathedral and their staff are showing wonderful hospitality to our conference faculty and attendees:  use of their choir room and church for rehearsals, hosting our organ breakout series.  Their organist, the award-winning Simon Thomas Jacobs will present a recital on June 2nd.  And as a special treat, their choir is performing a Choral Evensong for us on Monday evening, the opening day of the Colloquium.

The Evensong Service is the crown jewel of the Anglican musical tradition.  The Book of Common Prayer combined the two canticles originally sung at Vespers and Compline, the Magnificat and the Nunc Dimittis, which are sung sequentially at Evensong.  Other music includes sung preces (short petitions), an anthem, psalmody with antiphons, as well as an organ prelude and postlude.

Christ Church Cathedral has a well-known choral program including a choir of men and boys, a choir of girls, and a Spanish language choir.  The principal choir has recorded and toured extensively, so hearing their music will be a delight.

The canticles on Monday, June 30th, were composed by Harold Friedell (1905-1958), best known as the director and organist and St. Bartholomew’s Church in New York City.  The  contemporary anthem “Let All the World in Every Corner Sing” is by the British composer Kenneth Leighton (1929-1988). Here’s a performance of that work by the Leicestershire Chorale:

Choral Evensong is a great tradition among the cathedrals and large churches of England.  The BBC has broadcast these live for years and now the programs are archived on their website.  So you can find all varieties of music within the framework of this service.

And our thanks to Christ Church Cathedral for share their musical gifts with the CMAA Summer Colloquium.

Lux aeterna from the Requiem by Steve Dobrogosz

Here’s a lovely lush piece of writing for chorus and orchestra by Steve Dobrogosz, an American composer who resides in Sweden.  In some ways, it reminds me of Eric Whitacre or Morton Lauridson.  Don’t be distracted by the somewhat cheesy effects on the video. Nice soprano solo around 5:10.

See – I can do other things than nag you about the CMAA XXIV Summer Colloquium.  (Of course, there’s still the possibility of late registration.)

Right now?  Enjoy the music.

Time and Tide Wait for No Man – Neither Does Registration

June is busting out all over. 

It’s the first day of June and that means only four more days to register for the CMAA XXIV Summer Colloquium and get a great hotel room at the conference rate.

Register now and prepare to have one of the happiest and most challenging weeks of your life!  Sacred music from dawn to dusk.  Chant, polyphony, plenary speakers, breakout sessions for ideas and insights.

New friends, old friends.  Beautiful liturgies, an organ concert and an Anglican choral Evensong. Books to buy at discounted prices.  And don’t forget the party on the pool deck of the hotel for a great view of the 4th of July fireworks!

Need I say more?  If you’ve already registered, go over to the Colloquium website to whet your appetite because new details are coming online almost daily.  If not,  hie thyself o’er to join the flock.

[Photo from Indiana University, Bloomington]