choral
Music Lasts a Lifetime: Choir Style Lynn Seidl, WMEA State Chair, Choral
In 2003, a study by Chorus Ameri- ca found that 23.5 million American adults participated in weekly choral organizat ions in Amer ica! There were about 250,000 choruses nationwide
and according to the study, “more Ameri- cans engage in the public performance for choral singing than in any other art form. In fact, no other public form of artistic expression even comes close.” This amaz- ing information validates the work that choral music educators do, since many of these adult singers received some of their training in school and church settings, as children and adolescents.
The American Choral Directors Associa- tion (ACDA) web site has a community choir page found at
www.acda.org/rep- ertoire/community_choir/registry, which lists all 50 states and the provinces of Canada. Members of ACDA can register their community choir and supply perti- nent information. As of this printing, there are 47 Wisconsin choral organizations in the registry. This large number gives testa- ment to the strength of choral music in our state. This number is also not an inclusive number, as it is for ACDA membership.
Practical Pointers
Many singers are also participating in wor- ship choirs on a weekly basis, and worship choirs are not included in the community choir registry.
Our work as choral music educators can have a lasting effect on our students as they become adults and have lives, careers and families of their own. A positive expe- rience in our music classes, programs and performing groups can influence the future of our students and keep music alive for generations to follow. The positive influ- ence of the music teacher, the choral edu- cator and the community that encourages and supports the singers and the singing, all work together to keep the music alive and lasting for many lifetimes.
As a Wisconsin School Music Associa- tion (WSMA) adjudicator, I witnessed a performance that had to have affected the lives of the singers and certainly touched the parents and audience members who were in attendance. This past spring, at a WSMA State Music Festival, I had the pleasure to listen to many fine vocal ensembles. A men’s ensemble, performed Linda Spevacek’s “If,” a setting of the Rudyard Kipling poem, written in 1895. This inspirational poem, which is often called Great Britain’s favorite, reads as follows:
If
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies, Or, being hated don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build’em up with worn- out tools;
~ Lynn Seidl
If you don’t already have “Get America Singing… Again!” (Volumes 1 and 2) in your choral library you should be sure to purchase them. These collections of American folk songs, patriotic songs, and other American classics were published as a result of an MENC objective in 1996 (under the leadership of Will Schmid). The goal was to publish a songbook of common song repertoire that Americans of all ages can sing together. My middle school students enjoy singing from both volumes and have many favorites that they ask for when they see the books listed on the board as part of the day’s lesson plan.
24 September 2011
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