SCHOLA BLAST! READ ME!

Tuesday, 22 September 2026

Know you’re going to miss or be late to a rehearsal? Please fill out the…

ATTENDANCE FORM

Meandering and Endless thoughts from PDH

Two quick take-aways in case you don’t have time to read this entire post:

• PLEASE COME TO REHEARSAL! There are only seven of them between now and the November concert, and Paul is freaking out a little… again.
• If you CAN’T come to rehearsal, please take a moment to fill out the ATTENDANCE FORM so we can adjust the seating chart and plan rehearsal accordingly

☀︎ ☀︎ ☀︎

While chatting with one of the music interns yesterday, we got to talking about all the administrivia that goes into running a vibrant choral program, noting that in a typical week, I’m only in front of a choir for six or seven hours per week! Which is striking, as I scarcely have a work week of less than 45 – 50 hours total!

Of course, there are other classes to teach, papers to grade, loads of logistics related to concerts, tours, and various events, and let’s not forget faculty meetings. Academics do love meetings!

All that said, I have to say that the business of running Schola Cantorum can be particularly daunting. So much so that there are many choirs of our size and stature that have a full-time staff in a nearby office building. And believe it or not, one of the biggest chores in a volunteer, community-based choir is answering this simple question:

WHO IS ACTUALLY IN THIS CHOIR?

Sometimes we’ve simply thrown caution to the wind, adopting the mantra from my church choir director friend in California who says… “I guess we’ll see who shows up when they walk through the door.”

Amazingly, that often works pretty well.

That is, unless the likes of yours truly goes out on a limb to choose a really weird piece of music, then invites the composer to stay in his home for a week so he can tell us firsthand whether we fully realized his intentions, let alone sang the write notes.

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In the meantime, Chorale spent all of yesterday’s rehearsal recording nearly every choral movement in the piece. Much of it went really well. We got pretty close on the big stormy “Wrath” section in the third movement, but the clock ran out before we could adequately rehearse the really tricky “same stream” section in the fifth movement. (That will be OUR big project tonight.)

But Chorale did accomplish the very thing I was most hoping for; creating a recording where you can hear the choir sing sensitively in a manner that captures the nuance of the work!

The recording Tom Lavoy sent me is very percussion-heavy, and even when you can hear the choir, neither the tone color nor the aesthetic are what I’d like to emulate, which is why I haven’t shared those recordings publicly. On my project list this week is to edit those Chorale recordings and get them out to you so you can start listening outside of rehearsal.

Truthfully, my first assessment on the piece, when I chose it several months ago, turned out to be remarkably accurate in that I saw two major challenges in preparing this piece with a community choir:

1. Nearly the entire piece lies very low in the voice, especially for sopranos, which tends to elicit a harsh and raspy tone, and
2. The piece is largely built around the concepts of calm and stasis. (Yes, altos, sorry you have a TON of repeated notes!) We’ll see what the composer has to say about that in person in a few weeks, but I’m pretty sure he’s trying to establish an aura of tranquility as one ponders the infinite nature of the world in which we live, aside from those moments when we’re overcome with panic and fear!

On the basis of Chorale’s read of the piece yesterday, I would say Mr. LaVoy was very successful in capturing the spirit and wisdom of Tagore’s prose. But to be sure, capturing the essence of the piece is a tall order.

☀︎ ☀︎ ☀︎

Though we’re only a few weeks in, tornado drills notwithstanding, this project is proving to be a bit more challenging than I had even imagined. It was super helpful to reseat the choir two weeks ago so we could start building a cohesive sound in each section, but then not so helpful to have so many people absent last week that the new seating chart turned out to be more of a hindrance than a help!

I’m hoping we’ll have solved that tonight.

But in the meantime, if you’re willing to trust my perspective that the total impact of this work is truly thought-provoking and profound, here are a few steps forward in the coming weeks that will help us all get there before Tom LaVoy gets here!

1. COME TO REHEARSAL: At least for those of you not registered for the class, I realize you have a choice to come back out each week or stay home with a nice tasty beverage. But every time someone misses rehearsal, that’s something else that needs to be re-taught in subsequent weeks.
2. USE THE ATTENDANCE FORM! I realize people have travel plans and various life events that require you to miss rehearsals, and as always, I encourage people to live their lives and keep singing. But it helps us immensely if you complete the attendance form if you know you’re going to miss rehearsal – especially now as we’re embracing a campaign to adjust the seating chart from one week to the next. PLEASE MAKE A POINT TO COMPLETE THAT FORM BY 5:00 PM THE DAY OF THE MISSED REHEARSAL – IF NOT SOONER.
3. As always, as soon as the recordings are posted – hopefully by the end of the week – please start listening to them, preferably with score in hand. For most of the piece, the pitches are not difficult, but the musical affect will require that you really have the tonal structure and ambiance in your ears. Doing so will make you suddenly realize that even if your part is not that interesting at the moment, it is absolutely crucial to all the other things happening around you!
4. Give lots of love to Amy Anderson and Max Niedziejko (Schola intern), as they have been an immense help as we’ve attempted to turn up the heat on all things “organization” for Schola this fall. We are all indebted to both of them.

None of this is rocket science, though I believe LaVoy’s work will be impactful in direct proportion to the level of careful attention we bring to the preparation process.

Starting tonight…

TONIGHT’S PLAYLIST

• Warm-ups
• Lavoy: The Dreams That Remain (Mvt 1)
• Lavoy: Endless: Movt 5b – The same stream
  • SECTIONALS: Concentrating on Lavoy Movts 3 and 5, The Dreams The Remain and Wild Forces
• Runestad: Your Soul in Song
• LaVoy: The Dreams the Remain (Mvt 3)
• Johnson: Ain’t Got Time to Die

Thanks for embarking on this journey!

pdh