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THE GRINNELL SINGERS
John Christian Rommereim, conductor
rommer@grinnell.edu

Links to Choral Sites:

The Voice Teacher: Materials on vocal health for choral directors and singers

Good Ear, Ear-Training Site: Provides free ear training drills on-line

Choralnet: A comprehensive site for choral musicians

Short article on Hugo Distler

Essay:

"What's in a Voice?"

Current Repertoire:

*Quel augellin, che canta , by C.Monteverdi
translation and pronunciation
*Otche nash (Our Father), by Alexander Grechaninov
Talismane, by R. Schumann
*Hvad est du dog skjøn, by Edvard Grieg
translation
Selections from the Divine Liturgy, op. 31, by Sergei Rachmaninov
Slava otsu I synu I svatomu dukhu (Glory to the Father, and to the Son,
and to the Holy Spirit)
Milost mira, Zhertvu khvaleniya (A Mercy of Peace! A Sacrifice of Praise!)
Tebe poyem (To Thee We Sing)
soprano solo
Agnus Dei, by Samuel Barber
*Laus trinitati, by Frank Ferko
Der Abend (from Drei Quartette, op. 64), byJohannes Brahms
Der Gang zum Liebchen, by Johannes Brams
(from Drei Quartete, op. 31)
In the Night We Shall Go In, by Imant Raminsh
text by Pablo Neruda, Donald G. Walsh, trans.
* * *
*Salut printemps, by Claude Debussy
translation
*Dulaman, by Michael McGlynn
La Vasija de Barro, by Benitez Valencia, arr. Javier Zentner
translation
Milonga del angel, by Astor Piazzolla
arr. Javier Zentner
Fengyang Song and
The Flowing Stream, by Chen Yi
Londonderry Air, by Percy Grainger
Brigg Fair, by Percy Grainger
Tenor solo
Arirang (Korea), by Chen Yi
Aftonen (Sweden), by Hugo Alfven
text by Herman Sätherberg
*Pseudo-Yoik, by Jaakko Mäntyjärvi

Schedule:

Regular rehearsals: 4:30-6:00 Tuesday and Thursday;
Sunday: 2:00-3:00 bass; 2:30-3:30 tenor; 3:30-4:30 alto; 4:00-5:00 soprano
Make-up session: 4:15-5:00 every Wednesday

Attendance Policy:

It is important that everyone in the ensemble understands this policy: You will be allowed up to four absences in a semester for reasons other than illness. If you exceed this quota, the choir council will meet and decide whether you should be asked to leave the ensemble. If you fail to make a reasonable attempt to inform the director of an absence on more than one occasion, you will be asked to leave the ensemble. (If you are incapacitated or are otherwise unable to contact the director, and you later explain the situation, it will not be counted against you). Everyone in the ensemble must register for credit. If you are asked to leave the ensemble you will receive either a WP or an F grade, depending on the circumstances.
For those who are involved in ongoing activities that conflict with the Grinnell Singers, we will reach an agreement early in the semester as to what rehearsals will be missed. This agreement must be approved by the choir council. If it is not approved, the student will not be allowed to participate. 

Grinnell Singers Organizational Structure:
Elected Positions

Choir Council:
President:
• presides over Choir Council meetings
• serves as liaison between the choir and the director
• represents the choir at public occasions
• serves as overall leader for the ensemble

Vice President:
• assists the president and serves in her or his absence

Secretaries:
• takes attendance at each rehearsal
• keeps an accurate, permanent record of attendance

At-Large Representative:
• represents the choir in council meetings

Section Leaders:
Sopranos:
Altos:
Tenors:
Basses:
• lead sectional rehearsals
• help to generate camaraderie in the section (organize a party or two)
• take responsibility for their section by ensuring that they can perform their part accurately. This means that the section leader tries to identify and fix the section's weak spots.

Paid positions:
Tour liaison:
• assists the director in organizing the tour
Choir managers:
• sets up for each rehearsal and puts chairs away afterward
Choral librarians:
• Keep accurate records of who has which scores and makes sure that all of the music is returned at the end of the season
• Send scores to Singers who are abroad in the fall
• Take responsibility for keeping everything in order regarding the scores, the storage area, and the music library. Willing to take the initiative and do what needs to be done without being asked.

Concert Dress:

Black tuxedoes, white shirts, black bow ties and black dress shoes for men. Black dresses or suits and black shoes womenHow to Use the ScoreYou wouldn't drive on the freeway while staring at your speedometer. Don't sing while staring at your music. Good choral reading habits don't happen spontaneously; they have to be cultivated. The best choral singers have developed good reading habits, and have worked hard to overcome their bad habits. If you aren't consciously working on improving your choral score reading, chances are you have settled into some bad habits. With a little effort, you can become a better choral singer and contribute more effectively to the group. Our goal is to become an ensemble in which everyone is an accomplished, capable choral musician.

The most common problem we have is the eyes-buried-in-the-score syndrome. This is how the syndrome develops: A singer who always sings looking at the score eventually links the activity of singing and looking at the notes just as Pavlov's dog linked the activity of feeding with the sound of a bell. We need to break this automatic mechanism, and free ourselves from the visual prompt of the score as soon as possible. It's not as hard as it sounds. The solution is to glance at the score as you would look at the dashboard as you drive. Absorb the information, memorize a fragment, then look up. If you don't do this, you end up staring blankly at the score long after you have learned the piece, merely out of habit, like Pavlov's celebrated canine. Get out of the rut and sing like the noble Homo sapiens you are, not like man and woman's best friend. Memorize your part while other sections are rehearsing, and continually test yourself.

Posture:

Please do not slouch. It is difficult to attain a good vocal tone if one is not sitting up. It is disheartening to your fellow singers in the group when they see choir members acting as if their chairs are hammocks. It is acceptable to relax in your chair if you are not singing, but we all need to sit erect or stand while we are singing. If you remain attentive and sit up, you will probably find you will actually have more energy in the course of the rehearsal rather than less. Since as a typical student you're more than likely sleep-deprived on any given day, the minute you submit to the urge to dose briefly at 5:15 while the other section is rehearsing on the other side of the room, you start down a dangerous, slippery slope to total narcoleptic oblivion. Don't submit! Posture does make a difference. We give each other messages with our body position.By acting alert and involved, we tell each other that we think this endeavor is important, and worth our best effort.

Individual help:

The director is available for individual tutoring sessions if you are having trouble with a particular passage. In addition, I hope that we can set up a tutoring system, whereby the most capable students help others to learn their part.

The Mega-Megabyte Choir:

Above all, our goal is to become an intelligent, integrated ensemble, functioning like a single living organism. We should keep in mind that even when we have our greatest successes, we are realizing only a mere fraction of the enormous potential we have as an ensemble composed of capable, adaptable, living, thinking human beings. A choir is an astoundingly well endowed entity. Each member of this choir comes equipped with the most complicated structure in the known universe: the human brain. If we bear this fact in mind as we evaluate the choir as a musical instrument. we have no choice but to conclude that it is the most flexible, intelligent instrument in existence.

Hold on, you say, what do we need all that intelligence for, anyway, when all we are doing is singing? Actually, we need every bit of that brainpower, because choral singing is an extremely demanding, complex endeavor. To prove this point, let's consider the various tasks and modes of activity that are required when a choir performs, say, a work by Rachmaninov.
The first thing to consider is the question of pitch. A choral singer has to perceive the frequency of a tone with great accuracy. Mere pitch perception is not enough, however. A singer must not only hear pitches, but also manipulate the diaphram and larynx to produce pitches accurately. Moreover, we have to perceive and reproduce not only pitches, but also the slightest differentiations in timbre. These tasks require enormous aural acuity and muscle control. As we manipulate our tongue and other muscles to produce vowels, consonants, and pitches, we are performing some of the most subtle and complex muscular movements that our bodies can accomplish. Other elements we deal with as we sing include: 1) the pronunciation of texts in foreign languages, 3) the emotional content of texts, 4) the reading of a specialized notation (musical scores), 5) the cultural context of music from distant areas of the world, 6) the intrinsic complexities of musical structure, and 7) the interpersonal dynamics of a team effort. If you sum up all of these individual elements, it becomes clear that producing a fine choral performance is a difficult, complex process, requiring all of our concentration and effort.