Lessons with ChristopherGKeene!

Alright! We discussed what you wanna learn. SO, now tell me..

what's your "style"?

Your favorite choral work you know? (if any)

What would you like to FOCUS on?

Anything else I should know?

Please post your music so I can check it out. :) (or give me links to where I might FIND your music).

One thing. Scores in pdf form or .mus form will be required ALL the time. No excuses.

what's your "style"?

I like choirs. I have sung in choirs my entire life, and the sound of voices together will always make me happier than anything else in the world. As I said I haven't written much to date, but what I have written has been a capella, mostly SATB but a few instances of divisi. I prefer to do 'more with less' as it were, to keep my music accessible to choirs that can't do 13 part chords (although I sing with one of those choirs and must confess that that music is some of my favorite)

I think a small but real part of the reason I prefer a capella is that I have limited keyboard ability and don't feel at all confident in my ability to write a respectable accompaniment. But I also just always prefer choral music a capella in general.

Your favorite choral work you know? (if any)

Contemporary classical, drawing inspiration from the standards, whitacre, lauridsen, clausen, some eclectics like joshua shank, eric william barnum, etc. I'm also a fan or Russian orthodox music, and I have an old unlabeled CD of Russian liturgical chants that I just find to be one of the most beautiful things ever.

I also listen to and study Bach, and recently took a class in Bach style counterpoint (I had a 2-part invention I just LOVED that I wrote for this class, but lost it in a harddrive crash) ((incidently, I also lost my wonderful tonal 12-tone minuet and trio from theory class with a tone row that modulated from C to F# with tritone substitution, my teacher found it snarky))

My single favorite piece is harder to nail down, as it generally changes every month. Right now I'm particularly fond of Josh Shank's Color Madrigals, Gretchaninov's Otche Nash, and Part's Bogoroditse Devo.

What would you like to FOCUS on?

I'm really very open. As I've said, I have an extensive theory knowledge, I can read the old clefs, I know my key signatures and can sight-sign confidently, I can voice and resolve french italian german and neapolitan sixths and use a 12-tone matrix to construct a tonal piece. What I lack is practical writing experience. I want to write, and I want to see what I'm capable of, and have someone look at what I've written and offer advice on what to do next. I sort of feel that my brain has left the rest of my body behind, as I know so much but can't do a lot with it. I suppose I'm open to learning whatever you think you can teach me!

Anything else I should know?

I'm starting school on Tuesday, so I will be busy, but I have scheduled time to compose every day. I sing in half a dozen choirs, and conduct two small unauditioned choirs. I have about half a dozen private voice students. I have Finale 2008 and Sibelius 4 and am far more comfortable using the latter. I am happy to answer questions. I am smart and take criticism well and a very hard worker, but my teachers will tell you I have little patience for 'busy work' as I have so many responsibilities and demands on my time that I want to make everything I do worthwhile.

The big thing I want to let you know is that I'm excited to work with you!

My Work

I've attached PDFs of an arrangement of the spiritual deep river that I wrote for one of the choirs I conduct and they will premiere it this semester, it was the first piece I ever really wrote. I also attached several pieces from a collection I'm working on based on short poems of Anthony Silvestri. There are 10 so far but I don't much like the last 2 so I'll upload the others. Would MIDIs be helpful?

PS you'll notice that deep river lists the composer as Stephen Erik Horec, this is an anagram for Christopher Keene and I'm using it to get the opinions of the choir without the bias of them knowing it's my arrangement. I assure you it is my own :)

Deep River.pdf

Aug9th-Cicadas.pdf

PSS as for time, the Deep River arrangement was completed over the course of a week or so, the miniatures were completed one a day in between 1 and 2.5 hours.

as long as you are setting Tony's poems! I will critique each one as you write them. But I want you to pay SPECIFIC attention to detail and try to set the TEXT. Not the music you hear. Understand? See, one thing I have learned is that it takes a different mindset to compose modern choral music. It's the Whitacre technique, so to speak. You look at a poem, and you try and figure out what EACH WORD means. And you set it exactly how it should be.

You may hate it... but at least try it. And, I want a pdf and piano reduction in each file please, if that's not possible, then a midi would be ok too from now on. I will look at your files soon in detail. But for now, just keep writing. I say this because I don't want to deter you from your current project since your time is limited. So, I will inspect what you are already doing and therefore relieve me of having to give you time consuming assignments for the present, since I have school as well.

On the other hand. You must know that I am a VERY strict surveyor. I promise JUST from these reviews that you will learn as much as in any lecture. This should give you the writing experience you need and the guidance you want. ;)

Sound good?

Sounds great! I have been trying to do as much textual composing as I can, do you have any suggestions on how to make that more clear? What I've been doing is reading the poem aloud repeatedly to get a sense of the rhythmic stress I feel in the piece, and then speaking it until I begin to hear sequences of notes in my head. Almost each of them I've done melody first, and then worked on an effective harmonization, but maybe I should try a different approach?

I have versions with reductions too, I'll post those with this response :)

August 9th-Cicadas is more aleatoric and doesn't really lend itself to a piano reduction, but the rest should be all set.

Aug6th (reduction).pdf

Aug7th (reduction).pdf

Aug8th (reduction).pdf

Aug10th (reduction).pdf

Aug11th (reduction).pdf

Aug12th (reduction).pdf

Aug13th-Sit and Talk (reduction).pdf

Here's today's, I don't think it's my best, but I tried to do as much text painting as I could. I look forward to hearing what you think of my work so far.

Aug16th-Blond Baby Boy (reduction).pdf

I have printed them all off! You will have a small review of each piece and a small assignment to do probably tomorrow that will be due in a weeks time. Plus any additional Tony poems.

Great! I look forward to it! Thanks!

Hmm, I'm trying to upload today's work, but it keeps saying 'upload failed'... I'll upload it when I can figure out what's wrong.

box.net

Upload there.

I enjoyed this piece! I admire your harmonic variety YET similarity to my own. Your music, as you said, is accessible and useful for choirs around you. My question is: Where else do you want to go? Because, musically, I hear professional stuff coming from you. My loss is: Where to challenge you. I mean, I could assign you 12 tone row pieces and make you write 4 part harmony till the cows come home.. but I think the time now has come where you need to not only WRITE, but STUDY more. I think we could spend some time on "analyzing" scores of people YOU might never have heard of. I trust you would rather spend your time on the present and relevant types of music, yes? Well, unfortunately, that's "harder" to find for free.

HOWEVER, I will do the best I can to accommodate you. I will OFFER the option for you to buy a particular score that I think will be a beneficial tool for your musical enlightenment. I say "enlightenment" because there is a LOT of music out there. And, I think exposure to MANY types of music that YOU haven't heard will open your ears a bit more.

I thought about it, and I don't think I will review your "daily" pieces. They are ALLLLLL quite good in retrospect. But, I can't say you will learn anything from making them more idealistic to choral music than they already are. Why? Because I feel as though you have a grasp on what you might have done wrong now that you have improved while writing these, and I think because you know the problems, you've been working to improve them. What I find in ALL of your music is staple, stagnant choral music that my sophomore choir in High School sings. It's good stuff, mind you, but it's also musically "boring". Not to listen to... no. but MUSICALLY. As in, I would like for you to write music that NOT ONLY has pretty chords, but has melodic direction, harmonic variation and modulation in modern senses, and has lyric placement to where there is NO POSSIBLE WAYYYY you could write the music in ANY OTHER way. I want your pieces to ebb and flow and EVEN if they are "simply" written and "available to choirs", they can be complex and thought worthy.

You may end up hating it and go back to writing what you are now, which MANY people are successful at in the choral world. But, I want you to find a voice, a singular voice that NOBODY else has.

Good luck finding it too, 'cause it's the hardest thing in composition. Also, a note: There is better music than Eric Whitacre's; there is better music than Bach's; there is better music than Tarik O'Regan (if you know him)... just a thought. There is ALWAYS better music. Always.

So, let's start off with some score analysis, shall we? Listening to great music widens your ears.

Semester One Score/Musical Analysis:

Tarik O'Regan

Carlo Gesualdo

Maurice Durufle

Percy Grainger

Morten Lauridsen

Reinburger

These Six composers will be studied by Christmas. By said time, you will have listened to some pretty heavy stuff. And EVEN IF you know some of the works I present to you, I promise YOU WILL find the music in a new light. ALSO, at said time, you will show me a small work based off of SOME harmonic/melodic/rhythmic theory from EACH composer. (So, yes, 6 pieces). You may complete them in ANY time frame. Just before the end of the year. So, if you wanna write them ALL at once, go ahead. lol.

The goal is here to BROADEN your musical horizon in ALLL aspects possible.

Sounds great! Thank you for your compliments, I really appreciate it! I am still young and relatively new to the contemporary choral game, I've been into it for the last 4 years, but only started really serious work 2 years ago. As I've said, I'm a conductor and singer by trade, but I feel like bringing the composer's eye to the music I work with will make me all the better conductor and chorister, and I also find a lot of joy in creating my own music!

I've heard of a few of these composers, should I just start looking for any CDs and scores I can find, or are you going to be giving me a list of specific pieces to check out?

I'm really excited to open my mind and my ears to some new music!

Well. I think for the sound, i will try to find free versions of the pieces. aka, Youtube (higher quality), online radio etc.

FOR scores... sometimes I won't want you to use them particularly. I might ask you to just watch a video and tell me what you think. BUT, first off, I have a composer I want you to listen to... but he has only written ONE well known choral piece. His name is Frank Ticheli. Heard of him?

The song I want you to listen to is Earth Song.

Watch it in HD. Afterwords, simply tell me what you think. That's all I want. If you know the song, listen again with open ears and tell me what you think.

I have heard of Tichelli, I know that he is known more as a band composer. In the Northeast, his "There Will Be Rest" is quite popular with choirs, and I have sung it with the semi-professional chorus I work with. I was not familiar with "Earth Song", and am really glad to have heard this awesome new piece.

I lik the opening motive, I feel like this piece is a bit more chorally conceived as opposed to "There Will Be Rest" which seemed more instrumental in conception. I admire his approach to dissonance in this piece, as he carefully places half step dissonances in such a way as to gain the effect he desires without being distracting from the overall texture. His approach to dissonance also shows respect for the challenge of this harmonic language to singers, by approaching most minor/major seconds from the unison, and by resolving large melodic leaps with stepwise motion in the opposite direction.

Listening to "Earth Song", I'm starting to get what you meant by 'contemporary choral modulation'. His modulations are effective and subtle, as well as being carefully placed to enhance the musical line.

I like what Tichelli did in the like "in pain" after "the torn heart cries out", by seperating out the soprano for just a moment on the word 'in' to give the listener (and choir) a short break from the constant 4-8+ part texture. It also heightens the impact of the bass movement to not hear them for a moment. This sticks out to me because it's something I've had to work hard at in my writing, as it's easy to fall into the trap of picking a voicing (SATB, SSA, SSAATTBB, etc.) and just sticking with it the entire piece. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but contrast in voicing and texture should be an option to the composer, and it's something I have to remind myself of sometimes.

Overall I really enjoyed the piece, I don't know if there is something specific you are looking for me to be listening for, but I enjoyed it. It is more of the slow pretty chords I am used to, but there are moments of melodic and harmonic motion that keep it moving a bit more than some other pieces in the genre. It definitely sounds more "Whitacre-esque" to me that the other Tichelli I have heard.

:) very good!! Now. Just by listening to it, please tell me EVERY time in the music his tonal shifts. Even if it's brief. Give me seconds and minutes. The reason for this: I am going to show you HOW he does it.

(btw- nice bonus for naming the piece he is known for in the choral world.)

Sorry this is so long in the making, I just finished the first week of classes and it was just very very hectic. You may be interested to know that I've rehearsed my arrangement of Deep River with my choir and they seem to enjoy it, I used a pen name on it that noone is aware of (Stephen Erik Horec, a perfect anagram for Christopher Keene) in order to get more honest opinions of it from choir members. I'll let them know it was my arrangement in a month or so.

Without further adieu:

at about 40 seconds I hear tonality moving to the dominant of the original key, I'm unsure as to whether the modulation is occurring on "see" or at the beginning of "this dark stormy..."

For the next two minutes I don't hear a strong modulation, it could just be that they are too fast for me to pick up on them, but there are moments where it may seem to shift a bit to the minor or something, but it really feels like it's staying in the same key as "this dark stormy..."

Around 2:50 is sounds like it shifts to the relative minor.

At 3:20, the final chord before "peace" adds the b7 to secure the dominant feeling as it makes its final modulation to a new key for "peace", which I would guess is a subdominant movement, but I'm not positive.

I'm looking forward to hearing about how tichelli achieved these effects. Is there another piece I should start listening to?

Ohlordy! So sorry I have been busy. You know how school can be. So, I will type up some stuff about the Ticheli piece and get back to you a little later this afternoon.

at about 40 seconds I hear tonality moving to the dominant of the original key, I'm unsure as to whether the modulation is occurring on "see" or at the beginning of "this dark stormy..."

The modulation ACTUALLY starts earlier. On the word "LIVE". It starts off by moving from the tonic to the relative minor chord but shifts BACK up to the Tonic by the next beat. So... it is F for the key. On live... it shifts to a D minor chord then QUICKLY hops back to the Eb tritone bi chord of Eb and F major. What is this doing? Well, watch...

At "SING", the music transitions to the Dominant, but this was prepared by a motif that started the modulation earlier. So, it goes from F to F(add 4). Repeats. Then D minor to Eb|F ( | symbols a bi-chord... one chord on top of another). Now, HOW can it go (theoretically) from a D minor to an Eb AND an F? Well, If you think about it. What chord is the Relative minor borrowed from? The IV. So, D minor is a cousin on the Bb Major chord only with the seventh added. The Bb Major chord would be in first inversion and would resolve to the Eb Major chord JUST as it would a V-I cadence in the key of Eb Major. BUT, in the key F major, the D Minor chord also resolves to the F tonic by just that fact that D Minor is the relative minor. :) Make sense so far?

For the next two minutes I don't hear a strong modulation, it could just be that they are too fast for me to pick up on them, but there are moments where it may seem to shift a bit to the minor or something, but it really feels like it's staying in the same key as "this dark stormy..."

mhmm. What this is, hard to believe, is a DEVELOPMENT of the themes presented in the first minute. Tell me (only for this SEGMENT from the music):

1. What are the motifs used. (times and lyrics). (for instance: the SING, BE, LIVE, etc. text is a motif musically and textually. I want motifs BOTH musically and textually, even if they are different.).

2. Give me ONE example from this time period where the music SOUNDS like it's shifting keys, but really it's just borrowing it.

3. Give 1 example of "text painting" in this section.

Write these in bullet form, like I have done with the questions. Remember, the times from the music are your Evidence. You must cite where they are. :)

Around 2:50 is sounds like it shifts to the relative minor.

You missed one from 1:00-2:50. There IS a shift from the dominant BACK to the Tonic somewhere in there, and it's obvious. Tell me where it is.

Around 2:50, you are correct.

At 3:20, the final chord before "peace" adds the b7 to secure the dominant feeling as it makes its final modulation to a new key for "peace", which I would guess is a subdominant movement, but I'm not positive.

WELL, it actually ends in a completely different key. And, it's a HALF step from the original key of F Major. It's an E Major chord. And, HOW does it get there? Circle of 5th of course.

At 3:00, it shifts to the dominant. C Major is the key... then it immediately goes to A minor at 3:07. Bb at 3:10ish. to G (making the transition to the Secondary dominant of F, G7). And, it is an interesting modulation at that.

The progression is:

F dmin C amin Bb C G G7 E.

It's almost a COMPLETELY unrelated chord. But, it works. Ticheli did this to make the audience FEEL something here. It's text painting through progression. Which is awesome. ;)

So, do my assignments.