March, 2001
Volume 16, No. 2

The Melodious Accord Institute in Hawley, MA

A Board's Eye View

Impressions from the Spirituals Concert

The View From Here

The Road to Song Leading

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Based on the philosophy and teaching of Alice Parker, and presenting programs benefiting composers, conductors, church and school musicians, and music lovers, The MELODIOUS ACCORD Institute presents her educational activities in western Massachusetts. All events are held at the Charlemont Federated Church, Route 2, Charlemont, MA, unless otherwise indicated.

A series of informal discussions of great seasonal music, this year's focus is on the Magnificat of J. S. Bach. Study scores are provided: we look at the text and the music, then sing and listen. Open to all: you don't have to be able to read music to enjoy these six quiet, centered Monday evenings. Free, no registration needed; bring your score if you have one.

A two-day event open to composers, conductors, choir singers, worship leaders and others interested in singing in worship. The Friday session, morning and afternoon, is for the professionals: we discuss composing/arranging, repertoire, rehearsing and performing, service planning, etc. A Friday night SING led by Alice Parker is open to the community. Saturday sessions are open to those above, plus church choirs who are particularly invited to come in small or large groups - they will go home with many new ideas. The focus is on lively congregational and choir singing, with an emphasis on hymn improvisation. Pre-registration, with $25 nonrefundable deposit, required. Fee: Friday and Saturday, $100; Individual, Friday or Saturday, $50.00; Group rate Saturday only: $25 for leader plus $5.00 for each additional singer from the same church.

Open to all regional church choirs, the Festival is designed as an afternoon of mutual enjoyment of each other's singing. Each choir may sing one anthem alone. Then all singers will join together for a group of Easter carols and Haydn's The Heavens are Telling, led by Alice Parker. Audience attendance is welcome.

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The MELODIOUS ACCORD Board of Trustees met on January 14th at Saint Hilda's House in New York City. Only a day after our annual Spirituals for Dr. King concert, the walls of the nearby Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine were still echoing with the glorious music made in that grand space the night before. The Board welcomed Kay Holt and John Lundsten to the role of co-Treasurer, replacing the indispensable Cynthia Simonoff Shaw who remains dutifully involved as a board member "at large" after countless years keeping our books balanced in fine fashion. The Board also welcomed Marilyn Pryor, our Newsletter editor, as the Secretary of the Board. I'm confident that the work of these gifted and committed leaders, will continue to allow MELODIOUS ACCORD to carry out our mission wherever and whenever there is good music to be made

With the incredible success of our Spirituals concert In January, we are already making plans for our 15th annual event next year. With the imminent release of our newest recording, My Love and I, and a new recording session scheduled for May, there is no shortage of projects on the horizon.

As we embark on what promises to be a fruitful year ahead, I do wish to acknowledge with thanks the generosity of the hundreds of kind and loyal friends who have contributed to MELODIOUS ACCORD during the past year. Over $33,440, an all-time record, was given or promised to MELODIOUS ACCORD during the past year. Your stalwart support of the work of Alice Parker and MELODIOUS ACCORD is an endorsement of the special brand of music making to which we all subscribe.

-Tim Riley, Chairman

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For the young North Coast Singers who had come from San Diego, this was a high point in a wonderful adventure. The snow, the lights of Times Square, the museums, Kiss Me Kate, the Statue of Liberty-all the magnificent sights of New York were "cool" and "awesome", but it was the Cathedral and the concert that literally took their breath away. Here are some of the impressions that went home with them.

"I couldn't describe the trip with any better word than melodious. ....Personally I can't get over the ringing of the notes ...over the entire cathedral after every pause. It was almost haunting....It was a unique experience that none of us will forget."

"I knew there were angels in this place of worship, swirling around in the high ceiling and around my body. When we sang, it sounded like the angels were echoing back at us, and it was the prettiest noise you could hear....After the concert, we had to leave but I didn't want to. I wanted to stay there forever."

"I don't think our choir really realized how blessed we were to be the only choir in hundreds that was chosen to come sing with you and Alice Parker. ... I think the Saturday night we had our concert we were all ready to sing our hearts out.... that was when our singing really kicked in. Not to mention the beautiful church helping us out. ....we can all look back on that night forever."

"...All our hard work paid off. My favorite part was listening to the singing and going out into the audience to sit with the people. That made me feel so special it brought tears to my eyes."

. . . From the audience

"...The concert gave me goosebumps and was the highlight of the entire New York trip for my two daughters, ages 10 and 14!"

"...The size of the audience was impressive and so was the spirit.....people spontaneously rose and clasped hands and joined the rows in the center of the aisle and walked forward during the 'We Shall Overcome.' It was very moving. I guess there were a lot of kids of the 60's there (like me), but it was a good feeling to share this with the younger sets who were also there."

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January Thaw: the phrase used to mean rivers of slush in the city. Whatever black remnants of ice remained on the sidewalks melted messily into the gutters. And the skeletons of late-abandoned Christmas trees provided further decor. . .

But here, we've had seven weeks of about as perfect winter weather as anyone could ask for. Snow, continually fresh snow, to depths of about 18 inches; roads clear and traveling easy; lots of sunshine and sparkling nights. Until Tuesday, when the first ice-storm hit: rain all day, freezing on contact, so that every twig was outlined and the ground pure treachery. Since then it's been hovering in the low 30's, warm enough to really melt during the day, and not cold enough to completely freeze again at night. The snow has that dimply look it gets when it's heavy and squashy - and the farmers who do maple-sugaring get that glint in their eye and go out to inspect their trees and lines. The thaw is really late this year, but no one doubts that winter will return: it always has!

Meanwhile the electric company has been busy clipping out the branches that hover over the electric lines. Two men in a truck with a high movable platform and a saw that looks like it just touches the branch to have it fall. They tow a chipper behind them, and clean up as they go along with remarkably neat results. And at the foot of the hill, the New England Boring Co. is working on the bridge. I can think of several possibilities for that title, none involving pumps.

Inside, we're warm, with a fire in the wood-stove each evening. The Christmas lights came down last week (except for those under the snow outside), and the house begins to return to normal, welcoming the longer days. Different families come up for weekends so there's considerable traffic of grandchildren, with all the sledding and cocoa and indoor games and feasting that that implies. Winter is lovely here!

-Alice Parker

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editorial

The MELODIOUS ACCORD Fellowship Program began twelve years ago, as an opportunity for mid-career professional choral musicians to re-think their work. Traditionally, choral directors in schools and churches work long hours at relatively low pay, taking on all kinds of extra jobs to make ends meet, and gaining their main satisfaction from the opportunity they give others to express themselves musically. That's a far cry from what led them into music in the first place: the mind filled with tunes, the fingers that can't keep off an instrument, the fascination of how it's put together, the dream of a 'solo career'. And often then there's a kind of burnout, of physical and perhaps musical exhaustion, the wish for a new start.

I contend that this situation arises mostly because of the specialized nature of our musical education. One must choose between 'music education' (elementary or middle or high), or 'church music' or 'jazz' or 'composition' or 'piano' (or any other instrument), or orchestral conducting or choral conducting or band conducting. - it's as if the differences were more profound than the similarities. I couldn't disagree more strongly. Music is sound, and its study should be principally the exploration of the world of sound - 'methods' and 'techniques' and 'philosophies' and 'theologies' are only of value when they arise immediately out of satisfactory, appropriate sound. We've put the cart before the horse, and MELODIOUS ACCORD seeks to restore the natural order.

The program has evolved over the twelve years: now there is daily work in composition (even for those who have never written), and much more singing than at the beginning. One of my mantras is "What kind of sound can we make, right now, right here, just us, that is exactly right for this song/moment?" This presupposes that any group of any size (even just one) can make a sound that's just right. We don't have to have four parts, we don't have to have pages to read and traditions to live up to: we need to open our ears and our mouths, listening to each other and reinforcing each other. So each day begins with song around our table, then moves to a consideration of what happens when sound is written-down. We also look at great choral literature and the poetry of song texts, and enter into lively discussions of what it means to be a teacher-church musician-composer-conductor etc. in this society. By the end of ten days together, we have formed a close group, aware of how much each individual contributes to the whole, and thoroughly enjoying our time together. We are fed by the communicative sound that pours forth from our throats, minds and hearts - and burn-out is far away indeed.

The two to eight people who come each year never had a chance to meet each other until we held a Fellows Reunion last year in New York. I had long thought that they would get along well together, and they did indeed. Now a further opportunity arises, with the beginning of a Fellowship II Program this June, open only to those who have completed the first session in the past. The focus now will be on Song Leading. I become increasingly convinced that this is the skill that opens up music to groups who are more or less resistant to it: church congregations, school classrooms, community organizations, etc. Music education has gone so far down the road to 'musical literacy' that they almost say you can't sing if you can't read. Nothing is farther from the truth - for millennia people sang with no need of paper, and still do. In fact, singing 'by ear', 'by heart' must precede the page or the page has no meaning: only symbols bereft of sound.

Training the song leader is necessary because we have consciously to un-learn our conducting skills, and the rational correcting-of-mistakes that is part of page-learning. A whole different psychology is at work: that of people working with small children or with animals, or a mother with a baby. The leader must have a clear mental image of the sound he or she wants for this song, and the ability to 'line it out', to sing it in a way that encourages each one within hearing to join in. Critical skills turn off; gentle encouragement turns on, and the will to keep the song going until everyone is part of its magic. And then to begin another...

We've forgotten how to use our vocal cords, and how to listen to each other. With our boom-boxes and videos and computers spouting canned sound at us, we've forgotten that it's our birthright to sing as small children do, to join in, to make the music. That's what our voices are for - not just to talk, but to sing.

Why? Who can answer? Why do birds sing? Obviously something is being transmitted - not just information, something far more basic. Can it be that when we sing, we unite body, breath, mind, spirit and heart in a seamless affirmation of what it means to be human? What then happens to people/nations/cultures who don't, can't, or consciously avoid the chance to sing? Is it possible that they lose some essential part of their humanity?

If there's the least chance of that, it's enough for us. MELODIOUS ACCORD recognizes the need and the opportunity. If we can train people to go out and get people singing, who knows what good might result? Look for these Fellows. Invite them to your communities to get the singing started. And notice how everyone begins to glow in that outpouring of sound, those incredible nuances that only happen right here, right now, with just us, singing this song.

[note: Sally Husch Dean, who conducted the North Coast Singers in the Spirituals Concert, and David Chase, who arranged the Freedom Song sung by the North Coast Singers, are MELODIOUS ACCORD Fellows.]

- Alice Parker

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