Want to write better choral music? Stop writing choral music.

Episode 1: Stop Writing Choral Music

Today on "What Can Choral Music Be?" I'm talking about cultivating an awareness of one's "default settings" when approaching the creative process! What sort of "default settings" have you noticed about yourself? Do you have any gestures you seem to default to constantly when you write? Any fundamental choices you make without thinking about it before even starting a piece? What are some things you do to change it up? Let me know!

(It was also a cold day, so apologies for the shivery voice, haha.)

Episode 2: Defining & Defeating Defaults

Today on "What Can Choral Music Be?" we're discussing potential artistic issues that exist inherently in the act of setting text to music. How much of the original poem's aesthetic is lost when transformed by music? How does authorial intent relate to text setting? Are works that are based on other artists' texts and ideas inherently derivative works? Let's talk about it!

Episode 3: Problems With Text Setting

Today on "What Can Choral Music Be?" we dive deep into the semiotics of "cliché"! What exactly IS a cliché? How can it hurt us artistically? Why? How can it help us? Which holds more power, the  artist or the gesture? Can an artist take power back from the cliché?  These questions and more are what's up for discussion in today's episode! 

Join the conversation! What does cliché mean to you? How do clichés influence your work? How do you treat them as an artist? Let me know!

 Cheers!

Episode 4: Harnessing Cliché

Today on WCCMB we question the notion of the label "Choral Composer." What does it mean to be a Choral Composer? How does specialization in a single medium affect artistic expression? Does it require a specialist to write choral music effectively? These questions and more are explored in today's episode! 

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the subject! Do you consider yourself a Choral Composer? What does that mean to you? How do you balance marketability with freedom of artistic expression?

Episode 5: The [Choral] Composer as Specialist?

Today on WCCMB we talk about the biggest buzzword in the American choral arts community: Accessibility. What does it mean for a work to be accessible? Accessible in what way? Accessible to whom? To performers? To which kind of performers? To audiences? To which audiences? Is there a way to write music that's "accessible" without making the difficulty of the music the primary factor in guiding its composition? Let's talk about these questions and more as we dissect this word we all use every day. 

What does accessibility mean to you? How do you approach the subject? Let me know! Join the conversation!