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INTERVIEW WITH 3 CANADIAN CHORAL COMPOSERS

losophy of life. However, music that struggles with is- composer and a choir.
sues, without answers, can also be very attractive. In For many composers, children’s music is more diffi -
fact, most listeners don’t want to be told how to think. cult to compose than adult music because the compos-
It’s wise to find a meaningful poem in the public do- er has more restrictions and because each part is more

main instead of writing one’s own lyrics. Try to ensure exposed. I started writing SATB music first and then,

that the music makes a strong marriage with the text. over a period of a couple of years, I gradually wrote
I try to ensure that my most approachable choral with fewer and fewer parts as my skills improved.
music (high school or community choir level of dif- If a composer is composing for a specifi c choir, it is

ficulty) is quality choral writing with intuitive voice the composer’s responsibility to write something suit-
leading, conveying something worth singing about. able for that choir. You may compose a great piece, but
I keep thinking about and striving for Mozart’s “Ave if it is too short or too long or the text is inappropriate
Verum Corpus,” one of the most exquisite motets ever or it is completed too late for enough rehearsal time,
written, which is performed by grade ten (sophomore) things will not end well. Before starting, get to know
choirs and also the finest choirs on earth. Fine choral the conductor and the choir and be sympathetic to

music doesn’t need to be formidable. Seemingly com- their situation.
plex music can be easy to learn/perform, and seem- Bonus tip for young composers: Publishers receive
ingly simple music can be diffi cult to learn/perform lots of great submissions. Make sure that your music is
depending on the voice leading skills of the composer. completely edited with immaculate attention to detail
before you submit it to a publisher or they may not
TELFER: Choral composers need to understand the give it more than a glance. Submit several pieces at
characteristics of each of the choral voices (soprano, the same time to the publisher so that they can get a
alto, tenor, bass). Just as a tuba player would never be better idea of whether they will want to invest in you
given a flute part to play, a bass singer should not have as a composer.

to sing a soprano-style line. Each choral part should be
composed appropriately to make use of the positive WASHBURN: I would be tempted to organize the
features of that type of voice allowing those singers seminar as a series of one-on-one interviews instead
to sing musically and to develop good tone quality. In of the usual group discussion. I’m not convinced that
other words, music can be challenging, but it should commonplace discussion of “shared” problems leads

not work against the singers. If you compose at a key- to many effective solutions. The key concepts I would
board, a choral line should not sound like a keyboard promote are basic but essential: build a library, read
line just because that works well for your fi ngers. widely, explore multi-faceted experiences, and learn
Composers need to learn the diff erences between languages.
the voices of children and adults. For example, chil-
dren’s voices work very differently than adult voices 6) What essential elements should conduc-

because they are more flexible and able to sing a series tors look for when selecting new repertoire?

of leaps more easily than adults. Children usually fi nd
polyphony easier than harmony because they do not NICKEL: I currently sing with the Vancouver Canta-
get lost when singing their own melody, even if the ta Singers, and almost every one of the forty singers
other singers have a different melody at the same time, has a degree in music. The director is earnest to fi nd

but adults with limited experience can get lost within music that will stretch and challenge us. Yet, I can see
the competing sounds of polyphony. that much of our music goes over the heads of our
No matter how great a piece of music may be in audience, possibly ostracizing some. It’s a tricky bal-
other respects, if the singers do not have good cues ance with most choirs—prudent choir directors work
for entries, the rehearsals and performance will be less the intended audience into their repertoire equation

than satisfying. Poor cues build animosity between a and strive to find a balance for singers, listeners, and

48 CHORAL JOURNAL April 2021 Volume 61 Number 9