THE PME BLOG

The December 3^rd open rehearsal concert of Dave Brubeck and American Poets was truly a memorable experience for me!  I’m a new Californian, and this is my first season singing with the Pacific Mozart Ensemble—what a lovely group of talented and genuine people!  This was also my first experience being part of an open rehearsal, so I was eager and curious to see what this was all about.

When the ensemble walked into the auditorium at the Crowden School of Music in Berkeley, we were met with a warm and enthusiastic audience that swelled to fill the hall!  Extra chairs had to be retrieved from other rooms to accommodate all of the faithful PME fans, including quite a few first-timers.  As a performer, I really appreciated the way the audience seemed to be “with” us throughout such a varied program.  It was so much fun to watch them connect with the different pieces—their faces and body language looking thoughtful during Langston Hughes’ Dream poetry, cozy during Iola Brubeck’s Autumn In Our Town, and even tickled with the hoe-down feel of Wendell Berry’s The Wheel.

Our dynamic director, Dr. Lynne Morrow, used the open rehearsal format to invite the audience into the creative process by providing context about the pieces and composers, and even demonstrating some of the creative liberties that the close working relationship with Dave Brubeck has allowed.  This included an adjustment to the onomatopoeia of the sound of falling leaves that floats among the melody of the Autumn tune.  Sopranos had to be on their toes to demonstrate both the rearticulated “Flutter, flutter, flutter,” and the more languid “flut—ter,” spread across the same notes.

A very special moment of the evening took place just before intermission, with a touching video clip of Dave and Iola Brubeck expressing their gratitude and support for this project, and wishing everyone Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas.  The audience then joined the choir in a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday, and we all cut into some birthday cake to celebrate Dave Brubeck’s 91^st, which was on December 6^th.  It has been so special to be a part of a project that is close to Dave’s heart.

Friends and family were on hand to help with many aspects of the open rehearsal, including ticket and CD sales, cake cutting, set up, clean up, and so much more.  On behalf of the PME, I want to extend a heartfelt thanks to all of you who made the open rehearsal such a success.  We look forward to your continued support as we move on to the next phase of this project—recording the CD on December 17 and 18!

Musically yours,

Shannon Ciston, PME alto

Right now Pacific Mozart Ensemble is working on 24 pieces of music written by Dave Brubeck and getting them ready to record in Skywalker Studios in December! I am privileged to be one of the singers for this project and would like to give some insight on what the music and the rehearsing process is like. The songs were composed musically by Dave Brubeck with the basis of poems as lyrics written by American poets such as Langston Hughes, Robert Louis Stevenson, Wendell Berry, Robert Penn Warren, his wife Iola Brubeck, and himself. All 24 of these compositions are unique entities that bring the poetry to life and Pacific Mozart Ensemble brings the music alive in singing them. You see, it is quite a beautiful circle that the poets, Dave Brubeck and PME are completing and to have such a wonder recorded is going to be a remarkable gift for all to hear!

The variety of styles and sentiment that is encompassed in Dave’s music is marvelous ranging from quiet and pensive to hopeful, childlike and upbeat. There is swing, bits of gospel, jazz, classical and many other genres exhibited in the songs. Rehearsals with PME are a joy for several reasons. Lynne Morrow, our director, is great at getting everyone in the group to get down to business and work diligently and efficiently while at the same time keeping the spirit of the rehearsal light hearted and fun. The members are all passionate about singing and music, which is extremely important when working on a project like this. Lastly, with each sequential rehearsal there is noticeable improvement to the songs and the musicianship of the ensemble as a whole. This is exciting because it means that when it comes time to record on December 16th and 17th, we will surely be prepared and feel comfortable singing this music - Which will make for a stellar end result!

We will be having an Open Rehearsal on December 3rd for those who are interested in seeing us sing this amazing music just 13 days before it will be recorded in Skywalker Studios! It will be a pleasure to share what everyone involved has been working hard on. We hope to see plenty of people there and tickets can be bought through the website at www.pacificmozart.org. There is passion, careful thought and generous musical energy to be heard and appreciated! Thanks to all who contribute to this project whether by writing, composing, singing, donating or listening.

Jeffri Lynn Carrington, Participating Soprano

In the 1990’s when I worked as a computer programmer in Oakland I would spend lunch hours in the excellent music section of the Oakland Public Main Library. Trolling around in there, discovering something interesting was always a possibility. This particular time I was looking for a larger work to conduct on a PME concert. I was the assistant and I wanted to conduct something that was new for me. I’d been aware of Swiss composer Frank Martin’s more thorny mid-century works, using Arnold Schoenberg’s techniques of composition. So, I was expecting something like that when I came across this “new” work: a double chorus mass, unaccompanied.

Those descriptors made me pick it up: double chorus meant more “meat” for the singers, unaccompanied meant it wouldn’t hurt the budget and I was curious about a sacred choral work by this composer.

When I started reading through it there in the library I was amazed to find an incredibly beautiful and intricate piece. Layers of melismatic lines intertwined with each other, while the meters shifted underneath the gorgeous harmonies.

When I got the piece home, I was even more rewarded by what I heard. Each movement had a different sound and feeling. Some research yielded a poignant fact:

“Martin wrote the Mass in 1922 when he was a young man. In the following years he moved away from his tonal compositional language to one more like Schoenberg’s. But he loved the Mass so much that he refused to publish the work until 1963, a time when it wouldn’t be criticized for being tonal.”

I find this music to be profoundly affecting, at a cellular level. When I hear it, it changes me.

The two best moments in our encounters with the Martin double chorus Mass may be:

1. That very first read-through, when we all got to hear it for the first time.
   And
2. The enormous Albi Cathedral in southern France, where, in 1995, we sang the entire Mass as part of a Sunday service with 2,000 parishioners in attendance. I’ve rarely had such an enlivening conducting experience as THAT one.

Lynne Morrow, Artistic Director

Composer Amy X Neuburg reflects on the process of composing “Circle of Lullabies: songs for children and planets born and unborn,” commissioned by Pacific Mozart Ensemble.

——

Even after all these years in the music world, I continue to be amazed and edified by the creative process. A new opportunity, a specific assignment, or a combination of freedoms and limitations can all direct one’s efforts in unexpected, delightful ways. Through this collaboration with PME, I have created a work unlike anything I had imagined until I sat down to do it.

In the program notes below, I explain how the subject matter of Birth and Renewal inspired a whole domino effect of ideas. But beyond that, I found working with PME embodied so many of the things I feel are important in this life. CHALLENGE: My abilities were stretched and tested in a way that surprised me — thinking after a long career of songwriting that writing for a chorus would be easy, but in fact it was humblingly difficult! EDUCATION: I was fascinated by the learning process of the chorus, and I thank them for allowing me to attend rehearsals, observe, and contribute. I learned so much about working with large groups, score notation and presentation, and the many intricacies of composing for chorus. PEAK EXPERIENCE: Hearing “Circle of Lullabies” amid the unique acoustics, swirling staircases and dripping rain inside the Anne Hamilton tower was an experience I will never forget — not to mention the accompanying group stay at the rather unbelievable Isis Oasis, replete with emus and ocelots! CAMARADERIE and new connections: PME is a wonderfully congenial group of people with beautiful voices, who clearly love to sing, and who embraced my quirky music with patience and enthusiasm. I look forward to more work in the future with Lynne and this talented ensemble.

These program notes explain a bit about how “Circle of Lullabies” came to be.

“When Lynne asked me to write a piece about birth and renewal, the first thought that came to mind was the warming of the earth and the eventual phasing out of human life, perhaps to be incorporated into some other form of energy. The second thing that came to mind was my own mixed emotion around never having had a child. And finally I was inspired by the larger picture of the work’s context — from the beauty of the space for which it was originally designed (Ann Hamilton’s concrete tower lined with spiral staircases, open at the top and with a small pool at the bottom), to the remarkable ingenuity of human beings and the “children” we will leave behind us in the forms of creations and knowledge, to a sense that the human voice — its sounds and stories — will always tie us to our history and our future. And so the lyrics of this song cycle are an attempt to weave all these ideas together into something that makes a little bit of sense. The ideas coalesced as I began to compose and found the music coming out quite sing-songy and childlike — appearing to me like a series of eerie but hopeful lullabies for a dying earth and the children that were never had. Many thanks to Lynne and the chorus for working closely with me to develop this song cycle — my first choral work.”

– Amy X Neuburg

Acacia Quien, Alto

I was already a huge Beatles fan by age eleven, so when PME did a rendition of “A Day in the Life” in 1994, the choir earned major cool points in my mind. See, I have been attending the Jazz & Pop concerts since I was a little girl. My father discovered PME in the late 80s, and every year since then and until I left for college, my parents & I have been going to this consistently enjoyable spring show.

When I auditioned for PME at the dawn of the J&P season, I recognized at least half of the choir immediately. I could put names to the faces of the repeat arrangers and soloists, so to me it felt like these folks were either quasi-celebrities or adults from my childhood whom I already knew but who didn’t recognize me yet. Crazy, I know. I half expected Jim Hale or Kathy Longinotti to approach me and ask if I was indeed that scrawny girl in the audience every year in the 80s and 90s, all grown up. Yeah, that never happened.

From the first rehearsal I knew that this choir was no joke. These guys were serious about music, and they were good! Coming from the band world—a nebulous world of dimly lit, noisy bars, smoky casinos, and cocky horn players (singing along side 10 horn players can often feel like a competition), this was a new awakening. No one taking cigarette breaks? No musicians jiving each other, or the singer? No glasses breaking or obnoxious drunks? I knew that my ten year hiatus from choirs was officially over. I had finally found my musical happy home!

I also realized that my choir game was a bit down after all these years, and I needed to stand next to certain people (Polly, Kim–yeah ladies!) to get my sight reading and harmonic mojo back. PME moves fast, and, unlike the choir directors of my youth, Lynne Morrow doesn’t take time out of rehearsal to teach sections their respective parts. We are expected to know our stuff upon arrival, which means a combination of great sight reading skills and a bit of homework. I was officially in the land of real adults and it was intimidating.

However, I had never met a more friendly and supportive group of musical people in my life. Really! PME is unusual in its lack of snake-pit vibe that I’ve seen in other musical groups—the environment is so positive and encouraging, it’s extraordinary. The Pajaro retreat was awesome (see Kate’s blog), and I really dug that such hard work was accompanied by an abundance of quality food and drink. Great singers are great eaters, that’s for sure.

We finished our final concert on Sunday.  I was unfortunate enough to acquire a nasty cold for the first show, so although I sounded a bit like Janis Joplin after a doing some damage to a fifth of whiskey, I rose to the occasion as best I could and made it through without passing out. The versatility in the musical selection and styles of arrangement is amazing—each song is unique and beautiful in its own way. Because there is such a collective support system for risk taking, I am already considering arranging my own tunes for next season.

So I’m finally old (and mature) enough to be singing with my choir idols, and it feels fabulous! I have a feeling that I will be a PEEMER for a very long time, and I hope to see more young adults hope on the bandwagon and join this talented, disciplined choir full of awesome, supportive folk. So where my young choir dorks at?

Acacia Quien
Alto