Fall

For their first choir concert I really wanted to make sure that the 4th through 6th grade
choirs got a well-rounded overview of musical concepts. In my repertoire selection I tried also to
provide pieces that audiences will enjoy and that will make them come back for more. For
Mother Goose meets Mozart by Weston, it is a two-part song however splits rarely. It is
relatively easy as the melodies are catchy and the words are nursery rhymes, many of which
they probably have heard before. Rather than the tempo changing the note duration changes
making it easier to put togehter. When the Saints Go Marching In arranged by Mac Huff is
another song that is in two-part, this one is harder however as the accompaniment is a jazz
style accompaniment. This piece is well known and is an ear-worm hopefully making it
enjoyable for the students. It is in English and is from the 20th century. Scales and Arpeggios
arranged by Audrey Snyder is a great one to start working on scales and arpeggios. it is in two
parts but rarely has two-parts that are often polyphonic spelling out the scales and arrpegios at
once. This one is slightly easier than When the Saints but harder than Mother Goose, it is also in
English and is a slower tempo. This one also provides a baroque style of accompaniment in the
piano part. Over the Rainbow also by Snyder is used to help work on the widest leap in the song
the octave. It will be saying in unison and is considered easy to medium because the melody is
familiar. Ich libe dich is a L.V. Beethoven piece that provides many classical ideas within the
melody and accompaniment. The chord progression and the cadences are very classic in
western music. It will be sung in English as German would perhaps be too hard to accomplish on
the first concert of the year. The concert order is the same as how they are listed on the
spreadsheet this order was picked because of the relation of tempos also ending with two well
known songs well hopefully leave audiences singing them on the way out.

For the middle school group, I decided to take a more pop route. Given that these
students likely had me for their elementary school musicianship concert, I can now do more
songs that are more appealing to the students and audiences, while also still working on
musicianship concepts. The first song on the list is Sunroof arranged by Alan Billingsley. It is a
well-known pop chart on the radio right now, but the harmonies are more complex than one
might expect for a song of this genre. Since it is well-known, I hope to spend more time on the
harmonies and less time on the melody and general structure. The second song is Yonder Come
Day arranged by the Pod Brothers. It's a fun and more challenging version and marked at
medium difficulty due to its polyphony. This piece may take longer to learn than and easier
version but it’s worth it. Following that is a medley of When October Goes and Autumn Leaves
arranged by Paul Langford. This arrangement is marked as hard as it incorporates a stronger jazz
influence in the vocal line. Additionally, the piano part is less supportive and is written in minor
adding even more challenge. The fourth song is Leave It All to Me arranged by Jack Zaino,
serving as the theme song to the Nickelodeon TV show iCarly. It keeps the original composition
verbatim. I picked it for the nostalgia of those who grew up with the show, many of whom now
have kids in upper elementary school and early middle school. The final song of the middle
school concert is Scarborough Fair arranged by Michael Higgins. This beautiful arrangement
leans towards the harder side, marked as medium-hard due to some challenging harmonies
within the baritone part. I really didn't know what to do for the order of this concert, I like all
the pieces but they don't necessarily fit together that well, so I did it based on tempo and key.
Winter
I wanted to provide a well-balanced mix of winter and holiday music for the
winter/holiday concert. Also considering the limited time between the October and December
concerts I picked for easier songs and used more unison pieces this time. The concert starts
with Winter Wonderland arranged by Jeff Funk. I chose this arrangement only for the piano part
since the choirs will be singing in unison. I would teach this piece by wrote and add the piano
part as I went. Following is Who Is This Child by Jill Gallina and it’s written for two-part but is
really a partner song. It combines an original melody with Away in a Manger starting with the
original melody first, followed by Away in a Manger and then combining the two. Hopefully this
raises the musicianship of the singers and gets them ready for harder works in the future. Next
is Hanukkah Season of Joy composed by Mark Weston. It is written for two-part piece and is in C
harmonic minor, its marked at a slow tempo but its in two and has a polka-esque
accompaniment. Second to last is Winter's in the Air also composed by Gallina. This piece
sounds a lot like the early 20th-century Christmas vibe, similar to the classics like Frosty the
Snowman and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. While written for two parts, I've decided to do
it as a unison piece, with everyone singing the main melody. The final piece in the concert is
Jingle Allll the Ways by the Pod Brothers, a theme and variation version of Jingle Bells. It uses
various time signatures, tempos, and stylistic genres but stays in Eb the whole time. I would use
this to show how the same melody can be used in different ways. In terms of programming, I
wanted to bookend the concert with well-known Christmas carols. I also considered doing the
Gallina pieces with no breaks to show the composers style.

For the middle school winter concert, I made sure to combine holiday and winter music
evenly. The opening piece is Christmas Time Is Here arranged by Robert Sterling. While a pretty
standard Christmas holiday repertoire, this arrangement is not the easiest. It has some weird
vibe changes and uses some chromaticism and chord progressions that may challenge the
students. Next is a set of Three Contemporary Latin Songs by Jerry Estes. While not textually
Christmas holiday songs, they are in Latin and focus on Christ and use texts from the Catholic
Mass. I selected these pieces with the intention of transitioning the choir from working on pure
Latin vowels from their warmups and incorporating those into the Latin for this performance.
The next song is December in My Hometown by Pink Zebra, a cutie Christmas ballad that talks
about the holiday experience in your hometown and the memories made there. Tonally, this
piece lives in the strange space between minor and major, using the lowered third that could
cause a tuning challenge. Up next is a piece called Kwanzaa by Patsy Simms. I made an effort to
find a composition about Kwanzaa by a Black composer as many are by non people of color and
this was one of the last ones left. It is in four but group in threes and twos that really changes
the feel. The final piece is another possible dance number, A Hand for Mrs. Claus, originally by
Idina Menzel and arranged by Mac Huff, one of my favorite holiday music composers. It’s a jazzy
show tune that talks about the unnoticed work Mrs. Claus does for Santa. It’s a lively and fun
closer to the concert, and the harmonies make jazz chords with a different style than the ones
in Christmas Time Is Here leaning more towards a big band sound. In terms of the concert order,
I aimed to create a gradual build-up, starting relatively slow and gradually increasing the tempo.
Additionally, I strategically placed Three Contemporary Latin Songs between Christmas Time Is
Here and December in My Hometown for a slight contrast.

Spring
For the final concert of the year I wanted to look into the more standard side of choral
music that we talk more about at the university level. Beginning with the elementary school
choir for the spring, I wanted to make sure they were singing music in parts with only one song
performed in unison. I started with Something Told the Wild Geese composed by Sherri
Porterfield. This piece incorporates both homophonic harmony and polyphony and is written in
minor. The piano part has minimal support for the ensemble making it more difficult. Following
that, I picked Three Quotes by Mark Twain, set to music by Andrea Ramsey. this piece is funny
and it's going to have audience members laughing it talks about lying and being a nuisance to
your mother. It focuses on articulations, including staccatos, scoops, accents, and legatos, giving
students an understanding of that notation. The first non-English piece for the elementary
school choir was Hisakata by Victor C Johnson. The challenge in this piece comes from the
Japanese text and the blending of homophonic harmony and switching to a separate part mid-
line. Next up is I Sing Because I'm Happy arranged by Rollo Dilworth. This was the only piece
sung in unison for this concert, and is rhythmic complexity that world require more rehearsal.
The concert ends with Storm by James DesJardins, its written in 6/8 time adding a layer of
challenge. Additionally, the piano part is intricate playing non chord tones or playing harmony
above the melody. Additionally, the piece is written in E Dorian, a mode students don't
encounter frequently. In terms of programming, selecting the closing piece was hard. I chose
Storm because it sounded cool which may not be the best way to pick the final piece of the
concert but that's what I went with. Additionally the concert did flow better without storm in
the middle of it so I guess that's some rationale.

I went all out with the middle school spring concert, selecting pieces that might be a bit
more challenging than what a middle school choir would normally do. However, I believe that
with the right amount of effort, these pieces are within the capabilities of the students.
The Little Creek by Matt Carlson is the first song in this concert cycle. It serves as a self-growth
and character-building piece. The challenge in this song lies in the harmony and the time
signature changes. Most of the song is written in three-part harmony, with each line having its
own part, and the time signature consistently shifts between three and four. Gerakina is a Greek
folk song arranged by Greg Gilpin. While not overly challenging compositionally, it issung in
Greek, a language not commonly done with choral music. Rainy Day Blues by Karen Crane is a
jazz composition with a wide range, approximately an octave in each part. The melody is catchy,
and the harmonies are only slightly more difficult than other songs the choir has done before.
The next piece is a beautiful arrangement of Wild Mountain Time by Jacob Navarune. It features
a lot of suspensions in the chord writing, giving opportunities for dissonance tuning in the choir,
which contributes to further chord-building down the line. The final song, It's Alright arranged
by Robert Gibson, utilizes a lot of chromaticism and suspensions. It serves as a cute and uplifting
closer to the concert. While the overall difficulty level of the music is higher, each song has one
difficult thing about it really rather than all of them having multiple hard concepts. In terms of
programming, I aimed to break up the more emotional pieces. The Little Creek and Wild
Mountain Time are pretty emotional, so I placed "Rainy Day Blues" and "It's Alright" to lift the
spirits of the concert.