Writing Fellows Program

I. What is the Writing Fellows Program, and what is its purpose?

II. What projects have appeared?

IV. How does one become a Writing Fellow?

V. What are some guidelines for writers?

I. What is the Writing Fellows Program, and what is its purpose?

II. What projects have appeared?

March 2000: Lyn Schenbeck, Finding the poet's voice: strategies for a collective interpretation of choral text

April 2001: Richard Williamson, Harmony and language in Ginastera's Lamentaciones de Jeremias Propheta: Implications for Rehearsal and Interpretation

May 2002: Ricardo Soto, Accessible Miniatures from Spain's golden Age: the Villancicos of Juan del Encina

February 2005: two features in the travel issue!

• Daniel Craig, The Whole World In Your Hands: A Do-It-Yourself Tour Planning Guide
• Luanne Crosby, Choral Pioneers: Cultural Exchange With Shipibo Villagers in Peru

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III. What sorts of projects are underway so far, and who is working on them?

• Kenneth Williams: Choral works of Percy Grainger
• Tram Sparks: Laban Effort-Shape Elements and conducting pedagogy

Below is a semi-out-of-date list of other topics that may be in-progress.

• Jennifer Bennett: The original Canadian Huron Carol and its background.
• Two topics on John Tavener. Gregory Pysh: an interview/biography; and Eric Johnson: a study of some of Tavener's works
• Alice Generalow: Handel's Messiah and the evolution of tempo practices
• Anna Hamre:Libby Larsen's text settings
• Rich Brunner: Topics in vocal pedagogy and their choral applications
• Mark Lucas: Eric Ericson's work and influence
• Kathleen McGuire: AIDS Requiems
• Kirin Nielsen: Palestrina's Spiritual Madrigals
• Eric Johnson: Mode and structure in Palestrina
• Alice Generalow: Historical Russian women composers (THERE IS ROOM FOR MORE RESEARCHERS ON THIS UNPLUMBED TOPIC!)
• Ross Bernhardt:Choral conductors as an American subculture (anthropological, ethnographic analysis: collaborative project with anthropologist)
• Donald Callen Freed: Vocal and rehearsal terminology of high school choral directors
• Karen West Phares: Text expression in choral settings
• Rachel Whitcomb: Improvisation in the choral rehearsal; general-music rubrics in choral rehearsal
• Craig Hawkins:Gardner's Multiple Intelligence Theory and high school choral ensembles
• James John: Musical allusion in Brahms Nanie
• Mary Lycan: Brahms's partbooks for his Hamburg women's chorus
• Jennifer Miceli: Improvisation, Assessment, and Aural training in the choral rehearsal
• Michael J. Anderson: Choral practices in the Moravian church
• Ben Locke: South Africa's Libertas choir
• Jo Ellen Miano:Eurhythmics and musicality in youth and adult choirs
• Kirsten Kedegaard: Choral music in Denmark
• This is not a complete list, so don't panic if you have sent me a proposal and your topic is missing! E-mail me with corrections or updates, please.

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IV. How does one become a Writing Fellow?

1. Be a member of the American Choral Directors Association, and thus presumably a reader of the Choral Journal



2. Contact Nina Gilbert with your proposal or project. You can reach me by surface mail at:
   
   Nina Gilbert
   Choral Journal Writing Fellows Program
   Williams Center 235
   Lafayette College
   Easton, Pennsylvania 18042-1768
   
   You can also use e-mail, or fax 610-330-5058, or phone 610-330-5677.
   


3. Send:

• Cover letter explaining your interest.
• If you wish to edit or complete a project, send us a copy of the project.
• If you have a new project in mind to start, send a description.
• If you would like to work on developing a new topic, send a sample of something else you have written.
• If you are a graduate student, we would like to know that you have the approval of your advisors to participate in the Writing Fellows Program.

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V. What are some guidelines for writers?

Below are some strategies for editing and streamlining material. We offer them here as a resource. Please let me know if you are using this list or sharing it with others!

1. Establish and defend a thesis. Typical theses for Choral Journal articles include:
   • ______ is an accessible, neglected source of useful repertoire.
   • Here is a new, enlightening, appealing perspective on a familiar piece of music.
   • ______ is an unfamiliar piece worth getting to know, and here is a way of getting to know it.
   • The story of ______ (conductor or composer)'s life enlightens that conductor or composer's music.
   • We can and should learn to understand and appreciate music from ______ (remote time or place).
   • ______ is a pedagogical strategy worth using in choral rehearsals.
   • ______ is a concept from another field that transplants well into choral music.



2. Choose active, dramatic verbs. Even though notes just sit there on the page, livelier verbs than "is" and "have" can describe what they do. Invert passive verbs so we see their subjects in action: instead of "fourths and fifths are used," for example, say "Boulanger uses fourths and fifths."



3. Lead readers to their own conclusions. Instead of such value-laden modifiers as "even," "just," "very," etc., use precise facts to demonstrate and convince. Weigh every adjective: what meaning does it add?



4. Avoid unwitting redundancy. If something is "obvious" or "of course," don't say it. Avoid "note": we already want readers to "note" everything we say, so we rarely need to invite them specifically.



5. Organize biographical information for its relevance and usefulness. A Choral Journal article is rarely a birth-to-death or birth-to-present documentation of a life. Select information that enhances understanding. Perhaps a composer studied with someone whose musical influence readers recognize. Perhaps a conductor worked in an environment that shaped a musical result -- whether that environment was a convent or a motorcycle factory. Perhaps a musician crossed paths with history -- Juan del Encina, for example, served the family of Ferdinand and Isabella during the time of Christopher Columbus.



6. Use interviews as source material, not a finished product. Gregory Pysh interviewed John Tavener. Now he is assembling his material into a unified portrait that encompasses Princess Diana's funeral, key moments of Tavener's education, development, and career, and the distant family connection to his near-namesake, John Taverner.



7. Use quotations and paraphrases appropriately. If a secondary source tells you that Handel marked the tempo of his "Hallelujah!" Chorus Allegro, or John Tavener tells you that he attended Highgate School with John Rutter, you should paraphrase such facts unless there is a particular angle or flavor worth attributing to your source.



8. Coin original metaphors. We have already described too many pieces of music as "gems."



9. Beware cliches. "Singer and audience alike" is stale.



10. Streamline similes. It is dramatic and effective to draw on your personal experience to make a point by comparing a musical situation to something from the outside world. Be sure to trim non-essential details, however charming. If tenors' accented half notes emerge from a thick texture like hippos' eyelids breaking the surface of a swamp, we don't need to know how hippos get into mud in the first place, or where we buy our special swamp boots, unless those details are also part of the simile.



11. Spare the definite article. An interesting editing technique is to try to eliminate the word "the" -- at beginnings of paragraphs and sentences, and sometimes elsewhere. "The" advises readers that material is not new.



12. Avoid quotation marks, except for actual quotations. If you are using quotes to indicate that a word carries something other than its actual meaning, you should eliminate the quotes and the word, and find a word that conveys the meaning you want.



13. Do you really need italics? We could have italicized any of those five words, but emphasis would have added volume, not meaning.



14. Use short words, and fewer words. If you call something "simplistic," could you call it "simple" instead? If you have "a piece of poetry," could you call it "poetry"? If you have "utilize" or "usage," can you say "use" without sacrificing meaning?



15. Lead readers positively to your perception. Too many manuscripts start with an assumption that "many people" hold a wrong point of view. After setting up an elaborate negative premise, writers present their own thesis using "many" as a foil. We can call this practice the "presumed foolish reader," and eliminate it.



16. De-sex gracefully. Thirty years ago, writers began to reject "he" as an inclusive pronoun. But "he or she" may sound awkward or apologetic, as if writers are emphasizing the inconvenience and superficial courtesy of including women in their descriptions. If today's writers use imagination and creativity to work around this challenge, the problem will disappear in the next century. Sometimes a plural subject helps: instead of "Every conductor knows his...," try "Conductors know their...." Sometimes you can eliminate a telltale possessive: instead of, say, "A composer's music reflects his life," try something like "A composer's music reflects that composer's life," or "Composers' lives affect their music," or "Composers' music reflects their lives," or a more radical recasting -- "Music offers insight into its composer's life."

Choral Journal authors and readers represent a wide constituency of busy people, with needs and interests ranging from practical to scholarly. We challenge Writing Fellows to develop and present their topics in ways that engage a wide variety of readers.

Here is some sample editing of two sentences from a successful project.

Original, 56 words:

Again, there is but one exception: measures 23-30 of movement II, the text of which translates as "[He has] suspended me in darkness and not in light." The reason for this exception can, perhaps, be found in Ginastera's use of minor and major harmony in this passage to depict, respectively, darkness and light (Example 7).

Revision, 31 words:

Movement II offers the one exception, measures 23-30: "[He has] suspended me in darkness and not in light." Ginastera paints darkness and light with minor and major harmonies (Example 7).

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Partially updated January 13, 2005