Festival Repertoire...

So let me spend a moment talking about music and education.

Today I spent time preparing music for a festival I am conducting in a week and a half.  The festival is for high school students who auditioned and were selected.  When I was selecting music, I really debated about the type of music I should select.  Should I choose quality literature I believe has some great teaching and musical value, but they might know?  Should I choose literature that is unknown completely to them?  How "teacher-y" should I get?  How predictable should the repertoire be?  If it's too outside the box, will the students not enjoy it?

Lots of considerations.

So I decided on:
- A South African Freedom song... there is a piece I'm going to teach by rote.  I hesitated on this for two reasons.  1) I hated learning by rote when I was younger.  It's frustrating.  2) I didn't want it to seem hokey.  BUT... 1) learning by rote is not a skill many musicians end up honing.  It was GOOD for me to practice learning by rote when I was younger, no matter if it was frustrating.  Plus learning by rote is part of the tradition of the music. And 2) It's not hokey.  It's part of history, and we can share in the understanding of history and the world at large by singing music like this.
- The Heavens Declare (Haydn)... This is a great piece.  I'm concerned that some of the singers may have already sung it.  There are also some great arrangements out there of it.  So, if you have a larger program, this is something a high school choir could easily pull off.  But, we have a lot of students from small programs, who maybe wouldn't get a chance to sing this.  So I took a chance.
- Kyrie from Mass in E flat by Amy Beach... I doubt many, if any, of the high schoolers have sung this.  I love this piece for many reasons.  1) It's easy to make music quickly on this piece.  There is SO much meat to it.  2) There are a variety of solos.  3) There are definitely tricky bits, but it's rewarding.  4) It's by an early American woman composer.  How many high school students know who Amy Beach is?  How much attention do we give her as a composer of large forms?  It's such a neat part of our music history.
- Goodbye, Then by Timothy Takach... I'm really excited about this work, but a little nervous.  The notes and rhythms aren't super tricky, although if not taught well, the notes could be a disaster.  I really like Tim's music.  I think more people should be singing it.  I enjoy the way the piece builds.  Plus, the text is wonderful.  I chose it partly because I think the text is relatable.  It's real.  It would be easy to sing this piece and not really commit.  But if the singers can commit vocally, emotionally, and musically, this will be an extremely rewarding and moving piece for them.  I suppose the success of this one comes down to how good of a job I can do at teaching and relating it.
- John the Revelator arr. Caldwell & Ivory... This is the type of piece one might expect to end a concert with.  I don't mean to be so predictable, but it's a great closer.  With my small tenor section, this will work well.  It's energetic and "fun," yet there are some interesting stylistic things I can teach.  Not to mention, we can work on subdivisional pulse and rhythmic precision.

Every festival is different.  Every ensemble is different.  I had ideas outside of these, but these were the pieces I decided on programming.  If they don't work, then I will learn why.  But I will do my best to teach well and to provide a good musical and education experience for these young singers.