THE COLLABORATIVE ARRANGEMENTS OF ALICE PARKER AND ...

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Quite frequently, a hand with a pencil would come into vision and place a small “x” on the page. She had to keep playing, knowing that some imperfection had grazed that listening ear. 22 Gradually, I was able to anticipate the pencil and to feel its presence even in my first sketches. I learned to edit my own ideas and brought in sketches that needed fewer changes…Robert brought to my sketches his incredible ear and a God-given sense of structure, inevitability of movement, and clear linear simplicity. He saved me from my youthful excesses: too many ideas, sprawling structures, awkward diction, and unfinished, un-honed vocal lines…The last two albums the Shaw Chorale recorded were entirely mine: subject matter, choice and sequencing of tunes, arrangements, and markings. It took me 15 years, but I finally learned. 23 It can be seen that this collaboration, at first, was not one of equals. Shaw was the master, Parker was the student tasked with fulfilling the master’s requirements. She learned his method, acquired more freedom as she progressed, and, finally, required no more supervision by Shaw. The collaboration is a perfect modern example of the historic apprentice/master relationship: teaching by doing under the close scrutiny of a master craftsman. Parker used this metaphor herself when she said in 1996, “It finally struck me that I had experienced a Medieval- style apprenticeship in Renaissance compositional techniques, a rarity in the twentieth century musical world. I had learned the craft of writing for voices, which, in a strange and wonderful way, released my own compositional ideas.” 24 Historical Context According to Walter Gould, the period between 1950 and the mid-1960’s was a unique time in American musical culture, especially suited for the kind of music created by Shaw and Parker. He referred to this era as the “Golden Age” of choral music in America. 25 Choral music 22 Parker, “Parker-Shaw Memories,” 15. 23 Ibid., 16, 18. 24 Ibid., 18. 25 William Wells Belan, “Recording, Touring, and Publishing—Yesterday and Today: An Interview with Walter Gould,” Choral Journal 36, no. 9 (April, 1996): 32. 12
was popular in radio and television broadcasting, concerts, record album sales, and national and international performance tours. The animated Walt Disney movies of the period, Peter Pan (1953) and Sleeping Beauty (1959), each featured a Shaw-like chorus on the sound track, showing the medium’s wide appeal in the popular culture at this time. According to Philip Jeffrey Morrow, two different types of American professional choruses existed at this time: those primarily oriented toward entertainment, and those that focused on the performance of traditional choral literature, though each might present the other style to a minimal degree as well. The former included the well-known choirs of Fred Waring, Ward Swingle, and Ray Coniff, as well as the male chorus directed by Mitch Miller in his syndicated television show, Sing Along With Mitch. The latter, those choirs performing primarily traditional literature, included the Robert Shaw Chorale, the Roger Wagner Chorale, and the Gregg Smith Singers, as well as other choirs representing the different choral traditions of the period. 26 This was also the period of the American Folk Music Revival, and a concomitant expansion of scholarship on American folk hymns. Beginning with Woody Guthrie in the late 1930’s, this revival featured lyrics of harsh personal experience in the Dust Bowl era and the Great Depression with social commentary and criticism in blues- and Appalachian-influenced songs. 27 It continued with Pete Seeger in the 1940’s, and the engagement of college students and 26 Phillip Jeffrey Morrow, “The Influence of the Robert Shaw Chorale, the Roger Wagner Chorale, and the Gregg Smith Singers on the Professional Chorus in the United States,” (DMA dissertation, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1993): 28. A treatise on the different approaches to choral singing in America during the twentieth century and the choirs that represented them is found in Howard Swan, “The Development of a Choral Instrument: Schools of Choral Singing in America,” in Harold A. Decker and Julius Herford, ed., Choral Conducting: A Symposium (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1973): 8-33. 27 Martha Bayles, Hole in Our Soul: The Loss of Beauty and Meaning in American Popular Music (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1994): 210. 13
Page 1 and 2: THE COLLABORATIVE ARRANGEMENTS OF A
Page 3 and 4: ABSTRACT This document is a compreh
Page 5 and 6: DEDICATION This Document is dedicat
Page 7 and 8: CONTENTS ABSTRACT .................
Page 9 and 10: LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS Table 1:
Page 11 and 12: CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Alice Parker
Page 13 and 14: Chapter 5 discusses the legacy of t
Page 15 and 16: standard classical choral repertoir
Page 17 and 18: Biography of Robert Shaw CHAPTER 3
Page 19 and 20: Theodore Thomas Award in recognitio
Page 21: melodies and texts in the public do
Page 25 and 26: Shaw’s perspective on the legacy
Page 27 and 28: CHAPTER 4 THE NATURE OF THE PARKER-
Page 29 and 30: he did…made the difference betwee
Page 31 and 32: opposition to choral music that is
Page 33 and 34: also from the fact that with men’
Page 37 and 38: Death Shall Not Destroy 1960, Tune
Page 39 and 40: progression is found in rock ‘n
Page 42 and 43: Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier Chora
Page 44: Excerpt 3: What Shall We Do with th
Page 49 and 50: In mm. 69-81, homorhythm is broken
Page 54 and 55: Seeing Nellie Home 1954, TTBB, Tune
Page 56: Excerpt 5: I’m Goin’ to Sing 46
Page 60 and 61: #17 A preference for modality over
Page 63 and 64: Broad Is the Road 1960, Tune source
Page 65 and 66: Recorded on album: Sing to the Lord
Page 67 and 68: v.4 v.5 v.6 Phrases 3 & 4 T sings h
Page 69 and 70: destination. Dr. Ann Howard Jones,
Page 71 and 72: there is not one instance in the en
Page 73 and 74:
touches of imitation, etc. to lend
Page 75 and 76:
CHAPTER 5 LEGACY The Parker-Shaw wo
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Though theirs were not arrangements
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from gapped scales and modes, and t
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BIBLIOGRAPHY Baxter, Jeffrey W. “
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APPENDIX I PARKER-SHAW WORKS CATALO
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16) Carol of the Birds, HL50304960
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87) Darling Nellie Gray, LG969 88)
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150) I Will Arise, LG905 151) Morni
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UNRECORDED PARKER-SHAW ARRANGEMENTS
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6) Angels We Have Heard on High, Ch
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59) Fairest Lord Jesus, Choral Arr,
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108) La Tarara, Choral Arr, 1960, T
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158) Psalm 81. To God Our Strength,
Page 101:
210) What Child Is This, Choral Arr
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101
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103
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105
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107
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APPENDIX IV SUMMARIES OF DATA FROM
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11 arrangements use 3 or more diffe
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Average number of verses set in eac
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Number of arrangements using solois
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o 2 major hexatonic (no LT in each)
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APPENDIX VI COPIES OF ORIGINAL PARK
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121
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123
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125
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