CHORantine

Sonny Til 1970 solo LPs on the Clown Records label. Sonny Til and the Orioles into the 2000s and a new musical about The Orioles and Deborah Chessler premieres in Portland in 2015.

Sonny Til and the Orioles post-Deborah Chessler. Doo-wop's influence into the 1960's.

Today's Links:

Deborah Chessler's role in The Orioles's success through unconventional songwriting technique and bold management in the 1940s-50s.

Heard On Today's Epsiode:

The Orioles sing "It's Too Soon To Know"

It's summertime and ecp dives into 1940s-1950s Doo-Wop music, specifically "The Orioles." Also, ecp addresses the lack of podcast name change post public health emergency.

Today's Music:

Vaccinations are flying and so are the pandemic parodies. Shannon Rose McAuliffe and David Kravitz return with another "Shay-D Pasquinades" take on "Seasons of Love" from Rent. 

Like everyone else, ecp spends a little time on the year anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic, reluctantly. Back to work, sort of. Excited and optimistic but aware of the perpetual danger and doom. A little time on ecp's own walk with the virus in early February. Curious about when and how people move out of Zoom and into real life. And unbelievable singing by Patti LaBelle. That's what's happening, baby. 

Music Heard Today

ecp sings traditional spiritual "Woke Up This Morning" as part of a celebration of the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at Colby College. For the full service: 

In memory of Joanne Rogers (1929-2021), concert pianist, recording artist, arts advocate, and occasional TV guest musician. 

ecp reads some good news about a Ratatouille-inspired TikTok musical that's getting a ton of press! And raising money for a great cause. 

Musical Selections and Stories: 

ecp reads poems from Frank Lebby Stanton, Georgia's first Poet Laureate, and shares musical settings of his poetry by Amy Beach. 

ECP salivates over sweet, sweet Georgia delicacies. And some Georgia based songs. 

Featured: 

Georgia On My Mind: Fortissimo, Dilworth School's men's ensemble (Auckland, New Zealand)

This week on CHORantine we take a glance at pop culture's response to content creation and open up the phones for YOUR ideas and know-how. Just because America is on pause doesn't mean we have to be, necessarily. 

ECP spins allegorical about devastating news heard about the state of choral singing this week. Not that anyone needs another opinion about this, but, if you like great British triphop and garden talk...

Continued bad news about the state of the choral art in COVIDtimes. Elaine Stritch's performance of Stephen Sondheim's "I'm Still Here" from the White House in 2010 gives us a history lesson, and maybe some hope, that we're going to make it. Both the song and the performance inspires some takeaways. Riiiiise! Riiiiiise! RIIIIIIIIIISE!

For the video: 

Tips about isolation and Gregorian chant by Benedictine nuns in France and Poor Clare nuns in Minnesota. Featuring the Gregorian chant "Ubi caritas."

Simplicity and complexity: Robert Frost and Randall Thompson – Frostiana

Heard on the episode: 

Vermont 

When is love real and when is it not? Is love alone in our mind still love? Petrarch's Canzoniere in music, with settings by Marenzio and Liszt. 

Selections: 

Song of Solomon and Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672)

Selections:

Anima mea liquefacta est / Adiuro vos, Filiae Hierusalem, SWV 263-264/Musicalische Compagney/Schütz: Lamenti et concerti by Musicalische Compagney

Springtime sacred holidays and musical culture in the age of social distancing. ECP partook in a state-approved recording session for virtual church last weekend – here is a week's worth of thoughts and recordings from those sessions. 

Selections heard in this episode: 

Carlo Gesualdo - O vos omnes, recorded by Festina Cantorum, Daniel Gostin, conductor, Shannon Rose McAuliffe, co-artistic director 

From the Free Music Archive:

This week, ECP explores doctors + musicians in celebration of International Doctor's Day. Today we feature Dr. Assad Meymandi of UNC Chapel Hill, North Carolina – a celebrated physician, author, and philanthropist. While not a performing musician, per say, Dr. Meymandi's writings on music and medicine, as well as his prolific generosity over the course of his lifetime, are unparalleled in American culture today. 

Grant that I may do with diligence
what it is proper for me to do,
wherever your command
leads me in my position!
Grant that I may soon do it
at the time when I should do it;
and when I do it, then grant
that it may turn out well!

Chorale from BWv 45 by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Today is the first episode of CHORantine's Friend Feature Friday! On today's episode:

(6:14) Jay Mobley: Isolation – Wer hat dich (J.S. Bach) , performed and produced by Jay Mobley

ECP gets a little carried away with the Shakespeare Generator. Today's selections are all set to the text of William Shakespeare's Sonnet 98, "From you have I been absent in the spring." These selections are not in the podcast itself (copyright) but can be found at our companion playlist on Spotify @chorantine. Or, at your favourite music distributor. Kirke Meecham's "Five Centuries of Spring" performed by Los Angles Chamber Singers, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedeso's "28 Shakespeare Sonnets, Op. 125," performed by Salvatore Champagne and Howard Lubin, and David Myska's "Four Songs on William Shakespeare" performed by Anita Krause and Thomas Wiebe.