Choral Cacophony Podcast

Whaaaat? This week’s Choral Cacophony Podcast features a warmup you can do to help with Octave jumps AND relaxed open tones. The secret?? Looking down. Yes. Literally. Looking down. Looking UP to reach a high note - straining for a note - can close off your air flow and tense up your muscles unnecessarily. So, look down when you reach up for that note. Try it, it works. About The Stairwell Carollers: Pierre Massie started our a cappella choir 40 years ago, in 1977, while a student of music...

How high can you go? And can you hold that note? Does dissonance pull you away from your part? Stay with your section and stay in tune! Those are the two skills practiced in this week’s Choral Cacophony Podcast. As an alto I know all about having to hold one note… for…ever. I’ve called us the Polyfilla of the choir since we always seem to fill the cracks missed by the other harmonies. In Modern and Contemporary music the dissonances in the musical design can be challenging - to say the...

We’re all on hold waiting and wanting the spring flowers to appear. Our new singing season starts and it’s a whole new ballgame - 40th, contemporary, Canadian! Personally, I can’t wait to see the first flowers pop up through the snow. It’s early innings in our rehearsals and there are still songs to learn and skills to hone. So, for our Choral Cacophony Podcast Season 2 Number 8, here’s a fresh warmup that covers all the bases. The Stairwell Carollers: Pierre Massie began our a cappella...

As a singer, in a chorus especially, we have to shape our vowels correctly (and the way the director prefers!) But, how do we do that? Like most skill development, it takes practice and guidance. Practice making the sound, shaping the mouth, and - where does that darn pesky tongue go? Hint - The tongue should lay in the mouth, as if ready for a yawn, touching the back of the teeth. If you are lucky, you have a master music teacher on a mission leading your chorus. This weeks Choral...

In this weeks Choral Cacophony Podcast episode (Second of two parts) we work on a piece called Resonet in laudibus. It’s a latin Sacred composition from the 14th century, transcribed by our director, Pierre Massie. About The Stairwell Carollers: Pierre Massie began our a cappella choir way back in 1977 while studying music at Ottawa U. The Stairwell Carollers are ranked with the best of Ontario choirs, winning both the 2010 and 2013 Ontario Music Festival Association competitions. A...

In this weeks Choral Cacophony Podcast episode (the first of two parts) we rehearse a piece called Resonet in laudibus. It’s a latin sacred composition from the 14th century, transcribed by our director, Pierre Massie. Please DONATE to support our 40th year events! All Donations receive a charitable receipt. A registered Canadian charity, we also help local charities with our concerts and CDs ! The Stairwell Carollers: Pierre Massie started our a cappella choir in 1977 while he was a music...

Here is the conclusion of a Two Part Choral Cacophony Podcast for lovers of English madrigals from the Renaissance. Part 2 continues with Fine Knacks for Ladies, by John Dowland. This podcast highlights Pierre’s sense of humour in rehearsal, a question from Holly, pronunciation of key words and an answer from Maggie. Fine Knacks For Ladies - John Dowland Fine knacks for ladies, cheap, choice, brave and new, Good pennyworths but money cannot move, I keep a fair but for the fair to view, A...

If you love Renaissance madrigals, we have a Two Part CC Podcast for you. Starting this week with Part 1, Fine Knacks for Ladies, an English madrigal from the Renaissance will be dissected and refined. This week, specific pronunciation (to overcome singer’s individual accents) is reinforced through our favourite method - practise, practise, practise. Our director decided long ago to be true to each song’s roots. That’s why we work with experts on language pronunciation for all our songs -...

*If you live in the Ottawa region and love The Stairwell Carollers – and would love to sing in our choir - email us to set up your audition NOW. *This podcast episode shows a typical rehearsal and illustrates how deftly Pierre our director leads us to perform such a subtle and wondrous piece as Contre Qui Rose. **To set up your audition time in the last week of January 2018, email info(at)stairwellcarollers.com ** Please DONATE to support our 40th year events ! All Donations receive a...

This weeks Choral Cacophony Podcast is a wee lecture from our director Pierre on “getting away from the book”. Besides the fact that The Stairwell Carollers are known for connecting with the audience in a way that many choirs don’t - we sing to the audience, rather than at them, knowing your music by heart is a great strategy to improve performance and musicality in general. ">Here is the first page of the sheet music for El Grillo - a fun 15th century Italian madrigal which celebrates the...

Director, Pierre, warms up the choir with a simple arpeggios then starts some Movable Do work. Your task is to figure out what your part is. Along the way there are some hints! Use this episode to warm up your voice and test your listening skills. Then, guest conductor, Mark Sirett takes over with a direction to bring less sound neutrality with changes in lip position. He also discusses the tendency to slide from Re to Do and the significance of the movable Do hand signs. Book Mark Sirett...

As Pierre always says, vocal strength, power, quality and control is in the diaphragm, not the throat, lungs, vocal chords or some mysterious chest muscles. In this simple exercise, Pierre leads the choir to focus on diaphragm control to release notes gently yet powerfully. To sing like angels A concert not to be missed! Come hear the Stairwell Carollers sing “A Canadian Christmas” at Knox Presbyterian Church, 120 Lisgar Street, 7:30pm on December 15th. The Stairwell Carollers will present a...

En El Portal de Belen is a lively and fun Puerto Rican Christmas carol that we have enjoyed singing for a couple of years now. We couldn’t have done it so well without a lot of help with the pronunciation. In this episode, you can hear Josée (alto) coaching us. More about why she is our resident Spanish expert in a later blog post. I couldn’t include this without considering all the trouble the people of Puerto Rico have had in the past weeks with the devastation caused by Hurricane Maria....

In this episode, Pierre leads us in an open humming exercise. I know, your mouth is closed when you hum so - open?? Wait for it - all will be explained. He asks us to yawn, then close our lips and hum - while keeping the open space in the throat that the yawn creates. Got it? Go! _ *PleaseDONATE to support our 40th year events ! *_ All Donations receive a charitable receipt. About The Stairwell Carollers: * * Pierre Massie began our a cappella choir in 1977 while a music student at Ottawa...

Pierre has written a brand new arrangement of one of the most popular carols on the planet. Carol of the Bells has always been a most requested Christmas carol at our concerts and our director/composer wanted to bring a fresh modern ring to this old Belle. In this episode of our Podcast, Pierre demonstrates the attention to detail all of our song rehearsals require to get that spot on timing and tuning of the chorus. You can use this one next time you meditate… on what to get everyone for...

Back on October 14th, we were fortunate to have an amazing workshop with master teacher, choral director and composer, Mark Sirett. There were so many wonderful exercises he did with us that simply do not translate to written description or even audio clips; the only way to really appreciate the depth of the choral experience is to book a workshop with the man himself . Here, I will attempt to give you a taste of just one moment of the 4 hours he gave to us. This little audio excerpt...

To celebrate the Stairwell Carollers’ 40th anniversary, director Pierre Massie has created a special Christmas program, featuring a wide variety of Canadian composers from across Canada and across different time periods, including himself. In this blog post, he shares a few thoughts about three of his own compositions. “To honour our 40th anniversary, and also Canada’s 150th anniversary, I wanted to write a special Christmas carol. It is a bilingual carol called, “A Baby is Born / L’Enfant...

For some reason, we always call this warmup the “Julie Andrews” one. Despite searching, I haven’t found an actual connection between her and this exercise. That doesn’t mean there isn’t one – in my mind— Imagining Ms. Andrews doing this warmup seems to encourage me, at least, to help my pronunciation be a bit more British- ey and crisp. Whatever, it has a good result and is a nice variation on a scale warmup. The words: * _I just want to sing today_* * _And sing correctly all the way_* *...

This week’s warm-up seems a lot like whitewater rafting - an out of control ride, moving forward. In reality, rafting is about letting go and having control (so you don’t lose it, tip or fall in.) So, to our warm up. I’ve included the start of the first song, Patapan - a popular french carol about the little drummer boy, to show how the warmup is related to the performance of the song. This is a new arrangement by Pierre, performed for the first time last Christmas season. Watch for it on...

For everyone who is enjoying our podcasts, please be patient as our provider goes through some housecleaning. This may mean some delays in downloads but I am sure it will settle out soon. I have for you an early Christmas treat ! We all love the Xmas favourite “Do you Hear What I Hear?” so our director Pierre decided to do an arrangement for the choir. I thinks it’s fantastic and really conveys the feeling and sweetness of the original song. What do you think? PS Last year’s concert...