I am Bob Eggers - singer, director, arranger. I sang with and directed Yale's Society of Orpheus and Bacchus. I also sang with and directed the Yale Whiffenpoofs of 1973. I also helped the Whiffs restore their legendary Songbook - nearly 100 songs now and going strong. I am in the field every day making music, composing, arranging, playing, singing, recording, restoring old recordings, publishing music, manufacturing and selling music both on the Web and in brick and mortar operations.
Well, dang if I didn't complete two new arrangements this week! I've been listening to these songs and letting them soak in for a while now, so by the time I approached them my mental sketches were quite well developed. I knew how I was going to voice or vocally orchestra large stretches of them. Sure, there were some surprises and things to work out, and there were new ideas that just popped out as I handled certain sequences. Both these songs came from an era where part singing was predominant.
Maybe I get a "bye" week, but I'll be using the time to chart out new projects for the future. Here's a peek at some sections of the pieces.
I'll Be Doggone
Marvin Gaye made a big hit with this song in 1965, his first million seller. This Smokey Robinson composition was a great platform for Gaye to wail. While it really rocks - it presents an interesting challenge to an arranger. It sits in the same harmonic place for long stretches. It makes great dance music, but you need a lot of ideas to spice up a song that begins with 8 measures of A, followed by another 8 measures of A. Here is a small section from my arrangement:
I Love You, Gypsy Woman
Earlier in the week, I finished an Impressions song by the great Curtis Mayfield. This was another tune that fairly fell into place after a lot of listening, because it lent itself so easily to a cappella. The song reached #20 on the Hit Parade in 1962 and has been covered by Carlos Santana and Jimi Hendrix, among others. It has tremendous energy propelling it from start to finish. Mayfield had given it a very vocal treatment in 1962 that helped make it easy to translate to a cappella. You'll see in this snippet, as in the previous one, the use of patter for the ensemble to avoid using too many nonsense sounds, creating more of a vocal texture.
I think both these numbers will be a lot of fun for Blue of a Kind to sing. If you'd be interested in previewing any of these arrangements for your singing group, let me know.
Many of you probably don't know what the heck I'm talking about. What is a musical or choral arrangement? Arrangements are the backbone of the a cappella world. Typically these groups "cover" songs and rarely compose new material. The songs they cover have orchestral or rock band treatments and someone has to score them for human voices. It's hard to imagine how to pull off "Stairway To Heaven" without electric guitars and drums, but choral arrangers solve problems like that. Few people really grasp the concept of "arranging", unless they've sung in an a cappella group or have played with a jazz band or small orchestra.
Bach and Handel composed choral works. They wrote out every note for every part and that's something everyone basically understands. I guess a lot of people figure that's how all music finds its genesis - that these choral treatments spring fully grown out of the hands of the composer. Or maybe they are "traditional", like hymns in the book at church. They evolved from folks just singing them and eventually writing them down. Well, these are some of the ways these works got to be, so y'all are not that far off the mark.
But when I speak about arranging music, a lot of my friends listen, raise their eyebrows and secretly wonder what I'm talking about. So I know a lot of people don't know what it is.
This is what I'm talking about
On YouTube, I found the perfect way to show you. There are singers around the globe posting videos of themselves singing all the parts of a cappella arrangements, and they call it "Multitrack Acapella" and "Barbershop Multitrack". If you see some of these videos, it makes the pieces and parts of an a cappella arrangement graphically clear. Try plugging in those as search terms into YouTube and you'll strike the mother load.
I'm working with a couple of these multi-trackers. What they are able to do is a testament to their talents, which are myriad, but also to the enabling technologies of audio recording on personal computers and the power of the Internet community. These artists work in their dorm rooms, at home and sometimes in a good bathroom (you sing in the shower, right?) to produce videos that attract hundreds of thousands, even millions of fans.
Take a look for yourself
I've worked with two wonderful artists who excel at this work. We've never met, but we've joined through the Internet to complete several projects, establishing a simple, web-based working relationship. One is Danny Fong and the other is Jean-Baptiste Craipeau.
I still need a little cleanup on the document, but this weeks work is basically finished. Would you like a peek at it? Here's page 2, where I had some fun:
You can see some of the things I mentioned in my tip sheet employed here. Chords-chords-chords, using cliches like the bell chords in mm. 17 and 18. They sound really cool and then there's a glissando in mm. 21-22. See the little counter melodies here and there? And that bass line.... Let your singers do some fun stuff.
For the past couple of months, I have set a goal for myself to arrange new pieces at a production pace. While there's no pressing need for new choral works, we are always happy to hear a song done in a new way. As I've said before, music is one of those endeavors that's got the power to effect big change and it's created out of nothing but ideas and emotion. Maybe it's the Boy Scout in me that gets a big kick out of making a bonfire out of two sticks....
Anyway, after studying this craft most of my adult life, one way or another, I'm beginning to want to take it to the next level and start selling my work. The music we're singing in Blue of a Kind is having an ever stronger impact on our audiences and the guys are telling me they're grooving on it. So, I'm thinking of the next level and I'm pretty sure the next level involves establishing a higher level of production.
Yeh, It's Work
Production is something we think about at work, or at least our managers and executives force us to think about it. After many years in the workplace, you start to get the notion ingrained that to produce you lean into your task, you take it on with a gusto and never let it loom large and intimidate you. You break big jobs down into small pieces, address things in stages to achieve your goal. The longer you're in a production environment, the more you habituate to this process.
I work at Palm now, and every product demands the utmost attention to quality and every worker owns that to a very large degree. The many pieces and parts of the things we make require planning, communication and teamwork. Complicated components have to be cranked out on a deadline and be nearly flawless.
Arranging music is not always that complicated, but let's not underestimate the difficulties. When you start from note #1 of a new song, or try to arrange your first piece, the experience is much like trying to climb Mt. Everest in flip-flops. But like every great journey, it begins with a single step and is completed literally one step at a time, just like those gargantuan projects we do at Palm.
Just One Can a Day....
Remember that Diamond Nut commercial from a few years back, "Just one can a day, that's all we ask?" For the last couple months, I've been testing myself with a high production schedule to put all my years of learning and experience to the test. Some songwriters have put themselves out there with a the "One song a day" challenge and at least one, Jonathan Coulton, has taken it to the next level in the process. While I'm not ready to publicly declare I'm arranging a song a week, I will admit that's how I'm currently working.
Besides, these things take time...
In my defense, I'm hiring out singers to lay down part-predominant Learning Tracks of my songs. Yes, I am planning to sell for real. The singers take weeks to complete their work. I really have nothing to show without giving away the store. Besides, I might want a week off!
Which brings me to my point
You can chip away at pretty much everything with the right tools and some idea about where to apply them. Like many things, the more you have it in your hands, the more your skills develop. All this work has hardened up my approach and I thought I'd develop and share a tip sheet with you, in case you're thinking about how to do this, or want a look inside some else's head who is doing the same thing you are. If you want to give me some knocks, make some comments, offer other suggestions - well maybe this will open the door for you!
My Arranging Tipsheet:
1) Listen, listen, listen
There's a lot of treatments out there of whatever song you're thinking of arranging. Make sure you're familiar with as many treatments as possible. Listen to these and let your mind wander. Let some ideas develop and make sketches of sections of the song to lay down these ideas. Spend time getting these right. Sing each part and consider how it will work in the mouthes of men and women. Some of these pieces will become building blocks of your big idea and if they're shaky, you'll spend a lot of time fixing things later in the project. Sometimes a single idea will form the entire basis of your arrangement.
2) Develop an idea and a plan
a) Why are you thinking of singing this song before audiences? What are you hoping to impart? Is it joy, sorrow, laughter, inspiration? Figure out what is the point and let it permeate your thinking as you develop your plan. If you don't know the point of it all, chances are your arrangement won't strike a chord with your audience.
b) Structure, structure, structure
Arrangements are constructs built of members, smaller parts, sequences and musical figures. Continue to make or develop your sketches as your ideas evolve. Every song has a beginning, middle and end. The end has to evoke something - the thing you're going for. How are you going to get there and will you actually arrive? Will there be a magical moment? You build it to it, piece by piece. Make the pieces hang together and develop your idea. You don't have to do all 17 verses of a song to achieve your effect.
3) Stay within the lines.
a) Like orchestral instruments, singers have their limits. Working with music software, it's possible to make a violin play notes it's just not possible for a violinist to play. It's the same with the human voice. Watch out that your great ideas don't have the first tenors singing high C's and C#'s because it sounds really cool on your synth. Few tenors can do anything up there. Basses sound amazing on a low D, but don't make them sing too many of them or they'll lose their voices. Singers need to move through their ranges or they tighten up. Try to avoid keeping any voice in the pessagio for too long. Know where these limits are for each voice.
b) Repetitive figures and variation are something you should pay attention to. Singers hang their hats on repetitive figures. They want to learn a rhythmic pattern and apply it over and over. If you vary it every time they'll struggle to master the piece. The same is true for melodic figures. But pattern changes (variations) are what add interest to a piece. Use variation to enhance the desired emotional effect, so use it always and use it tactically. Then your singers will hang their hat on both the repetitions and the variations that evoke your emotional goal.
4) Go outside the lines
Great arrangements go to extremes, one way or another. Spend some time trying things you have not tried before. Study other arrangements and see what cliches you might be able to incorporate into your work to expand your expressive power. Once you try something new, it becomes a new trick in your book.
5) Chords, chords, chords
a) Make beautiful chords and be very concerned about developing rich, colorful harmonics. Experiment adding or shifting the chord colors in your musical sketches and see what effects these have on you. Rich chords will move audiences very deeply.
b) Be a minimalist. You don't always need 9 notes in a chord to evoke the color you want. Typically, you have 4 instruments or voices to work with. If you divide your forces, do so to a purpose.
6) Lead your voice lines
Singers sing vocal lines that are "led" well better than jumpy lines where they have to plug holes in your chords. Pay attention to the line that each voice sings. Make adaptations to the lines to lead them better through your beautiful chords. Ultimately, your chords-chords-chords become woven melodies.
7) Counter melodies
In your listening, pay attention to the counter melodies and echoed melodies. You'll hear them in the backing band or orchestra and sometimes among the backing vocalists. Weave these kind of delicious elements among your chords. Liberate voices from the job of occupying a note in a chord and let them sing these small melodic figures.
8) Where the basses go, so goes the world
The bottom is the foundation. Make it the most interesting and dynamic voice line you possibly can. It's amazing how little your audiences remember about the bass line, despite the profound effect it has on them. Why? It's the root of the emotional part of their experience. Their intellectual attention is on the melody and the lyrics. But if you want to grab them at their core and make them laugh, cry and scream - develop the coolest bass lines you can!
Thanks for reading
Before I sign off, I'm copying here a list of songs I've completed since the first week of November, 2009. They're all TTBB a cappella with the exception of Botch-A-Me which is SATB with piano accompaniment.
Unchain My Heart
Hit the Road, Jack
Wild Ox Moan
I Can't Go Home
People Get Ready
Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye
Save the Last Dance For Me
Talking About My Baby
That's the Way Love Is
Baby I Need Your Loving
Botch-A-Me
Blue Bayou
Love Hurts
Let me know if your group might be interested in previewing one of these.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
The Mayor's Emergency Fund Telethon
Let me tell you a story about the Mayor's Emergency Fund Telethon in Melrose, MA. Blue of a Kind were invited to repeat our appearance which was quite successful last year. In 2008, we sang a holiday song and a blues number, and we met the incoming pledges dollar-for-dollar while we sang. Well, a telethon is a wild and woolly thing so every dollar was matched. Why shouldn't that be that case?
This year, we decided to put up 50 of the "To the Sky" CDs as a challenge and give them away to the first 50 callers who pledged $50 or more. We knew that the offer would be taken and matched either during our singing, or soon thereafter.
What is it like being Super Stars?
The local cable station was a little reluctant to go with the offer. They thought we might not push out all 50, or we might cheapen the value of our brand. But I figured we'd raise $2500 for families in need in all of about 5 minutes if they'd go with it. So we stood our ground. It was a 50-50-50 deal - 50 CDs for the first 50 folks to pledge $50.
We sang our first song - "O Come All Ye Faithful" and it was warm and lovely, powerful and rich. The guys were in good form and terribly psyched about raising serious money with our 50-50-50 deal. After the 1st song, the MC announced there had been a single pledge against our offer. Oops...
Cut to commercial...
The station cut to some pre-recorded material. After a minute and a half, we were live again, and apparently the phones had been ringing. Real time is sometimes a bit slow... folks have to rise from chairs, relieve themselves, collect the phone, dial, talk... The Mayor was all excited about the "TOTE" board and directed us to the video screen for the current total cash raised. Well, a couple of grand had come in in about 3 minutes. Wow!
They held us on stage to sing a few more songs. We sang a Hunnukah number, "Hanerot Hallalu" to reach out to our Jewish neighbors and friends. It was equally warm and lovely, and the "TOTE" numbers continued to soar. We nailed a blues number just to add to the joy of the season, "The Tears Came Rollin' Down" and the pledges kept coming in.
They held us longer, introduced guests to stand in front of us, asked us for an encore. The dollars continued to pour in.
What is it really like to be Super Stars?
Yes, I ask the question again. My blue guys know what it's like - they got to be Super Stars tonight. You don't get to do this without sticking your necks out, putting in lots of hard work and having Faith. I had hoped to raise $2500 for the cause in a few minutes of singing. It turns out in all of about 8 minutes, we raised nearly double that. Lots of hard work to create music and fun turned into some powerful relief for families who desperately need some help. My guys know what it's like to be Super Stars. Blue of a Kind were champions tonight.
What a weekend! Don Gooding's presentation on the history of college a cappella was a perfect way to begin the weekend. He traced the explosion of college a cappella, which grew slowly and steadily its first 70 years with Yale singing serving as the birthplace and pantheon. The slow burn has turned into something of a wildfire the last 20--30 years, as the seeds were planted by Yalies and children of Yalies across the country. In 1919 there were 3 collegiate a cappella groups while today there are in excess of 1700! Most of that growth has taken place since the 1980's.
The Marathon Concert
The Woolsey hall concert saw group after group perform into the wee hours. In some ways it seemed not entirely fair to the 2009 and 2010 Whiffenpoof groups to be left to cap the show when many of the audience had not enough stamina to stay past midnight. But the parade of groups was amazing - guys stood up with their brothers and delivered their best all night long.
Record Turnout
Of the 800 or so living Whiffenpoofs, somewhere around 600 attended the weekend. Everyone was on hand for the Saturday dinner, ceremonial awards, singing and merry making. I was honored for the work preserving the almighty songbook and was publicly reminded there are only 534 more songs to engrave. I guess I have a ways to go for the Yale Medal or even the Whiffenpoof Cup. Truly it was an immense honor. A special quartet was composed for the occasion with a verse about Charlie Buck and Bob Birge and me - the songbook team. I still want that medal - I figure with something like that a fellow could wear it under his shirt. Then, if and when Mory's reopens, a fellow could open his shirt and get a free drink or two for himself and his buddies. Seems like a reasonable plan, doesn't it?
As the dinner proceeded, conductor emeritus, Sgt. Burke led us in song, but apparently there was not enough public singing. Guys stood on chairs and directed songs with their comrades, songs that swept over the hall like firestorms. Groups formed and serenaded others. Speeches were made and there was much that had to be said, but heck, why don't we just sing some more???
Meeting "The Man"
As the dinner wound down, I walked to the other end of the Commons in search of Lewis Girdler, class of 1961, who is one of the most important musical forces in Whiffdom, and in collegiate a cappella. I've mentioned him before in this blog talking about engraving music from his Bakers Dozen days as well as his seminal influence on a cappella singing. This man changed the sound and direction of this style of music in his 4 years at Yale and probably contributed to the aforementioned explosion of collegiate a cappella singing more than any other individual. His ability to architect an arrangement is legendary, but he is also known for innovation. He may be the father of vocal instrumentation so prevalent in today's a cappella since he invented the "faux string bass" that changed the character of a cappella forever. It was an idea that was "in the air" - groups were toying with some way to create an instrumented sound to express the jazzy music they loved, but it was Lew that pushed it past the tipping point and changed the sound in a way akin to dropping a lit match on gasoline.
Lewis and I have written emails over the past couple of years, exchanged CDs and such, but we had never met. I found the tables where the '60's folks were dining and began asking if anyone knew where Lewis Girdler was. Why yes, he's right here! Suddenly I was shaking his hand and looking him in the eye. I even met his lovely wife and daughter. We talked briefly and I probably blathered what a great fan I am, but at least we connected.
Lewis has arranged two new songs for the Whiffenpoofs in the past year and he's going to send them to me for engraving. Hmmm, I guess that makes it 536 songs and counting.... Clearly my work will never end as long as my eyesight holds up. But I look forward to seeing these pieces.
Here's a YouTube taste of what it was like that night in the cavernous Freshman Commons, singing the Whiffenpoof Song to conclude the festivities:
"Too Young To Say Goodbye"
On other fronts: we truly launched Jeff Klitz's stunning "Too Young To Say Goodbye". I can't say enough about this lovely composition that has a power over any old Whiff to evoke the magic bond we all share with our fellow songsters. One thing I would like to point out about this lovely arrangement - it is as harmonically rich as anything in the repertoire - plenty of color in the chords and as lovely as any of the best arrangements in our book. But there is not a single voice split. I discussed this with my '73 classmates at some length. Klitz stuck to the close harmony of our core tradition and made a song that was melodic, modern and colorful, yet completely rooted in plain old 4 part harmonizing. It's a song that's purely 21st Century, but one that is singable and will remain a joy to sing with one's buddies when coming together for reunions.
"I'll Be Seeing You"
Another stunning arrangement was introduced to everyone was one of the arrangements that stunned me when I was engraving song after song over the last two years. I wrote to Chuck Buck at the time, saying how I liked this particular piece and he replied, "Yeh, I thought you'd like that one". It's Chris Beck's, "I'll Be Seeing You". Again, this is a piece of great emotional power due in no small part to the wonderfully intense color of the chords. Here again is a piece that succeeds because the arranger is crafty enough to evoke a full color spectrum with four voices. Chris and Jeff know they don't have to spell out an entire jazz chord, splitting their voices into 6, 7 or 8 parts. One arrangement in the Whiff book actually has 9 parts divided up among 14 men. This thins the sound and without the best acoustical setting produces a muddy effect that audiences don't really appreciate, particularly in a room like Woolsey Hall. And when such songs are sung badly, they are absolutely horrid. Beck achieved a masterstroke in this arrangement. Yes, he does split the Tenor 2's in 2 measures, to great effect. These create brief , irresistible explosions applied at the very peak of the song's emotional climax.
Another striking thing about both these arrangements is they get it done in just 2 or 3 pages. In a matter of a couple of minutes, these songs introduce themselves to the audience, ingratiate themselves with a wonderful, colorful close harmony, achieve an unspeakable emotional peak and leave one feeling changed and refreshed. Some a cappella arrangements take dozens of pages to achieve anything at all and oftentimes, they never achieve anything beyond reproducing a cover of a song the singers happen to love. Many times, the audience has to devote a great deal of attention to songs they may not even know, often wondering whether they left the oven on back home. We have to remember we sing for the audience, not for ourselves. Like a team of Navy Seals, we have to insert ourselves into an alien environment, do surgical/emotional damage and get the heck out. It's why the SOBs are good - they care more about your arrest record than your vocal range!
The Return of the King
Back in 1972, my band of songsters were a rowdy lot. We defied tradition, we turned down a White House invitation, and we deposed our pitchpipe. Yes, we took a straw poll and informed him he had a vote of no confidence and asked him to step down. Why he didn't quit, I'll never know, but the man had more guts than most men you'll ever meet. He was quite well suited to the task and actually did a lot of great work with us. But like I say, we were a bunch of renegades. There were a lot of forces at work in our College and in the wider world - pressures for change and relevancy - pressures to reinvent the old-fashioned bastions of Yale and male a cappella singing. Jeff represented something of the old school and several of us hungered to create the new school. So we deposed him. When we were young and stupid we were young and stupid....
Had Jeff not had the aforementioned character and fortitude, our group would certainly have imploded. Despite our rash action, Jeff sang well with us all year and saved our group. But he has felt alienated from us ever since and has not attended reunions. The power vacuum allowed me to enjoy the prestige of becoming pitchpipe these last 10 years, once I began attending regularly myself. It was a job I loved, and after regaining practice with Blue of a Kind, I felt I brought some great experience to bear.
We've always tried to engage Jeff to "reune" with us. We missed his jolly companionship as much as his lovely voice. I'd spoken with him on several occasions in the past, even tried to round him up physically 10 years ago, but he always said he would never return.
Something softened in him for this 100th celebration and he let me and a few others know he was planning to attend. But he was very concerned how the guys would accept him. He totally deferred to me as the working pitchpipe of our group, but I suggested he take the job back. In truth, I really did not want to give up the glory and the fun. I really did not insist on driving this course of action until I spoke with our legendary Irish tenor, and Nadir, Jerry Kelley. I called Jerry simply to see if he would attend the big shindig. Jerry told me he was not healthy enough to make the trip to New Haven and he's actually outlived his doctor's prediction by 10 years at this point. So now I'm talking to a dying man and one of his wishes, he tells me, is to get Jeff back in the pitchpipe position. It took me a few days stewing on that conversation before I could put my ego aside and decide to insist Jeff retake the position of musical director of our band of songsters.
I wrote Jeff and told him he had to do it. When he balked at this, I wrote emails to several key players and asked them to accept Jeff back as pitchpipe. I actually told them, "you're good with this, right?" - and to a man they all said yes. This is a good bunch of guys, even if they were once such rebels. Encouraged, Jeff wrote to each guy and engaged discussion on his own. The process was a great healing as he reconnected with all his brothers. It took a couple months, but Jeff became convinced it would work. I began yielding the responsibility and the authority to him.
The Big Show
Jeff decided to sing 2 classic Dick Gregory arrangements - these suited our double quartet and highlighted some of our best solo talent. Popeye Seligman has a lovely tenor voice that had never been featured at one of these events, and Jeff wanted to right that wrong. I backed Jeff up with sheet music and MIDI files for the guys in the weeks ahead. Last Friday, they showed up ready to play. Jeff walked in with a solid rehearsal plan and things came together right from the start.
At the Big Show, the "Parade of Whiff Groups", we were lined up to sing after a rather spectacular group. They ended their set to screams and standing ovations with the unforgettable "Midnight Train To Georgia". My heart was in my throat as we marched onstage. It was the quintessential "tough act to follow". I could just smell "train wreck". Scarlet Ribbons has a delicate character, and a case of group nerves can just kill it. You die in the intro, and it can begin a cascade effect that permeates the whole performance. Your ego flags, and you might not recover for the next song. As we took our positions, I could just about taste it.
But Jeff took it in stride with great aplomb, introduced our set with a charming hook to reengage the audience, and once my voice showed up halfway through the first measure, I knew we were locked and loaded for success. Popeye strutted his best stuff on the solo and it was smooth and warm. The ensemble never hiccuped. We had a well oiled machine and didn't sound like a bunch of geezers without enough air. Then we strutted out the now retired chestnut, Maggie Blues and ended with a bit of a bang. Solid, solid and fun.
SOBs in the Mix
Several SOBs made substantial contributions to the success of this celebration. I'm proud that this otherwise nefarious Yale group is also a magnet for men of character, fortitude and the willingness to knuckle down and contribute time, hard work and expertise to honor, preserve and celebrate this tradition we all love. Many of us love to stand on the stage and sing, make a beautiful noise, hear the applause and be rock stars. This alone has tremendous merit and benefits the whole world, just because we're brave enough to make merry in a world that is nearly always gone completely mad. But several other SOBs were among the Centennial Awards and I feel I should mention them as well. Barry McMurtrey, '89 did most of the reunion planning and logistics. He organized a library exhibit of Whiff memorabilia that was beyond amazing. Yale Sterling Library now has a fabulous exhibition of Whiffenpoof history because of Barry. That is only the tip of what he did. Anything that happened this past weekend would not have happened had it not been for Barry. Make that the whole Centennial Year!
Lisle Leete, '81, as I mentioned before, produced a set of part-predominant practice CDs for Whiffs of all ages, so they can easily learn all the "Common Songs" we'll henceforth be able to sing whenever we come together. I mentioned the story of this amazing project in my last blog entry, and an article is being discussed now for the Yale Alumni Magazine. I will continue to push Lisle to write something for one of the prominent recording trade journals.
What guys like these do for the benefit of the SOBs as well as the Whiffenpoofs is immeasurable. They set a model of service that should be passed on for the next hundred years.
Three Years From Now
We get to do it again. We have big plans. We have recovered another lamb. We have a few other lost lambs to gather back into the fold. We're thinking of introducing a new, original arrangement to add some sparkle. In the meantime, we're discussing a plan to visit Jerry Kelley to sing with him again, if he'll have us. We're bothers. We'll always be brothers. It's something about the magic of the singing.
Finally, the big day comes. The final 100th anniversary concert looms large now on the horizon. How many men will attend? OMG, the attendance should be staggering. Men, wives, kids, girlfriends, friends, musicians, lovers of song.... The call has gone out. The Friday night concert is going to be the biggest audience I've ever sung for - Woolsey hall will be be packed to the gills! That's a couple thousand or more! Group after group will perform from through the years. At some point during the weekend, the full assembly of Whiffenpoof alumnae will regale the attendees with 15 or so songs - a chorus numbering maybe a couple hundred amazing voices!
The Big Unveiling
The 100th songbook is totally virtual and will be unveiled at this time. The 15 or so "Common Songs" from this book, the Songs of Yale and a few others classics will be "taught" to the surviving members over the next few weeks by a project whose scope is amazing and I want to talk about it. It's a story of an Internet project and a collaboration on a scale that boggles the mind. If it comes in on time, several hundred guys will be singing a bunch of new and old material together - guys from the last 50+ years of the Whiffenpoofs who have never sung together - all singing some songs they know and some songs they have never sung before.
I will touch on this process, but I suspect there will be other articles written describing it in more detail.
The Virtual Songbook
The 100 songs of the Virtual Songbook are at the core of the work. The project to produce this book spans a couple years with 4-5 men working to engrave 100 songs forming the top 100 songs of the group. There are many more songs that need remembering, but these 100 were chosen as the most momentous and representative of the group's history. Now that we're virtual, they are just the first 100 in the Virtual Songbook.
Then a few other songs are added from the Songs of Yale, from Marshall Bartholomew's other published work, and a song composed expressly for this anniversary.
The Big Collaboration - singing with the big boys from the last 50 years
The output from Finale was used to generate MIDI files that were sent to recording engineer wizard, Lisle Leete who was a Whiffenpoof in 1981 (and also an SOB, like me). He took these raw tracks, massaged tempi and fermati to make a pleasing and less mechanical performance, mapped the voices to pleasant instruments, and added a click track. These files were output to MP3 format as guide files for singers. Then, Whiffenpoofs of all ages were enlisted to take these guide files, sing along with them on home recording systems and produce WAV files using whatever recording software they had at hand, usually free software like Audacity.
The guys posted these individual track recordings, where they sounded a little like lost souls singing in a subway station, to a web site and the recording engineer collected them. He performed enhancements on the tracks - pitch correction, adding body, extending notes to eliminate ugly breaths, and made audio files of a virtual Whiffenpoof quartet/quintet/sextet that actually sounds like something. From there, he made what are called "part-predominant" tracks so each guy can listen to his part a little bit louder than the others, and learn the correct notes with the correct lyrics and a reasonably good tempo.
All this was done in a matter of months, and all by people who probably have never met one another. And now, hopefully they all will!
The Big Concert
When is the concert? Friday, October 2. New Haven, CT. Woolsey Hall. 7:30 pm or 8 pm or whenever they get it going on. It's going to roll on and on, so people will be allowed to come and go like some hippy festival.
Over the last year and a half, a small team of us has been assembling a songbook representing a selection of the most cherished 100 songs of the 100 year history of the Yale Whiffenpoofs. A couple of years ago, I had a wealth of experience typesetting songs for Blue of a Kind using Passport Encore, and I submitted some samples to audition for the job.
The Whiffenpoof Alumni Board told me they were making a hardcover edition for the Centenary celebration, which is in full swing at this moment. They also asked me how much remuneration I would require, suggesting that "none" would be the right answer. They would buy the Finale software I needed, and I hunted down a discount price. Due to the educational and historical significance of the project, I only had to submit a letter describing the project to gain the hefty discount. Sweet!
Then, I had to transfer my skills to Finale, whose typesetting paradigm was completely different from what I knew. The initial learning curve was quite steep, and working with other engravers using a rigid style sheet also added to the startup time.
This week we finished our 100 songs, typeset, proofed, edited, proofed again, edited again and etc. At times during the course of the project, an earlier manuscript was uncovered so some songs were completely redone. Every song was also proofed audibly to make sure our eyes were not fooling us.
And now the Songbook goes virtual
The Board has decided now to produce only a virtual songbook - there will not be any hardcover edition. Apparently the cost of the publishing made some Board members blanch. Throwing all the files on a web site will save a fortune.
I am not going linger over my disappointment, but let me say briefly that while a virtual songbook where members can access both sheet music and digital audio is itself a worthy project, it commemorates nothing. It has no historical moment. Members showing up for the big anniversary concert in October will get a username and a password. Nothing will "thud" on the coffee table when they return home.
Recently, I asked for statistics on the project, crunched the spreadsheet and found out how much work I'd done. I had a rough idea, but truly the project has been pretty much a blur.
The results? I engraved 88 songs, for a total of 423 pages. This may be the greatest reward of the project - knowing that we tackled something seemingly insurmountable, paced ourselves appropriately to achieve both quality and quantity and finished on time! We did it because we love this stuff, but also because of the goal to make something commemorative of the 100th.
To my family and friends who gave me the space to make something significant for the Centennial, I owe an enormous debt. Once the web site is up, I'll log in and show you what we did. ;-)
I direct and sing with a men's a cappella ensemble, Blue of a Kind. We sing a lot of original arrangements, enjoy the challenges of performing, marketing ourselves, recording and generally creating an oasis of fun out of a lot of hard work. Working with this group and my college groups from Yale, the Whiffenpoofs and Society of Orpheus and Bacchus, I do a great deal of typesetting, music digitization, preservation and restoration as well as my own arranging. It has connected me with singers and arrangers from many generations, as well as with my old school chums.
I also work in close association with a top studio engineer and musician. We have collaborated on several studio and audio restoration projects.
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