December 2nd, 2011
Cowboy Christmas in the News!
Did you see the article in the Toronto Star today about the Cowboy Christmas concert? Trish Crawford talked to Howard Cable about his love of Cowboy Culture, his visit to the ranch that inspired the music, and TCS even gets a shoutout!
Howard gets into the cowboy spirit
After a lifetime of composing music based on folk tunes from the Maritimes, Quebec and Ontario, the Toronto native was commissioned by Alberta rancher Ralph Thrall Jr. to write music inspired by western artist Charles Russell’s work. Although Cable had written for the CBC since 1941 and had long associations with the National Film Board of Canada and the Canadian Brass, he didn’t know much about the West, he admitted in an interview Wednesday.
Thrall insisted Cable visit his 55,000-acre ranch where the musician’s eyes were open to the beauty of the vast prairies, the immense blue sky above and the hulking Rockies on the horizon.
“It is so inspiring,” he says. These images formed the inspiration for Cable’s series of western compositions which will performed by the Scarborough Philharmonic Orchestra Dec. 3 at Birchmount Park Collegiate Institute.
Titled “Cowboy Christmas,” the concert also includes traditional favourites, says Cable, and will feature The Toronto Choral Society, under Geoffrey Butler’s direction.
Read the full article here and bring your cowboy spirit to the concert tomorrow!
December 1st, 2011
An Eastern European Christmas Sing-Along!
Hey choristers, check out this awesome video! Follow along on the score of ”A Crown of Roses” in this stunning rendition of the song we get to perform on December 14!
November 27th, 2011
Singing Study Tips
Learning music can be a challenge, and some pieces of music are much harder than others. Back when I was new to TCS, we did a concert that totally threw me. For some reason, I simply could not wrap my head around the music. However, it was a time when I had a lot of waiting around to do, so I checked a CD of the music out of the library, loaded it up on my incredibly old and creaky portable CD player, and took it and my music with me wherever I went. When I had to wait at the doctor’s office, or in line for a movie, or for my bus to arrive, I put on the CD, pulled out my music, and kept going over and over it under my breath. It may have earned me funny looks from passers-by, but by the time we reached performance day, I was confident in singing my part and had a great time at the concert.
This study technique worked so well for me, I kept using it at subsequent concerts. I even memorized Vamudara in one memorable trip on the Bathurst streetcar! I’ve done it for this concert, too. I’ve put together a playlist of the concert songs through a combination of iTunes and creative Googling, and it’s now my “going to work” playlist.
A group of singers practicing hard...
Do you have any study tips or tricks that help you when you’re learning music? Why not share it in a comment below!
November 24th, 2011
Christmas at the Line Camp
We’ve all been having fun with Christmas at the Line Camp from our Cowboy Christmas concert repertoire, and let’s face it, the song grows on you. But did you know there’s a very artistic history behind it? The author of the poem on which the song is based is Charles Marion Russell (1864-1926), a famous painter of scenes from the “Wild West.” Russell was prolific, and even made his own Christmas cards, which is where our collaboration with the Scarborough Philharmonic comes in. According to the C.M. Russell Museum:
Christmas was a special time for Charlie! Generous by nature, he was especially so during the Christmas season. He loved the traditions, events, and celebrations associated with the holidays and delighted in preparing for those occasions—usually months in advance. He would spend hours in his studio, often in secrecy, creating small wax-and-clay models, watercolor drawings, pen-and-ink sketches, and verses for his cards.
His favorite subjects included high-spirited cowboys toasting the season or giving gifts, diminutive Santas in high-flying sleighs pulled by small reindeer, English knights and jesters, or even faraway scenes of the Three Wise Men. These subjects reflected his personal feelings about Christmas—sometimes magical, sometimes humorous, and always full of good cheer.
If you’d like to hear the full text of the poem behind this card performed, we’ll see you at Birchmount Park Collegiate on December 3!
November 23rd, 2011
An Eastern European Christmas!
TCS has been hard at work on the program for our annual holiday concert. This year it’s An Eastern European Christmas, featuring a centrepiece of Liszt’s Missa Choralis and an assortment of hauntingly lovely Romanian, German, and Polish carols, as well as some favourites like Infant Holy, Infant Lowly and Carol of the Bells.
Learn more about the concert on our Facebook event page and come join us on December 14!
