Reflection

WARNING: Choral "shop" talk follows:
Today one of the choristers asked me at lunch what the main things were that I would take away from working this week with Craig Jessop. It kind of caught me off guard, but it was helpful to have to come up with something on the spot in condensed form. The things I liked about Maestro Jessop: 1) Tenacity and attention to detail. He would often rehearse something repeatedly until it was to his satisfaction. A conductor with this kind of intensity shows great confidence and leadership ability. There is a flip side to this though [see below] 2) Making the choir responsible for rhythm. So many choirs rely on the conductor for rhythm and as a result never quite find that rhythmic verve. I could tell that many of the choristers had not been previously been held accountable for keeping accurate time. This is something I believe strongly in that comes directly from Robert Shaw. Flummerfelt and also Jeff at Singing City both were keen on having the choir be rhythmically responsible. 3) Having an awareness of how the rehearsal was going. Even though Mr. Jessop has worked the choir very hard and was demanding, he always knows when to diffuse a situation with a joke or a compliment. It is important to give your choir affirmation when you work them hard. He also showed humility and would take responsibility if he made a mistake. 4) Boundless energy. He obviously loves music and has a great passion and energy which I think the choir responded to. Things I didn't necessarily like: 1) Some of the terminology used in rehearsal. When the choir was dull with pitch, we would often be asked to "sing sharp". I think this gives the choir the wrong idea about pitch and as a result, people were articificially manipulating pitch. Really most of the pitch problems were due to vowels and placement. In other words, the same results could be achieved a different way. He also asked for straight tone, which is a great choral debate, and one that I hope to tackle sometime in the future. Needless to say, I think it was asked for too often, sometimes without consideration of the vocal demands of a certain phrase. 2) Repeating large sections of music over and over. I said before that I liked his tenacity, but given our limited rehearsal time, it sometimes seemed like overkill. I would be interested to see how his methods work with his regular choir, where they know what to expect from his work. I think the choir could move very fast and accomplish a lot.
Overall impression: I liked working with Craig Jessop and would work with him again. I think we'll have a good concert tomorrow, provided it cools down before showtime!