 Repertoire and Standards -
Junior High/Middle School Choirs
As choral directors, we all know that the adolescent child is an array of different characteristics: excited, dramatic, eager to learn, and most importantly, talented! We have to hone our skills as educators in order to push their talent to the next level. Wouldn’t it be perfect to be able to share those skills with each other? In our field, learning never ceases, so lets take the opportunity to share our successes and triumphs, mistakes and “oh-dears!”, and have our learning help us to become better educators. After all, we’re the people who inspire those crazy adolescent musical minds aren’t we?
Keep inspiring ~ Alexis
Contact Information: alexis_farrell@pasd.us
ACDA PA Keystone Choral Festival
~An Elementary and Middle School adjudication experience~
2012 Clinicians:
Lisa Jaworowski, Norene Ferris
The very first “Keystone Choral Festival” is a one-day adjudicated festival for students in grades 3-8.
Ensembles will have the opportunity to:
- Perform for and work with experts in the world of young voices!
- Join in a private clinic session with an adjudicator!
- Hear other groups perform in similar age groups!
- Listen to new repertoire that might interest you for your upcoming school year!
- “Tune Up” your choir before spring performances!
- Provide a culminating experience for ensembles as the school year comes to a close!
Information Regarding Festival:
Day: Saturday
Date: April 14, 2012
Time: 9am—4pm
Location: Palmyra Middle School
50 West Cherry Street
Palmyra, PA 17078
To Register for Festival:
Registration is due: Friday, March 9
--Please fill out the Registration form (click here)
--Registration Fee: $275 per ensemble
How Can My Ensemble Fund this Event?
--Look for local education foundations that provide grants in your school district and community!
--Find out what the breakdown cost is per student in your ensemble. Sometimes by presenting the breakdown to your school district, they are more likely to fund your group!
--Ask for parent and community support—sometimes they are unaware that these events exist and are more than happy to help support the program!
--If your school has a PTO, ask them if they could help subsidize the event to lower registration/travel costs!
2009 ACDA/PMEA Reading Session List (.pdf)
The following is a list of pieces compiled by former Middle School/Junior High R&S Chair, Brian Winnie:
Dreams of thee by Eric William Barnum, Walton Music (HL08501582), SAB, accompanied with violin solo.
- This song incorporates beautiful text and allows students to work on numerous musical skills most of all phrasing, expression, and balance as it starts with a unison melody.
El Cielo Canta Alegria! arr. Roger Bergs, Boosey and Hawkes (M-051-80810-6) SATB also available in SSA and two part, Accompanied.
- This song is a lively arrangement that can be used for your winter concert and incorporates the study of a different language and great usage of expression and phrasing.
Hosanna in G by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (available off of Choral public domain library, www.cpdl.org) kv 223, SATB, Acappella.
- This song allows students to sing in a different style and tonal concept while learning aspects of the historical period it was written.
How Can I Keep From Singing, arr. Emily Crocker, Hal Leonard (08745216), SAB also available in SSA, acappella.
- This song allows students to learn the wonderful melody “How can I keep from singing” while working on blend, balance, and expression especially since it starts unison.
Will you teach me? by Eric W. Unruh, Pavane Publishing (P1293), SAB also available in SSA, accompanied.
- This is a piece with gorgeous text allowing for poetic study and building interpretation skills. I have done the SSA version which incorporates beautiful phrasing, expression, and the opportunity to work on tone production and tuning due to the excellent combination of text and music.
Stand together by Jim Papoulis, Boosey & Hawkes (M-051-47697-8), 3 part treble also available in new SSAB, accompanied and includes bodhran drum part.
- This is wonderful piece about unity and incorporates a variety of styles of music from mutilcultural to pop. The drum part adds a lot to the music since the rhythmic subtleties can be tricky and the piece offers some acappella sections in the middle.
There is Sweet Music Here by Mary Lynn Lightfoot, Heritage Choral Series (15/2143H), SATB also available in SSA, accompanied with solos.
- This is another great piece to work on balance, blend, expression, phrasing, tuning of chords, and other musical subtleties and has a very nice harmonic structure.
The Arrow & The Song by Joshua Shank, Santa Barbara Music Publishing (SBMP 605), SATB (with soprano and alto splits), accompanied.
- This is a very tricky piece because of the splits that occur after the beginning unison section, but it is a great piece to work on balance. I find that choosing music with more parts in middle school helps to not only teach part independence and fit the vocal ranges, but it also balances out the sections within the choir so not one section is overpowering another. This piece also provides a great text for discussion and has very strong expressive qualities.
Kyrie by Sonja Poorman, BriLee Music (BL142), SATB also available in three part mixed, accompanied.
- This is wonderfully expressive piece allowing students to study the Kyrie text in a more modern approach that is singable for them, yet still challenging.
Cantate Domino by David L. Brunner, Boosey & Hawkes (M-051-47356-4, SATB, accompanied.
- This is a livelier piece that allows students to work on dynamic subtleties and nuance as well as diction. Students will love this song because of its climactic style and lively tempo while getting them to read music in 6/8 and Latin.
You Who Never Arrived by Paul Basler, Colla Voce Music (36-20126), SATB, accompanied.
- This is another very expressive piece that really can help students work on breath support and phrasing. This is another piece with a terrific text that students can discuss and provide their own interpretations.
Salvation is Created arr. Rusell Robinson, Carl Fischer Music (CM8945), 3 part mixed, acappella.
- This is a great arrangement for students to get started on learning the melody to this Russian song. The text is in English and is only three part but when my students performed this piece we added the Russian text and a separate baritone/tenor part based on the original song, which was very simple to do.
You Can't Stop the Beat arr. Ed Lojeski, Hal Leonard (08621249), SATB (with splits in both the women and tenors), accompanied with possible instrument pak).
- This is an extremely upbeat piece and is very challenging yet the students will love to perform it time and time again! It's a great song to teach a different tonal concept without having all girls in their chest voice but still keeping within the style of the musical. This is a great piece to work on facial expression and diction as well as telling the story to the audience.
America the Beautiful arr. Craig Curry, Alfred Publishing (00-24311), SATB also available in SAB and SSA, accompanied with opt solo. and opt instrument pak.
- This is a wonderful arrangement of this text that I just came across this summer. Craig Curry starts it out with a solo of the original melody and transitions the piece into a very interesting gospel style that really brings out the patriotic text and brings immense emotion to the piece.
Please feel free to email me with any questions you have regarding these pieces or performance practices of them. Looking forward to speaking with you and hopefully meeting some of you fellow Middle School/Jr. High choral directors. Have a great start to your school years!
Information coming soon for the second annual 2007 LMMS Choral Festival held on May 16 and 17, 2007. Email for information on bringing your choir.
More repertoire ideas from the ACDA-PA reading session at the 2008 PMEA State Conference
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