By Martin Jansen, Owner of Jansen-PCINFO
It takes a lot of work to put together a MacDowell Male Chorus concert. The director starts the whole thing rolling by picking songs that will be sung. This happens well before practices begin in early September.
Theme
The theme for this year is “An American Celebration,” aligning with America’s 250th founding, featuring songs from American artists. Famous names come to fore like Aaron Copland, Irving Berlin, Bob Dylan, Billy Joel and many others. The director sends his selection of songs out to Chorus members.
Acquisition
That is my cue to start looking for practice MP3s and videos (primarily on YouTube) to compile and place into Google Sheets for the members. I am an unofficial “electronic music acquisition specialist” for the Chorus. Fortunately MacDowell has a long history of past performances that have been recorded over time from which to choose.
I listen to each song for quality before selecting the recording for practice. Songs that are not recorded by MacDowell are selected on YouTube. Video Downloader is an open source Linux tool for extracting just the sound MP3 files from YouTube videos.
I’m looking for great TTBB arrangements that accurately reflect the scores.
Practice makes Perfect
We start practicing on Monday nights from 7 to 9 PM at Xavier High School. The music is handed out in large folders. Announcements are made. The director is greeted with a “Hi Herb!” The members search for the song the director has chosen to practice – more than 30 songs in the folder. There is no warm-up of the voices – just sing. Long time members remember most of these songs, newer members are either sight reading or listening. We are far, far from perfect.
Unusual Year
2025-26 is unusual for MacDowell. Normally we have practice from September through March of the next year and are prepared for three or four concerts in Spring. This year we had a joint concert as guests of the Oshkosh Chamber Singers in their November concert. We have abbreviated practices for our first concert at Denmark High School on March 1. Then we have our home concert on March 8 at 2:00 PM at Xavier Fine Arts Theatre. Following this we prepare for the Big Sing which MacDowell is hosting the week of April 25.
MacDowell Male Chorus has a proud tradition of memorizing all their music and performing without music folders. This year we need to learn all 29 songs.
Spreadsheet
As I begin to organize the music, I keep track of all the songs in a spreadsheet on Google Drive:
If I find a YouTube video, I link using the title of the song. If a MacDowell or YouTube recording I link to stored MP3s on Google Drive. I share the whole folder to anyone with a link to avoid permission issues.
Once the spreadsheet is complete I send it out to the whole group via Google Groups. I encourage them to download the MP3 files to their devices for playback and to practice while looking at the scores.
More Practice
Meanwhile the Monday practices continue as we prepare for the November concert with the Oshkosh Chamber Singers. For this concert only, we are allowed to sing the three joint songs with music folders. We also have “Church Sings” where we are the featured group at Sunday Services at various Fox Valley churches. And, sadly, we sing at funeral services for MacDowell members who have passed away.
Successful Concert
Our concert with the Chamber Singers was a great success, with notables like Janet Planet and John Harmon in attendance.
Back to Practice
No time to bask in our glory from the concert as we must move on to practice for our March 1st concert at Denmark High School. It becomes apparent that some songs need more practice than others. We have sectional practices with Herb working with the Baritones and Basses and the Assistant Director working with Tenor 1 and 2s.
Words and Phrases
Each song tells a story and is performed in its own unique way. My challenge is to learn all the words associated with a song. It helps to focus on the story being told – phrases being important. To help with the words, I look up lyrics on the internet and match them to lyrics in the score. I set up a scoring system where the songs with the most words are a five and easiest and well known are a one. I store these in simple text files and share the most difficult text files with the Chorus. Text files are very small and many can be sent out in one email.
Solo Tryouts and Assignments
Herb determines which songs will have solos and sets a time for tryouts. It is nerve racking to try out for songs, but a few brave souls step forward and are assigned solos. Many of these songs are shared between soloists, a song with a few phrases. Some are more challenging.
On The Risers
It is now just a few days from our first concert of the year at Denmark High School on March 1st at 2:00 PM. For the last few practices we stand on risers as we would in concert. Herb points out where the songs are missing parts and we polish out the rough spots. We have come a long way since the first practice and our confidence grows. We can do this.
The band joins us as we practice the songs giving us a feel for “concert like” conditions.
Conclusion
I believe we are ready for the Denmark High School concert and I look forward to our home concert on March 8 at 2:00 PM at Xavier Fine Arts Theatre. $20 general seating tickets are available from members. I hope you have time to see a great concert. Then we are on to the Big Sing.