Technology

Chairperson:  John Delorey

John Delorey is Director of Choral Music and Adjunct Professor of Music at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.  He is also the Chorus Master for the Massachusetts Symphony Orchestra and Assistant Director for the Schola Cantorum at the College of the Holy Cross.
www.wpi.edu/~jfd

Welcome

The futurist, Alan Kay observed, "technology is only that which wasn't around when you were born." For the children and students we work with - at least in developed countries - the Internet, CD music, video games, electronic music instruments, and MP3 music files are NOT technology. Our students have very different attitudes and views of "technology" than we do.

It is a pleasure to be working with the Eastern ACDA Division as we begin to take a closer and more mindful look at technology and how it affects and interacts with our lives as conductors, educators and choral musicians. There are new technologies presented to us every day - please feel free to send me any sightings of new technology that you think should be put on this page. I also encourage any of you with questions or concerns with technology as it creeps into our choral classrooms to email them to me directly. I am blessed to be working at a technical university (WPI) and have a devoted group of choral engineers who would be glad to tackle any problem that I cannot immediately address - jfd@wpi.edu.

Technology Tips

Each month a new set of technology tips will be put on the site - one for those who are just beginning to explore the wealth of technology that is seemingly thrown at us on a daily basis, and one for those who are a bit more adventuresome!

Beginners

www.Facebook.com.  How about a Facebook page for your chorus? If you have never used Facebook, you have little to fear. In its simplest mode, it is a very safe and secure place to put photos, recordings (be careful of copyright!), videos and announcements of concerts, rehearsals and auditions. And since most everyone under the age of 25 has a page, you will find you have vast army of young people who will be able to help upload and maintain the site. Encourage all members of your chorus, and audience members, to join as friends. Facebook is a popular and easy-to-use tool that is worth the short time it will take you to register and set up an account.

Advanced

www.Voicethread.com.  I have found this to be an amazing resource for sharing and commenting on video files that I use for my conducting class. It's a lot like YouTube, but with excellent controls for who can see what. It also has a very powerful commenting tool - you can write comments, speak comments as the video is playing, use a drawing tool to point out specific concerns (posture!) and even phone in comments if you didn't have a computer with a microphone. I use it to post videos of my conducting students so that the entire class can watch and comment on them (and read each others comments) without leaving a paper trail or a pile of DVDs or VHS tapes. The Professional level is worth the small amount of money for the registration as it greatly increases and simplifies your ability to monitor those who view and comment on what videos. The only drawback is that it works best with small files - a reason to keep the conducting examples short.

New and Noteworthy
Virtual Choir

If you have not seen this new recording technique made popular by Eric Whitacre, the following links will get you up to speed:

Rebroadcast of CNN program on the Virtual Choir:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qF4LwbDYLgY&feature=watch_response

Virtual Choir performance of "Sleep":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1h3Tf26TcA

This technique is not new, but Whitacre has added some finesse and provided the genre with an immediate presence on the web that it quite phenomenal. There is research being done on how one could use the Internet for live performances. Having worked on this at WPI, there are problems in the methods of attaching the video more accurately to the audio. It seems odd, but current "packeting" techniques involve sending the video and audio streams separately, adjusting when needed.

Current Trends in Choral Technology

Each month I will try and feature a new research trend in technology that may affect choral musicians. If you run across something new and noteworthy, send me a line - it may make it onto the site! For this first month, I will give you an overview of research we are conducting at WPI.

Digital Choral Folder

Have you felt left out - no electronic reader for choral musicians? There are four or five electronic displays for instrumentalists, each one featuring a one-page display and a method for tapping or pedaling for the next page. But why have there been no two-page displays for singers? The two-page format seems to work best for singers (we have been, ever since the demise of the part books, used to seeing the other parts), and it seems that technology has finally driven the cost down. At WPI, we are now working on our third prototype of a two-page choral display system that is the size of a choral folder, and will eventually weigh less than one pound. We are hoping to unveil the newest prototype at the Eastern Division Conference in February 2012 - mark your calendars.

Virtual Choir

WPI has been experimenting with Virtual Choir technologies for the past ten years, it's current realization of Thomas Tallis' "Spem in Alium" to be presented this Spring (more on that later). At WPI, the Virtual Choir is designed to be a tool for conductors or singers to let them conduct and manipulate choral voices as if one was addressing live singers. For any given piece each voice part is recorded separately with a proprietary technique that will allow the conductor to alter the tempo and dynamic of each voice part. In addition, the software is designed to give the conductor control of all voice parts as a chorus (group crescendo, ritardando, etc.). The grand intent of the project is to found a library of Renaissance choral music for the Virtual Choir. This year we are recording all of the music in the joint publication venture of Thomas Tallis and William Byrd: Cantiones Sacrae 1575.

Last revised July 14, 2011