“A musicians job is not to entertain. Our job is to soothe souls and melt hearts with harmonies and arpeggios which make you turn to another world or dimension… while you loose your expectations and let imagination run wild only for a moment … and when silence resounds your heart expires… and only after that the harmonies break with applauds.”
Month: December 2010
Alone in silence
Alone in silence I stand
All in front all dressed in black
The moon gazes at my hands
As a judge watches from behind…
A-screw the silence shatters
-As a ballerina shatters space-
While you shatter with it
Melodies for days
Alone in silence I stand
All in front dressed in white
As you gaze upon me
As I smile at the wind in the night sky
How the day has come
Dreams have I dreamed
Of this moment for many days, weeks and years
Alone in silence I stand
In front of me all in red
As we do what we love
On this day of all days
December I think it may
be the day of destiny
as I paint the melodies
in black, white and red
to all the audience away
As we dress the night
In the most amazing shade of gray…
José Angel Clavell Acosta
November 2010
As I conduct the silence, music reurges….
While I walked down these stairs
I heard the sound of silence call
Pitch pipe on my hand
Portfolio on the other
I stand up to you
And stand toward my brothers
I smile and you laugh silently
As the room fall still
The pitch breaks the silence
As I stand still…
A triad sounds as I place the pitch on the stand
Wave my hands
And a melody resurges
As the phoenix from the ashes
The sound fills the chapel
My hands flicker round
I see him smile
Into the background
As I dictate the triplet
A piano and forte sound
I close it with a cadence
The 6th chord closes
I nod in acknowledgement
You smile in reply…
I stand in front
While applauds break the harmonies that were given
A memory,
As well as a career, and a passion
Has been born
José Angel Clavell Acosta
December 2010
Choral Conducting!
Sorry I haven’t blogged for a while but this semester has been crucial, stressful, with new challenges and with life changing oportunities. I will briefly talk about my choral conducting course and experiences I’ve had this semester.
As a parenthesis before I started this Fall semester, I went to Vermont/Canada with the PUCPR Concert Choir and we participated in a 3 day tour in Vermont and 4 days in the Loto-Quebec International World Choral Festival in as the name states in Quebec, Canada. Even though it was only one week I had the chance visit and get out of this Island (which was a first) and experience and ultimately share with the rest of the world Puertorrican Music with my friends and with my mentor/director Prof. Ruben Colon Tarrats. This was a wonderful experiments for me specially since this semester was my Choral Conducting course, and in July I was part of a 5 week workshop of Renaissance Music with other 11 companions with my professor Mons. Abel Di Marco where we learned on how to sing this particular type of music. Another experience if we flash forward to mid november with this group “ArsAntiqua” which we specialize in Renaissance Choral music we had our first public performance, which was part of the Opening activities of the Re inauguration of the Ponce Art Museum. After all this Summer was a very productive one since I had the chance to experiment with different choristers, and specially different genres of the choral repertoire.
This Fall semester I had the chance take/be a part of, like 6 other fellow musicians, the Choral Conducting I course, which is the last music course that offers the PUCPR for the Music Department. If I had to describe the course is… pretty hard… the only words that can I fathom are.. stressful, challenging, rewarding, awesome, etc. This is an amazingly challenging course because, first of all the choir is used for only ONE conductor aka: Ruben who has been the conductor for almost 18 years, also you are a rookie (even though if have been dreaming of conducting a choir since you’ve graduated since high school like me) and this is one of the many challenges you encounter. This course is an eye opener because… for the first time you know and feel what your teacher feels like, like for example when you get frustrated because the music is behind, etc. It is also an experience *even if you don’t or don’t peruse choral conducting as a career** (because the true of the matter is that if you are an Education Major and if you go to a public or private school you have to conduct the choir…) But as part of being a conductor (and as a musician) is to.. PERFORM, which happened last Sunday December 5th, 2010, in which is the traditional debut of the student conductors in which I conducted a Venezuela Traditional Christmas Song called “El Niño Criollo” a Choral Arrangement by Caron Montaguatelli, where it describes Jesus Christ as a Venezuelan Child dressed in traditional clothes..
( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qU-yjdlHZU8 )
A fun fact was that through the semester one of my first music teacher who we call out of love Fombe, called me and she basically gave me a song to conduct at the prestigious La Perla Theater in their annual Christmas Concert, this was an absolute shocker!!!!! ME, conduct where!? jajajaja I still can’t believe that actually happened because there was still students who I know since I was a student there, from when I started music long ago in 2002. To be frank it was another amazing experience and they want for me to be a guest conductor for their Spring Concert in May, which is mind boggling!!! In that
Concert I conducted a christmas song called “Llevame a ver a Jesus” a SATB arrangement by Noel Estrada. I wish that this continues… whether it be conducting the IMJMC Concert Choir, sing with ArsAntiqua and along the Choral Municipal Choir (which I am a part of since this semester, this is the only municipal group in Puerto Rico, and it sings beside the Ponce Municipal Band, both are conducted by Ruben Colon Tarrats)
I’m sure that a lot of great things will happen this new semester and year!
The art of musical poetry 