Variable Voicing (Oboe, Piano).
Commissioned by the Highland Park High School Fine Arts Department for the 2014 Highlander Festival Choral Concert in recognition of HPISD’s Centennial Celebration.
The Music-Makers was commissioned by the Highland Park High School Fine Arts Department in recognition of the Centennial Celebration of the school district. Premiered at the 2014 Highlander Festival Choral Concert, the work was conceived to involve a children’s chorus from the district elementary schools, a junior high mixed choir, and an advanced high school mixed choir. This version preserves the progression of the original, but offers a variable voicing format to provide the conductor with great flexibility for successful performances at all levels. Three parts are scored as “variable” (A, B and C); two are written specifically for soprano and alto voices. Suggestions for the variable voices are listed below.
- VARIABLE A (VAR A) — This part was originally the Children’s Chorus. It can be performed by a children’s chorus, a small group or section of the ensemble, boys with unchanged voices, or—at least at the opening—a strong soloist.
- VARIABLE B (VAR B) — Most appropriate for tenors, though this part may be omitted as necessary to accommodate the number of boys in the choir. All boys may sing either Variable B or Variable C.
- VARIABLE C (VAR C) — Most appropriate for basses, though this part may be omitted if there are only a small number of boys in the ensemble. All boys may sing either Variable B or Variable C.
From rehearsal D through E (mm.34-46), the choir may be divided evenly to cover all parts of the imitative lines. Any student can sing any of the lines (in the appropriate octave): be flexible and creative in assigning the parts!
At measure 47, return to the standard SATB formula, using variable voices B and C as available and appropriate.
Text
We are the music-makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams;
World-losers and world-forsakers,
On whom the pale moon gleams:
Yet we are the movers and shakers
Of the world for ever, it seems.
—Arthur William Edgar O’Shaughnessy (1844-1881)