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SPRING 2004 ISSUE
President's Message
This is the last letter I'll be writing as NE-ASTA with NSOA President. Our organization will be in very capable hands over the next 2 years. Dottie Ladman will assume the Presidency in May. Soon you should be receiving a ballot. Please take a few minutes to vote for those people whom you would like to see provide leadership for NE-ASTA .
Overall it has been a productive two years. We had a very successful Central
States Workshop at UNO in September 2002, with sessions presented by Phyllis
Young and Deborah Perkins. Many thanks to Debby Greenblatt and Christopher
Stanichar for all their work in making the 2002 Central States a big success!
Plans are being made for the workshop this coming September. Please plan
on attending Central States on Saturday and Sunday, September 11-12, 2004.
Details will be in the summer issue of Stringing Along.
Thanks to Debby Greenblatt, we sponsored our first Fiddle Tune Writing Contest
in May of 2003. It was a huge success—over 20 entries from around the
United States. I think it might become an annual event!
We had our first NE-ASTA Awards Luncheon during the November 2003 NMEA conference.
Considering the schedule for that day, I would say the Luncheon was quite
successful. (See news from our first Awards Luncheon in this issue.) It would
be great to see the Luncheon continue as an annual event. Start thinking
of those special string teachers you'd like to see recognized in the fall.
I'd like to encourage all of you to attend the next national convention. ou
can find more materials, as well as the National High School Honors Orchestra
application, at the ASTA website: astaweb.com. Also note the new NHSHO State
Chair is Kristin Simpson, Lincoln Public Schools. Thank you, Kristin, for
agreeing to take on this important job.
Another new member of the NE-ASTA with NSOA board is our Competition Chair,
David Neely. For those of you who don’t know David, he is Professor
of Violin, and my colleague, at UNL. Thanks, David, for taking on this job
in the fall of 2003. The next Solo Competition will take place in fall 2005.
Special thanks to Debby Greenblatt, NE-ASTA Past President and Stringing Along
editor. Debby, you are amazing and have so much energy. I appreciate all
of your words of wisdom and your expertise. Joel Jank, thanks for all your
work as Secretary/Treasurer and for agreeing to serve another term. You are
such a pro at your job! Last, but not least, I would like to thank all the
other board members for their expertise and hard work over the last two years:
Patty Ritchie, Member-at-Large, Clark Potter, Studio Member-at-Large, Carol
Ellenwood, Web Master, Christa Speed, Membership Chair.
Happy Spring to all of you. Enjoy the rest of the school year!
Musically yours,
Karen Becker
PRESIDENT-ELECT'S MESSAGE:
String Teacher Shortage Hits Home
by Dottie Ladman
I'm sure most of you are aware that there is a shortage of string teachers in our country right now. If you are involved in public education you may know how hard it is to hire qualified string specialists. National music magazines have covered the topic well recently, and I knew about the shortage on an intellectual level.
The whole topic became more personal last summer when my daughter graduated
with a music education degree and began applying for jobs. She ended
up being offered a position teaching strings in another state. Not
too shocking, unless you consider that this is an unlikely situation for
an oboist! That's right. She's not a string player. Well,
actually she did play the violin in her younger years (she grew up in my
house after all), and can still hold her own on the violin at our family
gatherings where several of us who do play at varying levels of ability
drag out the instruments and play Christmas carols.
The fact is that part of the reason my daughter got the job was that she
CAN play the violin at a rudimentary level. Two of the four candidates
for the position she was applying for had never played a string instrument,
and they were applying for a string position! That is a scary thought! One
of the interview questions for my daughter was something like, "You
mean if we handed you a violin right now you could play us a song, like
Mary Had a Little Lamb, or Twinkle?" My daughter had to keep
from laughing as she assured them she most certainly could, wondering how
anyone who could not would even consider applying for the job.
Though I am more than a bit prejudiced, it appears to me that my daughter
has been quite successful as a first year teacher based on the videotapes
of her middle school's recent concert and on the couple of days I followed
her around at her schools during my fall break. She has had the advantage
of two other string teachers in her district who are great mentors, plus
a mom who is only a phone call or e-mail away when she has questions or
concerns. She was also educated in a school system where she was
exposed on a very regular basis to string music, string playing, and fine
string teachers, and she even got to work with strings/orchestra as a part
of her student teaching, and that has been to her advantage. I am
proud she has done as well as she has, and at the same time worried about
how many more non-string players are out there struggling to keep programs
going with little string experience and without mentors readily available. I
worry about string programs being discontinued because no string teacher
can be found.
The national music magazines have great ideas about how we need to address
the string teacher shortage. I have a few of my own. Things
like encouraging young string teachers and mentoring them whenever the
opportunity presents itself. Things like talking to string majors
at the colleges about considering teaching. Things like just being
great string teachers ourselves. You never know when there may be
an oboist sitting in your orchestra who will in a few years find herself
out there teaching strings and remembering your example of how to conduct
an orchestra rehearsal. Scary, eh?
SECOND ANNUAL NEBRASKA ASTA
FIDDLE TUNE COMPOSITION CONTEST!
FIRST PLACE: $100.00 SECOND PLACE: $50.00 THIRD PLACE: $25.00
The winners will be announced on May 29, 2004, during the Monumental Fiddling Championship held at the Homestead National Monument in Beatrice, Nebraska. The winning compositions will be performed at the Monumental Fiddling Championship, and printed in Stringing Along, the journal of the Nebraska Chapter of the American String Teachers Association. Direct your questions to: Deborah Greenblatt, The Old Schoolhouse, PO Box 671, Avoca, Nebraska, 68307-0671, or by e-mail to g-s@alltel.net.
The 2004 Contest Rules and Guidelines
- Each submission should be an original composition which must be unpublished and composed after May 24, 2003.
- Composers may submit more than one tune, but only one prize will be awarded to any one composer.
- The music must be submitted via computer generated sheet music, or hand-written sheet music.
- The composer should include their name, address, phone number, e-mail address, and the title of the piece.
- The entry fee of $20.00 should be sent in at the time of submission. Checks should be payable to Nebraska ASTA.
- If you wish to receive written evaluation of your tune by the judges, include a stamped, self-addressed envelope with your entry.
- Nebraska ASTA assumes no responsibility for loss or damage to works submitted.
- Entries must be postmarked by April 22, 2004.
- Send your entry to Deborah Greenblatt, The Old Schoolhouse, PO Box 671, Avoca, Nebraska, 68307-0671. The composer is responsible for keeping a copy of their work, as well as for coyrighting their tune.
- The composer understands that if their tune is one of the winners, Nebraska ASTA has permission to have the piece performed on May 29, 2004, in Beatrice, Nebraska, as well as permission to reprint the tune in Stringing Along, the quarterly newsletter of Nebraska ASTA.
Sponsors of the 2004 Nebraska ASTA Fiddle Tune Composition Contest:
- Acoustic Music Plus, Lincoln, Nebraksa
- Greenblatt & Seay Publications, Avoca, Nebraksa
- The Metropolitan String Quartet, Omaha, Nebraksa
- Nielsen's Violin Shop, Omaha, Nebraksa
- SouthWest Strings, Arizona
- Wild Clover, Kearney, Nebraksa
First Annual Nebraska ASTA Fiddle Tune Composition Contest:
" One Thing Leads to Another", by Mark Simos,
from Watertown, Massachusetts
These notes on compositional intent, performance practice and notation for my newly minted fiddle tune "One Thing Leads to Another" are directed to an audience most familiar with Western Classical music and its notation conventions. I was honored that this tune took 1st place in NEASTA's Fiddle Tune Comosition Contest in the Summer of 2003.
" One Thing Leads to Another" can be heard as a fiddle duet with myself
and master old-time fiddler Bruce Molsky on my album "Crazy Faith" (Devachan
Music DEV-CD4347, available at http://www.devachan.com). Bruce
learned the tune by ear. This duet performance involves improvisation and
spontaneous interaction typical of performance within a traditional contest (if
a bit over the top by traditionalists' standards. Slight variations in
our versions emerge as our respective rhythmic and stylistic approaches are brought
to bear in shaping the tune.
When NEASTA asked me to provide a trnascription of the tune, useful bot to
fiddlers and classically trained violinists, I encountered afresh some issues
I have puzzled over for a long time. "One Thing Leads to Another" is
a fiddle tune---an original creation grounded in the context of, and intedned
for propagation within, a traditional music community. I like to call
the art of creating such tunes ItunesmitheryI rather than composition in
the classical sense. In these notes, intended to accompany the transcription,
I expand on the general nature of tunesmithery in traditional music and its
implications for this tune in particular. These musings are presented,
not as based on any sort of scholarly authority, but as a working tunesmith's
reflections.
I think of "tunes" (in the special sense understood by traditional
music communites) as a distinct type of musical form which, whle certainly "composed," are
not "pieces" in a conventional classical sense. Even seemingly
straightforward notions such as time of creation, the nature of collaborative
effort involved, and the authority of written scores differ from the norms
f either classical music or idioms such as jazz in which improvisation (of
a different sort) is integral. (Though certain once-modern, now doubtless
IpasseI trends in contemporary classical music---minimalism, aleatoric music
and the like---introduced some of the same issues in performance practice that
exist in traditional music in a less formal way.)
In folk traditions such as Southern Appalachian "old-time", Cape
Breton, or Irish m,usic, an older repertoire of traditional tunes in continually
replenished by new compositions from living players. Some players "compose" new
variants, settings or extensions of older tunes; successful accretive changes
of these sorts will pass into the active repertoires of other players, though
they will often continue to be associated with the innovating player. Other
players are known as prolific composers in their own right, enriching the tradition
with a considerable body of new tunes identified as such. These new compositions
are not to be confused with the role of improvisation in performance, a separate
element of varying importance in different traditions.
In tunesmithery the composition is first and foremost the melody. Chordal/harmonic accompaniment and arrangement or setting are subject to change. Specific chords may be an integral part of a tune as first composed; but, as with traditional pieces, players are granted (or at least take!) considerable latitude in re-harmonizing new pieces which pass into a traditional repertoire. Even the melody itself will rarely remain inviolate. Different traditionsl vary in how important written music is for disseminating tunes; but even where written music is used, viable tunes utilize enough formulaic and idiomatic motives that they can be rapidly committed to memory and played spontaneiously in informal sessions; and they allow players room to craft their own variations and interpretations.
Thus newly composed tunes, like their traditional counterparts, exist within
a cloud of possibilities--variations, alternative pathways of notes, ornamentation
and timing. Yet a new tune must also be distinctive enough to warrant
inclusion in a already densely crowded repertoire of traditional tunes. A
tunesmith works within tight stylistic constraints, yet has far less control
over the iterpretive aspects of his or her tune.
Usually a "tune" (in the special sense defined here) is also amenable
to settings on different instruments used in the tradition: e.e., fiddle or
banjo for old-time music; fiddle, flute, accordion for Irish music. However,
certain tunes may be thought of as particularly well suited to the idiomatic
playing style of one particular instrument. Even in a setting for a particular
instrument like the violin (fiddle, actually), bowing choices would typically
be made in accord with the varying regional or personal style of different
players, a sort of language or logic of bowing patterns and choices which is
applied to any tune brought into the repertoire.
One implication of all this is that no one performance or recording of the
tune can be taken as canonical. In notating or transcribing a tune
one makes a number of subtle choices exploring towards the distinctive essence
of the tune. Folklorists and musicologists have frequently discussed
such issues, distinguishing, for example, between "descriptive" and "prescriptive" transcriptions
of folk tunes. Roughly summarized, a descriptive transcription of a
performance tries to be as literal and accurate as possible, for the purposes
of detailed analysis; where a prescriptive transcription is intended as instructions
to a performer for learning the tune. In traditional music, many approaches
to notation (including none, of course!) may be employed, including mere
skeletal sketches of tunes intended as a mnemonic to aid a player's natural
recall.
Curiously, even when the tune is one's own composition, these issues do not
go away in writing them down! As I set out to provide a transcription
of "One Thing" I found myself in the peculiar position of treating
my own recording as something of a field recording. The transcription
of "One Thing..." I've proveded here strikes a middle ground bwtween
a simplified prescriptive version and an exact descriptive transcription
of one recording of the tune. First and second repetitions of parts
are used as scaffolding to indiciate minor variants in parallel passages,
which need not be performed in this precise sequence. A chord chart
was initially prepared for the tune when a larger ensemble performance was
anticipated; but the final recording utilized a duet of two fiddles
otherwise unaccompanied. The transcription includes the chords as originally
conceived, but in the duet playing on the record certain passing double stops
may appear to suggest different harmonizations.
Other notational points of interest:
Syncopated passages can be notated in two ways: as an eighth note followed
by a dotted quarter, or as two eighth notes, the latter tied to a quarter. I
use the former of rnotational simplicity, the latter whenever the concluding
quarter note is "fattened" with a double stop or a strong separate
'pulse' of the bow, a typical bowing device in old-time playing (especially
at cadential points).
However, in keeping with the general comments above, I have not indicated bowings
in the piece directly.
A typical stylistic device in old-time music is 'jumping' the beat at the beginning
of phrases, indicated here for example at the beginning of the C and C' sections
of the music. This is at the player's discretion and might be done
intermittently throughout performance of a tune.
By writing out full repetitions of several of the sections, I've no doubt erred
in the 'descriptive' direction, promoting a few spontaneous variations toward
a more integral presence in the structure of the tune. But throwing
some variation in on the repetition of the part would be idiomatically corret. Occasional
ossia measures show fuller variants that are felt to be more true alternatives
than variations expanding the form. Parenthetized notes and chords
are suggestive of the smaller micro-variations which always occur in different
repetitions of a tune, or in the settings of different players.
" One Thing Leads to Another" is a selection from a song cycle, Crazy
Faith, and is the only purely instrumental piece of the cycle. The song
cycle, comleted in 1998 and recorded in 1999, deals with the theme of love and
heartbreak as an occasion for spiritual transformation. Including a fiddle
tune within a song cycle utilizes the often programmatic nature of fiddle tunes
(usually hinted at by the title) as a thematic device. The five sections
of this tune, while retaining the strophic phrase structure of a typical fiddle
tune, stretch the form in a way reminescent of the manner in which many originally
two-part tunes have been extended through individual players' variations, some
of which eventually become part of the tune as known within the traditional community. Within
the tune, as in life, one thing definitely does lead to another.
It is my hope that this piece, as others of mine have done, will eventually
find its way into the repertoire of traditional musicians. And, perhaps,
be paid the ultimate tunesmith's compliment of surviving long enough
to make it into the public domain (with author forgotten)!
I welcome comments or questions about these musings at simos@devachan.com.
NEBRASKA ASTA WITH NSOA
STRING TEACHERS OF THE YEAR AWARDS
Each year the Nebraska Unit of the American String Teachers Association recognizes two outstanding string/orchestra teachers in Nebraska by presenting an award to one school orchestra director and one private studio teacher. Below are forms to be used for nominations. We urge you to consider submitting the name of a person whom you believe to represent outstanding teaching in one or both areas. Send nominations to: Deborah Greenblatt, The Old Schoolhouse, PO Box 671, Avoca, NE, or e-mail g-s@alltel.net. The deadline for nominations for the next awards is November 1, 2003. A decision has been made by the Executive Board of Nebraska ASTA that past winners will not be eligible until ten years after their last award.
PAST WINNERS: 1990 - Bettelee Lewis; 1991- Larry Maupin; 1992 - no
awards given; 1993 - Carol Work (private) and Christa Speed (school); 1994
- Morris Collier (private) and Patty Ritchie (school); 1995 - Carol Work
(private) and Alice Johnson (school); 1996 - Valerie Knowles (private) and
Del Whitman (school); 1997 - David Low (private) and Molly Moriarty (school);
1999 - no awards given; 2000 - Gerald Feese (private) and Dave Klein (school); 2001-
Mischa Johnson (private) and Maribeth Lynn (school); 2002 - no awards given;
2003- Arnold Schatz (private) and Carol Ellenwood (school)
NE-ASTA/NSOA AWARDS LUNCHEON
Our first Awards Luncheon took place at the Holiday Inn Downtown (Lincoln)
on Saturday, November 22, 2003, during the NMEA conference. Approximately
thirty people attended in support of Carol Ellenwood, School Educator Award
recipient, and Arnold Schatz recipient of the Artist Teacher Award. About
half of the attendees were friends and family members of Arnold, and the
other half were NE-ASTA members (and friends of Carol and/or Arnold).
Carol Ellenwood is in her eleventh year of teaching for Kearney Public Schools.
Prior teaching experience includes thirteen years with Pleasanton Public
Schools and four years with Amherst Public Schools. She has earned her
Bachelors and Masters in Music Education from the University of Nebraska
at Kearney. Her current teaching assignment includes elementary orchestra
(nine schools) and team teaching sixth and seventh grade orchestra at both
middle schools with Dave Klein. Her professional organizations include
Nebraska Music Educators Association; American String Teachers Association
and their Nebraska chapter of which she serves as their webmaster; National
Education Association; and executive secretary for the Kearney Concert
Association. Carol is married to Jim (social studies teacher). They
have two daughters, Kerri Coleman, husband Jonathan, and Cassi, senior
at Kearney High. Music has always been a part of Carol's life. Her
mother gave piano lessons for over 60 years and her dad had his own dance
band for over 40 years.
Arnold Schatz is a retired Prof. of Music (Violin, Viola and Chamber Music)
at UNL. His students have been very successful in the professional world
of music, many of them holding positions in schools, universities and symphony
orchestras as teachers, performers and administrators. Some previous
recipients of this award have studied violin with him. Mr. Schatz's
experience in music include degrees from the Cincinnati Conservatory of
Music, study with Paul Katz, Leopold LaFosse, Walter Levin, Ivan Galamian
and Max Rostal. During his service in the US Army he performed as concertmaster
of the Fourth Army Radio Orchestra. Since arriving in Lincoln he has held
positions as Concertmaster of the Lincoln Symphony, Associate Concertmaster
of the Omaha Symphony, Concertmaster and Resident Music Director of the
Nebraska Chamber Orchestra and Concertmaster of the Des Moines Opera.
His chamber music activities include the Nebraska Trio, the Nebraska Chamber
Players, the UNL Faculty Quartet and the Sheldon Trio, a group which received
a San Francisco Film Festival Award for its performance on a NETV
video. Presently Mr. Schatz performs with the Omaha Symphony, teaches privately
and performs with the Fall Creek String Quartet.
Congratulations, Carol and Arnold! Plan on attending the next Awards Luncheon (see details inthe summer Stringing Along issue).
2005 NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL HONORS ORCHESTRA
Check out the national website at: www.astaweb.com for information about the National High School Honors Orchestra. Repertoire requirements for individual instruments, application materials, and all other necessary information can be downloaded from the website. Please consider having your students (who will be a Junior or Senior in 2004-05) audition for the NHSHO. It would be wonderful to have a strong Nebraska presence in Reno! Remember, this opportunity won’t present itself again until the year 2007. Kristin Simpson, Lincoln Public School String Specialist, has agreed to be the State NHSHO Chair. If you still have questions about requirements for the NHSHO, after looking at the website, please contact Kristin at: ksimpso@lps.org.
Application deadline: Applications must be postmarked by August 25, 2004. Late applications will not be considered. Please include all required materials (as explained on the ASTA website) to the following address:
Kristin Simpson
4523 Cleveland Ave.
Lincoln, NE 68504
E-mail: ksimpso@lps.org
(H) 402-325-6854
ASTA's National Conference
February 23-26, 2005
John Ascuaga's Nugget Hotel & Conference Center
Reno, Nevada
www.janugget.com
ASTA 2ND NATIONAL STRING CONFERENCE
ASTA is busy planning the 2nd National String Conference, which will be held in Reno, Nevada, February 24 - 26, 2005. Reno, a center of commerce and culture in northern Nevada is a high desert valley on the eastern side of the Sierra Mountains. The conference will be held at John Ascuaga's Nugget Resort and Conference Center. The Conference Center will house all events except the National High School Honors Orchestra Concert and the headliner recital, which will be held at the Pioneer Center. The conference will celebrate all aspects of teaching and performing string instruments. It will be a time for alternative styles enthusiasts, performers from any string related genre, private teachers, K-12 school teachers, and university educators from the applied and education areas to gather in one location to enhance skills and knowledge. If you attended the 2003 Conference, "All Together Now" at Ohio State, you know about the phenomenal atmosphere and excitement generated among the participants. The 2005 conference, unlike the 2004 Forums, will be a broader conference with a balance of sessions for our diverse membership. Session topics will include traditional pedagogy, issues for school string and orchestra teachers, injury prevention, classical and non-traditional performance, university-level training of future string players and educators, and alternative styles techniques to name a few. Poster sessions will also be available.
There will be master classes available for all instruments. New for 2005 will
be two different levels of master classes-some geared for the typical string
student and others for the more advanced musician. We will have the pleasure
of seeing Midori work with very talented violinists. Other performances will
include groups selected from the tapes sent in to the performance committee
and will include but not be limited to orchestras, chamber groups, and alternative
styles groups. One solo recital will be featured. The Alternative Styles
committee will be involved with a form of a competition that will foster
growth in a positive environment that will encourage young musicians. Watch
the journal and the website for more information about this exciting venture
as it becomes available. The music industry will sponsor showcases
and will have a totally string-related exhibit hall. The exhibit hall in
2003 included over 100 string booths and it was a bustling hubbub of activity.
It was so gratifying to see the exhibitors share their wares in a strings
only venue.
The National High School Honors Orchestra will again be featured at the conference.
The conductor will be Mark Russell Smith. Contact information to apply is
in this newsletter. Please download application materials and requirements
at <www.astaweb.com>. Social events are always important to string
performers and teachers. The Silent Auction will be held again, but this
time preview times will be available before the auction. This successful
event was a big hit in 2003 and promises to be even better in 2005! Receptions
will be available at various times during the conference. The Student Chapters
will have the traditional pizza party. It will be a time to meet old friends,
make many new ones and share unparalleled camaraderie. We look forward
to seeing you in Reno!
ASTA WITH NSOA PROGRAMS AND SERVICES
The "Potter's Violins Instrument Awards" will donate Rudolf Doetsch
instruments to financially needy students after each application deadline
of April 1.
The Merle J. Isaac Composition Contest is accepting compositions for full
orchestra by April 1. Winners receive $1500 and aid in the publication
of the work.
The Urban Outreach Program Grants, which award up to $2,000 to support string
programs in urban areas, are available through the national office.
To learn more about these items, contact the National Office at www.astaweb.com.
©2005 ASTA with NSOA, Nebraska Unit, C. Ellenwood, Webmaster