Music and Fun with The American Boychoir

Music and Fun with
The American Boychoir
The American Boychoir • 19 Lambert Drive • Princeton, New Jersey • www.americanboychoir.org
The American Boychoir
ounded in Columbus, Ohio in 1937, The
American Boychoir has been located in
Princeton, New Jersey since 1950. The
Boychoir is comprised of boys from all over the
United States and abroad.
F
As part of The American Boychoir, the boys sing
in more than 100 performances each year. They
tour the country singing in churches, theatres, and
concert halls. Last year, the boys performed in 25
states stretching from Minnesota to Texas and
from Massachusetts to Florida.
Recently, they sang at the National Prayer Service in New York City, commemorating the fifth anniversary
of September 11, 2001. And you know who else was at this event? President Bush and the First Lady!
The American Boychoir have sung in high-profile engagements with the Boston Symphony
Orchestra, at the Academy Awards with Beyoncé, and in a premier of Paul
McCartney's Ecce Cor Meum at Carnegie Hall. The Boychoir has produced
more than 20 CDs and has sung for commercials for Kodak Film, Apple
Computers, and M&Ms.
Listen to this! Stars and Stripes Forever • by John Philip Sousa • Track 2
What is a choir?
A choir (or chorus) is a group of singers who perform
together. Music for choirs can be found as early as the
6th century. The first kind of written music, called
Gregorian chant, was composed for choirs to sing for
worship. As music has changed over
time, different kinds of choirs have
evolved. Opera choirs sing in
operas. Symphonic choirs sing
with symphonies or orchestras.
Gospel choirs sing gospel music.
What is a boychoir?
In the early part of musical history, women were
not permitted to work in the church, not even to
sing in the choir. So, the choirs were made up
of men and boys. This is the beginning of the
tradition of the boychoir.
A boychoir is a choir made up only of boys.
Typically, members of a boychoir are young
enough that their voices have not changed, so
they sing as high as girls of the same age. Most
boychoir members are about 10 to 14 years old.
The oldest boychoir school in existence is Escolania de Montserrat, located in Spain. This school is part of
a church, and the boys sing at every service, several times a week. Possibly the most well-known of all the
boychoir schools is Wiener Sängerknaben, the Vienna Boys Choir from Austria.
Do you have questions you’d like to ask The American Boychoir? Write them here:
Listen to this! I Bought Me a Cat • by Aaron Copland • Track 5
What is a boarding school?
A boarding school is a place where students go to school
and live. The American Boychoir School is a boarding
school for boys in The American Boychoir. Many boys
live far away, so they need to live at the school.
The School teaches boys in fourth through eighth grade.
The Boychoir students study subjects much like the
classes you take: English, social studies, math, science,
Spanish, health and physical education. But they also take
classes in music and music theory.
Since the school is located in New Jersey, many of our
boys come from states close by. At least 45 of the 50
states and seven foreign countries have been represented
by boys at the American Boychoir.
The states that are represented by American Boychoir members are:
Alabama
Connecticut
Illinois
Louisiana
Minnesota
Nevada
North Dakota
Rhode Island
Vermont
Alaska
Delaware
Indiana
Maine
Mississippi
New Hampshire
Ohio
South Carolina
Virginia
Arkansas
Florida
Iowa
Maryland
Missouri
New Jersey
Oklahoma
Tennessee
Washington
California
Georgia
Kansas
Massachusetts
Montana
New York
Oregon
Texas
West Virginia
Can you locate these states on the map?
Listen to this! Simple Gifts • by Aaron Copland • Track 6
Colorado
Idaho
Kentucky
Michigan
Nebraska
North Carolina
Pennsylvania
Utah
Wisconsin
What is tempo?
Tempo describes the speed at which a piece of
music is performed. The tempo of music can be
fast, medium, or slow. Composers often use
words to describe the kind of tempo they want:
slow, fast, quick.
Can you think of other tempo words?
slow, fast, sluggish,
What are dynamics?
A metronome is a
device to determine
the tempo of a piece of
music. It was developed
in the 16th century by
Galileo using a
pendulum. Modern
metronomes measure
how many beats occur
in one minute. If the
music calls for the beat to equal 60, then
there should be 60 beats every minute (or
one beat every second).
If the music calls for the beat to be 120,
how many beats should there
be every second?
Dynamics are the volume or how loud or soft a piece
of music is. Dynamics are often expressed in the
Italian language. If music is loud, the dynamic is
called forte. If the music is soft, it is called piano.
If part of the music gets louder, by going soft to loud,
this is a crescendo. If it gets softer, by going loud to
soft, this is a decrescendo.
Listen to Niska Banja, a folk song from Serbia.
Can you tell how the composer alternates between
very loud sections and very soft ones?
What is articulation?
Articulation describes if notes are long or short. It
tells if one note is played distinctly from or connected
to the next note. In musical terms, notes are legato if
they are performed connected to each other. Notes are
staccato if they are detached and separate.
Can you say your name in a legato way?
Now try saying it in a staccato way.
Listen to this! Niska Banja • Serbian folk song • Track 7
Hear the music? Feel the beat?
How can you tell someone is listening to music? Even if people have on headphones, you sometimes can tell
that they are listening to music by the way they are moving. They might nod their head or clap their hands or
tap their feet along with the music. What they are feeling is the beat or the rhythm of the music. Marching and
dancing are two other ways that people move with music.
Most marches have a strong, two-beat rhythm.
ONE-two, ONE-two, or
LEFT-right, LEFT-right.
Dances usually have three-beat rhythms.
ONE-two-three, ONE-two-three.
RIGHT-left-right, LEFT-right-left.
March
Waltz
On beat one, step with your left foot.
On beat one, step with your right foot.
On beat two, step with your right foot.
On beat two, step with your left foot.
The march that you will be hearing
during the concert is Stars and Stripes
Forever by John Philip Sousa.
On beat three, step with your right foot
again.
1
1
2
Can you march or waltz along to the
beat of a song?
Listen to this! South African Medley • Track 8
2
3
On the road with The American Boychoir
The American Boychoir is on the road for almost 100
days each year! But this doesn't mean the boys get to
skip school. Teachers at our American Boychoir School
prepare tour packets for each grade. In each tour packet,
the boys find lessons for every academic subject, which
they will complete during the bus rides. A tour tutor
comes along on the bus to help the boys keep on track.
The bus serves as a classroom on wheels.
The Boychoir has three long tours every year, where
they sing concerts and at schools all over the country.
The choir is also invited to perform with famous
orchestras and singers. Besides studying their tour packets, the boys also write in their tour journals. A tour
journal is a written record, sort of like a diary, where the boys can describe what they did each day of tour.
Some days, it might be visiting a museum or a national park; other days, maybe singing a concert or recording
a CD. Recently, The American Boychoir was invited to sing at the Academy Awards on national television
with Beyoncé.
Our trip to Hollywood
Date
Imagine that you were
traveling with The
American Boychoir
on their trip to Hollywood.
Write your own tour
journal entry in the
space below, describing
the event.
Listen to this! Somewhere Over the Rainbow • by Harold Arlen • Track 9
Audience expectations
The audience is a very important part of concerts or
performances. Without an audience, performers would just
be having another practice or rehearsal. Here are a few things
to remember when you are an audience member for a musical
concert:
• Give respect – Remember to respect everyone
involved in the musical performance – your
classmates, the performers, your teachers, yourself.
• Listen – One of the most basic elements of being a
great audience member is listening.
• Behave – Avoid things that would distract from the
performance. That means no talking, no eating, no
drinking during the performance.
• Clap – If you enjoyed a part of the performance, let the performers know by clapping. Just
remember to clap at the appropriate times – at the end of the song or performance.
• Ask questions – Asking questions is a great way to learn about new things. If you have
questions about the Boychoir or about the performance, remember them. There will be time
at the end of the performance to ask questions.
• Enjoy – This performance is an opportunity for you to learn and enjoy. Make sure you are
acting in a way that makes it possible for everyone to listen, learn and enjoy the show.
Think about the different kinds of events in which you might be an audience member: a basketball game, a
movie, a play. These events all have audiences – but the audience for a basketball game acts much differently
than the audience for a musical performance. Let’s think about the differences between how you should act at
different kinds of events.
Put an “X” in the boxes where it is acceptable to do those kinds of behaviors at the different events.
Basketball
Game
Movie
Play
Rock
Concert
Choir
Performance
Church
Service
Eat
Talk
Cheer or yell
Stand up or
walk around
Give standing
ovation
Clap at end
Tap feet
to music
The American Boychoir • 19 Lambert Drive • Princeton, New Jersey • www.americanboychoir.org