Elias Condakes

Choral Methods and Literature

12 July 2018
Sarah Carson
Shine On Me by Rollo Dilworth
Text
1. The text is derived from an African-American spiritual that has no known author. The score
states “Traditional Spiritual” where the lyricists name would be.
2. The text conveys a want and desire to be basked in the light and glory of an all-knowing
presence. It asks the singer and audience to search for guidance from a place that is difficult
to pinpoint precisely but still exists, and this faith is terribly important in the grand scheme of
the song.
3. I will argue that “wonderin’ wonderin’ wonderin’ if there’s a light” is word painting as the
triplets push the singer’s thinking into the notion that they have wondered and thought for a
long time as to whether or not there will be a light to shine on them. The repetition of the
same word and same note may seem reductive but is meant to allow the yearning feeling to
burst through.
4. This piece requires some hard T’s (light) and D’s (wonderin’) as well as carrying over certain
consonants to other words. In measure 53, the second group needs to carry their T to beat 6
to make way for the “th” sound in “that” and then move the T of “that” to directly before “will.”
Also the “v” in “above” needs to be vocalized, and no break can be taken between “above”
and “in” when the counter melody has those words in succession with each other (like in
measure 25).
5. The phrase at measure 14 has a different stress melodically on the word “me” than it did
before, and could be the cause of some confusion, as the last note needs to be stressed
and students will have to work to make those rhythms come together perfectly. At 20 into 21
the word “on” is on a triplet that needs to be passed through quickly so that the phrase will
sound smooth and the students can get to the point (being “me,” not “on.”)

Form
1. The composition has an A section and a B section and then a section where the two are
played simultaneously (effectively the C section).
2. This piece has two sections of climax: the build to measure 40 where both A and B are sung
at the same time, and then again at measure 55 to the end.

Melody:
1. The melodies of the song are written in phrases that are predominantly short. The phrases
of both sections (A and B) consist of either 2 or 4 measures in length.
2. The melodies of both sections are primarily conjunct in motion.
3. The melodic motive the piece is based on is found from measures 6 to 13, as the counter
melody is based in motion on that exact melody.
4. At measure 24 the students have to go down a full step to the dominant 7th rather than the
leading tone that they would be used to, and this comes back at the start of every time the
countermelody begins. Also at 33 they have to go back up to the F-sharp making it a leading
tone again, and then at measure 36 taking the half step from E to D-sharp will be difficult
because in the same measure they go back to D-natural. While half-step intervals are not
exactly difficult to reach, they are certainly difficult to keep perfectly in tune when switching
between them as quickly as this song does. All of these half-step changes occur again when
 the second part modulates and the two melodies are sung together. At measure 55, the last
difficult interval is the major second sung by the first and second groups.

Harmony:
1. The music is written in the key of G-major and modulates to the key of A flat major. at
measure 40.
2. The harmonic rhythm is predominantly moderate/slow. The triplets in the accompaniment,
while they suggest a certain amount of speed, are meant to be kept steady for the singers.
3. The harmonic language of this piece follows something similar to “Amazing Grace.” The
chord structure is I, I7, IV7, I first inversion - III, vi, vi maj7, II, V.
4. Dissonance can be found all throughout this piece as the chords are all very “jazzy.”
However the largest points of dissonance during the section where melody and
countermelody combine can be found at measure 41, 45, 49, 53, and 55.
5. At measure 24, that will be the first time when the choir has to follow the chord movement
and use it as a melody, which can get awkward. Also again at measure 28 they will have to
listen very carefully to get the motion of their part and the chords correctly. But past these
two moments, it is repetitive enough that they should understand how the melody fits into
the chord structure.

Rhythm:
1. In this piece there is not one specific rhythmic motive, however with the 9/8 time signature in
a spiritual such as this one, the introduction sets up the rhythmic structure of the piece
where the beginning of each measure has beats that are a bit longer with pickups into the
next beat and ending on a triplet.
2. The tempo is a moderate gospel swing where the dotted quarter note gets the beat and is at
66 beats per minute. The rhythmic execution can get difficult around the moments when
students need to hold out certain words for triples such as the first “me” on measure 9.
Students will also need to be aware of the difference between a short stress of the first
syllable of a word like “won-der” at measure 10, verses “o-on” at measure 6. This can get
difficult to execute but with time and patience students will learn the difference between the
rhythms.
3. There are no meter changes in this piece.

Texture:
1. The texture begins thin and then gets thicker when the two groups sing the melody and
countermelody together. The accompaniment begins to offer a bit of a thicker texture around
measure 27 when the accompaniment’s rhythm starts to mimic the countermelody.
2. The texture of the piece changes from homophonic (melody with accompaniment, then
counter melody with accompaniment) to counterpoint at m. 40 when the two groups come
together.
3. The accompaniment is integral for this song as it will lead the choral voices during the
countermelody to correctly reach all of the chromatic steps necessary to complete the piece.

Dynamics:
1. The overall dynamic structure of the piece is that it begins at a mezzo forte and stays there
for a while. Very little markings are put into the score which allows for the conductor to
shape everything the way they want to with phrasing. While not much deviation should be
taken, it would still be worth it to keep the held notes more dynamically shaped and to give a
 small decrescendo just before the forte at measure 40. The more drastic the dynamics are
at that point in the song, the more the students can feel the piece and nourish their souls.
2. There are two official moments where there are dynamics written into the piece (measure 1
and measure 40). The range is small enough that the height of the notes does not suggest
any major dynamic changes, but the length of the notes suggests that held notes could and
should grow during the first melody (particularly during measures 6-7, 21-22, and 56).

Relationship of the Parts:

1. There are no sections in the piece where one section becomes more important than
another.
2. There are no other groupings of the choir except for groups 1 and 2 when the melody and
counter melody are sung together.
3. There are no major moments where the two sections could be taught at the same time.
While the recurring melodies are exactly the same when they modulate, they could not be
taught at the exact same time. They could be run together the first time that the group
modulates, as they stay effectively the same.

Historical Context:
1. While the text is unknown and possibly written during a spiritual renaissance of church
music, the music itself was written in 2001 which makes it contemporary music.
2. The characteristics of the contemporary period that exist in this music are more found in it’s
accompaniment than the melody. The accompaniment includes a lot of jazz chords and
broken chords that are reminiscent of the musical experimentation at the beginning of the
contemporary period, although it follows a very specific chord structure.
3. The performance practices that would be best for this piece include having the students
move and smile to their own beats. While uniform motion can be fun for gospel, with a song
that is slightly more under tempo than the usual (right, left) motion, and using a meter based
in 3 strong beats, it might be best to encourage the students to feel the music in their bodies
at their own leisure while also demonstrating an appropriate amount of movement.
4. Not much is written about his personal life during the time of the composition of the piece.
However, at the time he wrote the piece, he held the position of director of the music
education program and director of the choral program at North Park University in Chicago.

Conducting Considerations:
1. I would use a pattern of 3 to conduct this piece.
2. The style of conducting I would choose to use for this piece would be a more legato pattern
until the final measures at 55 and 56 where each beat is accented enough to render it’s own
dictation from the conductor. This would be at a more marcato pace.

TKTS:
Potentially the largest leap problem for the students would be hearing the difference between
sol-do and sol-la-do as it is used so frequently throughout the piece. The way in which I would
go about doing it would be to literally work through the sections the first melody uses in solfege
first and make sure that students can best match the pitch.
The hardest dynamic moment would be the shaping of the phrases, particularly in the melody of
the piece.