“Though music is clearly not a language, it expresses things that words are feeble to do. It is communication.”
That is James Haines’ take on why music is just as important to college students as reading, as sports, as extra-curriculars.
Elizabethtown College is home to several musical ensembles, a good number of which are credit-bearing endeavors. In addition, the College boasts seven chamber groups—smaller ensembles that perform without a conductor.
“We are required by the accrediting agency—National Association of Schools of Music—that every music major must have at least one semester in an ensemble group,” said Haines, Fine and Performing Arts department chair. “All of the large ensembles, except Jazz Band, fulfill a core curriculum.
“When making music with others, they learn something about the context in which the music was written; they are being exposed to culture of that moment,” Haines said of participating students. “It’s also about working with peers to make a successful performance.”
Though music is clearly not a language, it expresses things that words are feeble to do. It is communication.”
Haines said music is often thought of as extra-curricular but, “if done well it supports. It’s working together, discipline, developing gross to fine motor skills, developing listening. You have a different relationship with people with whom you make music,” he said.
The three main choral groups at E-town are headed by Matt Fritz, associate professor of music, who noted that choirs of human voices have been around since the “dawn of the first hominids.”
“Songs have been galvanizing forces throughout history and in every culture. And no culture on earth is devoid of singing,” he said. “To sing is to bring joy to the world. To sing with others is to magnify that joy 100 fold.”
Those opportunities come by way of Concert Choir, Women’s Chorus and the College-Community Chorus.
Concert Choir, an audition group, is a mix of men’s and women’s voices. The group tours nationally and internationally every other year immediately after graduation. Past trips have been to Brazil, Hawaii and Austria.
Women’s Chorus also is an audition group, with classes meeting one evening a week. Performances take place on campus once or twice a year.
And rounding out the choral selection is the College-Community Chorus, which is open to anyone—on or off campus—who likes to sing. The group meets once a week and performs on campus once per term. Members range in number from 40 to 80 depending on the year, with the majority of singers coming from the College.
“Music ensembles are important because they are one of the few areas of the curriculum where students are required to be interdependent,” said Fritz. “The sense of camaraderie achieved while learning a particularly difficult and/or beautiful work of music is indescribable. The shared experience results in not only a synchronicity of heart rate throughout the ensemble (LITERALLY!) but also a rich sensory experience which, decades later, can be relived by simply hearing the same work again.”
Robert Spence, associate professor of music and director of instrumental studies, leads the Elizabethtown College instrumental groups.
Symphonic band, open to all college students with no audition, has about 75 members, and the College-Community Orchestra, also open to all string players and college wind players, includes about a third of its performers from the surrounding community.
Involvement in Symphonic Band or College-Community Orchestra gives students experience in developing sequential skills and concepts that not only help them in performance but also will be useful in their professional life beyond college. Performances give students a positive outlet for creativity, expression and musical awareness, and beyond performance, involvement in ensembles offers students exposure to diverse composers.
But, mostly, Spence said, the ensembles “provide our audiences with a concert experience that serves to both educate and entertain; with our music helping to support, encourage and uplift the human spirit.”
Grant Moore, director of the College’s preparatory division, directs the College’s Jazz Band, a non-audition ensemble of about two dozen performers with a “typical big band sound.” Jazz Band tours with Concert Choir, “thereby providing travel, service projects and cultural opportunities to the members of the band,” said Moore. This year Concert Choir and Jazz Band perform in South Africa.
“The College Jazz Band has a long standing tradition of performing on campus, providing our college community with big band music of many different styles,” the director said. “The Jazz Band is open to students of all majors and provides a varied jazz experience …”
Taking it down a notch in size are seven chamber ensembles—brass, woodwind, string, percussion, piano, voice and flute—which have one player, at the most, per part. “A string quartet, a brass quintet, a woodwind quintet,” Haines mentioned, as example. “This year the string ensemble is just two, but sometimes we have the standard.”
In addition, the College has two non-credit music groups: the small men’s choir Sine Nomine and Camerata, an auditioned madrigal choir of 16 students, directed by students.
Haines admits that it’s hard work to be in musical ensemble but “there is reward one gets from doing so. … The students gain from the experience—music major or non-music major. Music is an innate human experience.”
You can hear the College’s music groups in concert over the next few weeks. All performances are free and take place in the College’s Leffler Chapel and Performance Center. For information contact Amy Reynolds at 717-361-1212 or reynoldsa@etown.edu.
The 75-member College-Community Orchestra performs works by Rimsky-Korsakov and Dvorak and features the winners of the College’s Concerto Competition, Elizabeth Boyer, soprano, and Amanda Watson, piano, at 3 p.m. Sunday, April 19.
At 5:15 p.m. Tuesday, April 21, the College presents the Scholarship and Creative Arts Day Showcase Recital. A highlight of the year in the Department of Fine and Performing Arts, the Showcase features theatrical performances as well as vocal, instrumental and piano music. Performers are chosen through a highly selective audition process in February.
At 3 p.m. Sunday, April 26, the 75-member Symphonic Band is in concert, featuring works by Mitchell, Klingbeil and Holst.
And, winding down the academic year, is a spring choral and Jazz Band concert at 3 p.m. Sunday, May 3. Elizabethtown College choirs and Jazz Band offer an eclectic mix from the Renaissance to pieces written in the past year—freedom songs from South Africa and spirituals from the United States. Choral works include Mozart to Morten Lauridsen, and Jazz Band brings legends of big band.