2008 Camps & Workshops
South African Song & Dance Workshop
Saturday, April 5, 2008
10:30 AM - 5:00 PM
Bethany Church, Main Street, Montpelier, VT
Led by Patty Cuyler, Larry Gordon
Tuition: $50
Tuition for additional participants from the same choir: $10 students/$15
adults
Each full-paying participant will receive a CD-rom with pdf wordsheets, transcriptions, part recordings and full concert performance recordings, and video showing the dance steps, for all the songs taught in the workshop.
- South African Music Workshop Registration Form.pdf (48 KB)
- South African Music Workshop Registration Form.doc (28 KB)
Especially for choral directors & music teachers (all others are welcome!)
This four-part harmony singing is fantastic repertoire for high school choirs, community choirs, even middle school choirs. In our community choirs, in our summer singing camps and in the scores of workshops which we lead, we have always found these South African songs with dances to be favorites of both singers and audiences.
Much of the music is in call and response form, with subtle rhythmic interplay. Every song also includes a dance – the song and dance are inseparable because the rhythm of the dance is often in counterpoint to the rhythm of the song, and it is only together that the rhythmic structure becomes understandable. None of the individual elements are complex: the melodies are catchy, the harmonies mostly triadic, the singing timbre is rich and mellifluous, and the dance steps generally are not complicated. Combined all together the songs are challenging, but wonderfully joyous, rewarding and satisfying.
This workshop is especially aimed at choir leaders or singers who would like to bring these songs back to their choirs, and we will teach each song thoroughly enough to make this possible. The songs will be taught by ear, with wordsheets, much as they would be learned in South Africa.
The workshop package also includes notated transcriptions of all the songs taught, plus an accompanying CD with recorded performances of each song, separate teaching tracks for each vocal part, and QuickTime videos of the dance steps. Written music notation is at best an inexact record of the subtleties of South African rhythms, but these transcriptions, together with the recordings and videos, will aid in recreating the songs later on.
We strongly urge you to recruit other singers from your choir to attend the workshop with you, ideally one for each of the four vocal parts. By far the most efficient way of teaching these songs to your choirs will be to have someone who can lead each of the parts. If you are a teacher and don’t feel confident as a dancer, you may find that some of your students will be quicker at learning the dances and better at remembering them than you, and can help teach them later on. To encourage group participation we are offering an extreme reduced price for additional singers from each choir.
Patty Cuyler and Larry Gordon have since 1999 worked closely with South African conductor Matlakala Bopape and the Polokwane Choir which has won many awards at regional and national choir competitions in South Africa. They have led three Village Harmony singing camps in South Africa studying the music first hand. Patty has published The Folk Rhythm, Volume 1, the first of a series of songbooks of South African SATB choral arrangements with teaching CDs and an accompanying DVD, with a second volume in the works.
To register, download an application form from the top of the page, or simply send in the name(s) of participants, with address and email, along with a check for appropriate tuition amount to:
Village Harmony
5748
Hollister Hill Road
Marshfield, VT 05658