A Standing Call for Songs to Sing at Music Conferences
I have always wanted to assemble a small book of easy enough to sight-sing songs for academic music conferences. Of the past three conferences I have been to this year, there has always been that one moment where someone says something like “Ah, we have had our coffee, we should now sing a chorale together!”
Someone then loads up IMSLP on the main projector and after settling on some Bach chorale, it becomes very obvious that (as with all choirs) a few people are very good and carry the group, while others do their best to keep up, and those who might not be able to sight read four part chorales maybe feel a bit excluded. It’s fun for a second, but as music academics, I feel like we are missing out on some major joy not having something like this be more of a staple of getting together in person.
Wouldn’t it be nice, inclusive, and very community forward thinking if there was a small book of short, singable songs that could be sung by not only people with conservatory training, but catered to with less sight singing ability? Something that could be looked at before the conference if you wanted something to look forward to or practice (that’s not your talk)? Or after the conferences to be nostalgic about?
Of course it’d have some cheesy academic songs, but it would also be fun to throw in a few living composers, songs not in English, tunes written for music conferences?
If you know of a tune or arrangement that you think would be good in collection like this, please either tweet me or send me an email.
If I get a few of them, I’ll assemble them into a small book.