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southwestern France. The institute has had a number of sponsors over the years, including Emory, Ohio State, and Boston universities. It is now sponsored by Furman University, a physically...
...It was in a smaller space---a church, not a concert hall...
...and a rich, hooty bass tone that works as a sort of Verdi-like foundation...
...He typically stands to the side, applauding the orchestra, soloists, and chorus, and sometimes singling out individuals for acclaim...
...Another factor in creating the sound is Shaw's meticulous editing of the scores: he gives dynamic marking to virtually every note, for every voice and instrumental part...
...No one gets basses to sound the way that Shaw's do...
...Not only was every eye on him when not on the music, but a sort of collective clock seemed to have the singers and conductor moving through the music as one unit, one spirit...
...Shaw gave so utterly of himself that it was impossible not to be moved...
...It is now sponsored by Furman University, a physically beautiful school in Greenville with an outstanding music program...
...The institute consists of two weeks of intensive score study and preparation with Shaw, culminating in two concerts...
...Amazingly, in a week's rehearsal time, Shaw can get "the sound" with a choir he is guest conducting...
...Start with lightness and precision...
...If Furman sticks with Shaw, it will be known worldwide...
...Both were followed by encores of Shaw/Parker spirituals...
...When he performs Bach, there is quickness yet all Bach's passion and fervor remain...
...and four pieces by Benjamin Britten: Selections from "A.M.D.G.," from the opera Gloriana, and from "Sacred and Profane...
...It was the most intimate and perhaps most deeply moving concert of classical music I have ever heard...
...The first program was held at Greenville's performing arts center...
...He was teaching the audience as well as the singers he had been instructing all week...
...Shaw described as "a frighteningly brief" bout with cancer...
...The piece itself is about the death of Howells's only son...
...Many factors converged...
...It was very fine, but the sound was English, boyish, and sweet...
...The listener did not want to leap out of the seat and yell "Bravo...
...hat is the famous "Shaw sound...
...What makes "the Shaw sound...
...and breaking down the music into separate tasks, so that the notes, rhythm, enunciation, dynamics, and color are all handled separately...
...The first concert was sublime...
...This was "the quiet music of the Holy Ghost" in a hypnotic performance...
...but simply to sit (or perhaps stand) in appreciative silence...
...Shaw knits together 160 singers to sound like 16...
...The performance of the Howells Requiem was dedicated to a member of the choir who had died just two days before, after what Mr...
...Shaw will seldom come to the center of the stage to bow, and if pressed, will do so only once...
...Shaw, no horns or strings...
...There is also a singular velvety quality...
...There were only the choir and Mr...
...Precision plus spirit...
...The singers never just "hang around...
...It consisted of the Mass in G Minor by Ralph Vaughan Williams...
...The two programs I heard in Greenville were even more extraordinary than what I had heard in Atlanta...
...Shaw builds an internal unity in the choir from its mutual cornCommonweal | 2 November6,1998...
...There is always something to do (even if it can't easily be done...
...One could sense the absolute unity of the choir in total sync with its conductor...
...But it is not possible for me to convey how poignant and profoundly beautiful the second performance was...
...Requiem, by Herbert Howells...
...The second program was English, modern, and without orchestra...
...The first program consisted of the Bach motet "Singet dem Herrn" ("Sing to the Lord a New Song"), the Mozart Mass in C Major (or "Coronation Mass"), and the Haydn Mass in D Minor (or "Lord Nelson Mass...
...an almost dancing soprano sound, never screechy or shrill...
...Finally, at the First Baptist performance, Shaw annotated virtually every piece with his humorous, salty, deeply felt commentary, making the performance all the more personal...
...After Greenville, I bought a non-Shaw recording of the Howells Requiem...
...After a two-and-a-half-hour program, the octogenarian was so exhausted that, accompanied by an aide, he simply left the hall while the audience stood waiting for him to return to take his bow...
...The second was at the First Baptist Church...
...The composer wrote it, then tucked it away for almost fortyfive years...
...and "Rejoice in the Lamb...
...All this is accomplished according to Shaw's well-honed method: an emphasis on rhythm and on count-singing...
...When Shaw's choir sang the piece, it had been anguished, searching, and, finally, a fluid, confident prayer of consolation...
Vol. 125 • November 1998 • No. 19
