Choral Music Magazine

HAMPTON: Your recent composition, Gloria, composed for a compilation concert entitled Mass Transit, is about to be published. How were you influenced by the music of the other composers whose music was programmed for that concert?

DOLE: I came across a free-standing Credo by Finnish composer, Einojuhani Rautavaara, that is gorgeous and I wanted to program it. Wouldn't it be fun, I thought, to piece together a mass entirely comprised of free-standing mass movements? Not surprisingly, this proved to be near impossible, but I did find an eclectic array of contemporary masses from which to choose, and ultimately decided upon the Kyrie from Kristina Vasiliauskaite's Missa Brevis, Sanctus from the Frank Martin, Mass for Double Chorus, Hosanna/Benedictus from Kirke Mechem's Missa Bevis, and Agnus Dei from Javier Busto's Missa Brevis Pro Pace. All of this was designed to balance a program that included the Byrd Mass for four voices in the first half.

But I couldn't find a Gloria that was the right length and in a style that worked with the rest of the pieces. This presented an opportunity to put on my composer's hat, and I went to work. The result was indeed influenced by the other composer's styles. There are a couple of measures, like “propter magnam gloriam tuam," that are not an exact quote of Martin, but have a similar rhythm and feel to parts of his mass. The fugual section at "cum sancto spiritu" not only pays homage to all of the great fugues written on that text throughout history, but also is influenced by Mechem's imitative writing in his Hosanna. Finally, knowing that my Gloria would have to fit into the musically accessible genre that all the other pieces had, I consciously wrote in a style that was more approachable, harmonically, than my previous work. Giving myself permission to write harmonies that were less dense and more consonant was a breakthrough of sorts for me. The choir took to it immediately, and we had a blast rehearsing it.

HAMPTON: How was the piece received in concert?

DOLE: Extremely well! In fact we sang it again as the encore, every night, to great ovations. It has a big, Hollywood-style ending in C major.

HAMPTON: How did you pursue publishing?

DOLE: I tried to get published a few times around 25 years ago, and got rejected. Over the years, as I've concentrated on my conducting and singing careers, I'd just let that dream slip onto the back-burner. But I've also been looking around at who is publishing choral music these days, and which company seemed like it might be in tune with my style. Because I'm a California boy, I was drawn to Santa Barbara Music Publishing, and to Earthsongs in Oregon. In fact, I met Barbara Harlow, the owner of Santa Barbara Music Publishing, when I was at the national ACDA convention in New York five or six years ago. But it was at the time of this year's convention in Miami (as I was feeling sorry for myself that I couldn't afford to go) that I recalled that meeting. My thought was that if I couldn't be there in person, perhaps I could be pro-active in some other way. The Santa Barbara website clearly states that one should only send in pieces that have been performed, along with a recording, so I thought that my Gloria might be a great piece to start with. Much to my surprise, about two weeks after I sent it in, I received an email from Barbara Harlow saying she thought the piece was excellent, and wanted to publish it. I'm very excited about my latest composition, Invitation to a Voyage, which we will be premiering in our June concerts.

HAMPTON: Your June 8th concert is entitled, Bach, Beatles and Beyond. Are all of your singers comfortable performing such a diverse array of genres?

DOLE: Well, it's quite challenging on every front. We haven't done any pop music before so getting comfortable with the rhythms and singing "back-up" is taking some getting used to. The Bach has its technical challenges as well, but we've done enough Bach and other Baroque pieces over the years that we at least have a way to approach it. Invitation to a Voyage is again rather approachable harmonically, and even though it is in six parts throughout (SSATBB), it unfolds very slowly. Usually my music takes a lot of time to settle into the voices, but in this case, it is the piece that is coming off the page most easily.

HAMPTON: Many of us love King's Singers pop arrangements, which you've programmed. How will you work these light and sometimes detailed songs for such a large ensemble?

DOLE: Fortunately, because we all know the Beatles tunes so well, we are getting a relaxed tone that seems instinctual to these (mostly) baby-boomers. As mentioned, getting the entire choir, especially our somewhat large soprano section, to sing softly enough on the background vocals is a challenge. It's different from my experience in Chanticleer and other small ensembles. We may need to divide the sections and have only half sing at a time, but we're still working, and it may be that we get things to balance without resorting to that.

HAMPTON: It's understandable that you want to accommodate all of your singers by rehearsing in different locations across the Bay Area, but has this proven advantageous for attendance?

DOLE: In fact, starting this season we moved away from that model. We did make it work, but I found it to be extremely frustrating. Two weeks in a month I would rehearse one group on Monday night and then try to replicate that experience for the other group on Tuesday. For the other two weeks we would alternate locations for full-group rehearsals. The commute distance between the Berkeley and Palo Alto sites is roughly 40 miles. There were often reasons why singers from one side of the bay couldn't make it to the other side for "full" rehearsals. And those were the times when we were supposed to be creating blend and balance, etc. That, plus the desire to reduce commuting during rush hour, and the cost of gas and emissions, etc., finally brought the board to decide to focus on our Palo Alto home base. It was very painful losing many excellent singers from the Berkeley contingent, but happily they have created their own group, Chora Nova, so they could keep singing together. I'm very pleased that it worked out this way!

HAMPTON: Anything else you care to add?

DOLE: We would like to expand our numbers. Believe it or not we need altos! If any one reading this knows of interested singers, of any voice part, please send them our way. www.cantabile.org

Sanford Dole received his Bachelor and Masters degrees (in composition and conducting, respectively) from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. A native of Berkeley, he was a founding member of Chanticleer and was the Assistant Director of the San Francisco Symphony Chorus from 1987-1997. Mr. Dole is Music Director at St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco and a member of the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra Chorale. In addition, he produces periodic concerts of the Sanford Dole Ensemble.

PHOTO CREDIT: Joel Bartlett

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