ON THE BEAT (To other issues)
The Official Newsletter of Moravian College Music Department
Spring 1996 -- Volume 1, issue ii

A Good Moravian Idea

This past fall, a symposium entitled A Good Moravian Organ: the work and inspiration of David Tannenberg (1728-1804), organ builder was held in Bethlehem, Nazareth and Lititz. The symposium was sponsored in large part by the Moravian Museum, whose president is Moravian alumnus Willard Martin ('74). The symposium consisted of 3 days of tours, lectures and demonstrations, and included a special lautenwerk performance in Foy Concert Hall by Kim Heindel. The symposium was attended by more than eighty people, including travelers from as far away as Connecticut, Virginia, North Carolina, California, and Washington State.

Inspired by the success of the Tannenberg symposium, the music department has joined forces with the Moravian College Theological Seminary and The Moravian Museum to organize an on-going, bi-annual series of conferences on Moravian music and culture beginning in the fall of 1996. The Bethlehem Conferences on Moravian Music will begin with a symposium dedicated to arguably the greatest of all Moravian composers, Johann Friedrich Peter, whose 250th birthday falls in 1996. Johann Friedrich Peter (1746-1813), his world, and beyond is scheduled for October 24 - 27 1996, and will feature concerts by Moravian students and faculty, choral reading sessions, and lectures on Peter's life and works, as well as other late eighteenth century music. Anyone interested in attending or participating in all or part of this event is invited to contact the music department by phone (610) 861-1650, or e-mail (mecat01@moravian.edu).

Meet Our Majors

Beginning with this issue, we will select two current music majors to tell you their stories in their own words. We begin this feature with Jennifer Schaeffer, a junior voice major from Minersville, PA; and Todd Silvius, a sophomore trumpet major from Nazareth, PA.

Jennifer Schaeffer

At a very early age the parents of Jennifer Schaeffer recognized her natural talent for music. She began composing simple pieces at age four, and at age six began formal piano training with her mother... Oh wait... I'm sorry, I was thinking of someone else for a minute there- My musical life is not that of a child prodigy. In fact, I think the extent to which I was musical at a young age was probably more on the percussive side, you know- pots pans and wooden spoons from the kitchen. I'm just an ordinary person who decided to become a musician (and as we all well know, once that happens we never seem to return fully to the normal side again, do we?!)

If some one would have asked me in my senior year in high school if I thought I would be a music major in college, I would have replied "no" without any hesitation. At the time it was not a field I seriously considered as a career. When I came to Moravian as a freshman I decided not to over extend myself by joining too many groups, so I joined one small musical ensemble: the Pennsylvania Youth Honors Concert Choir. That was the extent of my musical involvement in my first semester; however, PYHCC proved to be very challenging and interesting and brought something out in me- something that told me I wanted more... more music, more performance, more learning experiences. So, my second semester I tried to get more. I joined the college choir, remained in PYHCC, joined the college wind ensemble, and even decided to declare myself as a music minor. After being a minor for two semesters, I still felt as if I needed more. It seemed as though being a minor wasn't enough. Over the winter break of my sophomore year I did a lot of thinking, especially while taking a winter session class which was a tour in Europe. While I was in Europe this small passion for music which I had developed over the years seemed to be intensifying rapidly. This is when I decided that I wanted to become a music major, not because I was some virtuoso, but because I had my own special passion for music.

Now, I'm in the second semester of my junior year and have finished the requirements for my primary major. As my senior year gets closer and closer, I should probably decide what I am going to do with a B.A. in psychology and a B.A. in music. I am currently thinking of going on to graduate school, not to study psychology but music. There are still many options I have left to explore, but there is one thing I know for sure: music will be a part of my future somehow.

Todd Silvius

Todd Silvius is a sophomore music education major at Moravian College. His major instrument is the trumpet, which he has studied since the third grade, and he enjoys accompanying on the piano. In addition to accompanying, Todd enjoys playing in ensembles like the college wind ensemble, stage band, brass sextet, and in Moravian's newest addition to its ensemble opportunities, the Trumpet Ensemble. During the past year, Todd has been presented with the Leon Prokofy Leonovich award by the music department. This scholarship award is merit based on fine musical achievement of a sophomore music major and was awarded at the college's opening vespers service for the 1995 - 96 academic year.

Socially, Todd is a founding officer of Moravian's chapter of Delta Omicron. ĈO is the college's first international music fraternity, and within it Todd holds the office of chapter historian. Todd also is the student representative to the music alliance, where he helps organize concerts and music department promotional engagements, and also offers student input and concern towards the development of these programs.

Outside of the music department Todd is a member of 26 points, the campus college ambassador organization. He is also active with Moravians At Moravian, a Christian group on campus organized for Moravians attending the college.

Having performed in such prestigious orchestras such as the Lehigh Valley Choral Union, the Pennsylvania Sinfonia, and the Lehigh Valley Chamber Orchestra, Todd finds time not only to pursue his career in music education, but also as a professional musician and performer. With regard to the last issues MC Inquiry, wherein it was asked with whom would you have dinner, Todd would go out to dinner with Cindy Crawford only if she would pick up the tab; however he would much rather enjoy dining with his close friends whom he has made over the years.

Wind Ensemble News: Air apparent

The MCWE performs its Spring concert April 12, 1996 at 8:00 p.m. in Foy Concert Hall. As has been MCWE tradition, the senior college officers will conduct pieces. President and assistant conductor Ryan Zellner will conduct Bernstein's Slava!; vice-president Sandra Nuss will conduct Wagner's Elsa's Procession to the Cathedral; and manager Joyce Dawley will conduct Gallagher's Intrada. The MCWE will also perform two exciting band works: Alfred Reed's Third Suite and Robert Dvorak's El Anillo Guatamalteco. Rounding out the performance is Henck Bading's Transitions. Transitions is an experimental texture-piece with aleatoric aspects. However, by the end of the piece, the textures merge into a march-like finale.

Spring 1996 is the second time that the MCWE will hold a rehearsal weekend the second weekend of the term. During this rehearsal weekend, the ensemble will rehearse the April concert music as well as a piece for next year, Owen Reed's La Fiesta Mexicana.

Participation in the Moravian College Wind Ensemble is open to college and community instrumentalists. MCWE rehearses Thursday evenings from 6:50 p.m. to 9:20 p.m. (Yes, those are odd times. But we're trying to get a "band bus" at 9:30 to return players to the main street campus.) To ensure a proper balance, new members must take a placement audition. For more information about joining the MCWE please call me: Professor James Barnes at (610) 861-1672.

"Who would play you? The MC Inquiry

This issue's question: In a movie about your life, who would you want to play you?

"Whoopi Goldberg..." Brenda Rundle. DCS, music education major

"Tim Roth..." Michel Watts, junior, B.A. music

"Debra Winger..." Mimi Papp, adjunct violin instructor

"Barbara Streisand, as long as she promised not to sing..." Stephen Primatic, adjunct percussion instructor

"Zoltan Kodaly..." George Hrab

Prof. Barnes kindly requests

We need Moravian College's music back! Many pieces in our small and large ensemble libraries are missing key parts. Please look through your music collection, clean out that closet at home, or open up that unused instrument case to check for Moravian College parts and scores. Even if you think you have returned everything, please check again. (If your closet looks like mine, it definitely needs cleaning anyway!)

With the growth of the Department comes a greater demand for technique instruments and ensemble instruments. If you are no longer performing with a college ensemble, please return all college instruments.

And, if you own an instrument or some music that you are not using, why not donate it to the department? The college will send you a nice letter thanking you for your donation. If you use the donation as a tax deduction, you will need to determine the worth since the college cannot tell you how much it is worth. But even if you donate the instrument without taking a tax deduction, the college would appreciate knowing your estimate of the instrument's worth.

Choral Tour: Choir going over to Dover

The Moravian College Choir and Women's Chorus plan to tour to Ohio this spring March 9th through the 11th. They have been asked by The First Moravian Church of Dover, along with five other nearby churches in Ohio, to perform a concert, as well as participate in a service Sunday morning at the Dover church. One of the choir's tenors, Eric Frank, is the son of the pastor, Albert Frank, at the First Church of Dover. The trip is going to cost over $4000, and the choir is in the process of several fundraising ventures. They will be selling discount cards for $5 that will entitle the purchaser to special deals with many local stores and restaurants. The choirs will also be selling scented candles in the month of February - a great Valentines' gift!

The Choirs have been asked by Bishop Stanley Thomas to participate in a concert to benefit a renovation project for the Camp Hope Conference and Renewal Center in New Jersey. They will be performing at the camp on Sunday, March 24 at 3:00pm. On the same program will be members of the Calvary Moravian Church Choir and the Palmer Moravian Youth Handbell choir.

The choral spring concert will be on April 20th at 8pm and April 21 at 4 p.m. in Foy Concert Hall. The Women's Chorus will sing The Canticle of the Sun by Libby Larsen and the College Choir will be performing Mozart's Requiem and Bernstein's Chichester Psalms with orchestra and vocal soloists. Please call (610) 861-1650 for ticket information.

PYHCB News

PY vs SPY

The second 1995-96 PYHCB performance pieces are now being rehearsed. LTC Danny Jaynes, Bandmaster and Director of Instrumental Music at Valley Forge Military Academy and College, chose Wagner's Prelude to the Meistersinger as his showcase piece with the band. The other pieces on the performance include McBeth's Capriccio Concertante, Reed's Song of the High Cascades, Sanders' Prairie Wind, and Ives' Variations on America. The PYHCB Jazz Ensemble will be playing Funky Freddy and Tongue n' Groove. Some of the PYHCBJE members led by PYHCB Manager Mike Cressler are also putting together a fusion piece for this performance.

And to all of the "old" PYHCB members: do you have any Moravian College music or instruments? If you do, we need them back! Please get the music and/or instruments to the department as soon as you can. Your part may be the one we need to perform a piece again.

Summer PYHCB?

Feedback from all current and past PYHCB members is needed. I am considering having an honors band this summer (1996.) Please let me know your interest in doing a couple of weeks of rehearsing and at least one performance. The Summer Honors Band would be open to all past, current, and new instrumentalists in eastern PA and western NJ. Who knows, perhaps we will be able to attract people from far away to reside on Moravian's campus for this event. Please contact me as soon as you're able via snail-mail: Prof. James Barnes, Moravian College, 1200 Main Street, Bethlehem, PA 18018; phone: (610) 861-1672; or e-mail: mejeb01@moravian.edu (that's mejeb-zero-1) If you use e-mail, you'll be sure to get a fast reply from me.

Percussion Tour: High sticking

The Moravian College Percussion Ensemble is preparing for its second annual spring tour of area high schools. The ensemble plans to visit the Pine Grove Area high school, Liberty High School, and the Wilson Area High School during March 5th, 6th, and 7th. The ensemble consists of eight players, four of which are percussion majors. There seems to be no hesitation among the players to give up three days of their spring break. "It's one of the better performance experiences I can have..." says Robert Noyalas, senior music performance major. Led by adjunct music faculty member Stephen Primatic, the ensemble hopes to have as much fun as last year. "Last year's tour was a real success..." says Steve. "It's nice to perform these pieces in front of other, younger students. The tour also gives us a chance to play a greater variety of pieces than in our spring concert."

Moravian graduate Edward Protzman '95, who is now band director at Wilson looks forward to hearing his old ensemble mates perform. Ed is trying to start his own percussion ensemble at Wilson, and he hopes that Moravian's performance will get some of his students interested. The percussion ensemble has its spring concert this year on Sunday, March 24th at 4:00 p.m. in Foy concert hall.

Suzuki: Rosin Y'all

The Suzuki students of music institute string instructor Donna Clarke have been invited to participate in the 25th anniversary Festival Graduation of the New York School for Strings. The concert / graduation will be held June 14, 1996 in Manhattan's prestigious Carnegie Hall. Donna's private students participated in the 1991 graduation, and this year a number of her music institute students also plan to attend. The event is being hosted by noted writer and former CBS television reporter Charles Osgood, and composer Bruce Adolphe has been commissioned to write a special fanfare for the occasion. All of the students participating in the event will receive a special certificate signed by Dr. Suzuki and a T-Shirt commemorating the event. The concert will include a number of string performances, and will end with a grand finale of 500 students all playing a huge rendition of the Twinkle variations. Good luck to Donna and her students!

Institute News:
Evelyn Stewart & ConcertWorks

Evelyn Stewart

In recognition of Black History Month, the Moravian College Music Institute will present Evelyn Stewart, soprano, in recital on Saturday, February 17th at 8:00 p.m. in Foy Concert Hall. Evelyn studied vocal performance at Moravian, and was a featured soloist during the '90 college choir tour of the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, and East Germany. She is a member of the Allentown Music Club, and the Opera North Company of Philadelphia where she is the understudy for the role of the contessa in Le Nozze di Figaro, which will be performed in May at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia.

Evelyn has been a featured soloist on WLVT-TV39 Black Exposure, and has performed at Musikfest and Mayfair. Her program will include works by Strauss, Brahms, Mozart, Puccini, and African American composers such as Bonds, Johnson, and Dett.

Admission is $8 for adults, $5 for seniors and students, and $3 for children 12 and under. All Moravian students, staff, and faculty free with ID.

ChamberWorks

On Saturday, February 10th, adjunct music faculty member George Corbett will perform with his ensemble ChamberWorks at 8:00 p.m. in Peter Hall. The concert will feature in addition to George on oboe, soprano Shannon Coulter, and pianist Joseph Walsh. The first half of the program is entitled "Biedermeier Reflections," and features songs selected from the cycles of Robert Schumann and his Romances op.94. The concert's second half features the Sonata for Oboe and Keyboard in G minor, BWV 1030b, by J.S. Bach, A Place Called Morning, for oboe and voice by Scott Robinson, and Andrea Clearfield's Love Song, with poetry by Philadelphia based poet Patrick Kelly.

Admission is $8 for adults, $5 for seniors and students, and $3 for children 12 and under. All Moravian students, staff, and faculty free with ID.

Upcoming Events:
George Hrab & The Geologic Orchestra

On Sunday, February 11th, at 4:00 p.m., George Hrab and the Geologic Orchestra return with the sequel to last years critically ignored concert. The ensemble will be performing a number of Hrab's compositions, as well as pieces by Aaron Copland, John Lennon and Paul McCartney, King Crimson, and Frank Zappa.

The orchestra is made up of musicians including faculty, staff, students and alumni of Moravian College. The ensemble includes George Hrab- maniacal director; Carlo Dean- guitar; Skip Cassady- vocals, percussion; Bob Noyalas- percussion; Stephen Primatic- drums, keyboard; Nick Roberti- bass, vocals; and Neil Wetzel- sax, flute and piccolo.

Tickets for the event are $8 for adults, $5 for seniors and students, and $3 for children 12 and under. All Moravian students, staff, and faculty free with ID.

Jazz Sextet Plays the Telethon

On January sixth, the Moravian College Jazz sextet performed at the Philadelphia home station of the 1996 United Negro College Fund national fundraising telecast. The ensemble included current Moravian College music majors Philip Gottshall ('96) on piano, Bob Noyalas ('96)on drums, Carlo Dean ('98) on guitar, Stephen Clothier ('97) on tenor saxophone, John Powers ('96) on alto saxophone as well as alumnus George Hrab on bass. When asked to give reactions to the telethon, the members of the band replied:

"The audience was enthusiastic and supportive of our music... we felt at ease immediately."-John Powers

"It was a new and different experience plus a good learning experience"-Robert Noyalas

"Everyone seemed very happy to hear us play... we received a number of requests, and were often asked if we were available for private functions..."-George Hrab

"It was a wonderful opportunity to perform outside of Moravian College with a group I feel comfortable with. It was a nice atmosphere and the coordinators of the telethon were very polite and went out of their way to help us and even bring us food!"-Carlo Dean

"The evening was planned well and ran very smoothly... there was a great setting for the music."-Stephen Clothier

"I was surprised that people at the telethon were stopping by and listening to us play. It was great to be able to play 'My Funny Valentine' right as someone was requesting it..."-Philip Gottshall

The sextet will be one of the featured ensembles at this spring's jazz concert on March 29th at 8:00 p.m. in Foy Concert Hall.

Reader Mail: The letter box

Dear Musica Caesia,

I was delighted to receive your newsletter this fall. I hope it is successful and we can look forward to more information about the music department at Moravian. I know very little about the current music program and would like to learn more about it. I will be in Bethlehem for my reunion in May... and I would greatly appreciate an opportunity to visit with faculty, meet students, and hear any program you might be planning at that time. Who would be the best person to contact?

Again, thank you for your wonderful newsletter and I look forward to visiting with some of you in the spring.

Sincerely, Phyllis Clarke, class of '46

A tour of the music department will be given during the alumni weekend in May. All are welcome. Please feel free to call alumni relations at (610) 861-1366 for details on the tour. There are always programs going on at the music department, the majority of which are open to the public. If you're planning to be in Bethlehem and are wondering if there are events scheduled, please call the music department office at (610) 861-1650 and we'll be glad to let you know what concerts are occurring.

Write to us! Send questions, comments, news, and recipes to:

Musica Caesia

Send snail-mail to
Musica Caesia
Moravian College Music Department
1200 Main Street
Bethlehem, PA 18018

Articles contributed by: James E. Barnes, Dean Nancy Clark, Donna Clarke, Jenn Schaeffer, Todd Silvius, Dr. Carol Traupman-Carr, and Paula Ring Zerkle

Plus - Try this! - Szekely Goulash

Ingredients (serves 6)
2 lb sauerkraut, rinsed and drained (use a colander)
1 Tbsp caraway seeds
2 Tbsp butter (or oil or bacon drippings)
1 lb pork shoulder, cut into large bite-sized pieces
1 lb Hungarian sausage, or Polish sausage, sliced into large bite-sized rounds
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
1 Tbsp Hungarian sweet paprika (or use fresh paprika from the supermarket)
2 cups sour cream

Procedure:

1. Use covered pot large enough to hold all the ingredients. Put the sauerkraut in with just enough water to cover it, caraway seeds, and simmer with the cover on for two hours (or longer, if you want.)
2. In a large, heavy skillet melt the butter and brown the pork. Put the pork and the sausage into the pot with the sauerkraut.
3. Saute the onion in the skillet until transparent; add the garlic and saute for a few more minutes. Add this to the pot, along with the green pepper and paprika.
4. Simmer (with the cover on loosely) for a couple of hours mixing it up occasionally.
5. Remove from heat and let cool for 30 minutes; then add the sour cream and serve.
6. Notes: This goes well with noodles or dumplings or potatoes. The longer it cooks, the better it tastes; it is even better reheated. Cook it the day before but don't add the cream until you've reheated it.