Class News

Phil Anderson ’64 reflects on sheltering in place

Reflections on Sheltering in Place

by Phil Anderson

May 6, 2020

Realizing that at a time like this, music is a way to experience the love and joy of community, I have included links to several recordings of my Dallas-based choral group, The Vocal Majority. If you can access a decent set of speakers, rather than the tin cans on your laptop computer, it is well worthwhile. These recordings include myself singing along with between 100 to 150 of my closest friends. The recordings go as far back as 1976. If I had been able to attend our 55th, this would have been the basis for my personal passion presentation. Here is a random selection of Vocal Majority recordings, all on YouTube:

This next link opens the chorus published repertoire of music videos from the chorus website; there are 39 music videos at this location.

Music Videos — Vocal Majority - Pure Harmony

I would call your attention to "You Raise Me Up" which has an Easter cover photo, currently #4 using the scroll right button on your computer. You needn't be Christian to feel the emotion of this recording. At #13 is a video of "Stars and Stripes Forever." You may not know that Sousa wrote words for this familiar march. This recording is a cappella, but you can hear the piccolos and the brass in the four voice parts. This is one of my favorites.

When the Vocal Majority website opens, across the toolbar at the top is a button labelled "Photos and videos." The "Featured videos" include three tunes performed in July 2019 in Salt Lake City during our trip to the International Barbershop Harmony convention. Also, along the left hand border is an additional video, "A Million Dreams," recorded in Orlando in July 2018 after the BHS convention.

The "Online Store" link opens access to the 25 CDs that are still available, either as physical CDs or by download.

Or, if interested, one can also visit YouTube on-line and search for "Vocal Majority." Several of our contest performances are posted there. There are more than 220 recordings you can enjoy at the "top tracks" link. There have to be several you will enjoy no matter what your taste! Or just opening "Vocal Majority" at the YouTube site will offer others.

Top Tracks - Vocal Majority

Working in this choral group has been my major personal avocation for over 45 years. The chorus has performed in more than 20 major US cities (some multiple times), Toronto, England, and Wales. I had the privilege of bringing 315 members of the Salt Lake City Mormon Tabernacle Choir to Dallas for a major two-night concert in 1987, attended by nearly 30,000 people (performed at the now demolished Reunion Arena).

The chorus has performed in Salt Lake City on four occasions and was the first non-Mormon group ever invited to join the Tabernacle Choir in its "Music and the Spoken Word" Sunday morning broadcast. We have performed in the Dallas area for numerous conventions and two US Presidents. We have also performed several times for the National Conference of the American Choral Directors Association.

Last year, our Dallas concerts drew more than 10,000 people. Over the years, the Vocal Majority has established an international reputation as America's premier pops chorus. Since 1975, the chorus has won the International Barbershop Harmony chorus championship 13 times (after winning, by competition rules a chorus become ineligible o compete for the following two years); from 1979 to 2006 we won at every opportunity for 10 times in a row. Boola, Boola!

I wanted to share with you the newest Vocal Majority music video which was released earlier today . . . it is something unlike anything we have previously published, the link is included below. The video is of the chorus in the recording studio and was taken as the audio was recorded. The attached link is "live;" if possible, please include this link in the online version of the class notes. It was published only about six hours ago and has already collected more than 2000 views on YouTube. You will be able to see the current count if you open the video. And I hope you do; we are very happy with the result. Amazing sound on my laptop, even better by AirPlay through my Bose speakers.

Nearer My God to Thee performed by Vocal Majority and Association of International Champion Gold Medalists

After sending this, it dawned on me to also send a copy of our promotional video, which will give you added insight into the chorus and our activities going back to 1972 (I didn't join until 1976 . . . but have been very active since that time.) "My life-long passion!"

Vocal Majority - A Transforming Musical Experience

I want to try to share the emotions created in me when singing with the Vocal Majority, so I have attached a poem written decades ago, “The Master’s Touch.”

The Master's Touch

Standing quietly before the massed assemblage ,
Tall, majestic, poised and proud,
His arms are pulled by hands
Lifting high and expressive before him,
While his lips tremble softly
A silent statement of impending emotion.
Then in an instant, the silence is shattered
By an ocean of sound,
Pouring forth like a mountain of water,
Sweeping out and beyond the immediate congregation
To engulf the known world.
Moving with the knowledge of hands
That shaped mountains, carved out canyons,
Created thunder and boiled clouds across the sky,
Yet with the touch of the artist
The painted butterflies and sunsets,
That sweetened the breath of the world with spring rain,
The master's hands caress and shape
The sounds of the multitude
Into a profound statement of rapture
Wrested from the souls of an hundred men.
These hands are like the hands of God,
Pulling forth passion and expression
No man by himself could ever find.
They belong to themselves,
Know and serve no master,
Creating a continually changing tapestry of sound:
Pure beauty for its own pleasure!
No man seduced by their spell
Can be awakened by another siren's call,
For when the hands of the master move
All man's soul can do is sing.