Introduction

“Tell Everyone” is the first movement of Michael Kaulkin’s larger work, Cycle of Friends. According to his bio on michaelkaulkin.com, Michael Kaulkin is a composer of many large works. He is a composer and a teacher based in California. His work “Cycle of Friends” has only been performed and recorded once.

This piece is written for choir, soprano solo, and chamber orchestra. The text was written by the poet Sappho. According to britannica.com, Sappho was a Greek poet whose “themes are personal—primarily concerned with the female religious and educational community that met under her leadership.”

This piece masterfully uses instrumental and choral music as well as the solo voice to weave harmonies, themes, and text into the whimsical package that is “Tell Everyone.” This case study will explore different aspects of analysis, rehearsal, and performance that are presented in the piece.

The score and a recording for this piece can be found at Michael Kaulkin – “Cycle of Friends” for soprano solo, chorus and chamber orchestra • Swirly Music • An eclectic source for repertoire by today’s self-publishing composers.

Form

“Tell Everyone” is through-composed, but it does have some recurring themes and repetitions of ideas throughout the movement.

Text

The text of this piece is as follows:

Tell everyone
Now, today, I shall
sing beautifully for
my friends’ pleasure

This text fits the theme of friendship presented in the larger work of Cycle of Friends. The text is sung in its entirety near the beginning and then repeated throughout the movement, as indicated in the list below. This repetition represents the spread of the joy of music.

• Opening Sop. Solo (m. 1-10): whole text, but omits the words “Now, today”
• First choir section (m. 36-62): “Tell everyone”
• First Sop solo/choir section (m. 76-89): Both soloist and choir sing “Now today I shall sing beautifully” (Sop. solo repeats some words but choir sings it only once)
• Finale: First choral entrance (m. 112-131) – “Now, today I shall sing beautifully for my friends.” This is the first time the choir has sung all the way through the last line. At the point the choir has sung through the whole text
• Finale: Choir and soprano solo (M. 132 – end) –  repeat “Tell everyone” to the end

Both the Soprano solo and the choir sing the whole text during the movement.

TEXT PAINTING

• Sop. solo/choir (m. 76-89): on the word “beautifully” the soprano solo sings a very ornamented line that contains a lot of runs. This is the first time this has happened in this section. This mirrors the style of bel canto singing (this is appropriate because bel canto means “beautiful singing”)
  • Note: This also happens on the first soprano solo (m. 1-10) as well. “Beautifully” is the most ornamented word although whole solo is very ornamented.

Texture

This piece uses many different textures; however, the most common one is melody and accompaniment. It’s important to know which voice or instrumental parts have the melody (or most important motif,) and which parts support the main part. In this piece, the choir often functions as its own entity, however, sometimes its purpose is to support the soprano soloist (see measures 76-89.)

The texture of the piece starts very light (opening with the soprano solo backed by the orchestra) but gradually grows as more parts with higher complexity are added to the texture. Finally, it ends where it started, with the soprano solo. However, at the end of the piece, there is nothing underneath the solo to support it. In some ways, it recenters the listener (before this, the listeners had been hearing dense, complex polyphony) and brings them back to where the journey started (with one person.)

In other words, throughout the course of this whole piece, we can see the reverberations of the call to “Tell Everyone”: the message is spreading and growing and growing until it bursts into polyphony! The soprano solo at the end zooms back in on the one person who started it.

These textures contribute to the overall story of the piece because as the textures get denser, it represents more people finding out about the “good news” of the joy of music.

List of textures:

• Mm. 1-10: Melody (soprano and oboe) and accompaniment (orchestra)

• Mm. 11-15: Melody and accompaniment (introduction to primary melody)

• Mm. 30 – 36: Polyphony (no clear melody)

• Mm. 36 – 62: Polyphony (last two measures could be considered homorhythm)

• Mm. 63-75: Texture is a bit ambiguous here. The theme gets passed around to different instruments. Sometimes the theme is doubled for a few measures, sometimes it’s not. It goes back and forth between textures.

• Mm. 76-89: Melody and accompaniment (choir is part of the accompaniment)

• Mm. 90-111: A bit of a mix of everything. Sometimes melody and accompaniment, sometimes polyrhythm, sometimes homorhythm

• Mm. 112-121: Melody and accompaniment

• Mm. 122-124: Homorhythm

• Mm. 126-135: Polyphony

• Mm. 136-143: Melody and Accompaniment (Sop. solo more prominent)

• Mm. 144-156: Polyphony

• M. 157: Polyphony or Melody and Accompaniment. A bit of a blend of both!

• Mm. 158-159 (end): monophony (soprano voice singing alone except for sus. cymbal at end)

Rhythm/Meter

The meter of this piece is fairly consistent. The majority of the piece is in 6/8 while certain notable sections (such as the opening soprano solo) are in other time signatures. The 6/8 meter gives the piece a dance-like feel.

The opening soprano solo is written with many time signatures (including 4/4, 7/4, 5/4 and 6/4,) however, a beat isn’t felt consistently until the instrumental interlude that happens directly after the soprano solo. In the soprano solo, a beat is sometimes felt, however, it is not consistent enough to be able to determine what the written meter is (it says to play this section “Broadly and Freely” in the score.) Instead, the ambiguity and unpredictability of the beat gives this section a sense of mystery and magic. The instrumentation and orchestration of this section (such as the arpeggiated chords played by the harp in measure 3) also add to the ambiance of this section.

After the soprano solo, in the following instrumental interlude and choral sections (starting in m. 11,) the beat is firmly established. The opening rhythms of m. 11-14 help with this because they establish strong downbeats. It’s important to note that in measures 63 to 75 everything flows together. It is difficult to hear a difference or distinct change in sections until the soprano solo starts again in measure 76. On the page, there is a section break and the key signature changes at measure 74, but it doesn’t sound distinct. The meter is difficult to distinguish through measure 86. When the main theme is reintroduced, the meter becomes clear once again.

The rest of the piece has a fairly easy-to-distinguish meter with the exception of two places. In measures 122 through 131, the meter becomes difficult to hear because the measures switch from being divided into two sections to being divided into three sections. This throws off the listener and reintroduces the mystery of the opening soprano solo. When the choir reenters at measure 132, the beat remains clear until the last two measures of the piece (m. 158-159.) In these measures, the soprano soloist is once again singing alone and has the liberty to be creative with the timing of this section. Therefore, the meter becomes less clear through the end of the piece.

Harmony

This piece features some complex harmonies and contains many key changes. Kaulkin introduces multiple modes in this piece. In fact, the majority of the song is some form of Mixolydian.

This piece begins with a soprano solo accompanied by the orchestra. The key of this solo, like the meter, is a bit ambiguous. The tonality seems to switch between Bb Lydian (major key with “fa” raised to “fi”) and Bb Mixolydian (major key with “ti” lowered to “te”.) In the very first measure, Bb is established as the tonic (the lowest voice is sustaining a Bb.) This measure is very clearly Bb Lydian because it has an E-natural, which would be the “fi” of the key of Bb major. This is reinforced in the accompaniment in measure two. As the solo progresses, the piece begins to sound like it’s in Bb Mixolydian. Bb is still the tonic, however, Eb’s(or “fa’s”) are consistently being played while there are multiple Ab’s (or “te’s”) in the score as well. Eventually, the soprano vocal line seems to go back to Bb Mixolydian in its final measures (m. 9-10) as E-naturals are sung again. However, the accompaniment is still playing Ab’s and Eb’s.

As previously mentioned, the majority of the remainder of the piece is Mixolydian. However, there are a few exceptions. Probably the most significant exception starts around measure 74. This section is in Db major. Although it’s not Mixolydian, it is closely related to the previous key (Ab Mixolydian.) The shift in modes could add to the mysterious quality or ambiguity of these sections because it’s unexpected. It’s important to note that the first choral entrance (m. 36) is also in a major key (A major.)

The piece moves through many different variations of Mixolydian scales such as Ab Mixolydian, C Mixolydian, G Mixolydian. It ends on E Mixolydian (m. 144 to the end/.) At the end of the piece, the soprano solo is the last voice heard. Instead of resolving to the tonic, she instead sings her last note on B natural, which is the fifth scale degree of E. The only other instrument that plays at the end of the piece is the suspended cymbal (which acts as a color rather than a tonal resolution) This means that this movement is never fully resolved at the end. This again serves the message of this piece because it communicates the idea that we will never be finished sharing the joy of music. It is an ongoing call and challenge.

This piece has many key changes. Kaulkin creates unity and continuity in the piece by reintroducing the main theme in many new keys and modes. This serves the story of the piece because it fulfills the idea that the message given by the Soprano soloist is being spread to all people (key signatures.) Each key has its own distinct sound. This could represent experiencing different places and cultures on Earth. Each one is a little different, but we’re all human. Some shifts to different keys are relatively smooth (such as measures 67-76 where the key moves from Ab to Db) because they are closely related. Other shifts are more abrupt.

Teaching in the Choral Classroom

“Tell Everyone” can be used as a tool in the classroom for teaching educational standards to students. A few examples of this are below.

Communicating Meaning in Performance

• Text: “Tell Everyone” → Ask students, “Why is the text repeated so much? Why is it saying to “Tell Everyone”? What could that mean? How is that reflected in the music?
• Harmony: How does the use of key changes and modes affect the message of the piece?

Student Creativity

• One strategy to increase student creativity is to ask them questions about the show
• Why so many key signature changes? Why are some abrupt and some not? How should we approach these key signature changes?
  • Questions like this engage students and help them figure out their interpretation of the piece.

Rehearsal (Anticipating Difficulties)

Overall, this piece has a lot of tonal shifts and tricky rhythms that may throw singers for a loop. Some specific areas to consider include the following:

• M. 36 → because of the unexpected notes and harmonies in the transition to the new key, singers may have a difficult time knowing when or what note to come in on.  (knowing where to come in from earlier measures)
• M. 112-124 → This section may look intimidating to singers because of the pitches and interval jumps. Another struggle may be finding the starting pitch for this section since the key leading up to this section is a bit ambiguous.
• M. 126 → The rhythm of this section in the tenors could be tricky because of the duples in 6/8.
• M. 132-141 → This section could be intimidating for singers because of the syncopation in the rhythm. There are two main syncopated rhythms that could be confusing when putting all four voice parts together.

Performance

This is a fun, whimsical piece and can generally be treated as such. The main message of the piece (according to the above analysis) is to share with everyone the power and joy of music. In the music, certain themes present themselves in such a way that it seems the “Tell Everyone” motif gets passed around to different instruments. In other words, the spread of this joyous message is reflected in the sharing of motifs and themes.

Throughout this case study, we’ve explored different aspects of analysis that affect performance. When you know a piece harmonically, you can make connections between the text and chord progressions, etc.  Below are a few examples of how our analysis would affect the performance of this piece.

• The beginning soprano solo could be interpreted as the soprano calling out to all to “Tell everyone.” Following this, the text says, “Now, today I shall sing beautifully.” One interpretation for this text could be spreading the joy of singing. As the text repeats, more voices join in and thus “sing beautifully” for all. Each part participates in beckoning each other to join in. Because of the joyous nature of the text, the piece should have a light, jubilant feel or texture.

• This is aided by the 6/8 time signature. This gives the piece a danciness that adds to its lightness.