Saturday
May312008
Balticon report (part 4): Sassafrass and songwriting
Saturday, May 31, 2008 at 9:49AM
Balticon 42 report continued...
Photo by Korak. From L to R: Lauren, Ada, Irina, and Zara.
One of my highlights was meeting and hearing a subgroup of a larger musical entity known as Sassafrass. This women's a capella group originated at Bryn Mawr college in 1999 and its membership has varied over the years.
At Balticon, we got to hear four of the group members: Lauren Schiller, Ada Palmer, Irina Greenman, and Zara Yost. You can find out more about them at their new Sassafrass Web site, where you can also hear sound samples like this group improvisation of Ada's song, "Tumbling Away." Yes, that's what I said, IMPROVISATION. Whoa. Their soundclip pages also include their regular songs as well. If you're on Livejournal, you can also join their new Sassafrass community.
Cover of their 2001 CD, Solitary Dancer.
I bought a copy last weekend and am enjoying it tremendously.
Ada and Lauren attended our Arrangement/Performance workshop, and I was fascinated by their comments about their material. Apparently part of the reason they got together was because they were frustrated with the lack of good group material -- most group pieces seem to focus one lead singer and possibly one backup singer, with the others singing repetitive parts.
Ada (the primary composer) said that her aim was to make each singer feel like her part was the coolest part ever, and that EVERY part is important throughout each song to the harmony, melody and lyrics.
Photo by Korak
I would LOVE to sit down with Ada someday and talk about songwriting and arrangement; there was no time at Balticon, sadly, but hopefully at some other convention. Sassafrass will be attending Contata (June 20-22 in New Jersey) and performing in open filk, but unfortunately I'm not going to be able to be there. :-(
Ada, by the way, has a huge amount of music experience. She took Peabody music theory courses in childhood, and has studied violin, piano, guitar, and various medieval instruments; her compositions are primarily vocal. She's a graduate student in European Intellectual History, is a columnist for Tokyopop.com and runs TezukaInEnglish.com, the primary English language web source on the founder of modern manga, Osamu Tezuka.
To find out more about the other members of Sassafrass, be sure to check the Sassafrass bio page on their Web site.
Talking with Ada and the other Sassafrass members has inspired me to work harder at my own songwriting. I usually write for Allison and Jodi first, and then throw in my own harmonies as an afterthought...which is why my parts tend to jump around a lot, and are often outside my comfortable vocal range (which is narrowest of the group).
One of the few times I've actually written all three parts simultaneously and throughout was for The Friendship Song (which you can hear at our MySpace page, sheet music is above). It took more work, but the results were well worth it. Plus if any of us forgets our part we can always refer to the sheet music in addition to our recordings.
Our group differs from Sassafrass in that we don't mind sometimes having songs with one lead singer -- it works out because when planning a playlist, we always make sure that the leads are fairly evenly split between Allison and Jodi. I've never had a strong desire to sing lead; I have more fun doing harmonies and accompanying on various instruments instead.
Also, Allison and Jodi are songwriters themselves and are great at coming up with their own harmonies. When trying to fit in a third harmony, however, I do find it a challenge unless I write all three parts at the same time ... else I get stuck with the leftover notes and a line that's hard to sing and harder to remember. I've been looking on it as a way to push myself, but I'm realizing that I could be pushing myself AND having a line that's fun to sing at the same time.
Meeting Sassafrass has inspired me to work harder and coming up with more interesting lines when doing songwriting, plus put more effort into my own parts. I've always been a big fan of pushing one's own personal envelope, and I think I've been getting lazy in my songwriting; I should be using EVERY song as a learning experience and a chance to improve my craft, even in a small way.
Many thanks to Sassafrass for the inspiration and (again) to Balticon for providing a venue in which this sort of creative exchange is possible.
With Greg Wright, Balticon 42 Chair.
Above: Despite having the whole convention to run, Greg found time to check in with us regularly through the weekend to see how we were doing, if needed anything, etc. Super-nice guy. :-)
More about Balticon soon....
Speaking of songwriting, I feel inspired by Balticon weekend and am going to sit down and do some songwriting today.
Livejournal comments
Photo by Korak. From L to R: Lauren, Ada, Irina, and Zara.
One of my highlights was meeting and hearing a subgroup of a larger musical entity known as Sassafrass. This women's a capella group originated at Bryn Mawr college in 1999 and its membership has varied over the years.
At Balticon, we got to hear four of the group members: Lauren Schiller, Ada Palmer, Irina Greenman, and Zara Yost. You can find out more about them at their new Sassafrass Web site, where you can also hear sound samples like this group improvisation of Ada's song, "Tumbling Away." Yes, that's what I said, IMPROVISATION. Whoa. Their soundclip pages also include their regular songs as well. If you're on Livejournal, you can also join their new Sassafrass community.
Cover of their 2001 CD, Solitary Dancer.
I bought a copy last weekend and am enjoying it tremendously.
Ada and Lauren attended our Arrangement/Performance workshop, and I was fascinated by their comments about their material. Apparently part of the reason they got together was because they were frustrated with the lack of good group material -- most group pieces seem to focus one lead singer and possibly one backup singer, with the others singing repetitive parts.
Ada (the primary composer) said that her aim was to make each singer feel like her part was the coolest part ever, and that EVERY part is important throughout each song to the harmony, melody and lyrics.
Photo by KorakI would LOVE to sit down with Ada someday and talk about songwriting and arrangement; there was no time at Balticon, sadly, but hopefully at some other convention. Sassafrass will be attending Contata (June 20-22 in New Jersey) and performing in open filk, but unfortunately I'm not going to be able to be there. :-(
Ada, by the way, has a huge amount of music experience. She took Peabody music theory courses in childhood, and has studied violin, piano, guitar, and various medieval instruments; her compositions are primarily vocal. She's a graduate student in European Intellectual History, is a columnist for Tokyopop.com and runs TezukaInEnglish.com, the primary English language web source on the founder of modern manga, Osamu Tezuka.
To find out more about the other members of Sassafrass, be sure to check the Sassafrass bio page on their Web site.
Talking with Ada and the other Sassafrass members has inspired me to work harder at my own songwriting. I usually write for Allison and Jodi first, and then throw in my own harmonies as an afterthought...which is why my parts tend to jump around a lot, and are often outside my comfortable vocal range (which is narrowest of the group).
One of the few times I've actually written all three parts simultaneously and throughout was for The Friendship Song (which you can hear at our MySpace page, sheet music is above). It took more work, but the results were well worth it. Plus if any of us forgets our part we can always refer to the sheet music in addition to our recordings.
Our group differs from Sassafrass in that we don't mind sometimes having songs with one lead singer -- it works out because when planning a playlist, we always make sure that the leads are fairly evenly split between Allison and Jodi. I've never had a strong desire to sing lead; I have more fun doing harmonies and accompanying on various instruments instead.
Also, Allison and Jodi are songwriters themselves and are great at coming up with their own harmonies. When trying to fit in a third harmony, however, I do find it a challenge unless I write all three parts at the same time ... else I get stuck with the leftover notes and a line that's hard to sing and harder to remember. I've been looking on it as a way to push myself, but I'm realizing that I could be pushing myself AND having a line that's fun to sing at the same time.
Meeting Sassafrass has inspired me to work harder and coming up with more interesting lines when doing songwriting, plus put more effort into my own parts. I've always been a big fan of pushing one's own personal envelope, and I think I've been getting lazy in my songwriting; I should be using EVERY song as a learning experience and a chance to improve my craft, even in a small way.
Many thanks to Sassafrass for the inspiration and (again) to Balticon for providing a venue in which this sort of creative exchange is possible.
With Greg Wright, Balticon 42 Chair.
Above: Despite having the whole convention to run, Greg found time to check in with us regularly through the weekend to see how we were doing, if needed anything, etc. Super-nice guy. :-)
More about Balticon soon....
Speaking of songwriting, I feel inspired by Balticon weekend and am going to sit down and do some songwriting today.
tagged Filk/music
Filk/music 
