I really do live my life in 3 by 5 cards.  The above 3 examples are the result of tonight’s planning storm for the 2011-2012 choir year.  I have two high school choirs and three middle school choirs next year.  That’s a whole lot of repertoire.  I will tape these cards to my desk and find the best set of music I can for each group.

Earlier today I started digging through 50 years of choir music at the high school.  One quarter of the library is now covered in color-coded sticky notes.  Pink notes designate music cabinets that need new folders and new catalog number assignments due to illegibility and degree of askewity (if you will).  Yellow notes designate music that is labeled in a legible fashion and in order.

If I stick with the sticky notes, I may not need to order that much music this year.  I might be okay with singing music from the 70’s if we can do it from new student folders.  Well, maybe not.

Any lovely choir songs you once sang and still sing in secret?

Here is one of my favorite high school choir songs.  It’s a well-known, beautiful, piece of American choral literature by Aaron Copeland, “Zion’s Walls.”  Singing this song, I believe my junior year, made all the difference.