Richard Putter:

>The great choral conductor Robert Shaw died one week ago today.  IMHO it
>is because of him that choral music is taken seriously in this country.
>He started a tradition of American choral singing where such a tradition
>had existed for centuries in Europe.  Anybody have any anecdotes, thoughts
>or reminiscences?

There is a fantastically wonderful quote from Shaw in the New York Times
obituary, impossible to paraphrase and worth hunting down.  Addressed to
his singers in 1943, it fancifully goes on about quarter notes hiding from
"Whole Note Nazis." On an evening news broadcast there was a clip of Shaw
admonishing his singers that they had to take responsibility for the entire
lifetime of a sixteenth note, not just for sending it on its way.

Jim