A Conductor’s Rehearsal and Performance Guide to Christopher Tin’s the Drop That Contained the Sea

This document serves as a research resource regarding composer Christopher Tin and provides a conductor’s analysis for his large choral-orchestral work, The Drop That Contained the Sea. Christopher Tin is an American composer of film, television, and video game soundtracks. Though he is most likely best known for his choral-orchestral piece, “Baba Yetu”, written for the video game Civilization IV, Tin has written several choral-orchestral works that have premiered on international stages over the course of recent years, such as his large-scale song cycles Calling All Dawns, The Drop That Contained the Sea, To Shiver the Sky, and The Lost Birds. The Drop That Contained the Sea is a 58-minute song cycle which contains ten movements, each in a different language. Languages included are: Proto-Indo-European, Turkish, Bulgarian, Xhosa, Mongolian, Portuguese, Sanskrit, Ancient Greek, Old Norse, and Lango. The song cycle also incorporates several different vocal techniques as they relate to the regional language in which the movements are written. These include the Bulgarian women’s choir tradition, Mongolian throat singing, and Portuguese fado. Forces required are a large orchestra, SATB choir with varying degrees of divisi, soprano, mezzo-soprano, and tenor soloists. This dissertation is the first academic research on Tin and his oeuvre, addressing a gap in scholarship for this contemporary composer. Information collected from an interview with Tin informs this rehearsal and performance guide, which includes rehearsal techniques and information regarding the regional vocal traditions used in the work.