I was ten when I first joined a choir. I was being auditioned, not by choice, for the school choir and was trying to sound like a bass and so deliberately not hitting the notes I was required to. My dad, the bass I was trying to imitate, was informed and he asked me “do you know that boy sopranos are the best sopranos?”. Really?! So, I went out the next day and hit all the soprano notes. From then on it was soprano in the church choir, alto in the school choir (for some reason all the boys sang alto and the girls sang the melody), tenor in the interschool choir and finished up bottom of the vocal range as a bass where I was so keen to start from. I’ve been part of various ensembles from small groups of under 10 to mass choirs of over 200 voices. Practice sessions range from the painful drudgery of repetitive note learning to excited elation of experimenting with different chord formations as the beauty of the full sound begins to emerge. It’s also interesting to see the different strategies adopted by conductors to break down and simplify the learning process when it comes to those difficult passages. Conductors have ranged from fussy perfectionists, who’ll nag you till everything is just so, to the easy going who trust everything will fall in place on performance day.
One of the fascinating aspects of choral singing is the harmony. How different notes and rhythms complement each other and mesh into a unified whole. How the different parts come together to create a sound that is richer and fuller than the individual part is always fascinating to hear. However, the essence of choral singing is discipline. The discipline to keep to time, consistently hit the right notes, produce a good tone and blend with the sound of the others all while singing a part that could be different from the person next to you. Without this discipline, there can be no great music. Choral singing, therefore, has often been used as a metaphor for life. Unity in the diversity of parts juxtaposed with unity in the diversity of the world around us. So, if you meet someone who’s singing a different part, harmonise, blend with it and complement it or just listen and enjoy it. Neither fear or criticize the difference – it’s meant to be!
