How A Choir Works

Yesterday I had the opportunity to watch a BBC documentary that first aired a couple of years ago called How A Choir Works. A recent interest in vocal music (especially with a large amount of voices), coupled with my recent concert visit of Karl Jenkin's music that makes extensive use of a choir, made the title of the documentary catch my interest, and I watched it. At an hour long, it is a brief but entertaining and informative look at how the different musical aspects come together to create the unique sound of a choir. Some aspects, such as the individual sections of SATB I was already familiar with, as I have had to write short extracts for this format in music theory exams.

Most choirs sing without amplification, but due to the large dynamic range of the human voice, especially when put together into large groups, the volume can be staggering. The dynamic, and the overall sound of the choir is affected to a large degree by the acoustics of the room (or lack of) that it is performing in. I found it intriguing that in places where a lot of singing takes place, such as concert halls and cathedrals, the choirmaster knows the length of echo, and how this affects the audiences perception of the sound. In one such example, a featured cathedral had an echo of eight seconds, which is enormous in musical terms, and causes difficulty when performing intricate polyphonic works, where the audience can often struggle to follow the melodic lines due to much earlier notes still sustaining. A shorter echo of maybe a second or two can be beneficial however as it adds a pleasant reverb effect to the voices, giving extra depth. The venue can also have implications on each singer's performing experience. One such choir-member featured in the documentary recalls that during a performance in a large concert hall, due to the large space, the other voices weren't able to 'bounce' back towards him, and as such it felt like he could only hear himself singing, a condition he felt to be very unnerving. Contrary to this, a demonstration in a small practice-room revealed that (I assume do to soundproofing) the sound was completely deadened; this resulted in a very flat and unflattering sound to the voices.

Simultaneous voices gives rise to the possibility of combining different vocal 'colours' to the music. As already mentioned, the choir is generally in four sections, sopranos, altos, tenors, and basses (although there are exceptions; Thomas Tallis' 40-Part Motet consists of eight choirs, each of five parts). The basses are considered the most important section, as they provide the underpinning harmony (chords, inversions and progressions are explicitly stated by this part), although the sopranos generally receive the 'fame' as they provide the melody line. The altos and tenors complete the four part harmony, providing the 'tasty filling' to the 'musical sandwich'. The upper two parts are usually sung by women, and the lower two by men, due to the natural pitch ranges of the genders. There are certain male vocalists however who sing in the soprano range, either by use of falsetto, or naturally due to endocrinological reasons. Even though singing at the same pitch as a female soprano, a male soprano (or sopranist) has a different colour or timbre to the voice, the same way a middle C played on both violin and piano would have a different sound, even though they are playing the same pitch.

Some singers (notably in pop groups) use their voices to replicate musical instruments. Some composers have written vocal parts without words, instead using only the timbre of the voice (Steve Reich's Drumming requires whistling effects as well as imitation of percussion instruments). Karl Jenkin's Adiemus uses only syllables and invented words, designed in such a way as to draw the listener's attention to the pitch and timbre of the voices. All these different techniques offer a whole new exciting range of tools for the composer.

Choirs can be used to sing either homophonically, or polyphonically. Polyphony was a very popular style in the Renaissance and Baroque eras, while from the 20th century harmony was expanded from basic triads with a little use of added sevenths, to make extensive use of sevenths, ninths, and more. Outside of the classical world, several pop and rock groups made strong and interesting harmonies in their music, such as The Beach Boys, and Queen.

Most choral music has a specific accompanying text, and it is part of the choirmaster's job to ensure that these words are projected clearly. This is done by making sure all members of the choir are enunciating the words correctly, and that specific syllables are being stressed by everyone at the same time, to ensure clarity for the listener. As well as this, the choirmaster has all the other musical aspects to consider; he or she is constantly manipulating the choir to produce his musical vision, like controlling the knobs on a radio.