Joseph Jordania has outlined nine different types of polyphonic singing in his book Choral singing in human evolution.
I will be working through each type trying to give a simplified explanation and some musical examples. This week it’s drone polyphony.
Joseph Jordania has outlined nine different types of polyphonic singing in his book Choral singing in human evolution.
I will be working through each type trying to give a simplified explanation and some musical examples. This week it’s parallel polyphony.
Most choirs sing in harmony. They sing a kind of ‘vocal polyphony’.
It’s a bit of a daunting word, but very useful. So let’s find out what ‘polyphony’ means.
I wrote last week about how wearing masks might affect singers and how they can overcome any obstacles.
This week I want to look at the impact on choir leaders.
Choirs are starting to rehearse again, both indoors and outdoors. Many are insisting that their singers wear masks.
What are the difficulties (if any) of singing while wearing a mask?
Those of use who love to sing in harmony sometimes forget how hard and scary it can be for those who haven’t tried it before.
We all lead our choirs in different ways. There is a whole range of leadership styles out there.
What type of choir leader are you?
The world is full of clichés at the moment: “We’re living in unprecedented times”, “Every cloud has a silver lining”, “Getting used to the new normal”.
With everything in such turmoil, now might be a good time to re-evaluate your relationship with singing.
Many choirs are open-access: they welcome all kinds of voices and don’t hold auditions.
But is it still possible to keep everyone happy and be truly inclusive without making too many concessions?
Although I don’t have a regular choir, before the pandemic I used to lead one or two singing workshops each week.
I now realise that was my main exercise! Since lockdown, I’ve become a couch potato.
The socially-distanced reopening of indoor performances in England was due to take place last Saturday, but the government has now postponed it for at least another two weeks.
With circumstances changing so frequently, how do you prepare for future concerts and rehearsals?
During lockdown many of us have had to fall back on our own devices. We’ve been cast ashore on a virtual desert island and asked to fend for ourselves.
It’s tough when you have to do everything by yourself, but it can also be liberating as you have nobody to account to. There are pros and cons to both ways of working: by yourself or in collaboration.
People join choirs for many different reasons. Whatever those reasons might be, a choir ends up being a small community.
In fact, some consider a choir as a kind of family. But what might that mean?
I keep seeing virtual choirs on Facebook and hearing about amazing Zoom singing sessions.
It’s hard not to compare and feel that you’re not keeping up. But whatever you’ve managed to do, you’re doing great.
I started my first community choir over 20 years ago. I used to worry that, after the long summer break, the singers would have forgotten me and wouldn’t return to choir when it started up again.
With choirs and singing groups not meeting in person, those worries are magnified. How can you keep your singing groups alive and ensure that your singers are still there when this is all over?
That last time I was in a room with a group of singers was nearly four months ago.
If I had known then that I wouldn’t be singing like that for the foreseeable future, would I have behaved differently?
Last week I looked at What is unique about singing together.
In this post, I’ll consider which aspects of singing together can be duplicated online and which can’t.
Singing together in a group is something special. It is a very different experience from singing on your own.
But what exactly is it that we get from singing with others?
There are plenty of studies now about the many benefits of singing together. But they only look at the experience of the singers in a choir.
I’d like to consider what choir leaders get out of leading a choir and what they might be missing when choirs aren’t meeting.