Many years ago, I was fortunate to have been invited to conduct performances of Handel ’s Messiah in Indonesia . It struck me several times during this visit that at the time Handel composed this eternal masterpiece, the ancestors of these Indonesian singers were making a music that was very far removed from the European baroque, and Handel , toiling away at a rapid pace in his tiny abode in London, would only have vaguely heard of the relatively recent exploration to what was then called the East Indies.
So much has changed in choral music in the last two hundred years, as these formerly distant worlds have come together; all over the world, choirs abound and repertoire has become global. The founding of the International Federation for Choral Music in 1982 and subsequent international collaborations of all kinds – festivals, competitions, symposia – have offered unprecedented prospects for learning, partnership, and development. Therefore, as a passionate participant in choral activities, it seemed to me that the omission of a volume on choral music in the Cambridge Companion series needed to be rectified. Easy to justify, but difficult to conceptualize! The rationale for the book was clear; choral musicians claim that singing in choirs is the world’s most popular form of participatory music making. In the United States alone, Chorus America’s 2009 Chorus Impact Study suggests that around 42.6 million Americans participate in choirs. 1 Worldwide, choirs are transforming the lives of their members and their local communities. The genre that started in European communal and religious life has spread throughout the world, and wherever it has gone, conductors and singers have made it their own. Far beyond conventional choral situations in churches and educational institutions, the chorus is part of prisons, hospitals, and slums. Communities that are marginalized, whether because of sexual orientation, political status, illness, or poverty, are finding opportunities for new expression.
In order to produce a coherent volume, it was vital to define what we mean by choral music. Although group singing traditions all over the world have variously been labeled “choral,” they are distinctive, in some cases unique, bearing little relationship with the Western choir. To mine the riches of indigenous group singing traditions would have been way beyond the scope of anything less than a series of books. Therefore, logically, the book should concern itself with this single genre, the Western choral ensemble, as it arose and developed worldwide. The substance of the book could have focused on choral manifestations all over the world, just informing the reader of the nature and depth of choral participation, or it could have been a historical overview of choral music. Perhaps, with conductors’ endless appetite for professional development, the Cambridge Companion to Choral Music could have provided knowledge for achieving excellence in the choral art. None of these single objectives seemed to be desirable, particularly because almost all of these already exist in a variety of publications. The logical solution then was to design a book that accomplished many goals. First, it needed to put choral music in a historical perspective, not in an extended, encyclopedic fashion, but more in a situated, contextualized view of how and why choirs developed and how we got to where we are now, chorally speaking. Second, we needed to uncover and celebrate the wide diversity of the choral enterprise as it exists globally, to shed light on the extent and excellence of choral music in parts of the world about which we know so little. Third, to honor choral activity and contribute to its advancement, a section should be devoted to practice and pedagogy.
Fortunately, Cambridge Companions are not encyclopedias, and therefore are liberated from the mission of being comprehensive and exhaustive on any given topic. Hence, readers will find in these chapters perspective and insight combined with information and analysis. All of the authors have constructed different lenses even where the tasks may appear similar.
The beginning of choral music as we understand it is contentious, particularly in an age where just about any music from any period is sung chorally. Most choral singers believe that choral music existed in the Renaissance, while others choose to recognize its surfacing considerably later. Andrew Parrott takes us on a journey that begins towards the end of the fifteenth century, describing the emergence of the genre, with careful consideration of repertoire, civic and liturgical life, the role of instruments, and so on. With reference to a wide body of primary sources, he succeeds in resolving some controversies and in creating new ones. In a very thoughtful discussion of culture and context in the nineteenth century, Chester Alwes brings the people, the nation building, and the rise of secular choral life together. He describes some of the key trends in the development of specific compositional styles in this formative period. In like manner, Nick Strimple casts a wide net over the development of choral music in the past hundred years or so, not only in Western Europe and North America but also in a host of other countries. In particular, Strimple delves into choral music in the ugly period of World War II, looking closely at choral activity by Holocaust victims in concentration camps. The final chapter in Part I, by Paul Hillier , takes us from antiquity to the present day in a discussion of how choruses came about and how they function within themselves internally and in their interactions with audience and community.
The second part of the book describes the world of choral music throughthree large chapters and six smaller ones. While at some level the authors write with similar mission – to inform the readers about choral music in their part of the world – for each of them, it manifests differently. In his chapter on Europe, Leo Samama focuses on the present circumstances of choral music – a formidable task, to squeeze into one chapter what could take many books to write. Samama, like the other authors, writes with a broad descriptive brush, looking at trends in choral activity, and differences in several European regions. By contrast, the authors of the next two chapters on North America – Canada and the United States – Patricia Abbott and Victoria Meredith , Matthew Mehaffey and Kathy Saltzman Romey respectively, take us to the early days of choral music in their countries. Both immigrant societies with different social and political systems, Canada and the USA have vibrant and diverse choral cultures captured by these four authors.
Latin American choral music is part of the standard repertoire but how little many of us know of choral life in this immense continent, and who better to write about it than María Guinand , whose name is synonymous with Latin American choralism. Her focus is on the last hundred years with some historical background. Rich in information and description, Guinand’s chapter provides the reader with a rare insight into the immense variety of Latin American choral music.
The vast continents of Asia and Australasia have been divided into geographical regions – East, South and Southeast, West and Central, and Oceania. Gene Cho and Jing Ling-Tam deftly survey choirs and composers in Japan , China , Taiwan, and Korea . East Asia with a population of many more than a billion is similar in size to the area of South and Southeast Asia, but the resemblance ends there. East Asia, influenced greatly by the West, was largely not colonized as South and Southeast Asia have been. In the chapter on South and Southeast Asia, I discuss how cultural, colonial, religious, and linguistic differences have had an impact on the choral cultures of these parts of the world. Understanding this part of Asia is vital if we are to recognize the immense potential of this region to change the course of choral culture in this century. Aida Huseynova had the challenging, but rewarding task of describing the Islamic antecedents and political realities of choral music in the Arab world and the republics of Central Asia that were associated with the former Soviet Union. Western in orientation, and building choral bridges to their indigenous cultures, Australia , New Zealand and their Pacific neighbors are the subject of Karen Grylls’s chapter on Oceania.
In general, the choral world knows more about choral music in South Africa than anywhere else on the African continent. Rudolf de Beer and Wilson Shitandi do their best to unveil the treasures of African choirs, their forms of organization, and their repertoire.
Finally, in the third part of the book, experienced and distinguished choral leaders share their experiences. Rather than providing recipes and simple instructions, they employ a wide range of styles, from autobiographical to scientific and philosophical, to unpack some of the issues in choral leadership, conducting, and teaching. Francisco Núñez’s work with the Young People’s Chorus of New York City has positioned him to discuss the transformative role that children’s and youth choruses can play in their communities. Mary Goetze , Cornelia Fales , and Wolodymyr Smishkewych explode several misconceptions held by our profession about the appropriateness and vocal health of various singing styles. Furthermore, they build a bridge between research and practice, discussing laryngeal position, registers, and resonance. Doreen Rao’s discussion of authenticity and its link with “engaged musicianship” utilizes personal narrative to construct a large philosophical picture of excellence in choral music making. She constructs a much-needed new paradigm for socially responsible conducting practice in the twenty-first century. The tensions between individuality and consensus have beset choral conductors through the ages. Mike Brewer and Liz Garnett take on these issues and explore conflicting concepts. The final two chapters describe rehearsing from different perspectives. Ann Howard Jones brings years of experience of working with Robert Shaw , and her own valuable expertise to present a systematic look at preparing and planning for rehearsal. Simon Carrington transfers the insights gained from being a founding member of the King’s Singers to the rehearsal processes of a large choir.
There are too many experienced choral directors, musicologists, and writers, people I admire greatly, whose voices could have been heard in this book. The selected writers represent a broad cross-section of our profession, people with disparate views, with whom one could imagine long hours of stimulating conversation. If their writings provoke you to understand more about the origins of choral music, its worldwide manifestations, and professional practice, and most of all, if this book leads you to greater personal and community transformation through choral music, it has achieved its goal.