A fundamental question facing any choir is how best to respect the individuality of each of its singers while getting them all to work together for the good of the group as a whole. In this sense, a choir is a microcosm of human social life. The voice is the most personal and individual form of human expression – we can recognize people within seconds by the sound of their voice alone. Yet when people join their voices together in a choir they cannot assert that full individuality without disrupting the communal voice of the collective.
Within the Western art tradition, it is generally seen as the conductor’s job to manage the negotiations between the needs of the group as a whole and those of its individual members. John Bertalot , for example, tells directors:
At the beginning of a practice you have before you a collection of individuals. It’s your job, within the first ten seconds of the practice, to weld them together into a choir – and a choir is a body of singers which feels a corporate sense of identity. 1
Joseph Lewis , meanwhile, puts it this way:
Team-work or what we call ensemble is more to be desired than outstanding voices, and the only possible way to obtain this “togetherness” is by the part being subservient to the whole; by each voice singing into the other voices, listening as well as singing, being content to be a strand in the rope, and not the whole rope, but all the while handing his or her contribution up to the conductor. 2
These descriptions, however, tend to place the conductor outside the group, as a protagonist separate from the ensemble. They place the director in a role that acts on the ensemble without necessarily being part of it. This view makes sense inasmuch as the conductor’s role is clearly different from that of the choristers. At the same time, the conductor is very much part of the performing ensemble, and one with an arguably disproportionate level of power over both its social dynamic and musical results. As such, conductors need to factor in their own impact on the singers as they consider how to balance the collective needs and responsibilities with the individual ones.
We can approach the question of how to negotiate these conflicting needs through the ideas of the Enlightenment philosophers who grappled with the same kinds of questions regarding the political organization of society. The ideas of these seventeenth- and eighteenth-century philosophers, known as the “contract theorists,” have strong and illuminating parallels with questions that modern choral practitioners are asking about such things as the relationship between soloistic and blended approaches to choral sound. 3
Thomas Hobbes famously proposed in 1651 that life in the state of nature was “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” 4 In a world without social organization, all people would act entirely in their own interests, and would be permanently in conflict. Thus he saw the creation of the state as a social contract whereby individuals gave up some of their freedom in exchange for mutual safety. Likewise, when we join a choir we are entering into an agreement to lose something of ourselves in the interest of the greater aim of creating a performing unity.
An alternative view of the natural state was the “noble savage,” a term associated with Rousseau ’s depiction of humans as inherently good unless distorted by the stultifying conventions of society. 5 In the singing world, this position is expressed as a mistrust of either choral or individual voice teaching “methods” that shape individuals’ voices into standardized molds according to the expectations of particular genres. 6 The “natural” voice in this view is seen as the means for people to achieve authentic personal expression, to sing in a way that is true to themselves.
David Hume criticized both Hobbes’ and Rousseau’s interpretations of the “state of nature.” 7 He pointed out that no human being ever exists entirely in a “natural” state, that we are born into social groups and rely on them to survive. We can make a similar point about the “natural” voice. People with untrained voices grow up hearing and joining in with the ways of singing current in their social group – whether that is in church, in football stadiums, or singing along to the radio. Just as our speaking voices reveal the geography and class status of our upbringing, so our singing voices carry the traces of the musical communities we have lived in.
The idea of the “state of nature” thus becomes a thought experiment that helps us understand the structure of civil society (in the original context) or the genre expectations and social norms of a particular choral ensemble (in our current context). The contract theorists were trying to make sense of changing forms of government as Europe shifted from absolutist monarchies to more distributed, consensual forms of power. The idea was developing that there should be a rational basis for government, that you can rule more effectively when you have the consent of your populace than by arbitrary exercise of might.
In this sense, the choral conductor’s role is that of the enlightened prince: a leader whose power is absolute in that he or she cannot be easily removed by those governed, but who rules according to rational principles. 8 On a day-to-day level there are few if any constitutional limits on how a director runs the rehearsals. But, just as monarchs will find they rule over a healthier and more prosperous country if they offer a degree of freedom and safety in return for their citizens’ compliance with the law, so conductors will find greater artistry in performance if they offer individual singers room for personal development in return for compliance with their musical agenda.
Moreover, for all that the contract theorists and much of our contemporary culture are concerned with the rights of the individual, human beings remain social animals with a fundamental need for a sense of belonging. Indeed, modern evolutionary thought would reverse the chronology proposed by Hobbes and see individualism not as a primitive state that civilization needs to tame but as a more advanced development appearing only in the higher primates. Likewise, Maslow ’s classic studies of human needs see a sense of belonging as a more fundamental need than self-actualization. 9
Even in individualistic cultures, that is, people join choirs to gain a communal experience. There are deep psychological pleasures in contributing to the development of something that no participant could make on their own, and there are specifically musical pleasures in singing with others. But still, of course, each member brings a personal relationship to the experience; we may all share a need for human connection, but we experience that need as individuals with our own personal histories. This is why even choirs with the most collectivistic ethos still need to attend to the needs of individual members, and why those with the most soloistic approach still need an awareness of group dynamic.
At a practical level, the negotiations between individual and group take place in both musical and social dimensions of a choir’s activity. It would be easy for a conductor to think they only needed to focus on the musical dimension, since their primary task is to prepare and lead musical performances. But the social dimensions of a choir’s activity can have an impact on their musical behavior, for either good or ill, particularly in amateur choirs where participation is driven by enthusiasm and personal commitment rather than professional obligation. Nonetheless, a professional singer who finds that their needs for a sense of belonging and individual growth are not being met is likely to look for work elsewhere. And, as we shall see later in the chapter, there are several facets of a choir’s activity in which it is impossible to separate the two dimensions from one another.
The quality of consensus, of individuals cooperating to produce something that none of them could produce by themselves, is understood musically through the term “ensemble.” In its ordinary, everyday usage, this may simply refer to synchronization – the extent to which the choir are performing at the same time. But the notion of “togetherness” clearly goes much deeper than this to encompass not just rhythmic precision, but a coordination of nuance or inflection, and a sense of shared understanding and common purpose.
This shared purpose is produced by the musical content the choir assembles to sing. A piece of music is experienced by listeners as a whole, not as an aggregation of parts; what individual singers might experience as separate lines, the audience hears as harmonies. The piece itself has a clear identity: it is individually recognizable, and has its characteristic themes or gestures that both declare its allegiance to a genre or tradition and mark it out as an entity in its own right. This musical “persona” generated by each piece binds the individual singers together into a unified ensemble, with its own identity independent from the identity of its constituent parts. 10
Musical structures are thus choreographic, in that they regulate the patterns of vocal behavior of the participants, defining where all must act together, and where smaller groups strike off on more independent paths. In polyphonic music, for instance, the singing voice is as close as it can be to instrumental chamber music. Voice leading without conductor can create immediacy and accuracy, something which conductors can do well to employ in their wider armory of skills. When the conductor lets go and frees the active participation of the singers, the musical plot is all the more dramatic.
In purely mechanical terms every musical statement depends in the first instance on breathing. When string quartet players breathe together their bows are impelled by a physical unity of action. The mental process is more than metaphor; it is real. Similarly rhythm can be felt as a physical pulse which is already there before any sound is made. In choral terms that presents an argument for two upbeats, one preparatory and one for breathing. That simple act creates a bond between the performers which unites the sensations of breathing and rhythm, and is far more effective than counting beats. 11 The quality, speed, and weight of the conductor’s beat also affect the emotional response in articulating the first note and the phrase that follows. If the conductor breathes with the beat, the kinesthetic response is direct and affirming.
In any choral group there will be a wide diversity of individuals, each with his or her own characteristic vowel coloration, articulation, and phonation. The question is therefore whether that individuality should be evened out in the interest of a homogeneous sound. There is no simple answer to this. In gospel music, for example, the individual improvised florid phrases are an important ingredient in the style, as is the case with Irish folk music . The operatic quartet represents a fine example of the different possibilities, and can be so individual as not to belong to a whole, or so honed that the individuality is lost, or, ideally perhaps, somewhere between the two.
Blend is an intriguing word, and we would suggest that there are two kinds, as maybe in coffee. There can be a bland blend which takes away the sharp tastes and produces what might be termed an ersatz choral sound, or a combination of tastes which together produces something more characterful than the individual ingredients, which is an exciting blend of their differences. There is a case to be made for the value of piquancy in musical taste.
Some choir directors aim for a sound so homogenized that it can be described as generic. Children’s choirs tend to employ a breathy tone, which takes away the high harmonics of vowels and produces a sweet tone but which lacks the savor which might enhance the expressive quality of a particular song. Ensembles who specialise in Renaissance repertoire concentrate intensively on blending every vowel to enhance pitch matching, and at the same time work on natural tuning. The net result is an exciting physical sensation of vocal sound only available to larger forces (or to amateur singers) with specific training.
If blend is taken to mean a cohesion of sound, then in choral singing it can be divided into many musical aspects. Technical aspects of singing are discussed elsewhere in this volume, but it may be helpful to refer to just a few aspects of singing which are conducive to choral blend.
Good posture enhances the potential of a singer to make a blended sound, to sing legato, and to take advantage of possibilities of resonance. By good posture, we mean effective use of the body in allowing musculature to work freely and in balance, as encouraged by practices such as Alexander Technique or yoga. Despite being a natural and lifegiving activity, breathing is subject to a surprising number of theories and “methods.” A simple definition involves the management of muscles which control the flow of air through the larynx, to enable the production of vowels to be consciously even and modulated in harmonic color at different dynamic levels. What is often called “support” can refer to the involvement of musculature down to the feet, and effective use of lower back and abdominal muscles.
‘Vowel ’ and ‘Vocal ’ come from the same Latin root: Vox (voice), vocis . In Hispanic languages vocal serves for both. In a real sense, vowels are our voice. The production of vowels is the central strategic element in creating blend between singers. Every singer hears a vowel slightly differently, as asking the members of a choral section to sing a vowel in turn will clearly demonstrate. Since vowel production is in imitation of sounds heard internally, the vocal color produced will depend on a number of factors.
First, there are social aspects such as the local accent of the singer, which may or may not be the same as the that of the director whose vowels they copy. What is considered correct pronunciation varies between different regions of the world and between different choral genres. Establishing a choral consensus for vowel sounds will thus involve finding norms that make sense within the expectations both of the choir’s singers and of its audiences. Sung accents tend to be moderated from spoken sounds, regardless of genre and location.
Second, there are questions of physiology. Vowel production depends on the balance between the position of jaw, lips, and tongue. Each singer uses the combinations in a different way. “Open” vowels where the tongue is low are often hard to blend, because there is a lack of high harmonics, and at the same time there may be tension caused by either excessively open jaw and tight throat, or clenched jaw, which limits the freedom of the sound. “Closed” vowels, where the tongue is higher in the middle, will produce a more focused tone which is easier to resonate in a group, and which can produce an immediate increase in blend. The danger here is that the tongue can be too far back, and will again close the throat.
Then there is blend through vowel modification , about which much has been written. 12 A simple rule of thumb is to think of harmonics as emanating from the lowest voice to reinforce the upper voices when singing in consonant harmony. The vowel with the most harmonics [i] when sung by a high soprano can be very piercing, so if modified (covered, in Classical styles) its upper partials will be diminished, and the overall effect will be of good blend. Similarly if the vowel [a] on the highest notes is moved to a [ə ] it will blend with the underlying parts and the vowel difference will not be noticed. Words when sung with varyingly modified vowels in harmony will be deceptively clear.
Consonants can be seen as almost contrary to blend, since they interrupt the vocal flow. Choir trainers often give emphasis to the percussive consonants to achieve clarity in communicating words. In an acoustic with considerable reverberation, the emphasis on clarity is an essential cohesive element. However, overemphasis on consonants interrupts the flow of vowels and thus the direction of a legato phrase, which is why a choir used to a resonant acoustic might sound a little lost in a dry concert hall. Good choral leaders ensure that choristers have an understanding of legato singing by rehearsing in dry acoustics.
There are a number of ways to reduce the interruption to flow which consonants may cause, and thus to enhance legato and blend. Labial consonants b and p, and linguals d and t are often subject to muscular tension and narrowing of the throat. If singers use only a light closing of the lips or a flick of the tongue, the air flow interruption will be minimal. G and k can be similarly lightened. In many cultures and singing styles there is an emphasis on the voiced labial and lingual consonants (m, n, l and ng) and on fricatives which can hold pitch (v, r, dz). These resonant consonants enable the vocalizing of sound to be continuous.
The concept of harmony has informed aesthetic aspiration since Plato and Aristotle , in both metaphorical and physical senses. Consensus and unity in performance assume an agreed norm of harmonic structure, which arises in one sense from the musical culture and in another from the laws of physics. Musical scales, while dividing intervals according to long custom, nevertheless will eventually reach an octave, a doubled frequency. Therefore the common ground which the harmonic series dictates is a uniting factor, and a point of reference when reading the musical map.
In the twenty-first century, historical practice and the search for authenticity are well established, and a real debate is taking place about natural tuning in performance in the light of three hundred years of equal temperament. The keyboard has a lot to answer for in relation to expectation in choral intonation. The doyen of Swedish conductors, Eric Ericsson, employs the gentlest and highest sounds of the keyboard to enhance his choir’s listening to upper partials – nothing could be more remote from English “note bashing” in the use of keyboard in rehearsal. In most a cappella choral music, harmonic language is simple enough to allow harmonic blend to rest on a tonal understanding of the relationship between harmonics.
Some simple examples at the heart of tuning are: the fifth from tonic to dominant is wider than on a keyboard; the semitone between leading note and tonic is wider than the keyboard (and the hopes of conductors) might suggest; the major third between tonic and mediant is lower than expected; and the major second from tonic to supertonic is wider than in equal temperament. All those examples are counter to the mindset of amateur conductors looking for a “bright” third or a high leading note, but paradoxically, once understood and heard, create real harmony in both senses. Harmonic tuning comes into its own at periods of rest, and is at the heart of every cadence.
The idea of improving a choir’s blend by changing the position of the singers has been explored both through trial-and-error approaches and by controlled experiments in the laboratory. American choral pedagogy has a tradition of classifying and placing voices by timbre under labels such as “flute” and “reed,” 13 whilst empirical work has looked at how spacing and different approaches to vocal production interact with the placement of singers. 14 Conclusions from these studies are as yet somewhat mixed, but they are very useful for challenging assumptions about ways of doing things – which usually simply reflect the limits of experience available in our personal musical backgrounds. Different musical textures will also need different approaches. Homophonic music benefits from mixing up the singers so that each is placed next to those singing other parts, while music that dramatizes the juxtaposition of different lines or bodies of sound (polyphonic or antiphonal textures) benefits from keeping the parts spatially distinct.
Interpretation is often seen to be the conductor’s job alone. The choir is cast in the role of the conductor’s “instrument,” to be acted upon by the musical will of the conductor. The resulting rehearsal techniques focus on efficiency and precision, and operate at a largely concrete level. However, if we argue that the emotional dimension is central to musical expression, and at the heart of the solo performance, be it protest song, love song, war chant , tragic theatrical moment, or grand operatic aria, then to eliminate that dimension from the learning process in choral singing seems strange and arbitrary. So it can be argued that every singer in a chorus can contribute a personal emotional involvement, which bypasses learned technique, and taps into something more primal.
Expression of emotion is not necessarily a natural thing. For most singers it needs initially to be acted out. Most choristers think of themselves as a small cog in a big wheel (apart, of course, from the exhibitionists – but see below). It is a valuable tool in creating choral expression for singers to put themselves in the position of actors, putting on a character for the purpose. It is helpful to think of that character as larger than life, happier than life and to be communicating to the audience as if one to one. So an individual in a choir contributes something very specific and important to the whole.
The rehearsal techniques a director employs as a matter of course can encourage or discourage singers from engaging imaginatively with the musical content. Literal instructions and drill demand little beyond obedience, whereas approaches that ask the choir to think about the music and their response to it more reflectively produce both greater personal satisfaction and more artistic nuance.
Instead of telling the choir to sing loudly or softly, for instance, a director can ask them to work out what the dynamic level should be – whether from the composer’s markings or from the shape and interaction of the vocal lines. Replacing words for expression that work in a single dimension (“loud” or “quiet”) with words that require more interpretation (“triumphant” or “wistful”) can help singers connect the technical act of singing with the meaning of the text. Using metaphors and imagery helps to build a shared concept of the music while giving each singer room to invest their own personal experience into it. And the more that individual singers are personally committed to the beauty and meanings of the music they sing, the more motivated they will be to fulfill the conductor’s agenda.
It may seem paradoxical that a route to find artistic consensus is to invite each singer’s subjective response. But what this does is promote commonality in the choir’s level of engagement. Every choir contains a range of skill levels, so in a technical dimension there will always be some singers who are working at the extreme of what they can manage, while others coast along, needing less attention to achieve the same task. But the dimension of heartfelt performance works independently of technical skill, and thus can provide a means to develop a real unity of purpose and commitment that transcends technique.
Historically, the orchestral conductor started as someone who banged on the floor with a stick to keep the musicians in time. Bernstein in his Mass has the conductor as a traffic policeman. Much conducting teaching concentrates on this aspect of control of music; both textbooks and conducting courses, for instance, are typically structured around the systematic mastery of beat patterns.
Clarity is of course important. Indeed, if a choir has problems with synchronization, this is almost always the result of mixed messages from the conductor. If the wrist arrives at the downbeat before the fingertips, you will hear some singers coordinating the start of the bar with one, and the rest with the other. It is likewise easy for conductors to mouth the words fractionally out of time with the directions they are giving with their hands. Unanimity in rhythm thus relies on the director having both clarity of purpose in his or her concept of the music and the discipline to remove all extraneous gestures or mannerisms that might muddy the singers’ view of it.
Of course, the conductor’s effect on the choir goes beyond simply coordinating the performance so they sing together: the conductor communicates expressive qualities of phrasing, shaping and color at a deeply intuitive level. Many instruction manuals tell student conductors to study the score until they “become the music itself,” and the reason for this is that a choir will respond to what their conductor’s attention is focused upon. 15 Conductors who are worried about getting their beat patterns right will elicit a much more functional and mechanical performance than those who are deeply immersed in the flow of the music.
This kinesthetic relationship between conductor and singers can be observed when different conductors direct the same choir: the change of conductor changes their sound instantly. 16 The creation of the sound is subtle, and can be specified. Conducting with hands at face level may produce exciting high harmonics in the sound, and clear articulation and expression, but the breathing is likely to be shallow and the lower harmonics weaker. Conducting with a beat focused at waist height may well produce a rich and dark sound, and a grounded articulation and breathing, but a negative impact is likely to be the absence of gentler, more ethereal colors. Conducting with a square, clear beat is likely to produce good articulation but lack a sense of legato and of long musical lines. An exciting element is that of sculpting the sound with the hand. William Ehmann compares the act of conducting a choir with the work of a glassblower shaping and forming liquid glass, a metaphor that encompasses both the exercise of artistic intention and a careful responsiveness to the material the artist works with. 17
It follows that conductors have it in their power to reinforce or undermine their work on blend by the way they direct. This is true both at the level of basic technique – singers will involuntarily mimic the stance and breath patterns of their conductor – and at the more refined levels of the detail of blend – if you can hone the sound by changing your hand shape, you can distort it by the same method. This is why directors should think of themselves as part of the ensemble rather than as separate from it, since the only way to solve these problems is to think of all the performers working as one organic whole. Otherwise it is depressingly easy to spend rehearsals correcting faults verbally that have arisen in response to the conducting gesture itself. 18
Amateur choral groups are a form of serious leisure in which people need to have a sense of growth or progress in order to maintain their commitment. 19 This “career” does not, however, have to be articulated through the primary musical activity in order to be valid. Individuals can contribute in many different ways, including team or committee membership, leadership of a section of the choir, music copy production, or even refreshment preparation. Those who are under-confident musically may find an organizational role that gives them scope to feel they are making a valuable and distinctive contribution.
As each individual brings their experience and needs to the choir, however, strong norms of behavior emerge within the group. John Bertalot asks:
Do the choir put their robes away neatly? Is the vestry tidy after services, or do you, as choir director, have to tidy up when your choir have left? Once you begin to do this for them, they will let you. 20
Choirs develop shared social habits very easily. Social validation is one of the strongest influences on people’s behavior – that is, people look to see how other people are behaving to help them decide what they should do. 21 Social psychologists have named this the “chameleon effect,” and shown how people join in with each other’s behavior without even noticing that they are doing so. 22 This is how a choir can feel like the “same” choir over many years, even though the actual singers involved may have changed several times. This is a power that can work with either positive or negative results.
The downside of social validation is that it can be very difficult to change bad habits. If new choir members arrive at the published start time of their first rehearsal and see people continuing to arrive for the next twenty minutes, they are likely to arrive late every subsequent week. If they observe that most of the choir choose to finish their coffee before coming back after a break even when the director is ready to go on, they too will amble back into rehearsal in their own time. Telling people what the expected norms are is virtually useless if they can observe other people disregarding them – people believe what they see, not what they are told. There is a direct parallel here with the behavior of the conductor towards the choir. An instruction to sit up from a leader with poor posture is as ineffectual as a shouting instruction to sing pianissimo.
The same dynamic, though, provides the means to maintain productive habits. In the National Youth Choir of Great Britain, for example, a tradition has developed over many years of creating norms of behavior which are non-confrontational. For instance, the “five minute rule” requires singers to be in position to sing five minutes before the rehearsal or meeting time. During the five minutes, seating changes can be effected and general information disseminated, so that the rehearsal, which starts with a downbeat at the stated time, ends at the stated time with music instead of talk. The choristers are also divided into “family” groups, mixing ages and experience in the choir. “Parents” are responsible for leading teams in social activities, helping with pastoral matters, and administering tour bus arrangements within the small groups. Musical matters are in the hands of student section leaders, including note learning, rehearsal concentration, and concert deportment. All choristers sign a contract signifying their agreement to conform to modes of conduct with regard to antisocial behavior in all its forms. Consequently, the director rarely needs to assert autocratic authority, and when he does, it can be done in meetings of heads of sections and “families.”
The chameleon effect is also the means by which choirs maintain many of their musical habits, from approaches to voice production to the characteristic stance and body language of their style. Musical notation, however detailed, omits a lot of information about how to perform the music – the inflection, the nuances, the tone colors – and this information is instead stored in the performing traditions of musical communities. People who sing together start to look more like each other, as they pick up a shared stance for singing, and shared facial expressions. They also start to sound more alike, since the shared ways of holding the body will result in shared ways of using the voice.
This shows how the factors in balance between individual and group may not be purely musical or purely social. Forceful or timid personalities can reveal themselves by the way they sing, while different musical and vocal skill sets can spill over into choir politics. We shall look at these mixed dimensions next.
It is in those places where the musical and the social dimensions of choral life mesh most inextricably that the balance between individual and group is experienced at its most deeply human level. The social identities of both the choir as a whole and its constituent singers are experienced through their musical activities, while their identities as musical participants provides the shared common ground for their social interactions. This affects how people learn, how they interact together, and the values they share.
One important aspect in creating consensus is a recognition of a wide range of learning skills among the choir. There are a number of different educational models to describe these, some of which consider the primary sense people use to process information, others focusing more on different types of intelligence. 23 For a choral context, it may be helpful to identify them in terms of memory processes, since so much of choral rehearsal concerns how people absorb and retain music.
There is an interesting polarity between the dominant areas of different choral styles . Where a group specializes in predominantly oral traditions such as gospel, memory relies on repetition of musical phrases and a building up of harmony as appropriate to the style. This may be combined with kinesthetic, or tactile learning by integrating rhythmic movements with the musical content. At the other extreme, the professional chorister may use short-term visual recognition to perform a piece on minimal rehearsal. Indeed, even after recording sessions, professionals can experience some difficulty in remembering what they have just sung.
The learning process will always contain a number of memory skills used in a range of proportions. Visual memory can include the ability to recall whole pages of text or musical score. For most, even with limited sight-reading skills, memory serves as a reminder of sounds recalled from previous singing of a particular phrase. The learning process therefore combines visual with auditory memory, or what the Kodaly approach calls inner hearing.
Aural memory ranges from absolute pitch awareness to the phenomenon of what tends to be called tone deafness, or the inability to recall and reproduce musical pitches. At both extremes, performance will be greatly improved by practice. In rehearsal it is both helpful and fun to rehearse without instrumental help. A group of singers invited to sing a new piece will tend to find the right pitch after a few rehearsals. This achievement encapsulates an interesting partnership between aural and kinesthetic memory; it is partly our ears and partly our motor memory that enable our muscles to reproduce a sound made on a previous occasion. In helping singers with pitch retention difficulties it is important to begin with pitches that their muscles predispose them to produce. Using glissandi the musculature can be trained to change pitch incrementally. The awareness of definite pitch and intervals will follow. So the person in the choir can be helped to sing in tune by a combination of voice production and aural awareness.
Factual memory is important at many levels. It is helpful for a conductor to give background information about a piece to be sung. Some do so at the outset, giving a frame of reference, while others use a more inductive approach, involving the choristers in discussion about the emotional content or the purpose of a piece. Factual learning also embraces musical knowledge, from the basics of reading music, via interpretative instruction on the page, to an understanding of scales and chords in creating musical sentences, words rather than letters.
Learning is greatly enhanced by variation in the form of memory skills employed. Repeating a phrase in exactly the same way will show diminishing returns, while separation into its component parts will keep the brain active and aid the learning process. For example a phrase clapped, danced, chanted, and sung without words registers in different parts of the brain but will be processed simultaneously. This provides a dynamic example of individuality combining towards consensus.
Different skill levels within the group will combine with personality types to have significant effects on individuals’ confidence in performance and in their social interactions. One way to use these differences productively to support rather than undermine the contributions individuals make to the whole is to turn them into specific roles within the ensemble.
Disruptive or overbearing members of the group are often venting frustrations which may come from different areas of their lives, and channeling their energy can be very valuable. If given the attention they seek in the form of responsibility for others, choral poachers quickly become gamekeepers. The diva whose voice does not blend and who may express superiority through aloofness or arrogance can be given the responsibility to help less confident neighbors, and to blend with them. Confident readers of music who become bored as others catch up can be given section leading roles, and be responsible for ensuring that a small group knows the notes. Shy and reluctant members can be placed next to confident ones, and become partners in producing the music – blending by placement can be applied to personality as well as voice types. Leadership skills can be utilized in every area, whether musical or organizational. As in sport, consensus comes from teamwork and a feeling of being needed as part of a whole. A visiting conductor who may meet a choir for only one or two rehearsals is unable to make relationships with individuals, but for the regular incumbent an acquaintance with individuals is an invaluable resource.
Some of the most successful strategies for balancing the imperatives for choral unity and individual expression are those that focus not on the group itself, but on some shared purpose or ideal to which all can contribute. The most obvious example is of faith choirs, in which the enforcement of both musical and behavioral requirements can be justified in terms not only of the good of the choir, but for the sake of the whole faith community. Secular choirs find other ideals to share: a commitment to the composer’s intentions, a connection with musical style, or the desire to reach out to their audience.
The key element that determines the success of a choir ethos for gaining consensus and motivating choristers is that it should be something that is a good in its own right, and thus the choir members themselves can judge whether they are living up to it. Concrete goals such as competition success do not necessarily motivate, since it is beyond the control of the choir to achieve it – however carefully you prepare, another choir can always come along and produce a better performance. The choir ethos may work primarily in either the musical or the social dimension, although it is difficult to develop excellence in performance without placing musical commitments at the heart of the choir’s identity.
Having a strong and explicit choir ethos or mission changes the dynamic of the choral contract. Instead of a compromise in which individuals are asked to curtail their own freedoms for the good of the whole, the choir’s mission asks both the individuals and the collective to place themselves in the service of something more important than either. The conflict of interest implicit in the negotiation between the one and the many is subsumed within the wider mission.
The advantage of the choral contract over the social contract proposed by Enlightenment philosophers is that joining a choir is optional. You cannot opt out of the society you live in, but if you do not agree with the values held by the people you sing with, you can seek out a different group in which you feel what it demands of you is more in balance with what it offers.
This possibility is what ultimately delimits the power of the conductor. Singers are remarkably loyal to their choirs despite the tyranny of their directors, but they always retain the fundamental freedom to choose whether or not to participate. This is why conductors need to think of themselves as part of the group as they manage the negotiations between individuality and consensus. A conductor who refers to his or her choir as “we” or “us” has more power to effect change than one who refers to the choir as “they” or “them.” After all, you cannot actually change somebody else’s behavior, you can only build an environment in which they will choose to change it themselves.
There are well-established choral and pedagogical techniques available to turn a group of individuals into a choir – some of them we have discussed in this chapter, and others appear elsewhere in the book. But the success of these techniques depends on the diagnosis of the needs and characters of the actual people involved in any particular choir, as this drives the decision of which techniques to choose. The diagnosis, moreover, pertains not only to musical or vocal skills, but also to social background, personal motivations, and the cultural norms contained within different choral traditions. Every choir faces these questions, and, while there are multiple ways to answer them, both the musical success and the morale of the group rely on finding answers that will work for that ensemble.