Memories, light the corners of my mind..

I want to thank Jocelyn Lavin for her excellent tips on memorising scores which I have shamelessly adapted for our help in this blog. Jocelyn is exactly the sort of chorister every choirmaster would want in their choir - gifted and committed!!

Singing from memory

The most important starting point is not to say “I can never learn things from memory, I find it too hard” or “I could learn it if I had time, but I’m far too busy”. There are ways round both these things. You need to want to learn whatever it is!

The best way to learn to sing something from memory is to sing it from memory.

That means you need to take every possible opportunity to try singing from memory.

Try this - sing along to your music in the car on every journey you make, until you know it. (This method will result in you knowing the whole thing far more quickly than you might expect.) It’s best if you can sing aloud, because then muscle memory will start to kick in, but there’ll still be some muscle memory if you’re just mouthing the words.

Sing from memory in rehearsals. Just try one line at a time. You can glance down at your score after the line to check what you got right and what you didn't. You'll find that you already know more than you think you do, and each time you’ll improve. Do not put your score away though – the score is vital in rehearsal!


If you find you can usually remember the notes fairly well but struggle with the words try writing the words out on their own. Often, when you do this, you notice patterns in the words (e.g. rhymes) for the first time, and patterns always help with memorising. And don’t just write them out once - do it a few times, and after each time, recite the words as a poem.

So, in summary, to learn music from memory:

• Try singing it from memory every chance you get, don’t wait till you know it
• Sing along to the part learning CD on car journeys (and silently on the train!)
• Sing from memory (a bit at a time) in rehearsals
• Write out the words and spot patterns
• Keep a copy of the music with you and snatch a few minute looking at it when you can.

Smile when you're singing!!! YUCK!

Most male voice choirs are a miserable looking bunch! No don't be offended it's true!. Lovely warm engaging chaps who are quick to laugh, smile and crack a joke are instantly turned into stone faced monuments when placed in a male choir and asked to sing in front of an audience.

However, I am not in favour of the cheesy grin displayed by most choirs who are "trying" to be entertaining - I refer specifically to four part male voice groups who sing predominantly unaccompanied music with the melody usually in the second tenor line!

What I would like us to aim for is an expressive meaningful look on our chops that in some way conveys the music that we are singing. I can't imagine that during Beati Mortui a rictus like grin would be thought appropriate even by our hairdressing colleagues but our somber visage during "Five, foot two" is a bit embarrassing really.

So for next season, here is what I would like you to do for me!

Lets show some emotion on our faces as we sing - express the words during each song as you would if you were singing a solo. Honest emotion will help us communicate the song to each member of the audience and make the whole experience more enjoyable for all concerned.

And when do we smile???? After each piece is completed have a look round the audience and smile at them. The smile says "Thank you for listening, I'm glad you enjoyed the song and I love your applause!" There is safety in numbers so don't feel embarrassed doing this - try it for me, you might even enjoy it!!

I attach below two examples of honest emotion expressed by a male choir whilst singing their music. I attach two contrasting items from the BBC show "Last Choir Standing", both sung by Only Men Aloud. These fabulous arrangements are sung with utter commitment by the guys, they are technically proficient, wonderfully musical and so very engaging. I was a sceptic about Last Choir Standing but Only Men Aloud have added something that the rest of the show simply doesn't have.

Hope you enjoy these - please feel free to feed back through the comments.

The greatest songwriter of the last 100 years

It's the off season and I feel like digressing.........

Not too far of the beaten track here but in controversial territory for a "proper" musician - who am I talking about? This songwriter is American and to me is not only the greatest songwriter of the last 100 years but is also the greatest American songwriter.

His exquisitely crafted songs have drawn on early rock & roll (particularly doo-wop), reggae, salsa, jazz, gospel, blues, New Orleans, and African and South American music. In an unassuming, distinctive voice he speaks of matters personal and universal with attitudes ranging from the whimsical to the reverent.

He stands apart from most songwriters of his generation in that he has created a wide-ranging body of work in which the purely musical vocabulary - of style, instrumentation, and sounds - is as evocative and as expressive as his lyrics.

So, who is it? Jerome Kern, George Gershwin?

No, its Paul Simon.

From his first harmonising with Art Garfunkel to his collaborations with Ladysmith Black Mambaza, Simon's work stands head and shoulders above his generation, unique in his ability to touch the hearts and minds of audience.

So, I hear you ask, what is this to do with a choir. Very little directly I suppose except for this - this is an artist committed to reaching out to his audience, conveying meaning from each inflection, drawing deep inside to communicate his message.

We can learn a lot by listening to all styles of music - try some Paul Simon for size.

I include here a little known track - the subject of this song was Paul Simon's English girlfriend Kathy, the song "America" features her and it is said she was his muse during his time in England.

The text is beautiful, as is Simon's delivery.

Enjoy



I hear the drizzle of the rain
Like a memory it falls
Soft and warm continuing
Tapping on my roof and walls

And from the shelter of my mind
Through the window of my eyes
I gaze beyond the rain-drenched streets
To England where my heart lies

My mind's distracted and defused
My thoughts are many miles away
They lie with you when you're asleep
And kiss you when you start your day

And this song I was writing is left undone
I don't know why I spend my time
Writing songs I can't believe
With words that tear and strain to rhyme

And so you see I have come to doubt
All that I once held as true
I stand alone without beliefs
The only truth I know is you

And as I watch the drops of rain
Weave their weary paths and die
I know that I am like the rain
There but for the grace of you go I

Sunset Poem

A member asked me the other evening why we don't sing "Sunset Poem". I smiled sweetly, made a few appropriately polite remarks about pressure of other repertoire and not being able to see where it would fit into the general run of our concert commitments - this is perfectly true.

However, underneath all of this there is a simple underlying reason why we don't do it.

I hate Sunset Poem.

I find it the most odious item that I can possibly ever be confronted with in a male choir programme. Why so? I hear you ask; How can a few short verses of "Under Milk Wood" set to a perfectly reasonable chant by Troyte be so offensive?

Well, this is because of the horrendous way that almost every choir I have heard sing it.

Regard the text....

Every morning when I wake
Dear Lord, a little prayer I make,
O please to keep Thy lovely eye
on all poor creatures born to die.

And every evening at sun-down
I ask a blessing on the town,
for whether we last the night or no
I'm sure is always touch-and-go.

We are not wholly bad or good
who live our lives under Milk Wood,
and Thou, I know, wilt be the first
to see our best side, not our worst.

O let us see another day!
Bless us all this night, I pray,
and to the sun we all will bow
and say, good-bye - but just for now!

This text should be sung in speech rhythm - that means at the pace of good well-measured speech and in a similar shape. So this might mean for the first verse something like

Every morning when I wake
Dear Lord, a little prayer I make,
O please to keep Thy lovely eye
On all poor creatures born to die.

Compared to most performances that go something like

Every morning when I wake
Dear Lord, a little prayer I make,
O please to keep Thy lovely eye
on all poor creatures born to die

Hard to represent on the page but you must have regard to the meaning of the text and it is very poor form to accent the word “I” in tastefully performed Anglican chant!

Why have I just ranted about this – well I feel quite strongly that we don’t as a whole pay enough attention to the important things in the male choir world. We are very obsessed with showering the choirmaster with saliva on final “t’s” and accenting inappropriately the word contempt wherever it appears but singing with style and attention to the words and “painting a picture” seems to slip past most of us.

Let’s concentrate on

Performing each phrase appropriately by thinking about the meaning of the text.
Looking after each interval - making it just perfect.
Singing clean vowel sounds, unpolluted by affectation
Concentrating on the phrase at hand and by doing that remaining focussed on the moment, not worrying about that difficult phrase on page 12 (or whatever)

By doing those few things above we should think all the time about interpreting the music not just producing a collection of chords.

Oh, and as for Anglican Chant – this is fun!

Let's try this - I'm interested today in the starts of our songs - usually things like Beati Mortui that start on the last beat of the bar are the most difficult for us. The beginnings of these songs can sound abrupt and unmusical with no flow from the weak last beat of the bar into the stronger pulse of the first beat of the next bar.

So lets practice this exercise.

Breathe in - fill your tummy up from low down and hold it using your tummy muscles; as I count you in gently let some of the air escape and then start the music smoothly without breathing in again or jerking in on the first note.

If you find this difficult, try this exercise first.

Breathe in - fill your tummy up from low down and hold it using your tummy muscles; hum the first note and then transition the hum into the first phrase. For example mmmmmmmeati mortui - then try and remember the sensation and try mmmmmmmmmmmmbeati mortui.

Finally use the first exercise to practice a smooth start to the son.

With a La La La!

Once again I want us to think about legato. I have been working on some things with you regarding this and want to try and give you some things to work on at home.

Get out your learning aid CD for Beati Mortui and try this.

Instead of singing the words practise your part to a good old La!

But, and this is important, don't just la la la along - make sure that the music is in one continuous flow of sound and the "L" of La is merely used to define the start of each note.

Keep your mouth open in a really good shape - not over stretched, nor mostly closed - a nice open shape is ideal.

Breathe in nice and low down, expand your rib cage low down and out creating a nice barrel shape in your tummy and as the sound comes out conserve the air by using your tummy muscles (remember our hiss exercise)

Now La the phrase as a continuous stream of tone.

Only when we create a really good legato line will we be able to sing truly expressive phrases and create truly musical performances.

I dug around "tinternet" and found this example of gorgeous legato, delivered by a choir directed by the 20th century's greatest choirmaster (probably)

Enjoy

Reach for the stars!

It has been over a month since my last post – tut tut! – time just seems to fly by. Apologies for my tardiness but life just seems to get busier every month.

I have been thinking about breathing and support this month. One of the difficulties one has as a singing teacher or choirmaster is giving advice on what is fundamentally a physical process – singing!

You hear grumpy old choir masters using phrases like “sing with head voice” or “lift your soft palate” but what does that really mean? The problem with putting it into words is that the physical sensations are hard to describe – so I prefer giving you a few practical demonstrations that hopefully will help you.

So I’ll give you a quick three point guide in how to stand (or sit) well for good singing!!

1. When standing place your feet about as far apart as your shoulders. You should be physically well balanced (and mentally for that matter but I’m not sure I can help with that). rock from side to side until you feel “well planted”. If you are sitting don’t slouch in the chair, sit up with your weight supported by your legs; in practice this means that you should sit so that you could stand straight up without moving your feet

2. Stretch your hands way up above your head and then lower your hands to your sides without moving any other part of your body. this will put all your apparatus in the right place!

3. When you breathe in, imagine you whole body filling with air, right down as far as you pelvis. The air pours in very much like water filling a glass – it comes in from the bottom up!

That’s you ready to go. We can’t stretch before each song, phrase or set at a gig but if we learn how these correct positions feel, we can replicate them in the concert environment.

Beati Mortui

A quick post today - this is a recording of Beati Mortui by the men of the Choir of Trinity College Cambridge, directed by Richard Marlow.

Dr Marlow uses slightly different pronounciations in a couple of words but as the National Lutheran Choir uses the same as we do I am content!

Interestingly if you listen very carefully you will hear that the choir have redistributed the voice parts near the end in exactly the same way as we have.

Hope this is enjoyable and useful.

Beati mortui
Beh-ah-tee mor-too-ee
Blessed are the dead

In Domino morientes deinceps
Een Do-mee-no mor-ee-ehn-tehs de-een-chehps
Who henceforth die in the Lord

Dicit enim spiritus,
Dee-cheet eh-neem spee-ree-tus
Thus says the spirit

Ut requiescant a laboribus suis
Oot- reh-kwee-ehs-cahnt ah lah-bor-ee-us su-ees
That they may rest from their labors

Et opera illorum sequuntur ipsos.
Eht oh-peh-rah ee-lor-oom seh-koont-oor eep-sos
And their works follow them

Share my longing

One of the stated aims of Bournemouth Male Voice Choir (in it's constitution) is "education" - an unusual aim for an amateur choir perhaps but one which we take seriously nonetheless. We tend to eschew the "I know what I like and I like what I know" philosophy in favour of introducing all kinds of music in our programmes.

So, for choir members, let me introduce you to one of the pinnacles of the choral genre - J S Bach's St Matthew Passion. Being the Easter weekend, this is timely - but I also know some of you have an antipathy to sacred music - around 75% of our choral output in BMVC is secular but please don't close your mind to the beauty of this sacred item. As I have said before, you don't need to believe to sing music convincingly. I imagine most of you don't have a "Five, foot two eyes of blue" girl at home but that doesn't prevent you from convincingly performing it.


Sometime in the Middle Ages, Christian churches began observing Holy Week by retelling the story of Christ's crucifixion in music. Those beginnings were simple—Bible verses set to simple chant melodies—but eventually they would culminate in one of the most ambitious musical compositions of all time.

When J. S. Bach came to write his St. Matthew Passion in the 1720s, the passion, as a musical form, had grown to allow orchestra, choirs, and non-scriptural choruses and arias. But even by the standard of the Baroque passion, the Passion According to St. Matthew is exceptional for its musical richness and its grand scope.

Musically, the score is of imposing length, and calls for double orchestra and double choir—three choirs, at one point. The musical textures range from complex counterpoint to simple hymns. Dramatically, the point of view shifts regularly, from the narrative of the Evangelist, to the actual words of Jesus and his disciples, to reflections that speak for the individual believer. But in Bach's hands, the effect that the Passion gives is not one of a brilliant collage, but a single, sustained, sombre meditation—appropriate for a work that was first performed as part of a church service.

Scholars believe the first performance of the St. Matthew Passion may have been in 1727. It was certainly performed on Good Friday of 1729, and perhaps at several other Good Friday services during Bach's life. It then dropped from public view until 1829, when it was triumphantly revived by Felix Mendelssohn, crystallizing a revival of interest in Bach that grew throughout the 19th century and still continues.

The text of the passion was created by the German writer Christian Henrici, who wrote under the pen name of Picander. Like Bach, he lived in Leipzig, and it is believed that he and Bach worked closely together on the text.

There are three strands in the text: the actual text from the book of Matthew; Picander's own poetry; and the pre-existing hymns, or chorales, which Bach incorporates into the score, which would have been immediately recognizable by his first hearers.

I attach the opening chorus in the hope that you might like to dip into "The Matthew" - the best recording (in my humble opinion) can be bought on Amazon by clicking here. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bach-J-S-St-Matthew-Passion/dp/B000J233L2


This fabulous chorus was described by Leonard Bernstein thus...

"Suddenly the chorus breaks into two antiphonal choruses. 'See him!' cries the first one. 'Whom?' asks the second. And the first answers: 'The Bridegroom see. See Him!' 'How?' 'So like a Lamb.' And then over and against all this questioning and answering and throbbing, the voices of a boy's choir sing out the chorale tune, 'O Lamb of God Most Holy,' piercing through the worldly pain with the icy-clear truth of redemption. The contrapuntal combination of the three different choruses is thrilling. There is nothing like it in all music."


the text is

Chorus I
Come, ye daughters, share my longing,
See ye, whom?— the bridegroom Christ,
See him, what?— a spotless lamb!

Chorale
O Lamb of God, unspotted
Upon the cross's branch slaughtered,
See ye,—what?—see him forbear,
Always displayed in thy patience,
How greatly wast thou despisèd.
Look—where, then?—upon our guilt;
All sin hast thou born for us,
Else we had lost all courage.
See how he with love and grace
Wood as cross himself now beareth! Have mercy on us, O Jesus!

Enjoy

England's Song forever

As you may realise our first own choice item at Llangollen is also one of our most ambitious choices of repertoire thus far. Granville Bantock’s Fighting Temeraire sets Henry Newbolt’s poem to music and draws its inspiration from Turner’s Masterful Paining above.

In this painting, “The Fighting Temeraire, tugged to her Last Berth to be broken up” Turner touched, as he rarely did, the common heart of mankind. Apart from particular associations, there is an eternal pathos in an old ship being tugged to its last berth in calm water at sunset. It is not necessary to tell the story of how the good ship was captured from the French at the battle of the Nile, and broke the line of the combined fleets at that of Trafalgar; nor is it necessary to think of her battered hulk as a type of the old sailing “wooden walls,” so soon to be replaced by ironclads and steam propellers—of the “old order” which “changeth, giving place to new.”

It is a poem without all this, though all this gives additional interest and pathos to it in our eyes. Considered even in relation to the artist, this picture has a peculiar solemnity: he, as well as the Téméraire, was being “tugged to his last berth ;“ he had still many years of life, but his decline as an artist had commenced, and was painfully perceptible in most of his pictures; occasionally his genius rallied, and this was one of its expiring efforts, the last picture which, “he painted with his perfect power”

Turner referred to this painting as "My Darling", and refused to sell it. When this painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy in I839 its title was accompanied in the catalogue by these lines from Thomas Campbell's `Ye Mariners of England'

The flag which braved the battle and the breeze,
No longer owns her.

The passing of the age of sail into steam-ships, iron vessels, indeed the industrial revolution, coincided with great artist like Turner and John Constable painting both the old idyllic landscape with castles, abbeys and scenes of the past age alongside steam trains, boats and industrial changes as exciting them days as computer in our time.

The pinnacle of Constables paintings 'The Haywain' is set undeniably in the past. Turner's 'The Fighting Temeraire' shows us the passing away of that time. A grand forty-year-old champion of the Battle of Trafalgar, being towed away to its last berth by a modern steam tug bellowing smoke.

Turner was seen on board a Margate steamer sketching the passage of the Temeraire upriver to Beatson's ship breaking yard at Rotherhithe on 6 September 1838, although what he saw and what he painted are two different things. Thus we know from contemporary newspaper reports that the Temeraire was towed by two tugs, and another observer of the towing later testified that the painter invented the spectacular sunset. The Temeraire glorified for the last time by Turner's brushes, for in reality she is stripped of her masts, the Admiralty removes sail and rigging, all guns and useful parts as spares. The ship is to be stripped of its oak wood at the breaker's yard, the copper sold back to the Admiralty for £3000, the breaker having paid around £5500 for the hull.

The Temeraire that would have made a marvellous museum piece in itself, is now left to the nation in the National Gallery as a painting. Thanks to Turner the ship that saved the 'Victory' at the Battle of Trafalgar is still remembered.

Smooooth!

We have been working this week on the legato line, so in today's post I'll look at the fundamentals and the building blocks of technique; in subsequent posts we'll look more closely at practical manifestation of that theory.

Breath support/breath and breath management.

This is crucial for real legato singing. In singing a legato line, the singer must learn how to make a low breath into the lower back, not too much breath, however it is always a low breath". Over-breathing will encourage you to"blow out the vocal cords " with too much breath pressure. This manifests itself as "pushing" the voice or too much "pushing of air pressure" through the cords. Over-breathing will certainly distort any legato line. A slow and gradual release of breath is crucial for the basis of a legato line.

The Jaw.

The proper position of your jaw is"hanging slightly down and back" (a sort of gormless look) much as the jaw would hang down and back if one went to sleep with the head back. The jaw NEVER goes forward. Too many singers open their mouths too much until the jaw "pops forward" out of its socket or joint. This is completely incorrect for healthy singing. It also makes a legato line impossible because the jaw cannot manage the relationship between vowel and consonant function. If the jaw is "slightly down and back", the relationship between vowel and consonant is smooth. This creates a longer vibrational time between vowel and consonant function: a pure legato line.

Try a "gentle chewing motion" of the jaw.

• chew several times before singing.


• Then sing "ee,oh,ee,oh,ee,oh". When a "gentle chew" is achieved, as in eating food, the pressure in the jaw muscles is released. This exercise creates a smooth, gentle, and elastic motion of the jaw muscles.

The Tongue

Think about the "ng" position of the tongue as in the word "singing" or "hanging". This "ng" position of the tongue is the basis for resonance to be present in singing a legato line; without this technique there is a "muted" or "darkened" sound in the voice. True resonance is lost.

Some simple exercises:

1. Try leaning slightly forward from the waist" then sound a "hiss" creating a lot of resistance at the tongue/teeth area. This will give the you the feel of "holding back the breath pressure" with the body and allowing a "small controlled breath stream" to be used. Then (when there is no-one around) do the same thing but create a small moaning sound, this will give you the proper feel of breath support.


2. The "hanging" relaxed jaw. Use chewing exercises and imitate the jaw function of chewing food. Sing from a closed vowel to an open vowel . This could be "ee, oh, ee, oh, ee, oh," etc. or "eh, ah, eh, ah, eh, ah," etc.


3. Try it again but use Italian syllables such as: da, me, ni, po, to, la, be, da. Use the "hanging jaw" as proper position to pronounce these sounds. This can be properly found by using the position of "drinking out of a large glass". Allow the tongue to do all of the pronouncing. This will keep the jaw from closing and the result will be a more "open ". Note: (if you raise your eyebrows, the "relaxed hanging jaw" will be much easier.)


4. Use a "ng" sound and gradually open to an open vowel such as "oh" or "ah". The result will be a vowel that has resonance and this resonance can maximise the length of the vowels and minimise the time spent on consonants.

It is important to remember that the core of good musicianship in singing is a good legato line, when the legato line is present in your performances, the audience is moved and touched emotionally.

Hi All,

We spoke on the last rehearsal of the old year about commitment - I want to share a very old video clip with you of my absolute favourite singer (well almost) - Giuseppe di Stefano.

Being a deeply flawed character myself, it will come as not surprise to you that one of my musical heroes (despite his genius) was not perfect. Giuseppe di Stefano was a natural talent, a voice with an immediacy and passion unrivalled in this century. His story was the story of a tenor who was more than liable to yield to temptation - and he did, singing without precaution.

During the decade of 1946 to 1956, Di Stefano performed onstage and on recordings with a beauty of tone and an intensity unique in this century. His lifestyle was as intense as his performing - it made the behaviour of the wildest player in Manchester United seem more sedate than that of a house-bound Baptist preacher.

His technique, which in some respects was extraordinarily good, spread his tone and negotiated the transition of vocal placement that occurs in the tenor range around F above middle C in the worst possible way. But while the voice lasted, it was unlike anything heard this century. Its sound was beautiful beyond compare and Di Stefano could manipulate it with nuanced expression of seemingly endless subtlety. His diction in both Italian and French was perfect. Every syllable he sang was suffused with meaning. He shaded the music so that the listener seemed to sense the meaning of what he sang without understanding a single word of Italian or French. He could also make a seamless transition from the very loudest to the softest sound without losing support of the tone, and he could do it over his entire vocal range.

Both Plácido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti were asked which tenors had influenced them. They both named the same two - Enrico Caruso and Giuseppe di Stefano. The recently published biography of Jussi Björling written by his wife describes how taken that great tenor was by Di Stefano's singing, how Björling said that if Di Stefano kept going the way he had started, he would leave everyone behind.

The aria is E lucevan le stelle is the last solo aria in the Opera ra Tosca by Giacomo Puccini. It is sung by Tosca's lover, the painter Mario Cavaradossi,when lamenting his coming execution. Mario Cavaradossi is a beautifully shaped character who, being in love with a passionate and extremely jealous diva, Floria Tosca, endures all her doubts and jealousy and loves her more and more every minute. But he is imprisoned for treason and he is to be executed at dawn.

Cavaradossi, who is aware of the situation, bids his farewell to life, singing one of the most beautiful arias in the entire operatic repertoire. He starts recalling a night spent with Tosca - everything was so beautiful, sublime and almost unreal. But something is wrong with all that Cavaradossi's shows his anger over the unjust laws of life and death in the second part of the aria, when he cries out in complete despair:

This level of commitment to each note, to ensure that every phrase is what we want it to be is (in the words of Shakespeare's Hamlet) "a consummation devoutly to be wished" Please enjoy a masterful performance below.

Reasons to Sing

Hi All,

A long time since the last post - as some of you will know, I haven't been in top health for the last few months. I am feeling a lot better and my aim is to post something worthwhile every week. So as a starter - a fun peice picked up on the web.

According to researchers at Western Ontario University, Canada, singing can help lift depression and there are lots of other good reasons to sing out.

SNORING

Because singing tones muscles at the back of the throat, it has been shown to give the long-suffering partners of snorers a silent night. Alise Ojay, who headed a study into its benefits at the University of Exeter, says: “Surgical interventions to treat snoring include removing tissue from the upper throat or toughening it by creating scar tissue. “Singing offers a harmless, healthy, noninvasive, inexpensive, even enjoyable way to restore the throat’s tone.”
For more information, see singingforsnorers.com

SOOTHE BABY
Every parent knows that singing a lullaby can calm a grumpy child, but a study at the University of Western Sydney found that it can also soothe desperately ill infants.Researchers discovered songs help babies in intensive care cope with their life-saving treatment. They say songs help tots maintain normal behavioural development. They are less irritable, upset and tearful. Dr Stephen Malloch says: “It’s likely the babies who received music therapy used up less energy when compared with the babies who did not receive the therapy. “If a baby is less irritable and cries less, this has implications for rate of healing and weight gain – two significant factors which contribute to the length of a hospital stay.”

DEMENTIA
Songs from our childhoods appear to break through the barriers of dementia. Canadian scientists found that patients with severe Alzheimer’s, who did not respond to other stimulus, were able to recognise songs from their youth and join in. If nurses played a tune incorrectly one would screw up her face and complain, going some way to proveing that the areas of the brain which retain musical memories are not affected by the condition. Boffins hope the discovery will lead to music therapies to help patients with dementia.

BONDING

Companies use songs to help build teamwork and loyalty. Computer giant IBM has rehashed an American military tune while cash till manufacturer NCR has created its own version of The Beatles’ Back In The USSR to encourage employees to sing from the same hymn sheet. Advocates of business-bop claim that upbeat company songs are designed to stress youthful energy and a can-do attitude. They are widely used in the US and Japan. But, and this won’t surprise you, Warwick University discovered many British workers found company songs an embarrassment.

SMOKING
American health campaigners are using song to help smokers stub out. Neighbourhood choirs have been formed to promote the benefits of quitting and to encourage a buddy system where on-song choir members help each other beat their nicotine addiction. A two-year pilot project cut smoking rates from 34 to 27 per cent across three mainly African-American neighbourhoods, while smoking rates in comparable areas fell by just one per cent over the same period. A key feature in this initiative was a Gospelfest, where each choir included an antismoking song in its repertoire.

IMMUNE SYSTEM

Listening to a choir could help you shake off coughs and colds. Researchers at Frankfurt University, Germany, asked volunteers to listen to choral music and used saliva tests to measure hormone levels before and after the performance. Levels of cortisol, a hormone known to suppress immune system response, was much lower after the show. Cortisol undermines the body’s ability to produce T cells which fight infection. High levels of cortisol are also linked to blood pressure and blood sugar problems.

STRESS
The same researchers found joining in a singsong lowers stress. Some studies have shown that singing releases the love hormone oxytocin, which is released by both sexes during orgasm – and researchers at Canterbury Christ Church University found choir members feel more upbeat after singing.

So please let any prospective new members know of the benefits of joining Bournemouth Male Voice Choir