Barbershop, Bagpipes and Inspiration

To reach a port we must sail, sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it. But we must not drift or lie at anchor - Oliver Wendell Holmes

It's the choir off-season at the moment, a time to rest, reflect and generally restore, ready to launch back into the new season. We have some very good concerts before Christmas, a tour to Krakow next summer and the Male Choir competition in Torquay in March 2012.

There is no doubt in my mind that the choir has had a good year just past, some splendid performances and excellent audiences but an organisation must look to the future, for unless we move forward there is no doubt we will drift back.

Deliberately, I have been looking around at other musical orgainisations, looking for inspiration, looking for a way forward, looking for a way to help us improve our music making. I haven't yet found it but I think I have recognised some of the things our beloved male choir genre is missing, but more of that in a minute. Let me share two inspirations that I have had recently.

I spent last Saturday watching the World Pipe Band Championships on the BBC Scotland live internet feed; my best friend at school played (and still plays) in The Gilnahirk Pipe Band and I remember the thrill of hearing these wonderful organisations in my teens and early twenties.

The winners were The Field Marshal Montgomery Pipe Band from Northern Ireland, one of the leading pipe bands in the world today; it is arguably the most influential and successful pipe band ever. Led by Pipe Major Richard Parkes MBE and Drum Sergeant Keith Orr, the band has won every major championship title available to them, including seven World Pipe Band Championships and a colossal 43 major championship titles.

Watch the video below, listen to the incredible musicality of these guys and girls - they are just like you and me, ordinary people, with real jobs and real lives. The difference is that they have achieved absolute excellence in their hobby, in their passion, in their amateur music making. They are clearly enjoying everything that they do, clearly having a ball doing it.

So, what makes them so good. Well, they practice, they practice hard, they are very dedicated to their art. They are gifted but all gifts need to be nurtured and in Richard Parkes they have inspirational leadership from a gifted musician. They are very clearly proud of their achievements - but I am guessing that their pride comes from knowing that they do their very best every time they step on to the grass. Importantly (to me) is that whilst I have focussed on the winners at "The Worlds" - there were probably another 50 bands (in all the various grades) there, all competing, all striving to improve, all constantly learning from their experiences, learning from the judges comments and drinking in the experience of hearing the best in the world and wanting to be like them.

There is an overarching organisation in the form of the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association. The RSPBA is the recognised Centre of Excellence for the promotion and development of Pipe Band Music internationally. Its services and facilities are noted on their website and include: education, training and certification in Piping, Drumming, Drum Majoring and Pipe Band Adjudication; an annual Summer School, an Academy of Pipe Band Musicianship; setting standards of Pipe Band competition performance. Please note it does not mention promoting Scottish Culture or promoting the constant playing of nostalgic hymns and arias. Excellence, training, education, adjudicating, schooling are the key words. Rather than constantly looking back the male choir genre needs to look forward, we, at Bournemouth Male Voice Choir must strive to do that. Only by embracing these kinds of values will we be able to inspire younger men (like those in the Pipe-Band world) to experience the best singing of their lives - in a men's choir.

Another inspiration came closer to home, a new friend and member of Bournemouth Male Voice Choir David Wood is also the new Director of Ocean Harmony, a Barbershop group from Southampton. David, very kindly, invited me to visit one of their rehearsals and I really enjoyed hearing this group. What was fascinating for me was that the "Guild of Judges" had sent one of their representatives to the rehearsal to discuss the groups recent performance at "Convention". A screen was set up, the choruses performance was projected on to it and played through speakers and the adjudicator had to talk about why they had given the scores they had. What a fabulous idea! No more giving the cup to a choir because they come from the same place as you! The judge had to stand by their adjudication.

I got chatting to the members and the judge and I was very impressed by their striving to improve, very much like the members of Bournemouth Male Voice Choir, but very interestingly this endeavour was well supported by the overarching organisation, The British Association of Barbershop Singers. I have taken some words from their mission statement and they are remarkably similar to those above from the RSPBA in so many ways. "Embrace and perform music predominantly in the barbershop style, and in a broad range of other a cappella styles. Through the educational and coaching opportunities available in the Society, they continually improve their public and contest performances. Each chapter embraces and performs a cappella music, our chapters are leaders in the musical life of their community, employing and enjoying the same educational opportunities for improvement available to quartets and all singers. District and international conventions, festivals, and educational conferences incorporate contests, activities, and training sessions to meet the needs of our membership and their families. We continually strive for improvement in individual, quartet, chorus and Society activities, performances, and events…….. largest supporter of vocal music education in the world, the alliance has formed strong partnerships with school choral groups, music educators, and their organizations."

So again, an organisation interested in eduction, coaching, improvement, conventions, festivals, contests, training, partnerships....

I am convinced that the groundwork we are putting in place, improving standards, singing new music and looking forward to a future that in fresh rather that looking backwards to a nostalgic past that never really existed is the right thing to do.

The 2011/2012 season will see the choir ratchet up its performance standard and strive to be the best it can be, why not get involved with us? The Male Choir genre offers a unique opportunity for men to perform wonderful music from a wide range of styles.

If you are a voice coach, why not offer to help with coaching?

If you are a choreographer why not help us with our stagecraft?

If you are a composer show us your music!

If you are a singer who lives in Dorset and wants to be the best you can be - why not join us!?

I'll leave you with a Barbershop choir singing one of our new pieces the delicious "Lux Aurumque" by Eric Whitacre - watch this then drop me an email (musicaldirector@bournemouthmalechoir.co.uk ) telling me how you can help drive forward the best sort of ensemble singing - "Men's Choirs"

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.

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!

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.

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