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Jul 27, 2008 - 07:21 AM |
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Eric Whitacre owes me three beers! |
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Journal lives!
I've just come back from Copenhagen were the 2008 World Symposium on Choral Music was held. The city was brimming with top international choirs, composers and conductors and I've heard some fantastic concerts, but perhaps most exciting was the concert I took part in myself, with my choir Schola Cantorum Oslo.
On our first concert 6 of the 8 composers featured on our program was in the audience, something we did not know about beforehand. Internationally renowned composers of choral music like Karin Rehnquist, Jaako Mäntyjärvi and Eric Whitacre! After singing the Mäntyjärvi pieces someone informed our conductor that the composer was in the audience. Before each of the next pieces the conductor would ask if the composer was present, and someone would raise their hand in acknowledgement. When it was time for the last number, "Leonardo Dreams of his Flying Machine" and the composer Eric Whitacre stood up on the balcony, things were just surreal. Everyone was really pleased with our performance though. Mr. Whitacre sought us out after the concert, kissed the conductor on both cheeks and said it was a stunning performance, and a fabulous sound in the choir. And he wanted to buy us all three beers 
In fact, the responses to our concerts have been overwhelming. There were quite a lot of people on our two evening concerts even though there were 9 other top professional choirs to choose from. People say we've managed to reach and move the audience, that we sing with technical perfection and everyone is astounded when they learn that none of us are professional singers.
This kind of feedback is very important to me, because it confirms the belief I have in our choir and in communicating music. Choral music can be especially vulnerable for many reasons. The focus can often be on technical issues like intonation and sound, they often sing with the music in hand, and too often there is distance between the audience and the performers (not distance in space but distance in involvement and energy). Many choirs try to bridge this distance by adding effects like choreographed movement, dances and rhythms, which often only makes the music more hollow. As a result, choral music and choir concerts are often boring.
How music is communicated is of course controlled in some degree by the repertoire itself, but the interpretation, the commitment from the singers and the always overhanging intention of letting the audience take part in something special is so important, I think. The music itself is always the gift, the sound quality and appearance is of course there, but secondary.
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