I've been asked recently how I create such good-sounding community choirs. Firstly, I have to say how pleasing it is to hear that's what they think in the first place. But each time I've been asked this, or similar questions, I've never really had an answer. But I must be doing something right, so on a recent run, I set about really thinking about what it might be that I do that not everyone does, which landed me on the question, what is my job when working with these community groups. Here is what I think my job description is:
To accept all people, and get them to sound good together as a group, with a single unified expressive intention.
To widen the individuals musical horizons and tastes through repertoire choices.
To improve each individuals musical knowledge and encorage safe vocal technique.
To create a space where making mistakes is encouraged in order to learn from them.
I come from a very formal classical musical education that only recently have I been actively working to expand on, mostly through my media composition work. Technique, theory, and historical context are all means to an end, and that is emotional expression. If sometimes the performance is unorthodox, but still makes people feel something, that is the correct way. Essentially, there is no such thing as a mistake, so long as it has an expressive intent. That being said, when working with a room of 70 singers and a pianist, they have to work together to convey the intent through my direction. Everyone is going to have a different intent, and if that is allowed to flourish unguided, the audience will not pick up on any intent at all. It has to be funneled into a single narrative.
The single most satisfying thing about being part of a choir has to be how good a group of people can sound together. But I'm going to ask this question this week: What do you most enjoy about coming here? And see if they agree...
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