Bulgarian National Radio Children's Choir

Okay, so I looked up children's choir and the first few examples were all kids choirs doing pop music and not really what I was looking for. This popped up and it reminded me of a discussion we had one day in World Music about Bulgarian songs so my curiosity got the better of me. Once I started listening to it though I knew I wanted to talk about it. So enjoy! Note: Skip to about a minute and a half in.

This is the Bulgarian National Radio Children's Choir singing an arrangement of The Mountain has Overturned by Yuliyan Slabakov

I'm wondering at what age one would no longer consider the label "children's choir" inappropriate. Many of the girls look like they could be in their early to mid teens with maybe a few in their pre-teens. This makes this piece ideal for thinking about girls changing voices. (You get bonus points if you can find the two boys.)  It sounds as though much of it lies in a comfortable middle range though there are some instances where the altos are way low and at the very end it moves up into a high part.

Obviously this piece poses some challenges when it comes to discussing it because of the cultural differences. Practices we would find odd here in the United States might be considered the norm in Bulgaria. For example, for a girls choir with developing voices I feel that their sound is a little more mature than what might be healthy for girls of that age. That being said this could be the cultural aesthetic and for the most part I don't think it sounds too pushed or unhealthy. The soloist has a tone that is very piercing and forward, an aesthetic I know we've talked about in world music. I feel as though she executes it well. Though maybe pushed a little she sounds as though she has control and support beneath her note.
I also have no idea if the words and vowels are correct as far as pronunciation and purity goes; I don't speak Bulgarian. However, to my ears they sound pure and if you watch the shots of the chorus, their mouths are well matched. There blend is incredible as well, which would cause me to assume their vowels are pure as well. Obviously the soloist sticks out over the chorus, but behind her the parts are well balanced.

In world music we've discussed that another aesthetic of Bulgarian music is the interval of the second and dissonances being prevalent. There are two spots specifically in the piece where I hear dissonances (mostly between the piano and chorus) that I'm not sure if they're intentional or accidental. After the initial a cappella section the piano comes in (around 2:10) and the chorus and the piano are not together tonally and you can kind of here the chorus adjust their pitch to match the piano. This happens a couple of times throughout. There is also and instance later after the percussion has entered that there is a crescendo. It becomes obvious that some of the choir is pushing on their voices and adding heavy vibrato and this causes the pitches to waver and go in and out of tune.

Despite these few instances I think this is a very clean and well executed performance. I think the arrangement is fantastic; very driving and engaging. I like the two complementary sections, slow at the beginning versus fast and driving at the end.

Moonglow

I'm really sad this link isn't working. Click here to go to the video.

Since this week's reading is about jazz choirs/musical theater let's listen to some jazz. This is the Iowa All-State Jazz choir singing "Moonglow" by Darmon Meader. My choir director from home was a big Darmon Meader fan and I have to say his arrangement have yet to let me down.

Obviously these kids are good; they're in All-State. Their blend is fantastic. There can't be more than one or two people on a a part but I don't think one part dominates too heavily over all the others. Then again this is helped tremendously by the fact that they are individually mic-ed. They hold their own on some of the more jazzy chords and part splits. There is not much scooping up to or down to notes. Everything was very clean yet still grooved.

For a jazz choir that doesn't use classical tone and pure vowels all the time, I liked both. The sound still resonates well (this could be because of the aide of microphones) and at no part do I feel uncomfortable for any voice parts. Much of it sounds easy, effortless and fun. Even though they are singing a less classical piece for the most part I find their vowels to be very clear. On words such as "glow" and "remember" they don't let the off glides creep in to soon.

This is probably because of the nature of the music they're singing but all of them seem engaged and having fun.

I liked their set-up, alternating between girls and boys and hopefully between voice parts. It allows all the groups to hear one another and spreads the sound of the different voices out. I might have made the arch deeper in order for the group to hear one another better but because of the microphones and monitors it probably didn't matter all that much.  

Kookaburra

This is the World Children's Choir at their 17 Anniversary concert, singing "Kookaburra."

I figured since we've been talking about children's choirs it might be nice to find an example of a good one.
The director did a nice job of accommodating the different ages and voices she had. The low section never goes that low and it still sounded in the head voice of the kids singing. It wasn't too forced or "belty." Consequently, the high parts felt comfortable as well, though the interval on "laugh" always seemed to surprise them a little bit. However, for the most part it was light and bright, a perfectly placed. Their vowels helped them with this. Most of them were tall with significant space. It seems a little funny that their pronunciation of words was faintly British sounding; the word laugh is the one that caught my attention. This could've been for a number of reasons, maybe the conductor is British, maybe English isn't the children's native language and the British pronunciation was easier. Having the yawn like "ah" vowel as opposed to the vowel in "cat" keeps the sound from spreading. In a young choir like this, I think substituting the [ae] for the "ah" was probably a wise choice. I also thought the [i] of "tree" and "be" got a bit spread. Except for the last note, I thought the blend was pretty good. There was some tonal wavering on the last note that probably had to do with it being just a bit high for some of the altos.

I like these arrangement. It is simple, fun, up tempo and a familiar song. They had a nice contrast between clipped and legato sections especially at the end of the piece. However, you wouldn't be able to tell that by looking at the choir. While they sound engaged, they don't look it. In the close-up shots they don't look like they are having fun at all.

Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day

This is Herndon Middle School Chorale performing Audrey Snyder's arrangement of "Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day." Since we're working with a talented girls choir, I thought it would be nice to find a choir that was not at that level. It also ties into some of the Gackle readings we did last semester. This probably isn't the worst I could find, but it also isn't the best.
The most obvious problem to me was intonation. At times it seemed sharp and at other times it was a bit under pitch. Some individual voices sound almost too pointed and needed more space to mellow out the sound. It also sounded as though they could not get over the top note in the melody. The biggest problem with that I think, is the fact that that note lies right around the second break. Since the rest of the phrase could be reached with a middle voice, they didn't want to/didn't know to flip the sound into their head voice. Later on, as the key changed and they moved into a higher part of their voice they flipped into this head voice and their intonation improved.
Their blend across sections was not all there either. When the lower part had the melody you could barely hear them over the sound of the sopranos on the accompanying part.
They have relatively good tone. In some parts you can hear the breathiness Gackle talks about. However, parts of it sound strained to me, as though the girls are reaching up for the note from below, instead of coming at the note from above.

Ritmo

This is Rosemont High School concert choir singing "Ritmo." It is a fun, energetic piece, that embodies the Spanish spirit. Unlike the pice we looked at last week, I think the claps and various other rhythmic expressions are necessary. For the most part their snapping and clapping were clean but there were a few places where they were off just a little. Generally they connect the rhythmical sections with the soaring verses. 

There blend could be better. At times I could here all the parts, but a lot of the time I would loose the alto, or tenor and the sopranos would dominate. Despite their intonation seems very good. They all (from when I could hear them) sounded pretty in tune. Tone wise I think the sopranos, were shrill at times. Part of this comes from their spreading the [i]/[I] vowel in RItmo. This was especially obvious when it got higher in the register. I couldn't really hear the altos. The men sounded comfortable and clear. There was a good amount of "luster" in all the parts that I feel was necessary to the style of the piece. 

Their diction was good, I could understand the words, but sometimes they Americanized the Spanish. It wasn't so obvious, but after sitting in front of Gabriel in Chamber everything sounds Americanized. 

Also you could tell where in the music the crescendos were written in. They handled these well, but I felt the rest of the piece needed a little more dynamic contrast, even if it was something as subtle as swelling a bit to a word accent in a phrase. 

Siyahamba

Changing it up! This is the Riverhead Charter School. The video says it's K-6 singing Siyahamba, a Zulu Tribal song. NOTE: Stop watching after 2:22, the rest is just the audience talking.

I was skeptical about it really being K-6, but if you look in the back row you can see, what look like 6th grade girls. I only have this one song, so I don't know for sure it the 6th graders sang with the younger kids for the whole concert, but I sincerely hope they didn't. It is not remotely fair to the older kids to sing with the younger students. If it is one piece, maybe, but not an entire concert.

Everything about this seemed strained to me. Their tone sounds pushed, almost to the point of yelling. They are not in their head voice at all. When it jump up to their head voice occurs it sounds as though many of them don't make it up there confidently. Some sound as though they are still in their chest voice. There is not much space for resonance either. Their vowels are very spread as well. I do not see many examples of tall vowels. Their "ah's" are pretty pure, but not so much on the "oh's." Their pitch is alright, though those high notes are not quite there for a lot of them.

For young kids, most of them have good posture. Some of them even get very engaged in the piece, though most of them aren't. All in all, I might use this as an example of what not to do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_CvyNVrKwI

This is a High School Jazz Choir's interpretation on Stephan Paulus's The Road Home. Judging by the sound I would say that they are an upper level choir, probably auditioned. I chose as it relates to an issue I know will come up with my repertoire.
The two biggest issues I had with the piece were the vowels and the tone and style they chose to sing the piece in. Since it is a jazz chorus they elected to sing it with a very musical theater kind of tone. Very bright and forward, but a flat and spread as far as resonant space. The tone also sounds a little forced. There is also a lot of scooping and sliding to notes that isn't particularly appropriate for the piece. Also, true to the musical theater style, their vowels are not pure at all. They allow their consonants to color their vowels. Their vowel shaping isn't that great either. The poor boy the camera focused on, looked like he had his mouth closed every time he sung an [u] vowel. This affected their intonation, but overall I thought their tuning was pretty good. They had a very present and relatively full tone. They could've used some more dynamic contrast and they could've played with the words more; given the piece more meaning.