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.