Amateur Choirs Research Articles

Losing Their Day Jobs: The Radio Éireann Players as a Permanent Repertory Company

During a 1966 Radio Telefis Éireann broadcast celebrating the first forty years of indigenous radio in the Republic of Ireland, Maxwell Sweeney characterized the evolution of radio drama in the nation as a slow process, one that grew out of readings of short stories and poetry. Like all other facets of the early national radio service, dramatic broadcasting suffered greatly from inadequate funding and resources. Equally detrimental to its progress was the widespread, if understandable, ignorance about the new medium's possibilities. Indeed, music dominated the airwaves in the first decade of national radio in Ireland because relaying music performances and gramophone records did not pose the same challenges as speech and dramatic broadcasting. 2RN, as the service was initially called, was but “a part-time affair,” broadcasting for a mere five and a half hours, and “eighty percent of transmission time was devoted to recitals by small groups of instrumentalists, solo traditional musicians, and amateur choirs.” Consequently, though understanding of dramatic broadcasting steadily developed, the Irish Independent could accurately claim in 1933 that radio drama in the Free State had not significantly improved since the establishment of the service seven years earlier.

St. Albans and London: Cecilia McDowall's ‘Stabat Mater’ and ‘Night Trumpeter’

Cecilia McDowall is noted for her ‘practical’ approach to composing choral music to suit the needs and capabilities of local amateur choirs, and she has a growing association with several, notably the St Albans Choral Society, by whom she was commissioned to write a new setting of the Stabat Mater, which duly received its world première in St Albans on 23 October 2004. It was written to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of St Albans Choral Society, and they duly rose to the occasion lustily in fine spirits.

Effects of Choir Singing or Listening on Secretory Immunoglobulin A, Cortisol, and Emotional State

The present study investigates the effects of choir music on secretory immunoglobulin A (S-IgA), cortisol, and emotional states in members of a mixed amateur choir. Subjects participated in two conditions during two rehearsals 1 week apart, namely singing versus listening to choral music. Saliva samples and subjective measures of affect were taken both before each session and 60 min later. Repeated measure analyses of variance were conducted for positive and negative affect scores, S-IgA, and cortisol. Results indicate several significant effects. In particular, singing leads to increases in positive affect and S-IgA, while negative affect is reduced. Listening to choral music leads to an increase in negative affect, and decreases in levels of cortisol. These results suggest that choir singing positively influences both emotional affect and immune competence. The observation that subjective and physiological responses differed between listening and singing conditions invites further investigation of task factors.

‘…my duty to defend the truth’: Erich Schmid in Schoenberg's Berlin Composition Class

The student of Swiss music history cannot but notice certain parallels in the lives of that country's finest composers – parallels that seem, at first glance, to explain why the student of Swiss music history is such a rare creature. Theodor Fröhlich (1803–1836) left Switzerland to study with Zelter in Berlin. Instead of staying to seek fame and fortune in the Prussian metropolis thereafter, he returned to his native Aarau, where he was forced to earn his keep by conducting assorted amateur choirs and ensembles. Johann Carl Eschmann (1826–1882) studied with Mendelssohn in Leipzig, began a promising career by experimenting with modernistic cyclic structures, but then relegated himself to conducting amateur choirs in darkest Canton Schaffhausen. Othmar Schoeck (1886–1957) studied in Leipzig with Reger, but he too soon returned home to tread in his forebears' footsteps. Numerous others followed the same path. It is as if the culprit were a common genetic trait, some strand of DNA that led generations of Swiss composers briefly to the Teutonic north before compelling them to plunge back into Helvetic obscurity. Or perhaps the yearning to hear cowbells tinkle and see the twinkle of brightly polished doorknobs on distant Alpine chalets is so overwhelming as to propel homewards any Swiss musician sojourning abroad for more than a few months. The cynic may scoff; but the present writer, in voluntary exile from his erstwhile Helvetic homeland, can vouch for the attraction of both.

Millennium Harvest: The BBC Singers Commissions for 1999

One recurring theme in the 75-year history of the BBC Singers (and their various predecessors) has been the tension between their role as a model for amateur choirs and their capabilities as a professional ensemble. Their longest-serving director, Leslie Woodgate, who was in charge from 1934 until his death in 1961, was also an important figure in the amateur choral movement; he clearly believed that part of the BBC choruses' role in broadcasting was to demonstrate how part-songs and oratorios, and indeed hymns and psalms, should be performed. But, given the quality of the forces he had at his disposal, Woodgate was hardly likely to turn down opportunities to conduct the first performances of, for example, Britten's A Boy was born and Hymn to St Cecilia, nor decline to prepare the chorus for the premieres of Bartok's Cantata Profana and Webern's Das Augenlicht and First Cantata.

Formant frequencies of choir singers

The four lowest formant frequencies were measured in eight members of the bass section of a good amateur choir under two conditions: (1) when reading the text of a poem aloud; and (2) when performing the same text as a song. Certain formant frequency differences were observed that were similar to those previously found between professional singers’ spoken and sung vowels. In singing, the intersubject scatter of the three lowest formant frequencies was smaller, and the fourth formant was lower.

Developmental Phases in Selected British Choirs

I. INTRODUCTION In an earlier article ' I outlined a conceptual framework for five developmental phases in amateur ensembles, or phases that typify the life cycle of ensembles; namely, formation, expansion, maturation, regression and cessation. Each phase was sytematically described with reference to temporal, spatial, numerical, causal, ethical and aesthetic dimensions. Aspects of each of these dimensions were theorized to vary among the phases and constitute distinct profiles of each phase. In the present study, two propositions derived from this framework were tested: first, in general terms, whether the notion of distinct phases of development more-or-less holds in the real world; and second, whether more specifically, the distinct characteristics that were predicted to constitute each of the developmental phases are also moreor-less evident in the real world. This article, therefore, directly follows the above-mentioned theoretical piece and can usefully be read in conjunction with it. Eight historical cases of British amateur choirs, each covering periods of between two and ten decades were studied: Huddersfield Choral Society (1836-1936), Windsor and Eton Choral Society (1841-1941), Glasgow Choral Union (1843-1943), Bradford Festival Choral Society (1856-1906), Edinburgh Royal Choral Union (1858-1958), South London Choral Association (1869-1890), Glasgow Orpheus Choir (1906-1951), and Croydon Philharmonic Society (1914-1954). Each account represents the choir's view of itself as seen through the eyes of an individual intimately associated with it at a given point in time. The choirs were selected because they were diverse with regard to their eminence (e.g. regional, national, or international reputation), their history and their geographical location.2 In order to identify phases of development and specific characteristics in each phase, I examined local historical accounts of each choir and the important elements emerged following intuitive inspection of the evidence. This approach is justified for two reasons: first, developmental phases can best be distinguished over the long term by comparative and descriptive means; and second, they are formulated at a high level of generality and most appropriately studied from a phenomenological perspective. A case study approach using historical accounts reflecting the choir's view of itself is consistent with this point of view. The evidence is not without its limitations: for instance, the possible suppression of information deleterious to the choir's reputation, and the differing objectives of the choir histories or accounts. Some were written, for example, to celebrate jubilees and centenaries, making it difficult to study regression and cessation. Nevertheless, it is possible to point to documentary evidence supporting the concept of distinctive phases. II. CASE STUDIES I will now describe the evident temporal, spatial, numerical, causal, ethical and aesthetic aspects of the developmental phases for each of the eight choirs. The objective is not to provide a chronological account of each choir's development but rather to briefly sketch an historical overview and then focus on aspects of time, space, number, causation, ethics, and aesthetics in turn, showing how they varied in each developmental phase. Huddersfield Choral Society (1836-1936)3 The Huddersfield Choral Society was constituted in 1836 as a musical club for the benefit of members; its formation marked the culmination of a six-year period during which a loosely organized group of musicians met for vocal and instrumental practise (Wilmhurst [1936]: 6). Following a somewhat limited and slow expansion, the Society grew more rapidly during the Joshua Marshal regnum (1876) with an even more rapid growth and consolidation to attain a national reputation during the Henry Coward era (1901-31). By the Malcolm Sargeant period, commencing in 1932, the Society had attained maturation. …