Voice Choir Research Articles

How to teach a puppet to sing: exploring posthuman perspectives on the ‘natural’ voice alongside The Walk (2021)

ABSTRACT In this article I explore the construct of the ‘natural’ voice within the context of the natural voice movement, before invoking perspectives on voice from the posthumanities and D/deaf studies in discussion of The Walk, a performance between a puppet, a natural voice choir, a refugee choir and a large audience that occurred in London in October 2021. Methodologically, this paper is an attempt at ‘thinking with theory’ (Jackson, Alecia Youngblood, and Lisa A. Mazzei. 2017. “Thinking with Theory: A New Analytic for Qualitative Inquiry.” In The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research, edited by N. K. Denzin, and Y. Lincoln, 717–737. Sage) – specifically thinking voice alongside theoretical stimuli from the posthumanities through the doing of ethnography – in the hope of provoking useful flights of thought in relation to the practice and study of music education and community music. I conclude by considering my personal rationale for engaging with the posthumanities as a means of researching community singing within the natural voice movement. A protean version of this article was presented as a paper-presentation at the Grieg Research School in Bergen, Norway in 2022.

'Four forms of co-creativity': A framework for the analysis of artistic research as musical composition

This article presents a new framework entitled ‘Four Forms of Co-creativity’ for the musical analysis of artistic (or practice) research projects involving co-creative activities with community participants to reveal the socially contingent properties of such activities. More specifically, this article details a research project involving a series of collaborative workshops with the Leeds Male Voice Choir (LMVC) to develop materials for a community opera. This process is captured through an ethnographic account of the workshops in conjunction with audio recordings and notated transcriptions of vocal improvisations conducted during the workshops. Together with a historical and social account of LMVC, the framework is then deployed to analyse the various levels of co-creativity present in the workshop activities and their effects on the ensuing passages of operatic dialogue. The article then considers the wider application of the framework to other forms of musical composition and performance possible within contemporary societies.

Self-(Re)Presentations in the EFL Classroom

To self-present in the EFL classroom is a key productive skill for an EFL learner whether beginner or advanced. To self-represent is an empowerment option for the student who would rather ward off arbitrary identity attribution judgements. Given the critical role played by the EFL classroom as host to a complicated network of cultural backgrounds, identity acknowledgment does not have to be solely commensurate with curriculum-related obligation disclosures in an ELT context. The following ethnography in TEFL was conducted at a Greek High School in a town of a border island with the object of observing how languaculture interferes with peer interaction. The EFL teacher-inquirer via walk-through observation monitored how students negotiated their linguistic profile in conformance with Trompenaars’ five-dimension cultural framework. The outcomes show that interactants created what they perceived as a “third space” where a choir of voices laid the foundations for the rapprochement of different cultures.

The Role of Zoltán Kodály’s Male Choruses in the Genre’s History, Possibilities of Their Application in the Repertoire of Amateur Ensembles

"Zoltán Kodály’s publication titled Férfikarok (Male Choruses) is a truly diverse collection: in addition to the composer’s works in the genre, one can find folk song arrangements, religious pieces, compositions inspired by historical events and even transcriptions, of various lengths and levels of difficulty. It is common knowledge that Kodály was not fond of exclusively male ensembles, being rather uninterested by male voice choirs and indeed his opinion was that these choral societies should be converted into mixed choirs. However, after travelling extensively in the country – thus gaining insight into the operation of these groups – he began to contribute to the genre’s repertoire. The composer began to view the case differently, as he thought that amateur male choirs – of which there were still many in the 1930s – should rather sing compositions of a higher value, as opposed to pieces of the Liedertafel-style. At the same time, the Férfikarok collection contains many pieces that are not suitable for amateur ensembles due to their challenging nature in terms of intonation and tone production. In this paper – in addition to presenting the volume – I intend to introduce a certain way of categorization based on the compositions’ level of difficulty, through an analytical approach, which may be of help to those who work with such ensembles that are rare, but worthy of appreciation. Keywords: Zoltán Kodály, male voice choir, Liedertafel-movement, choral societies, Hungarian poetry of the 19th century."

Songs in the Key of Life

Songs in the Key of Life

Letter from the Coeditors

The NACADA Review, now in its third year of publication, has come into its own. And we could not be more gratified. We think you will be pleased with the level of scholarship and the range of articles that you will find herein. This issue would not exist were it not for the energy and contributions of Quentin Alexander, whose editorial guidance directed several articles. We wish to thank Dr. Alexander for championing those works and supporting the idea that all voices should be heard.Among the voices ringing out in this current issue are Chimel and Hurs, who start us off with “Practitioner Inquiry to Develop Antiracist Advising Practice: Investigating Issues of Equity and Access.” McGill and Lazarowicz focus our attention on transfer students in “Increasing Access and Enhancing Transition Experiences of Transfer Students in a 2 +2 Program: A Descriptive Case Study.” Hawkes offers up another provocative article: “Advising Racially and Ethnically Diverse Students in Alternative College Admission Programs,” while Kopp provides new perspectives on “Disrupting Racialized Practice in a Post Pandemic Context.” Finally, Yeung moves us to another special section of the choir of voices—graduate students—in “Critical Race Theory within Graduate Education: Connecting Theory with Practice.” That last clause, connecting theory with practice, is one of the defining attributes of the NACADA Review. To reiterate our anthem: If connecting theory with practice rings true to you, please consider submitting your work to the NACADA Review.The choir voices will likely swell as we note two important books that should hit the shelves around the time this issue of the NACADA Review is published. Comprehensive Advisor Training and Development: Practices That Deliver, edited by Karen L. Archambault and Rebecca L. Hapes, will be appearing in its third edition. In the foreword, Jennifer L. Bloom references your voice: “Please always remember that you matter, the work that you do matters, and your voice matters” (Archambault & Hapes, 2022, p. x). We could not agree more, and we congratulate the editors and authors of this volume.Another recent publication of note is Scholarly Inquiry in Academic Advising (Second Edition), edited by Craig M. McGill, Samantha S. Gizerian, and Peter L. Hagen. Scholarly inquiry into academic advising needs a broad range of voices to convey it in its entirety, and nearly all voices are heard in this volume. Social science approaches to scholarly inquiry can be found there, but also scholarly inquiry from the vantage points of the arts, the humanities, and the natural sciences. Should you aspire to engage in scholarly inquiry in academic advising, perhaps with an eye toward one day publishing here in the NACADA Review, we strongly recommend this latter volume. As Wendy G. Troxel puts it, “This edition of Scholarly Inquiry in Academic Advising tackles both the globalization of academic advising and the expansion of applications and relevant considerations of research designs and paradigms” (McGill et al., 2022, p. xiv).

The Second Coming in the Wicked House: Pablo Larraín’s "El Club" (2015)

The article explores the 2015 Chilean drama film El Club, director Pablo Larraín’s investigation of the efforts undertaken by the Roman Catholic Church to conceal the abuses and crimes perpetrated by its officials. It also interrogates the sociopolitical context of the production, defined by the culture of impunity cultivated by Chile’s conservative establishment. The text presents an in-depth examination of the film’s plot, conceived as the primary conduit for meaning, and emphasizes the picture’s artistic dimension. It also offers an interpretation of the film that sees it as a manifestation of Pope Francis’ appeal to see Christ in the faces of the victims of the clergy’s sexual transgressions. Ultimately, the film harmonizes with the choir of voices which demand reexamination of the modern Catholic praxis, including the misuse of sacraments such as confession and absolution and, more generally, the virtue of mercy.

COVID-19

COVID-19

The Exception as the Rule in Art, Law, and Science

The Exception as the Rule in Art, Law, and Science Peter Steiner (bio) Wir bitten euch aber:Was nicht fremd ist, findet befremdlich!Was gewöhnlich ist, findet unerklärlich!Was üblich ist, das soll euch erstaunen.Was die Regel ist, das erkennt als Missbrauch … —Bertolt Brecht, Die Ausnahme und die Regel.1 If in 1917 when Shklovsky coined his most famous concept "ostranenie"—known in English either in its nominal form of "defamilarization" ("estrangement") or as a verbal construction "to make strange"—it was a puzzling neologism,2 the intervening century has brought about its thorough domestication. Today it seems virtually impossible to add something new to our knowledge of it. Defamiliarization has been compared to Socratic irony (Hansen-Löve 22), the Stoicism of Marcus Aurelius (Ginsburg), Nietzschean "critical history," (Kujundžić 18-9), and Derridian différance (Crawford). Its genealogy has been traced back to Hegel (Paramonov), Henry Bergson (Curtis), and William James (Erlich 155) to mention just the most obvious inspirational [End Page 1215] sources. Meanwhile, it penetrated the discourse of many disciplines (Tulchinskii) some of which at the time of its coinage did not exist, such as cinematology (Oever), translation theory (Buzadzhi), or gender studies (Hollinger). And this it did despite (or, perhaps, just because of) its pronounced conceptual vagueness, also well illustrated (cf., e. g., Laferrière, or Sternberg). If neither strictly original nor analytically precise, why has the term "ostranenie" resisted so successfully the onslaught of time? In my paper, I will argue that this is so because the way Shklovsky formulated this concept fitted exceedingly well into the choir of voices challenging, in the early years of the 20th century, the time-honored positivist paradigm of knowledge. Its flaws, these dissidents decried, were legion. How applicable, they were asking, are the reductive mathematical-logical models of rationality to the study of social reality given the obvious fallibility of human subjects and the innumerable contingencies of their actual existence? Are scholars the detached beholders of the data at hand representing them just as they are rather than, in fact, involved agents interpreting the world—whether by default or by choice—from a partial perspective? And can bottom-up inductive reasoning infer, from the predictable repetition of phenomenal data, the universal laws for every and all experience and knowledge? It is the unexpected, deviant, and abnormal—the anti-positivists defiantly proclaimed—which should serve as the defining moment of any inquiry! To illustrate my thesis, I will draw examples from writings of scholars who are never or only very rarely juxtaposed to Shklovsky or compared to each other: the German legal scholar-cum-political philosopher Carl Schmitt3 and, in a somewhat more circumspect way, the Viennese philosopher of science Karl Popper. I am fully cognizant of how incongruous this trio looks from the cultural or political perspective and how intellectually disconnected these thinkers might seem.4 Yet (and this will be my chief point) in carving up the subject-matter of their respective inquiries, the aesthetician, the jurist, and the philosopher of science used quite analogous heuristic stratagems. All three of the above scholars whose theories I will compare, advanced them as a reaction to the prevailing practices in their [End Page 1216] disciplines which they found wanting. In Shklovsky's case, his earliest publications (with which I will be primarily concerned) railed against the contemporary definitions of art fashioned—in the spirit of positivism—after mathematics or physics. Like Potebnia's famous "general formula of poetry (or art): 'A (image) < X (meaning),'" according to which the aesthetic effect comes from an uneven ratio of images to meanings (the former must be always smaller than the latter) (100) or Veselovskii's differentiation of poetic and prosaic style in terms of their respective conservation of mental energy (273-6)—a concept he borrowed from Herbert Spencer. Art, Shklovsky argued vis-à-vis Potebnia, is not always "thinking in images," (Iskusstvo 60) and poetic style does not save mental energy, as Veselovskii would have it, but rather squanders it (62). With equal vigor the young Formalist denounced the laissez-faire tenor of the Symbolists' taste, because it was oblivious to the fact that "the arts...

Professor Robert D. Gillard: Transition Metal Chemist 1936–2013: Part II

The second part of this commemoration covers the final stage of Robert Gillard’s career as Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at Cardiff University and his time in retirement. At Cardiff he built on earlier work while extending his scientific interests still further into mineralogical and archaeological chemistry, and even into forensic dentistry. Coordination chemistry research continued and included the polysulfide S5 chain as a bidentate ligand in the all-inorganic cyclic PtS5 unit and the rhodium(III) complex [Rh(S5)3]3–. His penchant for discussion led him into several controversies, particularly over his ‘covalent hydration’ hypothesis of coordinated nitrogen-carbon double bonds in metal complexes which included those with platinum and 2,2’-bipyridine. He travelled widely attending international conferences and giving lectures. Research collaborations continued throughout his time at Cardiff and in particular he had many strong links with Portugal, both with colleagues there and as supervisor of Portuguese higher degree students at Cardiff. His years in retirement were spent in finalising his research legacy, in continuing to read historical literature, both chemical and otherwise, and in following his musical interests that had included many years singing in the Cwmbach Male Voice Choir.

ЖАНРОВІ ДОМІНАНТИ БІЛОРУСЬКОЇ ХУДОЖНЬОЇ ДОКУМЕНТАЛІСТИКИ: ДОСВІД А. АДАМОВИЧА ТА С. АЛЕКСІЄВИЧ

In the article «Genre dominants of Belorussian documentary: A. Adamovich’s and S. Alexievich’s experience» the author analyzes the concept of «documentary», «document» and «fact» in different scholars. The research deals with the process of formation of Belorussian national artistic-documentary proseon the basis of the works of Belorussian authors A. Adamovich «The Blockade book» (co-authored with D. Granin), «Out of the Fire» (co-authored with J. Bryl’ and V. Kolesnyk) and S. Alexievich «The Unwomanly Face of War…». The author reveals historical and ideological connections between these books, in which human voices are composed into a single complete whole, possessing a certain set of genre properties that manifest themselves both at the content and form levels.The focus is on distinguishing innovative features of the genre compared to «classic» documentary of the first half of the 19th century.The researcher views main peculiarities of the narrative, the author’s position while presenting eyewitness accounts, which may bе either objective or subjective. Composition, topic of the work and author’s foundation of the chosen structure are described. In the article there isthe investigation of the history of documentary genre, the reasons for its transformation and the specifics of modern «choir of voices» interpretation. The author of the article also refers to the ambiguous reception of S. Alexievich work by modern Ukrainian writers J. Andruhovich, J. Vynnychuk and O. Zabuzhko.

Particip-active Musical Performance: Quality of Life at a Seniors’ Village in South Africa

With increasing life expectancy around the globe, both developed and developing countries face greater ageing populations. South Africa is no different as ageing impacts on quality of life. This paper situates itself within a wider study Spirituality and Well-being: Music in the community. It focuses on a mixed voice choir based in the Somerset West area (near Cape Town). The senior citizens in this choir are all ex-professional people bar one, almost all residing in this affluent retirement home. Using case study methodology and drawing on questionnaire data, we employ Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis as an analytical tool to code the data and report on these overarching themes: Sense of Community and Social Relationships, The Desire to Learn and Try New Things, and Creating New Spiritual Selves. Our findings show that through ‘particip-action’ and performance, in both formal and informal settings, participants have the opportunity to actively learn, experience and question their sense of spirituality, and engage in a leisure activity like singing which significantly contributes to their life quality. This case study adds to the wider body of research that promotes active participation for all seniors. In a country like South Africa, where there is much disparity between the haves and have nots, we argue that singing is an effective medium that may contribute to the lives of all seniors despite their financial background. As this is a small-scale study, a limitation in itself, generalization to other countries or communities cannot be made.

Ramiz Mustafayev’in müşayietli xor işlemelerinin üslub xüsusiyyetleri

M e qal e Ramiz Mustafayevin musayi e tli xor ucun xalq mahni isl e m e l e rinin t e hlilin e h e sr edilir. Onlarin sirasinda musayi e t v e xor, musayi e t xor v e solist t e rkibi n e z e r e carpir. Isl e m e l e rd e n yalniz biri 3 s e sli xor ucun n e z e rd e tutulmusdur, dig e rl e ri h e r biri 4 s e sli xor partiyasina malikdir. Dord xor isl e m e sind e solist partiyasi da yer almisdir. R.Mustafayevin musayi e tli xor isl e m e l e rind e ilk novb e d e vokal s e sin imkanlari xalq mahni ifaciliginin e sas uslub xususiyy e tl e ri il e uzlasir. Xor musiqisinin sirl e rin e yaxsi b e l e d olan b e st e kar isl e m e l e rd e kollektivin vokal imkanlarini uz e cixarmaqla yanasi, mahninin obraz-emosional m e zmununun catdirilmasina da xususi diqq e t yetirir. Qeyd olunan xususiyyetler meqalede arasdirilir.

Eine bisher unbekannte Gelegenheitskomposition von Philippe de Monte aus dem Jahr 1589 in der Handschriftenabteilung der Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin

In the course of cataloguing manuscripts in the series ‘Manuscripta latina in folio’ in the Manuscripts Department of the Staatsbibliothek in Berlin in 2015, a hitherto completely unknown work of Philippe de Monte from 1589 was discovered. This seven-part piece was composed for a marriage, as the title Dialogus Nuptialis indicates, and dedicated to the Nuremberg couple Jakob Hack (1553–1633) and Martha Gugel von Brand (1561–1639). The lyrics begin with ‘Salve festa dies, ad sacram ducitur Aram’, and were written by Salomon Frenzel von Friedenthal (1564–1605), who at that time lived at the court of Emperor Rudolf II in Prague. The structure of both the poem and the composition is in dialogue form: a four-part choir of lower voices sings the bridegroom Jacob’s words, and a three-part choir of high voices those of Martha, the bride. This article describes the source, provides information about the context of both contemporary epithalamiapoetry and occasional music, and considers the classification of the piece within the oeuvres of both the poet and the composer. It also provides a translation of the text and a first edition of the music. The manuscript also preserves the complete text of a second poem by Frenzel (for the same couple), Votum pro conjugio. The poem was set as double-choir work, but unfortunately only the Chorus secundus music been preserved. As the Chorus primus and title page are missing, it is unclear whether this is a fragment of a further unknown composition by Philippe de Monte, or a work of a different composer.

Changing the world one voice at a time: philanthropy and community choirs in Australia

ABSTRACTThis paper explores the intersections between social entrepreneurship, corporate philanthropy and community engagement. The Melbourne-based not-for-profit organisation Creativity Australia oversees With One Voice choirs that offer 20 programmes with about 3000 participants. Creativity Australia fosters community music engagement and seeks corporate funding to support this work. Data were gathered via documents and semi-structured interviews with the Chief Executive Officer, the Community and Partnerships Manager, the Principal Conductor and older members of two choirs. The data were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. The findings are presented thematically and report on participant understandings of social benefits that foster a sense of well-being. This Australian case study is an example of the potential of private philanthropy to offer significant benefits to quality of life of individuals, strengthen the social fabric of communities and to address the needs of older people (aged 55+) who seek social connection through music engagement.

Echoes of Cape Verdean Identity: Literature and Music in the Archipelago

Abstract: This article addresses the close connection between music and literature in Cape Verde, which is able to harmonize those forces that are an index to Cape Verdean identity: bread, sound &amp; phoneme. A choir of illustrious voices plays a melody (or a polyphonic composition) whose theme is the thirst for survival of the Cape Verdean people and the permanence of a Creole culture founded upon a symbolic national trilogy—corn, the discourse on music, and literary discourse.

Corpi im-memori. L’utopia dello spettatore partecipante

This essay retraces and investigates some significant moments in Italia contemporary theatre, as first step toward a “History of the spectator’s memory”. If we apply André Bazin’s theories beyond cinema, we can indeed observe that certaint theatre productions are ruled by a representation of time as a continuous flow, a sort of “imagination in becoming” re-enacting words, objects and sounds from other works: devices to activate memory and the actor-spectator relationship during the mysterious progress of artistic creation. In such a process, the encounter between the performer and the house is crucial, and some artists try to re-define, throught a transformation and re-generation of the habitus (Bordieu), the very relationship between the individual and the community. So, their performances do not offer themselves as an organic, prearranged unit; instead, each one of them is a «signifiant poliphony» (B. Dort) Thus, the engagé spectator is he/she who constantly questions them, in a “bartering” of ideas, meanings, and symbols: indissolubly united by that co-responsibility, actor/author and spectator/co-author speak and act in the “performance space” as a choir of voices, an ensemble of bodies. But which traces are left in the spectators by such experiences? And which responsibility the artist has towards the spectators and their memory?

Whole Genre Sequencing

Weighted Gene Co-Expression Network Analysis (WGCNA) is a technique developed for analysing gene co-expression microarray data. This article demonstrates the adaption of WGCNA to mine an entire genre of literature, describing its dominant features, exposing its evolution through time, and dissecting its plot structures. WGCNA not only finds these large-scale structures, but exposes the fine-grained contribution of individual words. Romance accounts for 16.7% of all novels sold in the USA, and is the most popular form of genre literature (Romance Writers of America, 2013; Industry Statistics . [ ][1] (accessed 13 June 2013)). Selling into 111 different markets and thirty-one languages, Harlequin is the largest publisher of romance worldwide, and its most successful category line, Harlequin Presents, offers the reader ‘pure romantic fantasy’ ( Harlequin Presents Writing Guidelines )—romance in an almost archetypal sense. Despite the popularity, ubiquity and profitability of category romance, there is relatively little study to date on the phenomenon. Using WGCNA together with all electronically available Harlequin Presents novels—some 1,400 from 1999 to 2013—this article demonstrates that the genre’s fundamental architecture is a choir of authorial voices, that its evolution is dominated by sudden shifts due to financial pressures on the publisher, and that the order in which elements appear—the plot—is largely fixed. [1]: http://www.rwa.org/p/cm/ld/fid=580

Bright futures—GOLD 2015

It’s been a little while since my last editorial, but I wanted to report on the GOLD 2015 conference which was held in Cardiff on the 26th–29th July 2015 under the chairmanship of Professor Graham Hutchings. This was the 7th conference focusing on research, development, and industrial applications of gold. It drew almost 300 people from around the world and offered a broad range of presentations from leading academics and industrial scientists. The next generation of gold scientists also had ample opportunity to highlight their work with well-attended poster sessions and quick-fire mini oral presentations. Particular highlights for me were Johnson Matthey’s report of their successful commercialisation efforts for a new gold-based catalyst for Vinyl Chloride Monomer synthesis, and the ongoing work of BBI Solutions to provide improved diagnostic devices using modified gold nanoparticles. The poster sessions were equally strong, with interesting results in fields as diverse as catalysis, nanotechnology, and sensing applications presented. Moving away from the science, the conference meal was a Welsh extravaganza with excellent local food and entertainment was provided by the world famous Trelawnyd Male Voice Choir in the wonderful surroundings of Cardiff City Hall. The overriding feeling I left Cardiff with was the strength of the community. Gold is a special metal, unique in so many ways. The gold conference has always been an event of huge diversity in the work presented—there are few conferences in which, for example, theoretical studies into catalytic reactions mechanisms sit so comfortably next to the development of new drug delivery systems. Gold is at the heart of many interesting and novel technologies and bringing the community together every 3 years allows collaborations to form which will help drive the next wave of innovation. During a meeting of the International Organising Committee, it was decided that GOLD 2018would be held in Paris under the chairmanship of Professor Catherine Louis. Professor Louis has long been a staunch supporter of the community, and it was unanimously agreed Paris will be a fantastic venue for the next iteration of the meeting. BBI Solutions, whose support has been so valuable in setting up and running GOLD 2015, once again indicated they would be interested in leading the sponsorship of the event. The conference is in excellent hands. As always, I hope you enjoy this double issue of Gold Bulletin, and my thanks to the authors, reviewers and editorial board for their ongoing support of the journal.

Stories of creative ageing

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to highlight some of the benefits and issues relating to arts participation in later life. Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on literature relating to older people's arts participation, and also includes discussion of the author's doctoral research into arts and ageing. The research was a qualitative study, influenced by narrative approaches and life-course perspectives. It involved interviews with 24 participants who have connections with a case-study town in the English Midlands. Findings – The paper focuses on the findings from six participants belonging to a male voice choir. The themes that are discussed include the importance of continuity; issues of identity; mutual support; impact of ill health and the sustainability of group activities. Research limitations/implications – This is a small-scale study, based in one case study town. Care should therefore be taken in generalising to different populations and areas. Potential for future research includes: other geographical locations, including larger urban areas. Specific focus on choir participation, or other art form. Involving people from a wider range of ethnic backgrounds. Social implications – This study adds to a growing body of evidence about the value of arts and culture to society. Originality/value – This study is original in adopting life-course perspectives to understand later life arts participation. It also offers original insights into the nature of arts-generated social capital and how this may be viewed within a wider context of resourceful ageing.