The piece is being performed is "River in Judea"by Linda Marcus and Jack Feldman. This group is the SCMEA (Suffolk County Music Educator's Association) Division II All-County Choir. The students in this choir are in grades 7 and 8 and I believe this is an SAB arrangement.
In general the choir has only a few dynamics that consist of loud and louder. There is very little dynamic contrast that makes the piece not interesting to listen to. The choir also doesn't have very solid breath support. A lot of the notes sound either very airy or forced. The overall blend is ok at times. Sometimes I do hear all of the parts but a lot of times I can barely hear the baritones or the altos and it is very soprano top heavy. The boys voices are undergoing a lot difficulties that occur with the adolescent voice that we have discussed in class and in readings. The boys lower notes aren't very clear in their singing. It's funny how I say I "think" this is SAB arrangement cause sometimes I feel like I hear bass and tenor rather than just baritone but I honestly can't tell. Many of the vowels are also very nasal and are not appealing to the ear, which causes a lot of the intonation to suffer as well.
The overall expression is very mixed. Some students are very into the piece and some are definitely just standing there and singing. The sound is very full, but a lot of the phrasing does not seem like it is going anywhere. Even though this is an honor's choir they do have a lot of issues. Granted they probably sound a lot better than most choirs their age, but overall I am not blown away by this performance.
Now, based on your reading for today, why do you hear what you hear?
ReplyDeleteFor a younger ensemble, the female unison is rather lovely. The men are fine as well, but, as mentioned in the Holt chapter, they often push to be heard over the ladies.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure why they mic'd the page turner, though...
I think the reason why I heard what I heard has to do a lot with the males undergoing the vocal change. I think it also has to someone do with Phillips mentioning the boys not wanting to be part of a "choir." There is no excitement or engagement from the boys. Based on Phillips reading, I can't see the actual notes that the boys are singing because I can't see the music but I feel as though the tessitura is too low for them. For a Junior Tenor with a changed voice (according to Phillips) the tessitura sits at G-D, granted a Junior High Baritone has a tessitura of D-D-, but these boys clearly aren't all baritones and don't have the appropriate tessitura for singing this piece comfortably.
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