Vienna Boys Choir

Keeping up the Boys Choir theme! This is the Vienna Boys Choir performing Fröhliche Weihnacht überall by Aus England. The boys are all between the ages of 10-14. Due to the register the boys are performing in, this is a group where the voices all apear to be unchanged. 

I wanted to search for a boys choir this week as the adolescent male voice has been a large part of our classroom discussions over the past couple weeks. We have talked in class about how a lot of boys will hit puberty and experience the voice change all at different times. Clearly, some of the boys in this choir  will undergo the change later in their life if they are still able to sing repertoire like this at age 14. Phillips chapter talks a lot about how many boys will stray away from singing because they do not think it is manly enough, and that it is at many times difficult to keep boys interested in singing especially after undergoing puberty. The voice change is uncomfortable for all boys and I feel that some boys think that if they stop singing they won't experience as much of the voice cracking and embarrassing moments that come with the voice change. However, I am starting to think that maybe if there were more boys choirs like this located throughout our country, more boys would not be afraid of participating in singing as they grow older. If boys are involved in a group like this from a young age, they will get such satisfaction from singing and performing with an ensemble all together. Once they undergo voice change, there is no way they would want to leave a group morale like this behind and will continue to sing for hopefully the rest of their lives. 

Regarding the performance, I have a lot of good things to say. I feel like the tone of the boys is a very pleasing tone. It does not sound like any of the boys are straining to make their high notes come out and  there are very nice pure vowels that go along with it. I also feel that the harmony is relatively impressive. There are times where the soprano part becomes a little bit louder than the other alto part, but for the most part the blend is really quite nice. The boys also are clearly paying attention to diction. Granted the boys are from Vienna and the piece is in German, but they are very focused on the vowels and the consonants. The consonants are very well pronounced which makes all of the rhythms and articulations very clear and concise. The boys posture is very nice as well. None of them are slouched and they are standing with their hands at their hands at their side with their head lifted to the appropriate position. I think this is one of the main reasons why their sound sounds very supported and not airy or forced. For the most part, most of the boys are moving expressively with the music and all of them have their eyes directly on the conductor and they appear as though they are striving really hard to connect with the music and their audience. 

My only complaint with the performance is that not all of the boys seems 100% happy to be performing. They all have great posture and are well engaged with their conductor, but not all them are smiling and seem like they enjoy being there. It could just be that these boys tour a lot and they could just be a little bit tired at this performance, but it was just something that I noticed. Regardless a lot of them still seem like they are enjoying themselves and I still believe that ensembles like this are what could keep choral music a big part of boys lives even after they undergo puberty and voice change. 

"Drunken Sailor/Marry a Woman Uglier Than You"

Changing it up a little bit this week and posting a choir with only male voices. This is the KIS Middle School performing both "Drunken Sailor" and "Marry a Woman Uglier Than You." The boys in this choir are all middle school aged. However, as the director mentioned in her introduction there are boys everywhere from completely changed baritone voices, to voices that have not changed at all.

This was the first video that popped up when I typed in "Middle School Boys Choir" so this was originally why I decided to give it a listen. Yet, the reason I chose this recording is because it directly relates to what we have been discussing in class over the past week. While working at Simsbury we don't get the pleasure that this director has at with working with male voices that are undergoing vocal change. Many of the issues that Phillips discusses are alive and well in this recording.

There are several issues that I have with this recording and the performance. To start, the overall posture of the boys is pretty awful. A lot of boys are standing with their arms clasped in front of or behind them and some of them just aren't standing up straight with their feet planted. This relates directly to a lot of the vocal issues they are experiencing because they are cutting off their opportunities for air to flow through their resonators. Also there are issues with a lot of the vowels. Part of this might be a language barrier because clearly all the boys are Asian, but the vowels are very spread the majority of the time and don't match up with the rest of the group. Additionally a lot of the notes don't sound particularly supported and at times the boys sound as if they are shouting. Also in the second piece there is a lot of "riser-ography" going on, complete with costumes and everything. In the very first piece there seemed to be a lot of boys that clearly did not want to be on that stage just based on their poor posture and lack of facial expressions and engaging their singing with the audience. Phillips mentioned that a lot of boys are self-conscious about being in a "choir" because they either think it is nerdy or feminine. For some of the boys, this dancing was very enjoyable, but for some of the boys you can tell that they felt ridiculous and did not want to be a part of it.

What I do like about the recording is that for the most part the boys voices sound like they are singing in a range that is comfortable for them. At the beginning of the recording, the director mentioned that there were completely changed voices, and voices that have not changed at all. There are very view times when I hear boys going down to a note that is a little bit too low for them. Even so, the voices don't have to stay outside of their tessitura. They might have to hit a low note here and there, but for the most part they are in the comfort voice. Props to this teacher for picking appropriate repertoire that can adhere the varying tessituras! You can also hear some boys singing in their falsetto at times which means these boys voices are unchanged and are free to sing in their appropriate range. There is big debate in Phillips chapter as to whether adolescent boys should sing or not. Although I think this video helps proves that boys should be as long as they are singing in their appropriate ranges and tessituras that fall into their rate of voice change. Since these boys are singing in their falsetto, I am going to have to disagree with Phillips argument that the male voice does not have a falsetto. Clearly falsetto is a voice that boys need to use to sing healthily before the voice changes, as you can hear in this recording. Overall this recording provides many examples of different issues we run into with developing boys voices. There is a nice balance of good and bad techniques for singing going on and a lot can be learned by watching this video.