----- Original Message ----- From: "Lee Morgan" <LMorgan923@t...>
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> The worst choral experience I ever had was working with a conductor who > believed in achieving blend by singing softly. With a largish voice, it was > really hard for me and I left that choral group after one season. (I also > found that the group had a very pallid, boring sound and never moved me > musically.) Ever since then (and that's been about 20 years ago), I've been > tremendously lucky in choral conductors. Good choral singing can be > tremendously rewarding. The only problem is that it's not always good.
I've used this analogy before, but what you said reminded me of it --
Let's say you want to weave a purple cloth. You have alternatives:
1. Choose only purple threads. Carefully select them so that they match exactly. The cloth will definitely be purple. It will also have little life or richness. But it will be purple.
2. Choose threads of any color, but dye them purple. Do whatever it takes to make them *appear* the same. Unfortunately, dying weakens the fibers of some of the threads, but so what? At least you get a purple cloth, at the expense of the individual threads.
3. Choose red and blue threads. Throw in some mahogany, forest green, bronze, gold, and yellow. Carefully position the threads so that the reds and blues are predominant, with the other colors peeking through to achieve the best effect. You'll get a cloth that will look purple, but it will have the richness of a tapestry, with shimmering lights and darker shadows.
Guess which one I prefer?
I've been turned down by directors that are like #1 (thank heavens!), I've sung for at least one director like #2, and had the great good fortune to sing for several that were like #3.
That said, I *do* modify my dynamics, since f to me is usually equivalent to around ff+ in a choral setting. I've been trained to sing so as to be heard over a 100-piece orchestra, so I adjust the volume, but still sing with my "whole" voice. This works well for me, as it prevents the kind of exhaustion that I used to experience in a choral setting (singing with a breathy unsupported tone). The one experience I had with a #2 director was in an Episcopal church choir, where I was expected to mimic the sound of a 12-yr-old boy (and me a dramatic soprano) in *everything* we sang (including spirituals). That *really* doesn't work!
Cheers!
Lana
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