In the previous post, I explored the impact of the interplay of rhythm, tempo and timbre. For a while we ignored the role of melody by focusing at the effect of percussion instruments. The combination of these three elements has a huge influence on our experience. It is hard to stay in your seat with a band like ‘Slagerij van Kampen’. This is thanks to a brisk tempo, a stirring rhythm, the balance between repetition and variation and the variety of percussion instruments, each of which has its own unique timbre.
In the final performance, however, melody was reintroduced. By combining percussion and other instruments, the timbre became more varied and touching. This added to the overall experience.
Given de added value of melody, let’s focus on the impact of the human voice. To amplify its effect, we will not listen to individual singers with their particular characteristics but compare several choirs. In the first recording, the effect on the audience of human voices united in a chorus is immediately apparent. This is a performance by ‘John’s Boys’, an all-male choir from Wales.
The singing is like a warm bath. It gives you goose bumps, just like the jury members. You become emotionally involved in the content of the song, even though you hardly understand it, because of the polyphony and the changes in volume. It is also an indication of how important it is to have a look at the singers, which makes the emotions come across much more strongly.
I go one step further. The Belcanto Choir from Vilnius sings a composition by composer Karl Jenkins (also from Wales), titled Adiemus, from the 1995 album ‘Adiemus: Songs of Sanctuary’. The lyrics consist only of meaningless words. The singing voices acts as instruments but at the same time no instrument can match the effect. The music itself contains Celtic and African elements.
Like the first song, the singers’ enthusiasm is infectious and the polyphony, solo accents as well as the alternation between loud and soft bring the variation that keeps the listener enthralled.
In both cases, the audience will literally move, but more so emotionally. That this succeeded is also proven by the long-standing listing of this piece of music on the NPO Radio 2 Top 2000.
Now, I compare the impact of both performances with that of two other choirs. Both perform the song ‘Can you feel the love tonight’, composed by Elton John in 1994 for the film ‘The Lion King’. At first, we listen to the giant San Francisco Gay Men’s Choir, with orchestral accompaniment.
The massiveness, the polyphony and the swelling crescendos make the performance impressive, but what is missing is the emotion that played such a central role in the previous examples. Then again, the human voice is a wonderful ‘instrument’, but apparently it takes more than a perfect performance to bring about the emotive involvement in the listener. The question then is what that ‘more’ consists of.
You can listen and watch now the same song, ‘Can you feel the love tonight’, sung by a small choir called The King Singers. Two things are different. First, the choir succeeds in conveying the emotional value of the song through their expressive way of singing. Second, the variation in timbre goes far beyond polyphony alone. The singers’ individual voices are blended with the collective voices, and the registers from high to low are fully utilised.
Both heart and body are engaged when percussion instruments are added to a choir. The penultimate song that I’m going to present is the choral arrangement of the popular song “Africa”. This song was released by Toto for the first time in 1982 and is still on the NPO Radio 2 Top 2000 list. It is an ode to Africa, tropical showers included. The song owes part of its popularity to the fact that ik makes you feel a touch of Africa. The Angel City Chorale also from Los Angeles essentially conveys that by its vivid impression of the tropical rain. The experience that his choir creates cannot be substituted by any orchestral presentation. Responsible for this are the imitation of rain and thunder, the enthusiastic presentation of singers and soloists, the polyphony and the way the singers move. The musical accompaniment enhances this effect but never dominates the choir. The effect of rhythm and tempo does strengthen it.
In the final show everything comes together: the subdued nature of the sung word is suddenly reversed and, through a change in tempo, rhythm and timbre, leads to a complete turnaround in the audience’s perception. The audience, who at first listened breathlessly, now breaks into applause and dancing here and there. A performance that moves the ‘whole person’. I will follow him” was originally sung by Petula Clark in 1961. Now you listen to André Rieu and his Johann Strauss Orchestra.
Music: Listen, Look and Enjoy 