T’S HAPPENED to all of us at one time or another. We’re listening to our choir—whether live or on a recording—and are generally happy with what we hear. People are singing the right notes at the right times. Entrances and cutoffs are clean. The music is moving forward with a coherent rhythm. And everything is tuning up nicely. So, what’s not to like? Sometimes, even a very “correct” performance seems to lack a certain finesse or grace. It’s not that any section of the choir is singing too loudly, but perhaps the forte passages seem too—forceful? Maybe the singers are stomping through these passages, rather than marching? Perhaps you’d describe the sound as rough, or even crass?
How To Fix It? • Identifying the problem is a great start. But how will you fix it? The easy way out is to say, “Tenors, be a little less at measure 24.” But that’s not what you really mean. You don’t want less sound; you want the same output, only … gentler? Sweeter? Yes, you could ask the tenors to be sweeter at 24. But I think you need to be more specific, which means getting technical. I’m feeling more prepared than ever to do just that because I recently picked up a valuable tip from my colleague Jeff Ostrowski’s wonderful seminar, “Secrets of the Conscientious Choirmaster.”
Update: I see Jeff is currently giving 25% off until 25 March 2024 by means of a coupon code you can find here.
Don’t Miss This Valuable SSSecret
In the WEDNESDAY session—the fourth video of this incredibly thorough 10-hour series—Jeff shares an artful technique that many choir directors may overlook: Start Soft, then Swell (SSS). In a nutshell, when singers have certain prominent notes to sing, they should begin these notes softly and then quickly swell to the volume they ultimately desire, rather than starting the notes at full volume.
Palestrina ‘Sicut Cervus’ • Upon hearing this part of the video, I had a moment of panic and asked myself whether I do this Then I sang a bit of Sicut Cervus and was relieved to hear myself SSSing ever so subtly. As Jeff points out, most advanced singers already use SSS instinctively without being told. I’m not sure I had ever thought about this point of technique, but now that I’m listening for it, I agree: it’s a sine qua non of artful singing.
With Time, You’ll Know! • As Jeff also points out, he can’t provide precise instructions on when to use SSS. And I’ve just suggested that you use it on “certain prominent notes,” which is about as specific as a campaign promise. So, where to begin using SSS with your choir? This technique obviously won’t work on the shortest notes in a motet. I’d focus on long notes at the beginnings of phrases and emphasized notes at the peaks of phrases in melodic lines. When you find the right spots, you’ll know.
Different Instruments • In explaining SSS, Jeff provides an important insight: the piano, organ, and voice are three very different instruments. When you press a key on the organ, the note will already be at its loudest from the very first instant, and it won’t change volume until you lift off the key (unless, of course, you use the swell pedal).1 When you press a key on the piano, the note will be at its loudest in the first instant but then decay. When we sing, we shouldn’t be organists or pianists. Instead, we should take advantage of the voice’s unique ability to begin any note with finesse and then increase the intensity almost instantly.
Setting Up Your Choir SucceSSS
Now, as much as I agree with Jeff about the importance of SSS, I think one must be careful in implementing this technique with an amateur choir. When you give technical direction to a typical church choir, a few singers will overcorrect, many will undercorrect, and some will be too confused or bashful to make any change at all. I suspect SSS will be difficult to execute for any choir that hasn’t learned to sing “on the breath.” If your choir is used to crescendoing by “pushing more air,” trying to introduce SSS could lead to more bad habits. (In my mind’s ear, I’m hearing ‘overcorrectors’ who swell violently enough to make the rest of the choir seasick.) But if your singers know how to keep the breath under their sound and can crescendo by simply increasing the intensity of a note, they’ll soon make SSS a part of every phrase. In fact, they may already be doing so without realizing it.
Thank you, Jeff, for sharing “Secrets of the Conscientious Choirmaster.” I highly recommend that our readers check out this seminar for more about SSS any many other useful topics.
1 Some people, including world-class musicians, see this as a shortcoming of the organ. For example, my clarinet teacher at the Curtis Institute of Music, who played in the Philadelphia Orchestra for decades, hated the organ for this reason and often mocked the sounds it made. Igor Stravinsky famously called the pipe organ “that horrible monster that never breathes.” Although I can understand how people interpret the organ’s evenness of tone as a lack of expression, I’ve also been moved to tears by the playing of organists who communicate eloquently through rhythm and color. If he were alive today, I hope my old teacher wouldn’t be horrified to learn that I have embraced the organ in recent years!
