Choral blend, a better way to get it

If you’ve ever sung in a choir, you probably have been told to “blend with your neighbor” or “blend with your section.” Talking about “blend” is how choir directors get that unified sound. The more singers in a section, the harder it is to achieve that unified sound. (Though I personally don’t like the word “blend.” Most singers, when asked to “blend,” will sing quieter with a breathy unfocused tone quality trying to “match” their neighbor). In this post, I use “blend” and “unified sound” interchangeably.

I am all for a unified sound. This is one of the goals of the Byrd Ensemble. But I feel that many directors have misconceptions about what a unified sound actually is. Too many times in rehearsal, I have watched directors in pursuit of a unified sound bring up vowel, vowel placement, or even timbre, while rarely addressing the main issue, which I think is pitch. 90% of a unified sound is everyone singing precisely the same pitch. In the Byrd Ensemble, I never talk about vowels. Some directors may claim success after harping on choristers to match vowel sounds. I believe their success is really due to better pitch matching, which happened through mere repetition.

I’ll speak more about vowels later. For now, I have included audio samples to help illustrate my previous point about matching pitch.

Here is Margaret singing an “oo” vowel on one note.

Example 1:

Let’s hear an example of that exact same clip doubled. I’ve created a second track, an exact copy of Example 1, and combined them.

Example 2:

As you would expect, there is little difference between Example 1 and 2. We can hear that Example 2 is a perfectly unified sound. Everything is perfectly matched – pitch, vowels and timbre.

Let’s pitch shift one of the tracks down exactly 20 cents (there are 100 cents in a half step). In the real world of choral singing, 20 cents is a very a small difference, just 1/5 of a half step. This is what we get.

Example 3:

As you can hear, even with only a small 20 cent difference, we can hear many more “beats” in the sound. It’s not nearly as perfect as Example 2.

Since that doesn’t disprove why vowel matching isn’t really that important, Example 4 is Margaret singing two very different vowels, “oo” and “ee,” on the same note (tuned manually) at the same time.

Example 4:

Example 4 isn’t perfect, but combining two vastly different vowel sounds together results in a much more unified sound than in Example 3 where the same vowel is sung only 20 cents apart.

What about when we combine two different voices, a male and female singing different vowels? In  Example 5, Margaret is singing “oo” and I’m singing “ee” (in my falsetto for better contrast of tone). Two very different timbres and very different vowel sounds singing the same note.

Example 5:

Again, Example 5 is not perfect, but it is still more unified than Example 3, even with the two very different timbres and vowels. In a real choral situation, you will probably never have to blend two totally different vowels like “ee” and”oo,” since blending is usually applied to a group of singers singing the same part with the same words. You would also find pitch discrepancies between singers much larger than 20 cents. Therefore, when choir directors jump to tweaking the subtle shades of “ah” or “oo” or any vowels in pursuit of a unified sound, I feel they are approaching the issue incorrectly.

Some choir directors claim that vowels and vowel placement has an affect on pitch. They use vowel modification as a “way” to correct pitch. It might be true that some vowels and their placement tend to result in flat/sharp singing, but since vowel modification is being used to correct pitch, why don’t directors address the core issue instead? In all levels of choirs, amateur or professional, it seems more beneficial to spend time improving a singer’s ear and the ability to match pitch.

Choir directors that deliberately avoid talking about pitch and speak only about vowels are the least helpful. They might have stumbled onto success through indirect exercises (involving vowels, imagery, bizarre gestures…), but this method of “tricking” the choir into a unified sound (or succeeding in anything really) is a disservice to the collective skill of blending as well as the musical development of each individual chorister.

Another problem I have with addressing pitch correction by way of vowel modification is that it enforces a kind of direct cause-effect relationship between pitch and vowel. Pitch and vowel are two mutually exclusive musical properties. If they weren’t, then you wouldn’t be able to sing some notes on certain vowels.

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Anyways, this is something I’ve been thinking about for a while and I’d appreciate any feedback! Happy Blending!

Here is chant sung by two tenors from the Tallis Scholars, a very unified and beautiful sound.

-Markdavin Obenza, May 2012

What a lovely piece. It takes elegant writing like this to achieve such a high level of harmonic expression, suspending your expectations as it takes you through a journey of colorful sonority.

Encore from our October 2011 concert. What a lovely piece. “There is an old belief” is the 4th movement from Songs of Farewell.

There is an old belief,
That on some solemn shore,
Beyond the sphere of grief
Dear friends shall meet once more.

And Sin and Fate’s control,
Serene in changeless prime
Of body and of soul.

Beyond the sphere of Time
And Sin and Fate’s control,
Serene in changeless prime
Of body and of soul.

That creed I fain would keep
That hope I’ll ne’er forgo,
Eternal be the sleep,
If not to waken so.

John Gibson Lockhart (1794-1854)

Click on the link below to hear the recording.

William Byrd (1540-1623) – O Lord, make thy servant Elizabeth

One of the most impressive recordings of early music is Taverner Choir’s recording of Thomas Tallis. They capture a very bright and live sound that brings this ancient music to life. In a rehearsal for a concert in March 2010, we attempted to capture that sound. We moved the mics closer to the singers, though realized that we needed to add reverb to compensate for the lack of “space” in the sound. There are 8 singers on this clip.

One of the most notable things about this Byrd favorite is the lovely “Amen” section. We performed this piece at St. Mary the Virgin in New York in October 2011, when a very friendly audience member approached us after the concert and confessed that he thought the “Amen” section was so lovely it made him laugh.

Allegri – Miserere (excerpt)

excerpt from Isaac’s Virgo prudentissima

Markdavin Obenza (b.1980) – Nunc dimittis (SATB+SATB)

Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace : according to thy word.For mine eyes have seen : thy salvation,Which thou hast prepared : before the face of all people;To be a light to lighten the Gentiles : and to be the glory of thy people Israel. Amen.

Members of the Byrd Ensemble have written music for Compline and our concerts. Please feel free to use them as you please! Do let us know if you would like to contribute to this list!

PSALMS

Markdavin Obenza (b.1980) – Psalm 84 (SATB+SATB) (*audio sample here)
Markdavin Obenza (b.1980) – Psalm 84 (SATB+SATB+4 Cellos) (*audio sample here)

ANTHEMS

Markdavin Obenza (b.1980) – At Night (SATB)
Markdavin Obenza (b.1980) – Comfort ye my people (SATB)
Markdavin Obenza (b.1980) – Eye hath not seen (SATB+SATB)
Markdavin Obenza (b.1980) – God so loved the world (SATB+SATB)
Markdavin Obenza (b.1980) – I look from afar (SATB+SATB)
Joshua Haberman (b.1982) – In the midst of life (SSATBarB)
Markdavin Obenza (b.1980) – Peace I Leave with You (Sop. Solo + piano)
Markdavin Obenza (b.1980) – Set me as a seal upon your heart (SATB + Sop. Solo)

NUNC DIMITTIS

Joshua Haberman (b.1982) – Nunc Dimittis (SATB+SATB) (click here for audio sample)
Markdavin Obenza (b.1980) – Nunc Dimittis (English for SATB+SATB) (click here for audio sample)
Markdavin Obenza (b.1980) – Nunc dimittis for Double Choir #2 (SATB+SATB) (Latin)

A piece from our “A Continental Christmas” program on November 26-27, 2011 at Trinity Parish Church, Seattle, WA

Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) – Ave Maria

Arvo Pärt’s secret sauce
by Markdavin Obenza

I fell in love with the music of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt (b.1935) right away. I started listening to his music in 2004 and remember not feeling anything at all when I listened to it, which was rare for me. I thought it sounded beautiful. This nothingness I felt seemed to provide me a sense of other-worldly peace – I got lost in his meditative and contemplative style.

(For those of you aren’t familiar with his music, I’d recommend starting with the Taverner Choir “Out of the Night” CD. It is fantastic!)

Shameless plug: You can hear some of Pärt’s music this Saturday, October 17, 2011 at 5pm at Church of the Redeemer. More information here.

If you know me, you might think I was under the influence with that description above, as I am definitely not the mystic type. I did eventually come to my senses and decided to examine this further. What was it about his music that had seduced me? I thought the first thing to do was to analyze his music. I mean, why not figure out what you like to listen to by figuring out more precisely what you like to hear?

As part of the rite of passage in academia one must write a long something about something. So I went ahead and did that to Pärt’s music.

One of the first major sources of information I found was Paul Hillier’s biography on Arvo Pärt published in 1997. Incredible. I learned two main characteristics about Pärt’s music.

Patterns

Hillier taught me that it was all about patterns. I guess I like patterns? If you say 1…. 2…., does it make me really happy when you say 3? Ok, so it isn’t that simple.

Well sometimes it is. If you listen to Spiegel im Spiegel you wouldn’t be wrong (but maybe a bit of a reductionist ie. mean!) to say it was simply a series of arpeggiated triads over a stepwise scale. However simple it may be, it is a very compelling piece.

Here is an example of text patterning in Summa.

Are you kidding me? You could probably guess how the rest of the song patterns out. I would say the first line getting 7 syllables not aligning with the 9-14-9-14 patterning could be thought of something separate like an incipit? Like when a cantor sings the first part by his/her self? Trust me, the patterning can be a little more intensive with melodies, cycles,etc. In Summa, he adds notes systematically to melodies to make them longer and shorter. Bizarre.

Tintinnabuli style

Another compositional technique Pärt employs is his tintinnabuli style. A compositional technique that allows for only a limited number of harmonies. I think I do remember feeling like his harmonic world was rather limited. Great, I guess I’m good hearing 2 or 3 chords. Again, not that simple. Let’s see an example.

Tintinnabuli, meaning “a small bell,” is a relatively simple technique consisting of a pairing of two voices, a melodic voice (M-voice, scalar) and a tintinnabuli voice (T-voice, arpeggiated). The M-voice in the example is represented as the black noteheads, usually stepwise and in some kind of pattern, and the T-voice voice is represented in the example as the white noteheads.

According to Paul Hillier the T-voice can only be the first or second nearest note in the triad ABOVE or BELOW the M-voice pitch or in alternation note by note. Taking that into account, example 1.1a has all the possible positions of the T-voice in relationship to the M-voice.

This sort of explains the limited sound world I feel I’m in when I’m listening to Pärt. When you think about it and tally up the kind of harmony you can get out of this seemingly restrictive system, you realize that it is quite limited indeed. To follow up on this hunch, I decided to analyze every vertical slice of harmony in Pärt’s Fratres. (This was during the first few months with my wife Margaret. I would sit in the coffee shop of Capers in West Seattle while she worked 8 hour shifts – I did analysis the whole time, it was tedious work.) Fratres, using set class theory (where you measure the distance from the bottom note by half steps, ie. [C, C#, E] = [0, 1, 4]) when reduced, is really a total of 5 different harmonies.

Still with me? Hope so, about to reach the climax of this.

With these elements in mind, something didn’t add up. Patterns can go on forever, which would seem like it would yield a more diverse collection of harmony. I know it adds to the magic of Pärt’s music to some, thinking of it as a basic mathematical system at work (like true minimalism) while yielding great music. How cool would that be? Just create some algorithm to spit out beautiful music! Composers not required!

Ok back on subject. Can you really employ the kind of complex patterning Pärt uses in his music while maintaining a strict limited sound universe? It seems like something’s got to give!

So after I took a harmonic analysis of Pärt’s Fratres, I decided to note how many possible harmonies there COULD be with the patterning Pärt sets up. In Fratres, there are eight possible harmonies [013], [014], [015], [024], [025], [026], [036], [037], of which Pärt only uses five [015], [025], [026], [036] and [037]. (see example 1.6) (To understand the set class notation, make sure you put the notes in their closest arrangement).

Well how can this be? Although Pärt uses the tintinnabuli style and symmetrical patterns to maintain a limited harmonic universe, the patterns do NOT govern the harmony. Pärt manipulates the T-voice to maintain a restricted sound world that contains only five of the eight possible harmonies. In other words, Pärt doesn’t really follow through on the patterning completely, just only if it doesn’t create unwanted harmony.

BOOOM! goes the dynamite. I’m on to you Pärt.

So what does this mean? Pärt can compose whatever he wants just like the rest of us. But if you are one of the people that is seduced by his patterning, be less seduced.

To be honest, my findings made me slightly less impressed. I mean, why go through so much trouble creating complex OCD-like patterns in the music (and text!) and not really follow them? What is the Arvo Pärt secret sauce? Watered down patterning with a side of 5 harmonies.

However, this may be why his music doesn’t fall into the experimental minimalist style (which I don’t think a lot of people listen to for pleasure), you know, Reich, Riley, Glass etc. Some may include Pärt in that list, though he really shouldn’t be there. He is to minimalism as diet coke is to coke – better, easier to consume in larger quantities, but not real coke.

With all of that said, I still love his music. His flavor makes his music accessible and not something from a severe minimalist. In fact, I don’t want to hear a piece of infinite patterns and harmony.

I selfishly look to music to comfort me in a way no other medium can. Arvo Pärt’s music goes beyond that and speaks to a contemplative side of me that no other music does.

“The most beautiful and most profound emotion we can experience is the sensation of the mystical. It is the sower of all true science… to know what is impenetrable to us.”

-Albert Einstein

Thanks for reading!

Markdavin

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If you would like to read the chapter on my thesis about this, please feel free to download here:

Analysis of Arvo Pärt’s Fratres (1977/1985) and Summa (1977) and the harmonic ramifications of the tintinnabuli style 

Arvo Pärt – “Agnus Dei” from the Berliner Messe

Evensong Service

Saturday, September 17, 2011 at 5pm

Church of the Redeemer
6211 NE 182nd Street
Kenmore, WA 98028
View Map

This evensong service will include music by Hildegard of Bingen, Renaissance composer Robert Parsons, local composer and organist Sheila Bristow and Estonian composer Arvo Pärt.

Hildegard of Bingen – O virga ac diadema
Sheila Bristow – Fair as a dove
Arvo Pärt – “Credo” and “Agnus Dei” from the Berliner Messe
Robert Parsons – Ave Maria

Occasionally, we get asked to sing at church services every now and then.  This seems to make sense as we’ve found our music to be a good aid for meditation and worship.  This Saturday, September 17 at 5pm, we will be providing music for a wonderful evensong service.  5 singers (Margaret Rose Obenza, Joshua Haberman, Orrin Doyle, Markdavin Obenza and Thomas Thompson) will sing the selections above, including a composition by local composer and organist Sheila Bristow.

One of the pieces I am looking forward to, is the Berliner Messe by Arvo Pärt.  If you haven’t heard of his music, I highly recommend you check him out!  He writes some of the most contemplative music I’ve ever heard.  The audio clip from a past concert of Arvo Pärt, the “Agnus Dei” movement from Arvo Pärt’s Berliner Messe.  My personal Arvo Pärt favorites for voice are: Seven Magnificat Antiphons and I am the true vine.

A snippet from the Credo from the Berliner Messe.

Part – “Credo” from Berliner Mass (excerpt)

Pygott – Salve regina