"The Awakening" by Joseph M. Martin
Performed by The Lee High School Men's Choir
Wow. What a song. There are some good men's pieces, there are some not so good men's pieces out there. This is something that has an incredible text, deeper meaning, and is able to give the listener chills. This being said, I am a little put off by the lack of emotion that one can hear from the choir itself. I am not going to try and analyze any physical emotion because the quality of the video doesn't allow for it. Sound-wise, there doesn't seem to be much tempo or dynamic contrast as a group, or within parts. The tempo could be the directors fault. there are some instances where it sounds like the group wants the piece to speed up (I think it should) but the conductor is just beating away. There are some chordal moments where the sound locks in, but when listened to individually, the group has a tendency to go flat and be behind the beat in many sections. This seems to be a common trend with many of the men's choirs I have listened too. This most likely has to do with the tuning between the tenors and the basses. There are some basses that should be singing baritone. They seem to be just pushing for the lower notes, just as some of the tenors are reaching for some of the higher ones. This makes me realize that especially within a men's group, the singers need to be comfortable with their voices, and singing on the correct part no matter what.
If I were to do this with a group, I would definitely play more with the tempo, omit the "silence" whispering portion, and add some word painting among other things. Despite my qualms, this is a very interesting piece that I would definitely use in the future.
The music is very moving, Overall, I thought this was a pretty good performance. The dynamic contrast isn't dramatic, but there are instances of it occurring well, particularly during the end in the last section. Voice parts are in tune, but I agree that the tenors seemed to be reaching for the higher notes at times. The balance was fine as well, as I was able to distinguish each part and hear their harmonic relation well. However, I feel that if there was no piano, this particular choir may have struggled to stay in tune, due to phrases where the singers are pushing for their notes.
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