Credo
CaMS 8th Grade Mixed
Song by: ???
Obviously this is some sort of festival. It is in a gym, so the acoustics aren't great. For a middle school group, I thought the unison section was pretty in tune. There were some issues with posture that, if resolved, might have improved the intonation. Some of the guys in the back look like they are in the "neck-tie tenor" phase, while others are trying to reach down for the lower notes that they don't yet have. From what I can hear, the men's part doesn't go any higher than a D, so it makes me wonder about how the changing voice has been addressed in the classroom.
I can tell that the "Who am I" section was focused on quite a bit. Their "I" was very in tune, and the vowel matching was spectacular. The vowel itself however, I think was a bit too tall. The phrase sounded like "Who am Ah". In contrast, the "Peace" chord was on the right vowel, it came across clearly, but the intonation was slightly off. I guess this is an example of picking your battles.
One battle that I am glad the director focused on was the use of tall vowels. Singing North-South as opposed to East-West. 80% of the singers seemed to have grasped the concept. This seemed to make the group seem more engaged. There is a girl in the second row in the middle right section who is very into the piece, so much so to the point where it is almost distracting. I honestly have no idea of how to remedy this, or if it should be remedied at all? How do we tell a student that they are being too expressive? She is obviously enjoying the piece, but I can't tell if it is affecting her singing?
No idea who this piece is by or where the choir is from, but I really enjoyed listening to them.
A well presented choir, creating a sense of uniformity, although I wouldn't have picked blue. Overall the blend of the choir was enjoyable but it was often suffering from pitch accuracy. The intonation issues could be related to the choir members lack of range, as their voices are most likely in a changing state, being from middle school. The choir chords that move from G-F-Eb are particularly notable, since the sopranos and tenors are pitchy with the chordal movement.
ReplyDeleteI have a problem with choirs who are more concerned about the outcome of the performance and how well it looks, which this one very well could be. Choirs that focus on the performances and presentability only exhibit the conductors own ego and fear. If the teacher focuses on the process rather than the product, then the performances will have a greater quality. It's a simple and effective idea, but for some reason conductors aren't making the music process a priority. Cowards.