Choral singing – together we can stay strong
Even during Corona!
Singing together, even during Corona – that is the declared objective of choral director Michael Reif. In his first contribution to the CARUS blog he explains how he has achieved this, and which challenges he has had to deal with under these special circumstances.
In this article I would like to describe some of my experiences as a choral director during the Corona pandemic. I love my work and am absolutely determined to brave this period of choir shut down, and to explore the opportunities with humor, pleasure and imagination. So to look to the future and to work with my choirs actively and hopefully.
The shut down
Firstly, a glance back. The 1st March 2020 was a very special day for me and the KÖLNER KURRENDE, because the choir’s 50th anniversary year began with a sold-out concert in the Philharmonie Cologne. The concert was a huge success for the choir. The audience, the press and our own feelings were unanimous: it was fantastic! The audience of around 2,000 stood close together for the final ovation, and the choir, children’s choir, soloists, and orchestra were happy and mingled together closely at the reception afterwards in the artists’ foyer. At this point in time, nobody imagined that our choir concert was to be one of the last in the Philharmonie Cologne for the next six months. Nobody back then had any idea of being too close, or even of the fear of infection from Covid-19.
But all that was soon to change. The Corona pandemic necessitated a massive restriction on public life, and choir rehearsals and concerts were cancelled. For many choirs and their choral directors, this meant an abrupt end to artistic and educational work. As a consequence, planned concerts and events all around the world have been postponed or cancelled. Shocking news of choir events and resulting cases of severe illness amongst singers, the audience and conductors quickly circulated, created a climate of anxiety, and suggested that choral singing is dangerous.
It quickly became clear to me that in this situation I should not abandon my choir members. I am used to being a point of contact for artistic matters, solving practical performance questions as a conductor, and making decisions on all sorts of questions about rehearsals and scoring. Now, I also had to find solutions in the time of Corona.
Rehearsals continue
Before the first question came from the choir about how things would continue from now on, I had given my personal answer: I wanted to continue working with my choir during the pandemic, not least because we all have another common goal – the second anniversary concert is due to take place on 22 November 2020 in the Philharmonie Cologne! The program includes works by Penderecki, Beethoven, and a work by Stefan Heucke commissioned for the anniversary year. The choir’s motivation is tremendous. Everyone indicated to me that they were keen to work hard, and were excited and interested to immerse themselves in the new works (the Beethoven is published by Carus) for the second Philharmonie concert.
In order to continue rehearsals uninterrupted, my first step was as follows: as quickly as possible I recorded practice tracks, gave tips about the formal structure, formulated some ideas about how things should sound, drew attention to tricky intervals, explained, joked, and behaved (in the recording) as if my choir was there.
N.B.: My choral singers were already familiar with practice tracks before Corona, and these were used a lot for practising – or always ignored by some!
This ensured that each choir member could continue working on the repertoire and singing.
Excerpt from a practice track (“Übeschleife”) that Michael Reif made available to the choir singers.
Over the following weeks, digital rehearsals were to become an important regular component of our work as a choir and a weekly get-together for choir members. The beginning was exciting. As usual I produced my rehearsal plans with schedule, timings and contents, sent them to everyone and invited them to the first digital choir practice.
There was much excitement, and my experience with the digital medium was still relatively limited. I benefited from the fact that digital teaching started at the University at the same time, and there we tried out different programs and uses with an open mind, rejected some of these, and sought a positive approach to the digital medium. Very early on we compared experiences amongst colleagues. All of us came to the depressing realization that digital rehearsals cannot replace the longing for a shared sound or the task of nuanced listening. Either we would never be able to make music together, or the technical effort was simply too great.
CD Hallelujah
To continue my work with choirs, I had to find a starting point which made working with this medium purposeful. I decided on the Zoom program. We could all work simply and reliably with this, and all singers could access it with normal technical equipment.
The first Zoom rehearsal was a trial of the new medium: It’s exciting to be “admitted to the rehearsal” by the conductor. Then an explanation about using the software, the way to get a better sound on your home computer, comments about how the microphone, speakers, etc. work – and of course alongside all the technical questions, a general conversation about the situation. The time disappeared in a flash and everyone looked forward to the next shared rehearsal.
Over the following days and weeks I developed further methods for digital rehearsals with students in order to develop an imaginative approach to the digital medium. We discovered: listening and singing have a digital equivalent, namely microphone and speakers. Just as singing and listening can be done together and individually, the microphone and speakers can be switched on and off individually or together. That was the starting point for further possibilities in using digital rehearsing in more versatile ways, integrating more variety into the process, and combining technical and working opportunities. As a result, the second Zoom rehearsal was divided into voice groups and enabled us to work intensively on the new modern work.
Digital rehearsal with Zoom
From the third Zoom rehearsal, it was clear that
- singing in front of the computer requires particular attention to the body.
- Warm-ups are essential at the start of the rehearsal.
- Awareness raising and opening up the resonating space is even more important in digital rehearsals than in normal ones.
- All parts of the rehearsal must be well planned and prepared beforehand (!)
- The music must be available digitally.
- The conductor must be familiar with the program (use training opportunities) and be confident in using the various applications.
- A host who manages the meeting is ideal, and less stressful, but such a person is often not available.
- Keep calm and maintain an overview!
- React with humor when something doesn’t work,
- then Zoom rehearsals can be fun,
- and really effective.
- Regular Zoom rehearsals help maintain the continuity of working with a choir.
- Regular Zoom rehearsals mean a lot to choral singers, and the meeting can continue after the actual rehearsal finishes. For example, we set up a virtual post-rehearsal drink.
Glance towards the future
I am grateful to all the choral singers for engaging with this digital way of working, and reacting so positively to this new way of rehearsing. I would also like to thank all the students for their many creative and imaginative ideas, and inventive methods which have made our work richer and more interesting.
Choral singing is wonderful and means so much to us all. Many choir members say time and again that choral singing makes them happy and immediately reduces their stress, even if the conductor him/herself is sometimes stressed. Choral singing allows the individual to make a meaningful contribution, and at the same time to blend into a communal sound.
And to finish with, a glance towards the not-so-distant future: on 22 November 2020 the second concert for the 50th anniversary of the Kölner Kurrende takes place. We now have to forget all our existing plans, for although it will probably be possible to hold concerts in the Philharmonie Cologne again, they will not be with a full-size orchestra and chorus on the stage.
So once again it means solving the problem imaginatively and developing a suitable concert program. Perhaps we will choose a work with reduced orchestral forces; I have just read in the Carus Newsletter about “Great choral works in smaller scorings” … In any case, despite the good digital experiences we have had, I am looking forward to having my choir in front of me again in person, and making music with people in the good old-fashioned analog way!
Leave a Reply
Want to join the discussion?Feel free to contribute!