CHORAL SINGING

Southland Times, Issue 22296, 11 April 1934, Page 8

CHORAL SINGING

INTERESTING ADDRESS. Last night, after the business at the annual meeting of the Invercargill Male Voice Choir had been disposed of, the conductor, Dr. Stanley Brown, gave an informal talk on choral snging. “Correct breathing is essential in choral singing,” said Dr. Brown. “In order- to get proper- breathing control, practice is very necessary.” Quick breathing was a great advantage, and the speaker gave some interesting information how to accomplish this. For choral work a blending tone was necessary. The voices should all sound as one. This was very difficult to achieve, and rarely was this desirable state of affairs to be found. Probably due to the fact that sufficient attention was not given to it, real pianissimo singing was rarely heard. This pianissimo singing was very attractive. The listeners should be able to hear all the words. “None of us,” said Dr. Brown, “speaks very distinctly.” The same applied to singing. Mental alertness was necessary to avoid this fault. Words were the first concern in choral singing. If the words were not pronounced distinctly a great deal of the beauty of the music was lost. Dr. Brown dealt at length with vowels and consonants, and said that care was very necessary; too much carelessness was evident today in these important details. Proceeding, the speaker said that expression was everything. Richard Tauber’s reputation was made by his wonderful expression. This was the main problem of the conductor. Tone colour, rhythm and emphasis were important aspects of expression.

Dr. Brown’s final point dealt with rhythm. This was really the pulsation of music, he said. Nowadays people used rhythm in everything. Dr. Brown was accorded a hearty vote of thanks fox- his address.