Varsity Sing begins in less than a week, as South Africa’s most gripping university choir competition hits kykNET on 14 July. Die-hard choir singers and enthusiasts will be clearing their Thursday night schedules at the thought of kicking back and turning up the volume to hear South Africa’s finest choirs perform in beautiful harmony, singing in a variety of South Africa’s beautiful languages.
But for those who enjoy listening to the magical sounds of a cappella singers, but have no idea why the conductor really waves his arms, or why certian members are singing differently to others; here are five things you may not have known about choir singing.
Voices differ far more than just “deep” or “high”
The composition of a choir is much like assembling a car. Each part works differently, but when working in unison, the vehicle comes alive and the journey begins. While often the differing voices are easily noticeable, sometimes they are subtle. The most common voices used in mixed choir ensembles are:
Soprano: typically a female singing voice with the highest vocal range.
Alto: the second highest vocal range and typically the lowest range sung by a female member.
Tenor: a male singing voice with the highest vocal range.
Bass: the lowest vocal range of all voice types and typically the lowest range sung by a male member.
Arrangement is everything
When a choir walks up on stage, don’t assume they are standing beside their best friend, placed alphabetically or from tallest to shortest. The arrangement is done based on vocal ranges and the attention to detail here is everything. The conductor ultimately decides how to arrange his choir.
For symphonic choirs, it is common for conductors to arrange their choir from left to right, beginning with the highest vocals to the lowest. For a cappella singing, you may often see the men placed at the back, with women in front. It isn’t unusual to see experienced choirs mix their voices, but sometimes singers with the same type of voice will be grouped together in pairs or trios. Even the spacing between singers makes a difference to how the music is perceived by the audience.
They may look similar, but every choir is different
There are various types of choirs and although the group of singers on stage may often look similar, you will soon hear that they are quite different.
A mixed choir is most common, including both male and female voices. These include Sopranos, Altos, Tenor and Bass voices and the type of choir is often referred to as SATB (an abbreviation of the voice types). Males choirs are also a common choir type and include boys singing the higher notes. Other types include female choirs and men’s choirs (male chorale) which includes baritone voices. Not forgetting youth choirs, such as SA’s famous Mzansi Youth Choir.
The conductor’s hand gestures aren’t just for dramatic effect
The beautiful shift between swift and slower hand gestures by conductors appears exquisite and looks graceful, but what are they really doing?
A conductor’s primary responsibilities during a musical piece or song are to set the tempo and to instruct members of the choir when to enter the ensemble. His hands are how he communicates this to his choir. A conductor may use a baton, but this is only to make the gestures and movements more visible. Even eye contact or gestures with his or her head or face are used to communicate with the choir.
SA has the best university choir in the world
The World Choir Games takes place every two years and in 2014, South Africa’s University of Stellenbosch Choir not only claimed the world title, but they did it by scoring the highest mark in the history of the competition (1260 points).
They are currently ranked number one in the world, so the 11 other universities in Varsity Sing will have to out-do the best university choir in the world if they are to claim the Varsity Sing title.
