Who Conducts Your Choir? - Some Reflections for Conductors

Who Conducts Your Choir? – Some Reflections for Conductors

Conductor Graeme Morton presented a lecture titled "Who Conducts Your Choir" to the 2008 ACCET Summer School in Melbourne.  This article is based on that lecture and invites us to reflect on aspects of our work as conductors.

Graeme Morton currently directs the Brisbane Chamber Choir, the Lucian Singers (from Christ Church Anglican Church), and two choirs at St Peters Lutheran College, where he has been Director of Music for the past twenty-six years.  His St Peters Chorale will this year release two CDs, and perform Vivaldi's Gloria, Britten Rejoice in the Lamb, and Mendelssohn's Elijah (with orchestra) as well as a healthy diet of pieces in other styles.

In the article Graeme argues that much of what we do as conductors reflects a whole range of underlying assumptions we have about choirs, and without identifying such assumptions we actually give away a great deal of conscious control of the choir.  While much of what Graeme writes is pertinent to all conductors it is most specifically geared to conductors of young singers, to whom Graeme believes we have particular responsibilities.

The Complexity of the Conducting Role

While many in the community believe that almost anybody can conduct a choir, those of us involved in the choral process of course know that conducting is a highly complex process involving a wide range of skills.  In a good conductor we find highly developed skills in musicianship (rehearsing the choir), in aesthetics (choosing repertoire), in management (planning and organizing performances), in promotion (advertising events), in performance (the concert itself), as creator (composing or arranging music), as educator (teaching singers), as adjudicator (managing auditions), in kinesthetics (the actual gestures), as councilor (caring for individual singers), and as problem solver par excellence (involving a range of other skills which from time to time must be readily engaged in response to issues that arise).

And all this is merely one part of the complex lives that most conductors live since conducting is rarely the core activity in our professional lives.  Yet for many of us conducting is one of the very rewarding parts of the range of activities in which we are involved and it is not a cliché to remind ourselves that as conductors we change lives - and sometimes we even save lives.

In pondering the breadth of skill required to conduct a choir, I found myself, somewhat facetiously I admit, comparing the role of conductor with the role of airline pilot.  If the pilot was to equate to the conductor they would need to be a part-time flyer who never users an autopilot, co-pilot, or navigator (because we are part-time conductors who ourselves often fulfill all leadership roles), maintaining the plane (since we rehearse for the performance), select the fuel (just as we choose the repertoire), sometimes even refine the fuel (since sometimes we compose the music), build the plane (just as we create a choir by audition), train the cabin crew (just as we coach the accompanist), do their own air traffic control (since we plan all the performances we conduct), and spend time with each and every passenger (just as conductors have a concern for each and every singer).

The role of Reflection in the conducting process

And through all the complexity of the conducting process we need to manage our own well being.  It is all too easy to be daunted by the complexity of the conducting task and to subtly or subconsciously punish ourselves for our lack of skill or training.  Do not underestimate yourself for any lack of training or education opportunities as a conductor.  We live in a society that places high value on formal education and training with identifiable results (the economic rationalist view of education) and as a result we all too often underestimate that which comes from within or that which comes from experience. Experience IS the best teacher.  I well recall when James Jordan visited Australia some years ago.  He was asked how or where he learnt all that he knew about conducting.  "I direct the first year chorus at Westminster Choir College" he said. "That is the best choral laboratory one could hope for".  For James also, one learns most through doing. And of course by reflecting on what one does.

So to become a better conductor we might undergo more training, but we might also look more within ourselves to discover what already lies within.  To become a better conductor might mean to:

• Conduct more (i.e. become more experienced)
• Evaluate and reflect on what we do (i.e. become more experienced)
• Know choral music better (i.e. become more experienced). 
• Become a better musician (i.e. develop that which lies within, largely through experience and reflection).

The complexity of being a choir conductor resides in the fact that it is a very multifaceted skill, and as conductors we have to accept responsibility for the development of all these facets.  Let us look briefly at some of the facets that perhaps are sometimes overlooked, or perhaps look at some of these facets in a slightly different way, so that we can better manage all that is involved in being the conductor of a choir.

 Who is conducting my choir?

So with all these multifaceted, multitasking rules, do I manage all of them all of the time, most of them  most of the time, or some of them some of the time?  The danger is that without effective reflection some of the roles can easily and by default be neglected, or handed over to someone else.  So a question to ask while reflecting on one's conducting is " who is actually conducting my choir?" Make sure it is you, and that significant decisions that are important in the choral process are not being made by administrators, management, choir committees, school parents or, God forbid, the singers themselves. 

Reflection needs to be ongoing

Returning to the pilot-conductor comparison again let's remember that the pilot is trained specifically in the techniques to fly one particular plane - we have to continually discover the techniques that will solve the problems we encounter in our particular, unique and always-changing choir.  There is no given set of formulae.  Indeed our own choir this year is a different plane from the one we flew last year. And this makes reflection all the more important in the overall choral process.

Our choir is influenced by assumptions as well as by decisions

And so let's use some reflection time to examine the assumptions that underlie our choral work.  It is often a good idea to specifically identify these underlying assumptions since too often assumptions can become the decisions without us really being aware of this process.  For example an assumption that my choir may not like a particular style of music may actually become a decision not to perform such music.  A close identification and examination of the assumption itself can lead to a more informed decision about the repertoire in question.

Reflection I – Do we conduct the choir, or the music, or the singers?

Before we leave the image of the pilot entirely another difference between conductors and pilots is that the pilot's responsibility to the particular set of passengers ends with just one flight.  For us our responsibility is clearly not just one flight (i.e. performance). Rather it is an ongoing process.  Indeed I would argue that our responsibility is for ALL of our singer's futures, long after they have left our choirs.  The type of musician they will be in ten, twenty or thirty years time may well depend on the work we do with them now.  This is a great privilege but an enormous responsibility.

Reflection  II – Is our work for an immediate result, a medium term one or a long term one?

The potential we have to greatly enhance the lives of our singers is balanced by the potential to do significant damage.  Blunt as this is, it is also true. Such damage may be quite specific.  Many of us can still remember the moment as a child when we were treated in a particular way by a particular teacher or fellow student.  As a conductor we need to reflect on what damage may be done to individual singers, in how we may have acted, or in how we allowed some underlying assumptions to surface without being properly and carefully considered. This is especially important for those of us who take a long-term view of our responsibility to our singers.

Reflection III - What didn't we do?

We also need to reflect if any damage is done not by what we do, but by what we fail to do.

1.  Have we inspired our singers such that they will search for a new (indeed better) choir after they leave us?

 2.  Have we given them skills sufficient to step up to the next level when they leave us?

 3.  Have we identified individual strengths and weaknesses and advised accordingly, so they are prepared to step to the next level?

 4.  Have we taught them to value choir as needing an important set of individual skills, which can only be acquired through diligent practice and careful consideration, and have we given them confidence to stand tall among their peers in choir? 

 Might we as conductors have failed our singers and a choir by neglecting any of these aspects?

 Reflection IV – Is my choir work mature?

 Do we consider why so many singers fail to continue singing into or through their adult life?  Are we responsible for this?  Have we given them a sufficiently mature choral experience that as they mature they still believe the best is ahead of them, or do we give them experience that is so static that as they mature they outgrow the choral experience and lose interest?

In one sense our work needs to be just ahead of the best of our singers so that they can strive for something that is just out of their grasp.  I suspect that often our work is pitched in the middle of our singer's abilities and skills.  Those of us who work with older choirs can easily find many people who answer the question "have you ever sung before" with " oh well not since primary school".  These students assumedly did not have a choral experience that stimulated, extended and developed.  All students appreciate progress – and this is true of most adults as well.  We need to be sure that we have given them a choral experience that allows for progress, and for the progress to be observed and appreciated by the singers.

Reflection V - Do we ask enough of our singers? 

Too often our choir is childish and undeveloped because our vision of them is limited.  For example, perhaps as school teachers will often have an image of what a school choir is and therefore except that ours is in that same ballpark.  But remember that the wonderful Tapiola Choir was once a school choir - a school choir whose conductor had a vision that was greater than that needed for a school choir and whose vision transformed that choir into a world-leading choral force.

So what limitations might be imposed when we accept the status quo?  On the other hand, what might a refusal to accept the status quo mean?

·       Additional rehearsals? 

·       A community choir based in a school instead of a school choir?

·       An adult community choir that sees itself as a learning community not a social community?

·       A choir where singers studying voice and developing their vocal technique is the norm? (after all no one plays in an orchestra without having received lessons)

·       A school choir which performs full-length programs, not segments of programs in multi-ensemble concert?

·       A choir which has a season, in which there is a sense of culmination and arrival, a sense of development, and a sense of process

·       A choir which tours regularly?

·       A choir that treats contemporary music as normal?

 Reflection VI – Who chooses the repertoire for my choir?

On the face of it the answer to this question should be obvious.  Surely I as conductor choose the repertoire of my choir.  But at another level, when I allow my choices to be influenced by external factor, then I am no longer fully responsible for the repertoire choices of my choir.  Perhaps I allow my singers to choose repertoire when they say "can we please sing such and such this term"?  Perhaps the singers are influencing repertoire decisions when they become adept at performing the pieces they like well, and performing less well those pieces that are less "immediate" for them.  Or perhaps, and this does happen, singers end up exerting undue influence on repertoire when they absent themselves from the choir when it is doing a season of music not immediately to their taste.  Perhaps my choices are significantly influenced by the audience, as I respond to the feedback they give from time to time.  Or perhaps it is the choir committee, who consciously or subconsciously influenced the programming decisions by their comments above audience numbers and budget.

As far as I am concerned repertoire is one of the most important yet most neglected areas of choral training.  It is far too important to be left to singers.  And why is repertoire important?

1.  Good repertoire builds choral tone

2.  Good repertoire builds musical skills - if you want your choir to be able to sing dramatically, give them dramatic music to sing.  If you want your choir to be able to manage adventurous harmony, give them music with adventurous harmony.  If you want a choir that sings microtones well, then give them music with microtones.  If you want your singers to become aesthetically mature, then give them music that is aesthetically mature. And until you do…..

3.  Good repertoire links our past and a future.  Choral music is of course far more than just a sensory experience.  It is history, culture, sociology, spirituality, geography, politics and much more.  By limiting repertoire we limit our singers experience of life itself.

4. Good repertoire is the vehicle by which our choir's skills and achievements are revealed.  Most of us focus on the choir is as the means by which music is brought to life.  But the opposite is equally important.  The music is the means by which the choir finds its purpose and comes to life. So it stands to reason – the better the repertoire, the better the choir.

Reflection VII – What is the quality of my choir's repertoire?

The future of choral music may be related to this single issue of repertoire more than to any other aspect of the choral art.  And the bad news is that in Australia we generally have a very poor sense of what is good or appropriate repertoire.  This is of particular concern for our young singers whose future aesthetic sense is in a large part established by the repertoire we give them to sing now.  Students play Bach, Beethoven, Liszt and Prokofiev, and at the same time we expect them to sing High School Musical and the Lion King.  The Bach, Beethoven, Liszt and Prokofiev that they play now, they will still play in 60 years.  Is their current choral diet equally sustainable over 60 years?

Do not forget that most great historical choral repertoire was written for children - they can respond aesthetically and technically to these mature works.  Do not forget that young people today are problem solvers perhaps like never before.  They readily accept challenges, like taking risks, and are stimulated by the opportunity to explore and discover new things.  Does the contemporary repertoire we give them match this capacity for progressive, forward thinking?

One question to ask is whether our choirs actually sing choir music.  It is important that we perform the music originally composed, or skillfully arranged, for choir.  After all it is the choral medium in which we work, and in all genres the best music is generally that which was composed specifically for that genre. 

Another question to ask is whether we have a developmental approach to repertoire.  Do we choose repertoire with regard to its potential for success in the next immediate performance, or do we have a long term view, and understand that the real rewards of the selected repertoire will not be obvious in this next performance, and possibly not until these singers have moved on to another choir, and another conductor, working at another level?