Choir of the Year

[Mary Chambers]

Mary, thanks for the info.

The choir came from "ooper North", too, but we managed to avoid "a very hard and insistent top with pretty shrill vibrato".

As did mine, also from Oop North

I agree, though, that the Mozart was the wrong choice for that particular choir, who were students of 'musical theatre'; they tended to shout and there was ideed too much vibrato. Still, it was nice to have some good music.

[DracoM]

The real dilemma with all such occasions is that [a] you are thrilled that young people are being invited / got together to sing at all, and often up to disciplined and sometimes exceptional standards, but [b] that the method of presentation becomes actually more important than the quality of what they are preenting.

If some of those kids go on and remain with school / college / univ / amateur groups on and off in their lives, maybe the cause is well-served by such events. But it can be a bit excruciating to see the show-bizzy overtaking the music.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Just to confirm what others have said, none of several choirs I've sung in "up North" have pratted about when they were supposed to be singing, even when performing lighter numbers.

[decantor]

I have very mixed feelings about this choreography business. If it helps to get kids singing, then that's good of course. But does it distract our attention from shallow music? I'd love to see a Choir of the Year final from when it started. What music and performing styles were on offer then?

I have a nagging feeling that the centre of what I call proper choral singing in Europe has moved east to the Baltic states. Google on 'Sulasol' and see if you agree with me that the activities of that organisation suggest a healthier amateur music scene in Finland (pop. 5m) than in the UK.

I agree. Having now watched some of CotY, I must modify my position. While I still regret that choral music must now apparently feast the eyes as well as the ears - another pernicious effect of television perhaps - I was impressed to see the focus and enjoyment with which the children sang. Maybe all the frippery is a price worth paying, at least for a time until choral singing has recovered its street cred.

As I understand it, the three smaller Baltic states used their choral tradition to help maintain national identity during the loathed Soviet era. Thus their tradition was consolidated, especially among the young, just as ours started to decline. Their choirs have a richness of vocal colour and timbre, almost entirely unassisted by vibrato, that is consistent and distinctive. I have just listened to Part's Kanon on the The Choir: the basic sound of the Estonian choir is surely one that no British ensemble could emulate, especially in the upper parts. Curiously, on the same programme a Finnish presenter told us that the revitalisation of the amateur choral scene in Finland is a fairly recent phenomenon. Sulasol?

[David Underdown]

Even in the earlier years of the Choir of the Year competition (back when it was sponosred by Sainsburys), the barber shops groups always had an element of choreography, and to a lesser extent the gospel choirs too. Perhaps it's partly the wider exposure that such competitions brought to these types of groups which has brought these elements more into the mainstream? Things like "Glee" probably emphasise this too.

[DracoM]

Just seen ads for 'Glee'. What is it? Sorry to be so ignorant.

[David Underdown]

A popular television comedy series m'lud http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glee_(TV_series)

See also the so-called Glee effect

[DracoM]

But it's a pile of Fox droppings in USA!!! Oh dear!

[David Underdown]

Fiona Maddocks in yesterday's Observer, Choir of the Year 2010 – review (even she gets a reference in to Glee)

[DracoM]

But a very friendly review nonetheless. Delighted she talked about the Wells Cathedral School alumni. The kids' choirs tugged the heart strigs, but that Wells consort were the musical bees knees in that kind of format / repertoire.

[jean]

Just to confirm what others have said, none of several choirs I've sung in "up North" have pratted about when they were supposed to be singing, even when performing lighter numbers.

Same here.

And could we drop the 'oop' nonsense?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Same here.

And could we drop the 'oop' nonsense?

That's how they say it Barnsley.

[DracoM]

Right, well if that's how Ian MacMillina might say it, I shall never say it ever again.

I'm a Northallerton man, I'll have you know.........!

[Mary Chambers]

And could we drop the 'oop' nonsense?

It's a joke, isn't it? It doesn't bother me. The equivalent for the south is 'dahn sahf'. I don't know anyone who says these things seriously.

[Chris Newman]

I agree with Mary (Chambers) that the best choir won. As for the choreography I guess that we can blame it on the Vienna Boys Choir who added light gesture and movement way back in the 60s. I recall some of it (admittedly more restrained) at a concert when Britten conducted parts of a concert (The Golden Vanity and Ceremony of Carols....OK, they stood still for the latter!). In Schubert and Strauss there where small movements. I guess it was thought to be part of the cuteness factor.