It's been a while since I've posted something, but I hope to post a lot in the next few days as there's plenty of stuff to write about. Last weekend I took part in the 4th International Kraków Choir Festival, bringing together about 30 choirs from 11 different countries, including Northern Ireland and Singapore (!) The festival was arranged over four days, with concerts and a contest divided into a number of different categories. I had a chance to sing in two of these contests and hear, all told, around 11 hours worth of live choral music. One thing that I have always loved about Kraków is that there's almost always something cultural going on, and quite a few of them (such as this festival) are free and things that you just sort of stumble into.
Now, I've been in some choir or another since middle school, except for a small break the last two years of college, but I think there's only been one time prior to this one where I spent so much time wrapped up in music.
The choral festival was a good educational experience as it illustrated variables that go into making a group sound good or awful. For one thing, unless you are absolutely sure of your group, don't have them perform Mozart: every little error a choir makes is instantly noticeable in the vast majority of his works. One contest was an excellent illustration of how difficult it is to sing in the morning: there was one group that had serious problems singing at 10AM but was very good at 7PM. In the morning, the tenors clearly had not warmed up sufficiently and were missing the top third of their range. A men's choir from Northern Ireland had serious issues one evening but was extremely good the next day, partly in response to the acoustics of the churches in which they sang. The concert in which these gentlemen had trouble was one in which there was both a considerable echo and yet "dead" for the performers: when our group sang there, I had a hard time hearing anybody except for myself, the guy next to me, and the woman in front of me, and that plays havoc with tuning, balance, and blend. When the same choir was in another space, one that was smaller and "warmer", those problems disappeared.
My two picks for best-in-show were the group from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and a group from the University of Malmo in Sweden. The judges more or less agreed. Both of these choirs picked some very difficult pieces to perform from the standpoints of difficult and/or strange cords to tune, ones where diction and phrasing were of paramount importance, some that were polyphonic and others where entrances and exits had to be very exact, otherwise the piece would fall apart. The technique of both groups was truly superb and I was very happy to listen to about an hour worth of music from each group.
The awards for best-dressed, however, go to a men's choir from Sweden who dressed in white-tie attire with Student caps, which I understand are a very European (and particularly Nordic) thing. Imagine, if you will, Count Dracula inexplicably wearing what looks like a U.S. Navy officer's cap, and you get the idea. Runner-up goes to a Polish choir from Kraków that not only dressed in elaborate red robes, but also had the guts (or insanity) to add choreography to a piece written by J.S. Bach! There were also some children's choirs who were very cute and also quite good for their age group. One group of Russian girls between the ages of about 7 and 12 was absolutely adorable, particularly in terms of the various ways they handled being on stage: some kind of stared around the church in awe, others were very, very serious and still others were smiling their heads off but attentive. Right before the first pitch was given, two choristers even came sprinting down the aisle, having missed lining up earlier. Finally, after the final piece was finished and the director took his bows, the look of relief on his face was understated yet priceless.
My parents were in town for this particular extravaganza, and I think it was a treat for both of them. My mom did a lot of performing as a violinist when she was younger, and I think she sometimes misses it. This also gave her the insider perspective on what was going on.
There are some other differences I've noticed when singing with a Polish choir, but that, alas, is another post.
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