Masculinity, Class and Music Education by Clare Hall

Author:Clare Hall
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan UK, London

In returning to my consideration of the connection between the boys’ emotional articulateness and becoming a choirboy, I reflect on how being drawn into the emotionally charged environment of the choir develops a distinctive ‘emotional repertoire’ or vernacular for emotions. One example that stands out is how much the choirboys enjoy the challenge of fine-tuning their musical expressivity. This is part and parcel of music-making in general and commonly involves an in-depth analysis of the music’s emotive potential. In a choral setting, this usually begins with deconstructing the meaning of the lyrics, combined with the composer’s intentions and the conductor’s interpretation. The following exchange between the conductor and the choirboys during a rehearsal is typical of the acute fine-tuning work they do to agree on musical expression. The choir supports the expansion of contemporary repertoire for treble voices by regularly commissioning works especially for the group, particularly from Australian composers. The song they were singing in this example was one such composition based on the poetry of an Australian female writer. The composer is present observing the rehearsal and tells the life story of the now-elderly lyricist to the choir. He feeds back to the boys what she said, which is that “this is the most exciting thing that’s happened to her in a long time”. The boys are entranced by the composition’s ‘back-story’, and it isn’t any wonder that they take preparations for a ‘world premiere’ very seriously.The choir sings a phrase. They stop to work on it. Howard questions the choirboys to bring to their attention a marking in the score:

Howard:   What does appassionato mean?

Choirboy 1:  With feeling.

Howard:   But what?

Choirboy 2:  You don’t actually sing the words but put a bit of soul behind it.

Choirboy 3:  Sing it like you mean it.

Howard:   Ah … what do you mean?

Choirboy 4:  Strongly?

Howard:   Yes, but it really means much more than that … All of you, your emotions, your intellect, your physical self.

They resume singing with heartfelt appassionato and sometime later pause again.

Howard:   Can we PLEASE keep the mood?!!

Choirboy 5:  Someone said “shadows” instead of “shallows”.

Choirboy 6:  In bar 22 we should all be singing a D but someone is singing E.

Howard:   Ok, let’s do that.

Singing resumes from this troublesome passage. The choirboys appear to be tiring but nonetheless are determined to keep improving. Thomas looks steadfast in concentration, pencil behind his ear like several other choirboys, poised to detect any imperfections in the singing. But along the way a few choirboys, one after the other, raise a hand in admission of singing errors.

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