Does choir have a future?
“Unless we start looking at classical music vastly differently, it will die out … and it will deserve to die out,” was what Sir Simon Rattle said in an interview (Batsleer, 2017).
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In this blog, I’ll discuss popularity of choral music, its transformation and potential future.
Frankly, reading this quote freaked me out as it comes from Sir Simon Rattle, one of the most prominent figures in classical music.
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Now, I just want to clarify that Rattle was a former Music Director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (if you didn’t know already).
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What applies to music, surely must also apply even more to “old fashioned” music such as choir? – Certainly, it doesn’t have a future.
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Therefore, I investigated this topic:
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When I think of choir and choral songs, I think of church, prayers, mass and Catholicism. (But that’s just because of my catholic upbringing)
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But have I ever heard a choir in today’s contemporary music? (Except in Coldplay’s song “Broken”)
Maybe in gospel music or as an accompaniment in classical music repertoires but never in today’s music…
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But I maybe I’m wrong…?
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To find out more about choral music, I asked a friend for an interview (because of the lockdown, I sent her the questions to get a written reply).
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She’s a first year Birmingham student, doing her Music Bachelor (BMus) at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire . When I asked her why she took that particular course, she replied that she has “always loved music and singing” and that she “wanted to perform and create”. She was originally going to choose Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance for the classical piano course but her love for singing and playing music changed her mind. Lastly, when asking her about her aspirations as a professional singer in Birmingham, she replied that singing might not always be seen as a career because it’s “dying out”.
“It’s just a façade,” she said.
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This statement piqued my interest. I had now two opposing statements:
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One states that choir music will die out while the other says that it’s just a façade (that it dies out).
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I wanted to dig deeper.
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In a review of the Gramophone, it states that “choral concerts are increasingly the hardest to sell” and “the audience just does not seem to be interested” (Batsleer, 2017). It also mentions that ensembles such as The Sixteen and The King’s Singers are still very successful. The King’s Singers’ musical versatility ranges from “Middle Ages right up to the present” (The King’s Singers, n.d.), unlike some choirs that stick to singing classical repertoires, such as from Bach.
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Does that mean that polyphonic choirs must change to singing popular music? Will that elevate their popularity?
Therefore, I searched for a choir ensemble that fulfils that criteria and found this: Festival Voices, a popular choir ensemble that implements dance, remix classical music and choral music to create unique, contemporary performances (Festival Voices, n.d.).
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After digging deeper, a key finding from Chorus America’s study in 2009 states that “choral singing continues to be the most popular form of participation in the performing arts” (Chorus America, 2009).
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But that was 2009.
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What about in recent years?
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In fact, I came across a statistic in 2018, that estimates that ”32.5 million adults in America sing with a choir on a weekly basis and that ensemble singing is the most popular arts activity among adults in the United States” (Siadat, 2018).
So, apparently, I was totally wrong. Shown by the studies I’ve read and that singing improves health and happiness (Launay, [2015]), choir or choral singing seems to flourish, while some are transforming to embody a new genre.
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Even if choir, in the commercial sense, fades out, I believe that singing, either in a community, in a band or alone, will always be a part of our life – no question about that.
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References:
Batsleer, G. (2017) Does choral music really have a bright future?. Available at: https://www.gramophone.co.uk/blogs/article/does-choral-music-really-have-a-bright-future [Accessed 11 May 2020].
Birmingham City University (n.d.) Achieve the Extraordinary. Available at: https://www.bcu.ac.uk/conservatoire [Accessed 11 May 2020].
Birmingham City University (n.d.) Music / Instrumental and Vocal Performance / Composition / Music Technology – BMus. Available at: https://www.bcu.ac.uk/courses/music-bmus-honours-2020-21 [Accessed 10 May 2020].
Chorus America (2009) The Chorus Impact Study: How Children, Adults, and Communities Benefit from Choruses. Available at: https://www.chorusamerica.org/publications/research-reports/chorus-impact-study [Accessed 11 May 2020].
Chorus America (2009) The Chorus Impact Study: How Children, Adults, and Communities Benefit from Choruses Executive Summary and Key Findings. [pdf] Chorus America. Available at: https://www.chorusamerica.org/sites/default/files/resources/ImpactStudy09_ExecSum.pdf [Accessed 11 May 2020].
Festival Voices (n.d.) About. Available at: https://www.festivalvoices.com/about [Accessed 11 May 2020].
Launay, J. [2015] Choir singing improves health, happiness – and is the perfect icebreaker. University of Oxford. Available at: http://www.ox.ac.uk/research/choir-singing-improves-health-happiness-%E2%80%93-and-perfect-icebreaker [Accessed 11 May 2020].
NPR Music (2020) Coldplay: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert. YouTube, 16 March. Available at: https://youtu.be/j82L3pLjb_0?t=490 [Accessed 11 May 2020].
Siadat, F. (2018) The Future of Choral Music. Available at: https://nmbx.newmusicusa.org/the-future-of-choral-music/ [Accessed 11 May 2020].
TEDx Talks (2016) Why the world needs to sing | Anna Shields & Emily Garsin | TEDxSquareMile. YouTube, 8 February. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxanX3NxZmc [Accessed 11 May 2020].
The King’s Singers (n.d.) About us. Available at: https://www.kingssingers.com/about-us/ [Accessed 11 May 2020].
Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance (n.d.) Music. Available at: https://www.trinitylaban.ac.uk/study/music [Accessed 11 May 2020].
Bibliography:
Chatterjee, D. (2018) The future of the choir program. Globe. [blog] 26 September. Available at: https://www.chsglobe.com/34090/features/the-future-of-the-choir-program/ [Accessed 11 May 2020].
Paysa (n.d) Catholic Church Cantor Salaries. Available at: https://www.paysa.com/salaries/catholic-church–cantor [Accessed 11 May 2020].
Starling Arts (2017) The future of the choir. Starling Arts. [blog] 22 June. Available at: http://www.starlingarts.com/blog/futureofchoirs [Accessed 10 May 2020].