Finding My Place in the Harmony

I have now been part of Croonivores - the Chamber Choir for almost a year, and during that time I have performed in several concerts. Each performance has been different, but one thing has remained the same. I love singing the bass part and being one small voice within a much larger sound.

I have also become fascinated by how our teacher chooses and arranges the music for us. The arrangements we sing are often not versions I can find and listen on YouTube or Spotify. Usually, when I receive a new piece, one of the first things I want to do is listen to it so I can imagine what the overall sound will be like. But with our choir music, I often cannot find a recording of the exact arrangement. I have to discover the sound gradually through rehearsals, listening to each section as the different voices are added. In a way, this makes the music even more exciting, because I am hearing the arrangement come alive for the first time.

Our term concert was coming up, and this time our Chamber Choir performed Over the Rainbow. I was excited about this piece from the moment I received the music at rehearsal. I sang the bass part. One of the challenges of the piece was the length of some of the phrases. During rehearsals, I often found myself running out of breath before reaching the end of a musical line. I had to think ahead and to decide where I could breathe, how much air I needed, and when I needed to save it, so that I would not suddenly run out of breath in the middle of a musical phrase. There was something about the arrangement that immediately made me curious about how all fourteen voices would cohesively come together.

On Tuesday, fourteen of us stood on stage and performed the song.

Once the performance started, however, my attention gradually moved away from my own part and towards the sound of the whole choir. That is what fascinates me most about singing in a choir. I love hearing how individual voices combine and become something that none of us could create alone.

Every singer contributes something different. The bass provides a foundation, while the other parts add different notes, rhythms and colours. When they come together, the result is much richer than any individual voice. I find it amazing that fourteen people can sing different things at the same time and somehow create the harmony of one musical voice.

https://youtu.be/_jX3bmRkQn4

Croonivores performed Over the Rainbow Harold Arlen (1905-1986) Lyrics by Yip Harburg (1896-1981) arr. Mark Hayes at Term 3 Concert A at John Vallance Hall.

I think this balance is what makes harmony so satisfying to me. This has made me realise that harmony is satisfying for much the same reason that a well-balanced piano performance is satisfying. It is not about making every sound equally loud. It is about finding the right relationship between the different voices. At the piano, I listen for the balance between the hands; in choir, I listen for the balance between singers. When everyone listens carefully and adjusts to one another, fourteen individual voices can almost feel like one instrument. Each voice remains important, but no single voice dominates. The beauty comes from the way they fit together. I think that is what I love most about singing in a choir: I am not only producing my own sound, I am listening to find my place within the sound we create together.