Baroque celebration enjoyable

Beauty of Baroque, Knox Church, Friday, March 30

Knox Church in Dunedin was packed on Friday evening for "Beauty of Baroque", presented by City of Dunedin Choir, Southern Sinfonia, David Burchell, guest organist Simon Mace and six soloists - sopranos Pepe Becker and Grace Park, mezzo-soprano Amanda Cole, counter-tenor Christopher John Clifford, tenor Stephen Chambers and bass Julien van Mellaerts.

Handel filled the first half of the programme, beginning with Utrecht Te Deum (1713), a grand work with sacred text for choir, soloists and baroque orchestra. From the very intro of this work, I felt the orchestra set a good performing standard for the entire evening, bright toned with well-judged subtle trumpet gilding.

The choir too, was in excellent form, generally well-balanced, despite the 23 to 7 ratio of basses to tenors, but I had mixed feelings about some of the solo work.

Soprano duet To Thee Cherubin and Seraphin, achieved a fine blend, but some of Becker's later work, although well-intoned, showed disappointing technical support at climactic exposures. Cole's lower register lacked fullness of tone, with lower melodic phrases regularly falling short in projection. Her When thou tookest upon thee ... was totally overshadowed by glorious woodwind counter melodies.

Commendable counter-tenor tone quality was regularly lost through "head in the book" syndrome, consequently undermining vocal ensemble balance.

Tenor and bass delivered with beautiful tone, intelligent phrasing, and prudent strength. Laetatus Sum (Charpentier) and J S Bach's Magnificat showed similar vein, though a highlight was a tenor solo sung by Chambers with realistic fortitude and conviction.

A brilliant performance of Concerto in B Flat for Organ Op 4 no.2 by Handel showed Burchell as master of the pipe organ. Supreme dexterity ensured clarity and unblemished co-ordination throughout four short movements of contrapuntal texture. Nicholas Cornish conducted the ensemble from his position at 1st oboe.

Review in the ODT, 2 April 2012, by Elizabeth Bouman

Were you there? What did you think of this performance? We welcome feedback from the audience! 

How to sing

By and large choral societies like the City of Dunedin Choir consist of members who are untrained singers, singing for the joy of singing, and the friendship of people sharing an activity they love. Choir directors realise this and do their best to guide singers to achieve a good quality sound, but this guidance can never take the place of individual voice tuition.

There is no requirement for singers to attend professional voice tuition classes, but these days there are wonderful vocal technique resources freely available online, that singers can use to guide them towards singing better. If you already love singing, it follows logically that you will love singing better even more!

Here are some links to good quality "how to sing" resources you might find useful:

Youtube playlist of Alexander Massey's "How to Sing" series: http://www.youtube.complaylist?list=PL35CB4D5C3385C594&feature=plcp
and his "How to Breathe" series:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4106258C0A0DD571

Singing teacher (and Virtual Choir member) Henny De Snoo-van Breugel has created a Vocal Technique Tips site with lots of information and tips to help you improve your singing. https://sites.google.com/site/vocaltechniquetips/

David Burchell (choir director/conductor) is always telling us to smile when we sing - very good advice. This is what Henny says about singing with an open throat:

"Opening your throat is not just about relaxation. There is more you need to do to give your vocal folds as much room as possible.One of the best ways to give your vocal folds room is SMILE!

When you open your throat like this, you open your false vocal folds. By doing that you allow you vocal folds (the ones you sing with) to move more freely. Your breathing becomes more effective too."

The Vocal Technique Tips website has been set up specifically for the Virtual Choir 3 project, but it is an awesome resource for any singer, and it continually has more useful content added.

Here's another interesting tip from the same website:

"There are some do's and dont's when you are suffering from hoarseness or a breathy voice:

1. Drink a lot of water!

2. Give your voice some rest

3. Do NOT use any stuff that has menthol in it! This candy may taste good and gives you the feeling that is helps your throat but it will increase the swelling of your vocal cords and the tissue around it! Because menthol dries out the tissues in your throat, these tissues will react by producing more swelling and mucus. Your voice will only deteriorate!"