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The Mystical Union of Text, Music, and Experience

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I'm teaching choral conducting this semester and I'm in the middle of a unit on the importance of text in choral music.
 
I'm using as my basis an article from one of my mentors, John Dickson, who recently was named Director of Choral Activities at LSU.  I had a fabulous choral methods class with Dickson and tremendous experiences singing in his choir.  Dr. Dickson approached most musical interpretation from the standpoint of the text.  In September 1993, the Choral Journal featured an article by him entitled "Musical Pride and Textual Predjudice: The Expressivity of Language in Choral Music."  It is a powerful article, and I think of it as one of the best writings ever to appear in the Choral Journal. 
 
A trademark of Dickson's that is clearly stated in the article is the connection the singer must make between the text and their own personal experience.  He writes:  
The singer must absorb the words into his or her own experience, or they remain mere words-void of any real existence. Conductors must make every effort to connect the singer's experience with the words they are singing. It is not enough merely to understand the words; but when the passions and emotions of experience are unleashed, then there is identification and, consequently, communication.
I couldn't help but think of that mystical connection between Text, Music and Experience when I saw this video over the weekend that resonates with one man's personal experience and the brotherhood of man:
 
 
I don't know if this gentleman was ever in Dr. Dickson's class, but he's certainly made the musical connection between text and experience.
 
If you need a cleansing after that video, look here for a magnificent performance by Queen or this from Wayne's World or even this from Austrailia's Battle of the Choirs.  Who knew?
 
 

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Comments

  1. Philip:  The quote you mentioned from Dickson is a good one.  I have often felt that too many choirs do not really sing the text with conviction., or do not pay enough attention to text.    A really good composer will be very cognizant of text and do all he/she can to enhance it.  Of course, musical form is important also, but for choral musicians (and solo singers) the text has to be paramount.
      I do not agree that Stravinsky and Poulenc simply ignored text.  They had different conceptions of how it was to be approached.  Stravinsky was reacting against the over-Romanticism of some of the 19th century composers, and he was conceiving of a more medieval (neutralized) treatment of text.  It does not necessarily negate the meaning of the text itself.  Some may find it “cold”, but that is not necessarily what Stravinsky was trying to say in his settings.  AND – as usual, he wasn’t always consistent in style from setting to setting.

  2. John,
     
    Which statement of mine or Dickson’s are you talking about?  Can you make it more clear for the simpleminded? (me, i mean)

  3. Philip:  While I agree completely that since the composer started with (and from) the text, so must we, isn’t this exactly what actors are taught to do with the spoken word?  Isn’t the basis of good acting (or at least of good Method acting) to BECOME the character rather than PLAYING the character?
    (I’ll leave comments on that to Tom Carter, but I don’t think I’m too far off.)
     
    So isn’t there just a little bit of danger in trying to approach this as some kind of “mystical” union rather than simply a matter of good technique that engages the feelings, and doesn’t just mimic them?  (“Be an ice cream cone,” as the technique is mocked in “A Chorus Line”!)
     
    And how would this affect your approach (and your students’ approach) when a decision is made to sing a work in a language (e.g. English) that is NOT the language the composer started with, which places the affective words in different places?
     
    And then, of course, there are the composers like Poulenc and Stravinsky, who have been accused of sometimes ignoring the meaning of the words completely.
     
    One of the best SINGERS I’ve ever heard was Andrea von Ramm, who was the vocalist with Tom Binkley’s Studio der freue Musik (the Early Music Quartet).  Andrea actually had a terrible voice judged by bel canto standards, but LORD was she ever a consumate actress who made you understand exactly what she was singing regardless of what language it was in.  And THAT seems like what we should be looking for, whether you prefer to call it technique or metaphysical association.
    All the best,
    John

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