Rounds: More than “Row, Row, Row”

(From the interest session “Catch as Catch Can,” by Joyce Click.  Presented during the 2012 Central Division Conference)

 

When looking for repertoire that provides a wide variety of contrapuntal opportunities, look no further than rounds, canons, catches, and part songs.  These devices can be used at all levels of choral instruction to improve harmonization, intonation, balance and part-independence of singers.  There are several specific types of rounds and part songs:

Catch:  A type of composition based on a canon, usually three of four voices characterized by witty texts, with one or more voices chasing each other.

 

Canon:  From the Greek kanon meaning rule or order.  In music a canon refers to a polyphonic piece and the entrances may not exactly replicate the previous entrance.

 

Rounds:  Successive voices follow the first in exact imitation on the same notes at a set time interval, continuing over and over until an arbitrary end point so the piece is a circle.

 

Partner Song/Quodlibet:  Two or more totally independent songs that by chance happen to have the same harmonic structure and therefore can be sung together at the same time.

 

There are several ways to perform this repertoire for maximum pedagogical effectiveness:

Sing in a circle.

Add a round with instruments.

Stand in small groups.

Add movement while singing some round.

Ask individual students to sit in the center of the group to hear it.

Utilize student leaders as conductors