Stick Time: Popular Music’s Limitation

Here’s a strange thought.  What would happen if in the middle of their concert, a mega-star of the pop music world were to suddenly change into formal attire, stand still and just sing?  No preening, posturing, pouting, or petulant pyrotechnics of any sort.  Simply communicating through song. One suspects that their fans – fully numbed by the unrelenting volume and meaninglessness of their idol’s music – would howl in discontent and hurl all manner of things at the poor bloke.

 

Through that lens, the pop world seems, well, rather intolerant, doesn’t it?  One might even say stodgy.

 

The choral art form suffers from no such limitation.  Our concerts span the gamut from chant sung in a hushed candle-lit cathedral to presentations that rival the best of the performance art world (less some of the more obscene varieties, naturally).  Of course, some pieces of choral literature lend themselves better to interpretive staging than do others. Such is the case in a performance from an ACDA national conference.  Note the level of creativity and freedom required to produce such a performance.

 

Is there a work in your current program that could do with a little theatrical flourish?