Re: Digest Number 482

John Link to Jon Szanto:

> I know you directed your request to Jerry, but I find your question so
> interesting I'm going to jump right in. The feeling you describe is one of
> the pleasures I find in singing music in an ensemble (or listening to such
> music). I would describe it as in tune, in focus, in sync, locked,
> ensemble, in step, fused, or together. I find that when a chord is locked,
> which I believe involves accuracy of pitch, vowel, and dynamics, everyone
> agrees about it being locked. For me it feels as if there is a new thing in
> the room. I think that the pleasure of singing harmony (in my group,
> generally five-part) comes from the fact that the individuals are able to
> come together and create something that no one could on his own, while each
> maintains his individuality. It is pleasurable to be in such a relationship
> with others.

Well said, John. I've often remarked that choral singing is a microcosm of
democracy in which we voluntarily give up a part of our "freedom" to get a
lot back in return.

> Your example of learning a descending scale of small intervals feeling
> larger and larger is important in that it shows that our perceptual
> abilities are not fixed but may be developed through appropriate learning
> situations. Because of this I've always been suspicious when I've read some
> report of the just-perceivable difference in pitch, as if that were a fixed
> quantity. I know that it can be decreased as we learn to increase our
> sensitivity. A contrasting experience I've had as a singer is that of
> feeling like the leap of an octave is a _small_ distance. That feeling can
> be produced by experimenting with arpeggios and leaps of two octaves or
> more, or playing funny games like singing a simple melody and tranposing
> every other note up an octave.

Your observations remind us that musical intervals are not really
"distances" but "agreements." In that sense, the octave is the "same pitch"
and has "gone nowhere" (almost).

Jerry

>From: "Gerald Eskelin" <stg3music@earthlink.net>
>
>I've often remarked that choral singing is a microcosm of
>democracy in which we voluntarily give up a part of our "freedom" to get a
>lot back in return.

My preference for one-person-per-part music, whether or not it is vocal, is
due largely to the responsibility that it places on each of the
individuals, and to its minimizing of the loss of freedom. I'm not as wild
about choral music (or any music where parts are performed by more than one
musician) because for my taste it requires a lot of uniformity. In general
I'd rather be a member of a small organization than a large one.

>Your observations remind us that musical intervals are not really
>"distances" but "agreements." In that sense, the octave is the "same pitch"
>and has "gone nowhere" (almost).

I think you may have missed my point. From a singer's point of view moving
an octave is not going nowhere. It is a substantial movement and requires
quite an adjustment of the vocal apparatus. I meant to suggest a way to
increase one's ability to sing large intervals. I should have used a
different interval, say a major tenth, to illustrate my point. And if
anyone would ask, where is a singer ever asked to sing a major tenth, I
would reply that it is required several times in Chopin's Nocturne in Eb,
Opus 9, No. 2, which will NOT be on my forthcoming CD (maybe the next
one?). And if one can sing a major tenth with ease then the usual sort of
big intervals will be a breeze.

John Link

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