The Choral Union of FSU is open to any student who is enrolled at FSU and enjoys singing. It contains a variety of students, all pursuing different goals, but all share one interest: singing. Majority of its members are undergraduates, so all the students go into this class barely knowing anyone. However, the functionality of the director and the choir members are what makes this community turn into a family. Without the long-term relationships that end up coming out from the choir, the dynamic of the environment would not be the same, and the community would be built on an empty foundation.
The first time I visited the Choral Union, what I assumed it looked like was exactly how it turned out to be. As most choral rooms are set up, there was a stage with three rows of bleachers on top of it, and then platforms surrounding the walls of the room so that way the sound wouldn’t escape so easily. The backing of the room was extremely pleasing to look at. The platforms were made of wood and were different sizes, some with engraving on them. It felt very magical. The basic set up was similar to the one in my high school, so I wasn’t intimidated or any feeling of that sort. The major difference though was the immense amount of seating that was taking up majority of the floor and facing the stage. I had visited this time by myself so the room was empty, but the spacious environment, warm lighting, and smooth acoustics flowing throughout the room made this the ideal choral room.
The next day, I had peeked in there while class was actually going on. Although I had a friend of mine in there to describe to me what class was like, I wanted to see for myself but didn’t want to disturb class time. So, I went up to the door and listened closely. Luckily the door was cracked open so I could somewhat make out the scene. It was pretty much what I expected. As I approached the entrance, I could hear them singing already. It sounded really good too, the song sounded like something composed by Eric Whitacre. It was very harmony heavy with immense chords, but I think they were just learning it. They kept repeating the same couple of measures. After they sang for a bit, they started discussing something. If I had to guess it would probably have been the structure of the piece like the dynamics and such. Some time went by and as they all started to leave, I went inside so I didn’t stick out too much. There were some kids who stayed behind to talk to the director and some just hanging out and about to leave. During class, they were sitting down in the audience seating and then once they started to sing, they moved up to the risers. They stayed up there until class was over, or until they were done singing for the time being.
What I think makes this community worth studying is that their dynamic is so unique compared to most organizations. The setting in comparison to other organizations like your everyday club isn’t even comparable in a sense. Most clubs usually meet somewhere on Landis green, or have a classroom they go to. Also, most organizations don’t even come close to the number of members they have. Everyone in the class seemed so close despite the fact there are so many of them. I think that part of studying the functionality of this organization must also focus on how the members work together and what their relationships are like with each other. After all, there would be no choral union if no one got along.
A study done by Phyllis Braudy Harris and Cynthia Anne Caporella shows just how members of a choir can become so deeply connected. They ask the question, “Could meaningful social connections between the choir members be developed that would reach across the barriers of age, disabilities, and abilities?” They used the words of the choir members to explain the experiences from participating members, had the students sit in a circle facing each other instead of using traditional risers, students were buddied up before rehearsal, breaks were given to socialize, and the director was always upbeat and friendly, providing warm-up stretches before rehearsal. After the study, they found that the members all had positive outlooks on each other, and that if they were to describe the choir using 10 words, all the terms were scored as positive.
Similar to this study’s way of gathering data, the choral union has its own ways of creating student bonds. I went to Reece and asked him if there were any ice-breaker type activities or things that were done to jumpstart the relationships between the students. He told me that he had already planned on joining the choral union to further pursue is passion for singing, but also to meet a ton of new people. He then further explained how during the first meeting, there was no introduction or anything from the director. The first thing the director did was separate all the students into groups of eight so that there were two of every section. Then, a different piece of music was handed out to every group. They had to learn as much of the piece as quickly as possible, whether that meant they went to the piano and played out the notes, or they searched online the tracks to all the separate parts. After about twenty or so minutes, the director called time and the groups went up to perform in front of the rest of the students what they had learned so far. After everyone had gone, that was when the director applauded them and then went into a typical teacher to class introduction. This strategy of building connections between students is probably one of the best strategies there is. Not only do you get to know seven other students off the bat, but you also get to experience a team bond and a sense of belonging with a group. Also, you have to sing with people you just met, and that breaks one of the biggest barriers you could ever break when meeting new people. But, at the same time, you also sing with one other person who is in the same section as you, so although they might feel vulnerable, they at least feel a sense of security with that one other person as well. This builds a closer bond with this one person specifically, quite more than with the rest of the students. Then, when they finally perform, they feel a sense of security with their entire group. What one might think after hearing this though is that the students might start feeling competitive with one another, but Reece reassured me that he felt no such feeling in the room. Everyone was going through the same thing and everyone was nervous. So, if anything, it brought everyone much closer. The American Academy of Teachers of Singing (AATS) and Richard Dale Sioerdsma, backs this up by saying “Singing in a choir fosters a spirit of cooperation and helps diminish the unhealthy competition that sometimes accompanies solo study, especially in a music school environment.” Something else that happens regularly within the community are sectionals. Sections happen when a choir is learning a song and sections split up and go learn their part separately. For example, the sopranos will all go in one room while the tenors all go in another, and they practice only their part with just them. This also builds relationships between the students because it’s much more personal than the entire choir learning a piece together. It deepens the connections between students while building team work skills at the same time.
Another FSU choir who heavily uses sectionals is the University Singers choir. Nicole Fenstermaker, a sophomore at FSU, is a member of the University Singers. Unlike Reece, she had joined the Choral Union with intention to audition and hopefully be accepted into University Singers. I had talked to Nicole in hopes to find any contrast within the two choirs. I asked her how her experiences in both choirs were and what the major differences in them are. She explained to me her experiences in the Choral Union first, and they were relatively similar to Reece’s. Nicole is definitely a lot shyer than Reece is, so her experiences in terms of building friendships were a lot less significance than Reece’s were. She did know just about everyone’s names, but she didn’t personally know them all. She tended to just stick with the people who she was paired to sing with on the first day. That made me happy to hear since it justified my prediction that that first day ice-breaker did not only help build relationships between students, but also created friendships that were able to be maintained ever since. A study done by David Langley and Emily Burch, which supports this idea that a musical collaboration can extend further in a nurtured relationship, asks the question: “How do we take a short-term musical collaboration and turn it into a long-term partnership?” They do this by studying the Georgia Southern University’s choral program and he RISE Chorales of Savannah. They studied the partnership between the two from beginning to end. They end up coming to a finding that “the purpose of the organization may naturally invite collaborative opportunities with other organizations. The partnering ensemble need not share all of your purposes, but they should have complementary goals that can be accomplished by working together. Roberta Jackson and Debra Burgess stated that “‘when a choir’s mission statement includes collaboration as a philosophy to build community, it ensures that the governing body of the choir values and protects that concept in all aspects of the organization.’ The element of collaboration can be extended from within the organization and into the burgeoning relationships with other groups. However, the initiative comes from within the organization’s core values.” So basically, all the students are there to do the same thing and they understand that, so they naturally work better together thus easily and quickly building relationships. The study performed by AATS and Soiedsma, further describes the benefits of singing in a choir in terms of teamwork and connections. The article says, “The personal benefits of singing with others are also significant. Singing in a choir fosters a spirit of cooperation…The so-called ‘peak experiences’ that may be possible in an outstanding choral performance are a source of motivation as well as joy for young choristers.” I then asked her how University Singers differs from the Union and the first thing she said is that there is little to no time for socializing. It’s very demanding and the sole focus of the class is to sing and only sing. The only time they would have time to genuinely converse was during sectionals. But then again, the pieces they sang were significantly harder than those of the Union so they didn’t have a lot of time even then. Also, a good majority of members in University Singers came from the Choral Union, so getting to know everyone wasn’t necessary.
The next day, I had asked Reece if I could shadow him during class. Luckily, I was able too, but I had to stay in the back of the room and observe from there so I wasn’t a distraction for the rest of the choir. We walked to the Union meeting together and then I took a seat in the back as I watched him immediately take his spot on the risers, as did everyone else who entered. He said hello to basically every single person he passed, also known as the entire choir basically. But everyone else also was saying hi to one another, and not just the kind of awkward “hey” when you kind of know them. They were actually happy to see each other, and I could tell that they were all good friends. Before the director got up and went to the piano, everyone was in their section upon the risers and continuing to engage in one of the many conversations. It wasn’t until the director played a C major chord on the piano when everyone went quiet. Then they started doing warm ups before they went into rehearsing. As a traditional chorus class is run, they did just that. They sang, repeated parts they struggled with, went into sectionals at one point while on section stayed outside and worked with the director. Then they all converged once more and ran through several pieces and then the meeting was over. Throughout the class, I could just feel the sense of team work in the room. When I looked at the students standing on the risers, I didn’t see them individually, I saw them as one. It was obvious that at this point in this semester, everyone had built a strong relationship with one another. Even the shyest of kids had their own little groups. When they would sing a piece, their voices would complement each other. The four sections blended so well and not one section was over powering another. A choir that has members that personally know and care for another is a choir that will sound superior to the rest, and this choir showed that.
I asked Nicole if I was able to shadow her class too, and fortunately I got the opportunity to observe them as well. It started out the same as the Union did, with everyone talking amongst themselves. However, this choir did seem somewhat more reserved or mature. Majority of this choir is made up of juniors or seniors. The beginning was typically the same, but the warm ups were more complicated and slightly shorter overall. Then instead of singing all together at first, they split up into sectionals. Then after that was done, they came back on the risers, sang the piece through, and then mixed up on the risers so that way the sections were no more and it was just parts next to parts. Then they sang it again like that. They kept rehearsing the same handful songs extensively, so it must have been for something more serious than just a typical performance or concert. The feel of this choir was definitely more professional than that of the Union. They didn’t converse much but it’s because they already know each other and they all know that the choir they’re in is a very serious one, so they all take it seriously. It’s like what Jackson and Burgess said, “‘when a choir’s mission statement includes collaboration as a philosophy to build community, it ensures that the governing body of the choir values and protects that concept in all aspects of the organization’…the initiative comes from the organizations core value.” This find supports the idea that University Singers are all there for the same thing, to sing. And maybe even sing professionally, but if not in the future, definitely in the moment. They rehearse and rehearse day after day, and Nicole had told me that being in this choir was very demanding and definitely a dedication. If singing professionally wasn’t for you, she recommends not to waste your time. All the students are excellent at reading music, absorbing the dynamics and technicality of the structure of the piece, and all work together to get this all accomplished. According to Nicole, and from my own observations, the relationships between these students is both professional and meaningful at the same time. Like the Choral Union, University Singers would not be as extraordinary as it is today if it weren’t for the bonds between the students within the choir.
From all the observing, and word of mouth, and research I did, I managed to dissect the functionality within these two choirs down to the bone. Through the analyzation of how the community is built upon the relationships of the students within them, I was able to get answers as to how these relationships are built in the first place. A choir setting is one of the best settings to get to know those around you because you are going to have to work with these people in order to sound like one choir, not a group of people singing together. You will not only learn the values of team work, cooperation, and a new perspective to language and dialect, but also what it means to work as one and not against each other, or competitively. All of these elements combined are what build a community like the Choral Union into what it is today.
Annotated Bibliography
American Academy of Teachers of Singing (AATS), and Richard Dale Sioerdsma. “NATS Visits AATS: Choral Singing—Responsibilities in the Relationship between the Conductor, Voice Teacher, and Singer.” Journal of Singing 62, no. 1 (September-October 2005): 7—8.
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=rih&AN=A1199887&site=eds-live&scope=site.
This article talks about the relationships and responsibilities between the conductor, voice teacher, and singers of a choir. It gives a brief history of when choral singing was first introduced, and why it is so beneficial to learn today. It also talks about other things singing in a choir can help you learn, such as other languages. It more importantly focuses on the benefits of singing in a choir in terms of social skills, building relationships, and how exactly those things come out of a choir setting. This article will be useful for me because it covers the specifics of how to correctly nurture and maintain a beneficial relationship between the conductor, voice teacher, and singer.
BURNS, PAMELA. “The Care and Feeding of Choir Parents.” Choral Journal 59, no. 11 (June 2019): 38—43. http://search.edbscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=136268683&site=eds-live&scope=site
This article discusses the lives of the parents who have children within choirs and how it has benefitted both themselves and their child. It gives more of a personal account on behalf of the parents and the children rather than a overall study. But it also sheds light on some functions within the choir. This article may be helpful in case an outside source, such as the perspective of an involved parent, will be needed.
Carlson, Rachel. “Sight-Reading Insights from Professional Choral Singers: How They Learned and Implications for the Choral Classroom.” Choral Journal 60, no. 1 (August 2019): 8—21
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=137283669&site=eds-live&scope=site.
The article discusses the learning process of the students of choral music in the classroom and the implications they carry for the same. It also discusses the insights of sight-reading of the professional singers. This includes the workload during and after college in the areas of vocal performance and professional choral work. This article will be helpful because it sheds light on both the pros and cons of a choral environment. In case I need to talk about some negatives, this will be helpful.
Cohen, Mary L. “Choral Singing in Prisons: Evidence-Based Activities to support Returning Citizens.” Prison Journal: An International Forum on Incarceration and Alternative Sanctions, 2019, 106S. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?=direct=true&db=edshol&AN=edschol.hein.journals.prsjrnl99.42&site=eds-live&scope=site.
This article discusses choral singing in prisons and how it has affected them once they return to society. It lists the benefits of singing in a choir and how it can open up one’s mind to view life in a different, more intricate perspective. It mentions how most members of the prison choir continue to sing in choirs after prison as well, and how that takes part in keeping them straight and functioning normally. This article will be helpful for me because it discusses the relationships the prisoners made while in prison, and how singing and choir involvement has helped maintain those friendships and future ones as well.
Daughtery, James F. “Choral Singing: A Matter of Relationships.” International Journal of Research in Choral Singing 1, no. 1 (January 1, 2003): 1—2.
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=rih&AN=A983438&site=eds-live&scope=site.
This article discusses how a choir is nothing without a close bond between its members. It talks about the relationships between director and singer as well, and establishes the importance of such. This article is simple and straight to the point. This article will be helpful for me because it specifically talks about the relationships between everyone in a choir.
Harris, P.B., & Caporella, C. A. (2018). Making a university community more friendly through participation in an intergenerational choir. Dementia, 18(7-8), 2556-2575.
http://doi.org/10.1177/1471301217752209
This study presents data from four cohorts of undergraduate college students. It uses an intergenerational choir as the process through which to begin to create a friendly community. This choir has a vast variety of students in it of people with age differences to some that have disabilities. This article will be helpful for me because it talks about surpassing the boundaries between diverse students, and specifically dissects how exactly they did this.
LANGLEY, DAVID W., and EMILY W. BURCH. “Nurturing Musical Collaborations into Long-Term Partnerships.” Choral Journal 60, no. 2 (September 2019): 34—40.
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=138035683&site=eds-live&scope=site.
The article offers information on musical collaborations. Topics discussed include single-instance event such as single joint concerts, various choral program between high schools and adult community choirs, and encouragement of musical learning and advancement in literacy, musicality and vocal technique. It also mentions that the Georgia Southern Choral Activities provide performance opportunities for students. This article will be useful for me because it not only talks about building the relationships in the first place, but mainly focuses on how to maintain those relationships in the future all because of a choir.
Miguel Felipe, and Maya Hoover. “On the Voice: Striking the Balance: Creating and Nurturing Positive Relationships between Voice Teacher and Choral Conductor.” The Choral Journal 57, no. 9 (2017): 45. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsjsr.26355456&site=eds-live&scoope=site
This article discusses how the balance between the relationships between choir members balances out the “sound” of the voice teacher and choral conductor. This article focuses primarily on the relationship between the two, and not the singers. It talks about how a conductor must have a balanced relationship with their vocal teacher in order to have a balanced and beneficial relationship with their choir, but that comes second.
Windjack, Reece, former Choral Union member. Interview in person, 15 October 2019, November 13 2019
Reece Windjack is a student at FSU and is part of the Choral Union. In our interview I asked him questions pertaining to how his experience has been within the community and his relationships with everyone in it. He expressed his love for the group and how the functionality of the choir is beneficial to everyone in it. He recommends joining.
Nicholle Fenstermaker, former University Singer, Interview in person, 5 November 2019.
Nicholle Fenstermaker is a student at FSU and is part of the audition choir, University Singers. In our interview I asked her question pertaining to how her experiences within this community and her relationships with everyone in it. She told me its very demanding, but it’s very much worthwhile if it’s something you love to do.