2012 abcd Convention Day 3

Conundrum of tuning, Easter sorted and shopping.

Tuning in a capella music is always a difficult one because of the unnatural nature of the equal temperament that keyboard instruments are tuned to. Should we force singers to adhere to equal temperament or not. David Howard began his session with the statement that "if sung correctly a piece MUST go out of tune". We sang a 13 chord exercise. A room full of choral conductors went a semi- tone flat. We listened to three recordings of the Allegri "Misere" he isolated three chords that should be the same - none of them were. In his work at York University he has researched this extensively and the bottom line is that pitch drift will occur when the key changes. He showed a prediction exercise that demonstrated that 30 well known anthems should change pitch - usually downwards, some of them quite a long way. The conundrum is - stay in tune chord by chord or stay in pitch. The question is - does it matter? It does give us something else to think about when considering tuning.

In the afternoon Bob Chilcott led us through Alan Bullard's "Wondrous Cross". A meditation on the seven last words in a very approachable style achievable by modest singers and conductors. It is a viable alternative to Crucifixion with opportunities for congregational hymns and flexibility of approach. We also sang through Bob's "Jazz Songs of Innocence" - a very good collection for upper voices.

During the day I added to my stock of music with pieces mainly for Junior Choral.

Privileged to share a carriage with Alan Bullard in the way home.

A good, rewarding conference.