I had a theme, but I've apparently lost it somewhere...

[prusik]

This week has turned out to be busier than I'd expected. The way things turned out, I'm doing something just about every day this week. (Of course, what I want to do, go climbing, I don't get to do this week...)

I'm spending most of today waiting for the guy from the gas company to show up and replace my gas meter. (There's nothing wrong with the meter, as far as I know. They need to do this every so often as a matter of state law.) Right now, I'm wondering if I can work from home more often.

Wednesday is the D&D game that I'm now in. (Meets weekly.) Thursday is the writing group I'm now in. (Meets monthly.) Nothing on Friday (but climbing partner is busy).

Last night, I spent at choir rehearsal. A bunch of us are going caroling at the airport in mixed quintets. (Yes, the choir is being paid for this.) So, we figured it'd be nice if we at least practiced once in our quintets. Unwary travelers deserve better than to have unrehearsed mixed quintets inflicted on them. (Why it's mixed quintets when it's all 4 part chorale style arrangements? I have no idea. I didn't put this together.)

Anyway, my quintet was the only one who happened to have a pitch pipe at rehearsal, so I practiced giving pitch. (Why, of course, I have my pitch pipe with me at all times. It's on my key chain. I mean, where do you keep yours?) Who knew there would be a dispute over what pitch to give?

Ok, maybe I'd underestimated my quintet when I played tonic on my pipe pitch, then sang everyone's starting pitches. However, that's what our choir director does most of the time. The soprano of one of the other quintets suggested that I give only one pitch. I'm ok with that. That's what I would have done in college, singing with the music majors. (If they couldn't find their starting pitch from the root of the chord, they shouldn't be music majors.)

At that point, we, of course, had to have the discussion about which pitch I should give. I hadn't actually realized there was anything to discuss. Maybe it's an article of faith for me, but if you give just one pitch, you give tonic. (i.e., the key the piece is in.) Given that for every carol we're doing, everyone starts on some note in the tonic chord, it's actually the most convenient pitch reference for everyone. (Also, this is what our choir director does on those occasions when he trusts us to find our own pitch. This is also what I've been doing for years.) The tenor thought I should give the starting note of the melody. I guess the rationale is that, at least, the soprano was on pitch. (He didn't actually say that.)

When I insisted that, if I give only one pitch, it should be tonic, his response was, "What is tonic?" Ok, it's not exactly common jargon, and my mere two years of Harmony and Counterpoint in college means I, sadly, know more music theory than most. However, I shouldn't know more music theory than someone in an auditioned choir. (e.g., you do have to show that you can sightread before you get to join.) Apparently, I'm wrong about this.

This is a rehearsal, not a group discussion, so I give tonic. Since we're in the key of D, I state at the same time, "This is a D." I end up doing this several times before everyone realizes that I've given them a D. Unfortunately, I have the patience, and sometimes, the attention span, of your average puppy. So, after a couple rounds of this, I go back to doing what I wanted to do in the first place. I give myself tonic, and I sing everyone's pitches. I do this reflexively. (Everything we do starts with a tonic chord. I've given myself tonic. There are only two other possible pitches. If these carols are hard, it's because they sound stupid unless you nail them. They're not hard because opening pitches are tricky to find.)

Of course, because I'm not thinking about it, I sing the free, and easy high F# that I never manage to sing when it would actually be useful. *sigh* (If honor demands that the only pitch I take from the pitch pipe is tonic, it apparently also demands that I give everyone their exact pitch, not just the correct pitch class. Why doesn't honor warn me of these things ahead of time? Since my falsetto sucks, I may not go there for some of the soprano pitches. I don't think honor absolutely demands that I thoroughly humiliate myself for no reason.)

The good news is that this past weekend's choir Christmas concert and Monday's rehearsal has turned into a writing prompt. It's still stewing in my head. I hope to get a story out of it...

Comments

[elizabear.livejournal.com]

My SCA choir was no-audition, and even being able to stay on pitch wasn't a requirement (*sigh*), but I can sight read, have great relative pitch, and a voice of enough quality to get me lead roles in musicals. No formal vocal musical training, though; I was an instrumentalist for many years. I actually had to go look up "tonic" to make sure I knew what you were talking about. :)

In rehearsal, we'd get each starting note. To prepare for performance, though, we tried to work on getting our notes from just the tonic and hear them in our heads without vocalizing them. It was considered "more professional" I guess, though we often could have used the whole chord.

Caroling in the airport actually sounds like a cool gig. Even better that you're being paid!

[prusik.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I tend to think, "Well, if I know this, it must be common knowledge." Like I said, sometimes, I'm just wrong.

As for "more professional," I suspect the only people who actually care are other choir geeks. I'm reminded of when I was in college and the guy in the dorm room across the hall was playing one of the horses in Equus in a regional theater production. Of course, he was all excited because this was a better credit for him than your typical college production. His attitude was, "Of course we're doing the nudity. We're a professional production."

Sadly, I'll cop to choir geek. So, I'm always a little disappointed if the group I'm in can't find their starting pitches from tonic, or can't work out the relationship in their heads to find the starting note of the next piece from the ending note of the previous piece. (Yes, I know. At best, this is a parlor trick.)

[avocadovpx.livejournal.com]

>> Why it's mixed quintets when it's all 4 part chorale style arrangements? I have no idea.

I’m guessing that there weren’t nearly as many men as women. But before you said this, I was wondering if maybe you had SSATB arrangements or something. I’d expect the sound to be unbalanced unless your director was able to put one weaker singer in each mix as the fifth wheel.

>> Why, of course, I have my pitch pipe with me at all times. It's on my key chain. I mean, where do you keep yours?

A-440 tuning fork. Pitch pipes are for wimps. ;) Okay, pitch pipes seemed universally preferred by the barbershoppers I knew, but the school choir directors I had used tuning forks if there wasn’t a piano around. A tuning fork is probably fine for the concert stage, but a single (tonic) pitch on a pitch pipe should be audible by the whole ensemble in, say, a busy airport.

Having said that, I think my tuning fork is in my kitchen junk drawer. Can't remember the last time I had to use it.

>> Maybe it's an article of faith for me, but if you give just one pitch, you give tonic.

Agreed, unless you’re singing something that makes one other pitch much more practical. In this case, you aren’t.

>> However, I shouldn't know more music theory than someone in an auditioned choir. (e.g., you do have to show that you can sightread before you get to join.) Apparently, I'm wrong about this.

A lot of music terminology isn’t necessary to sightread. I wasn’t quizzed on terminology when I auditioned for choir in college. They were interested in what my voice sounded like, whether I could match pitch, whether I could remember and duplicate a series of pitches, and how well I could sightread, but they didn't ask me about music theory.

This sort of thing also wasn’t taught very much in the process of singing in the choir. I learned a lot of practical skills, music history, and even some music theory in passing, but most of my music theory knowledge comes from playing the piano or other instruments, or from reading on my own.

This fellow’s high school choir director might have used solfege (as mine did), or roman numerals (the I chord, the V chord, etc.), or "the key this is written in is D" or even "two sharps."

>> Since we're in the key of D, I state at the same time, "This is a D." I end up doing this several times before everyone realizes that I've given them a D. ….[A]fter a couple rounds of this…

These people must depend a lot on the competence of the other singers around them in the full choir. Not because of the need to find their pitches, but because they aren’t thinking about what they’re doing. Most people wouldn’t believe this would happen in an audition-only choir, but it does.

Some singers use their skull for thinking. Others use it for resonant space.

>> I hope to get a story out of it...

I’m looking forward to it. There’s always next year’s December issue of Asimov’s, if Connie Willis hasn’t already filled the spot.

[prusik.livejournal.com]

The reason you'd use a tuning fork rather than a pitch pipe is that the pitch pipe pitch may vary depending on breath pressure. The tuning fork pitch is constant. This is why I have an electronic pitch pipe. (Yes, I've already placed spare batteries in my jacket.)

As for the story, it's actually not a Christmas themed story yet. It may be by the time I'm done with it, for all I know. So, for now, I'm safely out of Connie Willis's way, not to mention Mur's. (I suspect at least as many people hear her Christmas story at EscapePod as people read Connie Willis's at Asimov's.)

I forget which a cappella group, but all their members wear in ear monitors. So their sound guy gives them their pitch, when necessary, over the monitor. This means when they start to sing, they just start to sing. The audience never hears the pitch reference. Really impressive.

Of course, no one in the group ever openly admits to needing the pitch reference. To get the sound guy to play the pitch over the monitor, they say something that James Brown would say during the patter to the audience.

I've known a few people with perfect pitch whom I'd trust to give a pitch reference. Unfortunately, none of them will be singing with me at the airport. The professional standard, of course, is someone gives tonic at the start. We all start singing. We go from one song to the next, because we understand all the key relationships to find the next starting pitch, and we've stayed in tune.

In reality, my expectations are a bit lower.

[avocadovpx.livejournal.com]

Let me give you my data point for your question of which pitch to give your quintet. My preference, in descending order, would be as follows:

1) Give whatever pitch or pitches the way the director does in rehearsal, except using a pitch pipe or tuning fork instead of a piano. At the worst, everyone should be able to work with this, if they do in rehearsal. It may sound less professional than just one pitch, but messing up the song sounds worse.

If I didn’t know what the director did, but the music was still harmonically well-behaved, as you said:

2) Give the tonic with a pitch pipe or tuning fork. Hum individual starting notes, within a comfortable range for me, while making eye contact with the singer(s) in their respective sections. Only include starting notes for sections that start the song together, give or take a measure. If they enter later, they should be able to take a pitch from the other sections who are already singing.

3) If the singers are capable, give only the tonic with a pitch pipe or tuning fork. Let them find their own notes from a single pitch, preferably without audible humming. This looks better than the above, as long as no one bungles it.

4) If the singers are even more capable, let them each find their own pitch with their own tuning forks. No humming. Impressive for music geeks, but lost on most of your audience.

5) If the singers are supremely capable, let them each find their own pitch with their own tuning forks for the first song. After the first song, each singer should mentally find the pitch for the second song from the first. This is something like chain-smoking, except it’s good for your lungs. Take another pitch only when there is a significant time lapse between the end of one song and the beginning of the next. This is as close to foolhardy as I get, but yes, I’ve done this on the concert stage. (I believe we took one pitch from one singer’s humming, not personal tuning forks.)

I would not do the following:

1) Give only the starting pitch for the soprano or other melody part. For choral music, that strikes me as just plain weird.

2) Let someone with absolute (aka "perfect") pitch give everyone their pitches. This goes double if everyone claims to have absolute pitch and thinks they’ll all just start singing. Someone gets a little nervous when their getting their pitch, and suddenly everyone’s sharp and the soprano sounds like someone stepped on Mariah Carey’s foot. Why is this more foolhardy for me than number 5 above? Maybe because I have (or had) good relative pitch but have never had absolute pitch.

[stealthmuffin.livejournal.com]

Why it's mixed quintets when it's all 4 part chorale style arrangements? I have no idea.

Stealth countertenor? Superfluous altos?

I'm afraid my musical knowledge craps out at "oo! I can hear the burr!" However, I would like to say that it is kind of awesome that you keep a pitch pipe on your keychain.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

I would find giving everyone's starting pitch a bit condescending if I were in that quintet, but I was a music major, can sightread, took theory and know how to find my note from the tonic when provided with it. I sure as hell don't have perfect pitch, but once I've memorized a piece I can always find it in my head and throat in the right key again.

But hey, if your little group needs it, you are better off doing it. The only choir I've sung with in recent years does not do auditions as it's associated with the local community college. Every section needs the starting pitch, sometimes for each song! Not condescending at all.

You know, we make up a VPX vocal ensemble between you, Bart, me and Elise. At least, as long as you and Bart aren't both tenors. I'm hugely amused by this idea.

[prusik.livejournal.com]

I'm with you. I don't like having my pitch given to me either, unless it happens to be tonic. However, I've had some experience with this sort of thing. Doing anything more than just playing tonic feels like an admission of defeat.

I have no idea what voice part Bart sings, but I'm essentially a baritone. (An extra fourth or so on the top or on the bottom, would make me a real tenor or a real bass.) I typically sing bass, but will do tenor when pressed. It depends on the part though. It can't be anything that spends most of its time on my break, or anything that requires that soaring high B. My tessitura too high for many bass lines to be comfortable, but probably not high enough to deal with any arbitrary tenor line. This is why I tend to like music where the men divide in three.

[avocadovpx.livejournal.com]

>> I have no idea what voice part Bart sings

I sing tenor. Unless it's too high or low, in which case I sing metronome.

Well then, when shall we four meet again?

>> This is why I tend to like music where the men divide in three.

Mitosis -- how scientifictional of you!

[athenais.livejournal.com]

Ah, I thought Bart was probably a tenor based on his speaking voice, but I couldn't tell from yours, prusik. Elise and I sang together at VP, and she has a better alto voice than I do, but we can both cover the whole soprano range as best I can tell. I'd probably take top voice because I really bottom out at middle C to my infinite regret. So we've got our quartet!

Now we just need to write the VPX Fight Song.