Refuting Misconceptions 2: Sight-Reading Ability in English Choirs

by

Sarah MacDonald

Copyright February 2013 by the American Guild of Organists.

Reproduced by permission of the American Organist Magazine. Revised August 2013

Editor’s Note: Part 1 of this column and college chapels, not in the Parish cessing of information, regardless of the
ran in the November 2013 issue of the Church of Saint-Alphege-the-Bald in the specific technical skills involved, that they
Choral Journal. suburban outskirts of a city somewhere figure out how to learn music quickly
in the West Midlands. enough to convince visiting Americans
While it probably is true to say that that they can sight-read. I’ve seen it with
Continuing on from my last column
the majority of members of cathedral, my own eyes (or rather, heard it with
exploring musical misconceptions sur-
Oxbridge, and professional choirs read my own ears)! The United Kingdom’s
rounding the English Choral Tradition
music better than a typical singer in professional choirs are, of course, made
that are held by Choral Anglophiles in
a village choral society, this does not up of the best of the former cathedral
North America, this month I will deal
constitute a like-for-like comparison. and Oxbridge singers who have learned
with another of my favourites, namely
Cathedral choristers receive daily train- to read through either or both of the
that all English choirs can sight-read.
ing as children, usually involving lessons above-mentioned experiences.
In reality, there are just as many
in sight-singing and the study of at least I believe that teaching singers to read
choirs in ordinary towns here that take
two instruments. Although they may not is a crucial responsibility of any choral
just as long to learn new music as the
sight-sing fluently when they join the conductor, particularly for those who
choirs in ordinary towns everywhere
choir as seven-year-olds, after five years, direct young singers who sing liturgi-
else in the world. Once again, this
they tend to be pretty adept. Oxbridge cally. Teaching all children to read their
misconception stems primarily from
choirs consist (apparently) of exception- mother tongue is a matter of course
the fact that the cathedral, Oxbridge,
ally intelligent students, many of whom in primary school. Teaching even only
and professional choirs that are most
go on to run the country or win Nobel modestly musical children to sight-sing
frequently exported from the United
Prizes. Even if they cannot sight-read is hardly more complicated. If a child
Kingdom are the ones that determine
when they arrive as first-year under- can carry a tune (and the overwhelming
the expectations of non-Brits. Most for-
graduates (and in the less-accomplished majority of them can), then some basic
eign conductors and singing teachers
Oxbridge choirs, most of them cannot), theory and aural training can give them
who visit the United Kingdom arrange
they are so accustomed to the swift pro- educated access to music for the rest of
to observe rehearsals in cathedrals

CHORAL JOURNAL Volume 54 Number 7 69

 their lives. Obviously there will be the
few who are exceptionally gifted and
who will learn to read anything fluently.
On the other hand, there will be the
large masses of those for whom sight-
reading may never come as naturally
as reading texts but for whom learning
the basics will provide musical indepen-
dence and leadership skills.
There are, of course, as many
methods for teaching sight-singing as
there are teachers and students. I have
developed my own techniques over
the years, which combine a number of
the practices that influenced me. Most
importantly, I encourage my singers to
maintain a sense of a tonal framework
in their heads so that they relate every-
thing to the tonic, or doh. Inspired by
a combination of the Kodály method,
Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music, and
Sesame Street, each daily sight-singing
exercise can be “brought to you by” a
particular key.
After singing the scale up and down,
to the letter names of the notes (ironi-
cally, I consciously avoid tonic sol-fah,
thereby removing the need for transla-
tion when faced with notes on a stave),
I call out letter names (in my speaking
voice), and the choir sings the notes
back. I also play notes on the piano, and
the choir identifies them by singing their
letter names.
I start simply, keeping intervals small
and within one octave. I maintain strict

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70 CHORAL JOURNAL Volume 54 Number 7

diatonic tonality, only introducing acci-
dentals once the choir is fully confident
in every key. This not only solidifies the
singers’ tonal frame of reference but is
♯
good for diction. Try singing an F major
scale quickly to the letter names of the
notes.This technique consciously avoids
identifying intervals out of context. No
one has time to sing “My Bonny Lies
Over the Ocean” in the middle of an
unrelated phrase, and major thirds do
not sound the same in different places
in the tonal hierarchy.The ability to iden-
tify intervals out of context is a crucial
skill, of course, but I think it has less to
do with sight-singing than some of my
teachers seem to have believed.
In addition, other tricks can be use-
ful. As a pianist, I found as a child that
I could mime the playing of a passage
on the desk in front of me, and I would
usually sing the right notes instinctively
(though I do not have perfect pitch). I
have used this image successfully with
university students who are accom-
plished instrumentalists but less expe-
rienced choral musicians. I remember
auditioning an alto at Selwyn who now
sings professionally. She had her ABRSM
diploma on the flute but was struggling
to sing a line of Palestrina at sight. I asked
her to sing along with herself as if she
were playing the flute, and the passage
was completely accurate. All she then
needed to do was to continue to use
this trick without raising her arms into
flute-playing position, since that looked
a little silly in the choir stalls.
I also ensure that singers remember
repeated pitches from previous bars,
learn to read the spacing of the rhythms
within the bar as well as their arithmetic
values, and I give them a few seconds
in advance to work out tricky passages
in their heads. I never play the top part
when rehearsing with children. I rarely
use the piano for full rehearsals except
in particularly dissonant contemporary
repertoire. I always provide an harmonic training has produced an elite group
context when rehearsing a section on its of singers with fluent reading skills, but
own, and I often don’t give notes again I have heard just as impressive read-
after verbal instructions. ing from professional choral singers in
Most crucially, I never use the “this is Boston, New Haven, and New York (to
how it goes, sing it back to me” method. name just three places) as I have heard
It also has to be said that having to sing in London, Oxford, and Cambridge.
three or four, and in many cases six or Members of the Upper and Lower
seven, services per week contributes a Gigglesborough Combined Village
good deal to a singer’s ability to read, Choral Societies, on the other hand, are
but it must be remembered that this absolutely no different than their coun-
sort of training is available to just a tiny terparts anywhere else in the world.
minority of the choral population in the
United Kingdom.
I hope that I have persuaded you that
the ability to sight-sing is not bestowed
upon the English at birth but that it can
be acquired without too much pain. In
a very small proportion of high-profile
cases, intense childhood and university
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CHORAL JOURNAL Volume 54 Number 7 71
MacDonald, Sarah, "Refuting misconceptions. II: Sight-reading ability in English choirs", Choral
journal: The official publication of the American Choral Directors Association 54/7 (Oklahoma City,
United States: February 2014), 69-71.

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