A VIEW ACROSS THE POND
Whitacre on UK and US choral styles
A FREQUENT CONDUCTOR of choirs in both Britain and the US, Eric Whitacre is ideally placed to assess exactly how the two national choral traditions compare with one another. The takeaway? He finds fascinating differences between UK and American choirs, but resists the notion that one must be necessarily ‘better’ than the other.
‘The most obvious difference to me is the way women singers are trained in England,’ he says. ‘My general impression is that they still are trained in the style of boy sopranos. They sound in a way like “superboys”
– that clear, pure tone, no vibrato, with this exquisite attention to blend and this crystalline sound. It’s possibly because church musicians in the UK for 500 years got used to the way boys sounded, and when women were allowed to sing, they were instructed to sound a lot like that.
‘But then within the British tradition the men sing like mature men, with full vibrato and warmth – it’s almost two different parts of the choir in a way. The Americans on the other hand tend to gravitate toward a richer, more full-bodied tone, a little lustier. In American choirs the blend is from top to bottom – a truly homogenous sound.
‘UK choirs tend to be more institutionalised within church and school. In America there seem to be more community choirs, and a spectacular tradition of high school and collegiate choirs: that’s where so much of the juice is happening. In some ways I think the American choral scene trends a little younger; there’s a huge educational component.
‘That being said, I’m endlessly surprised at how many people sing throughout the world; it’s extraordinary. We choir geeks, we have to be the largest, quietest majority.’