Would you program something that is “too hard” for your choir?
I mean: too hard to sing flawlessly. Too hard to perform without the occasional tuning error.
I don’t program music that is too hard in the sense of: requires professional tessitura or vocal control; requires advanced vocal techniques; is far beyond the experience of my students. So I’m not programming sprechstimme or the music of Roomful of Teeth.
But I do program music that might be called “too hard.” I heard someone say recently that they don’t program music that is too hard for the ensemble, with the mindset being, “if you want to sing harder music, get better.”
I respect that mindset, but I think there’s great room for teachable lessons beyond the music my students can sing in tune today.
There are lessons about poetry and musicality. There are lessons about ensemble. We can struggle and learn about tuning through this harder music. We can learn to understand more complex harmony, we can learn to have more stamina, we can learn to sing better.
A much better standard, to me, than “Can they sing it well?” is “Will they love this piece?”
If an ensemble truly loves a piece of music, they will work harder, get further, and learn more – even if the piece is “too hard” for them.
Some of my fondest musical moments with my ensembles have been rehearsing and performing music that would definitely be described as “too hard.” Diving deep into the beast that is Veljo Tormis’ Incantation Maris Aestuosi. Learning the complex harmonies of two commissions: Michael McGlynn’s May and Jeremy Fox’s Loveliest of Trees. My students looked and listened to these pieces and said, “I can’t.” And then they did. Those are moments I’ll never forget.