An invaluable example of choir singing as art<\/p>\n
By Gus Kairupan<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Music, they say, is singing. Even
\ninstrumentalists are praised for \"having a beautiful singing
\ntone\" or chided if they lack one.<\/p>\n
You want to be a good musician? Then learn to sing. Are you
\nmajoring in music? Then you'll have to sign up for choir
\nsinging. And don't think that singing in a choir is easy.<\/p>\n
This planet supports something like five billion people, and
\nthere are no two voices, let alone fifty-seven, that are exactly
\nalike. But Nuniek Ratnindyah and Widyarti Sutasurya, or Budi
\nSantoso and Apollonius Supartono can be made to sound alike.
\nThere lies the art of choir, or part of it anyway.<\/p>\n
They are not fictitious names. The two sopranos (Nuniek and
\nWidyarti), and the two basses (Budi and Apollonius) are four
\nmembers of the 57 singers who make up the only choir worthy of
\nnotice throughout the length and breadth of Indonesia: the choir
\nof the Parahyangan Catholic University in Bandung. However, there
\nis one condition attached to this ranking. They are the best when
\ndirected by Avip Priatna, the engineer, architect, pianist and
\nchoir conductor who recently received his choir directing diploma
\nwith excellence from the Hochschule fuer Musik und Darstellende
\nKunst (academy of music and the performing arts) in Vienna. He is
\nthe person who shapes the choir's tone and gives it character. So
\nit can't be far wrong to say that Avip Priatna is Indonesia's top
\nchoir director.<\/p>\n
I have heard the choir twice before, at a short music event
\nawhile ago at the Goethe Institut and at Erasmus Huis two years
\nago in a proper recital. The choir gave another concert last
\nSaturday and Sunday, also at Erasmus Huis, and the improvement
\nwas dazzling. It's as if they had kept pace with Avip's own
\nprogress in Vienna, so the word ausgezeichnet (excellent) on his
\ndiploma also applies to the choir members. The choir, I was told
\ndo not read notes, stave notes that is. They do read the cipher
\nnotes which means that the scores had to be converted to the
\nlatter system.<\/p>\n
The program was divided in two sections, sacred songs (all in
\nLatin), and secular songs after the intermission. The works, all
\na capella, were by Johannes Brahms, Anton Bruckner, Francis
\nPoulenc (sacred songs section), Felix Mendelssohn, C.V. Stanford,
\nFrederick Delius, Camille Saint-Saens and Maurice Ravel
\n(secular). The works were written in German, English and French,
\naccording to the composers' nationality, except the song To Be
\nSung Of A Summer Night On The Water by Frederick Delius (English
\ncomposer) that had no text and maybe should be called To Be
\nHummed Of A.... Humming is wordless singing with lips closed, or
\nalmost closed, which makes it difficult to project the sound.<\/p>\n
Diction<\/p>\n
I mention the languages they choir sang in because diction is
\na very important. It is, after all, the words that convey the
\nmessage. The choir has improved remarkably since two years ago.
\nBoth their German and French sounded quite authentic, and even
\ntheir English could be followed. Surprised? Don't be. Ask any
\nsinger, and they will tell you that English is the most difficult
\nlanguage to sing. It is probably because of the language's
\ninordinate amount of diphthongs. You need little physical effort
\n(working your mouth, lips and tongue) to speak English, compared
\nto German, French, Italian or Spanish.<\/p>\n
But diction isn't the only area in which the choir has made
\nprogress. Dynamics, the element that breathes life in music, were
\nfaultless as feather light pianissimo's alternated with
\nthunderous forte's through perfect crescendo's and decrescendo's.<\/p>\n
Of course the beauty of music is very much in the ear of the
\nlistener, which makes it rather difficult to make a verdict to
\nwhich song was best. For what it is worth, my choice goes to the
\nRavel songs, especially Trois beaux oiseaux du Paradis because it
\nis pentatonic. Also Ronde seems to have elements that come very
\nclose to what Germans call Sprechgesang which is something like
\nsinging in a spoken manner. But these choices are not by any
\nmeans an indication that the works of other masters were any less
\nsatisfactory. There were the sacred songs by Anton Bruckner, a
\ncomposer known more for instrumental compositions, rendered
\nexquisitely profound, six of Mendelssohn's light-hearted lieder,
\nStanford's The Blue Bird and the lively Shall we go dance,
\nBrahms, Delius, Saint-Saens... All, in fact, were radiantly
\npresented, in a lone example of choir singing as an art,
\nsomething no other Indonesian choir has yet achieved.<\/p>",
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