An invaluable example of choir singing as art

An invaluable example of choir singing as art

By Gus Kairupan

JAKARTA (JP): Music, they say, is singing. Even
instrumentalists are praised for "having a beautiful singing
tone" or chided if they lack one.

You want to be a good musician? Then learn to sing. Are you
majoring in music? Then you'll have to sign up for choir
singing. And don't think that singing in a choir is easy.

This planet supports something like five billion people, and
there are no two voices, let alone fifty-seven, that are exactly
alike. But Nuniek Ratnindyah and Widyarti Sutasurya, or Budi
Santoso and Apollonius Supartono can be made to sound alike.
There lies the art of choir, or part of it anyway.

They are not fictitious names. The two sopranos (Nuniek and
Widyarti), and the two basses (Budi and Apollonius) are four
members of the 57 singers who make up the only choir worthy of
notice throughout the length and breadth of Indonesia: the choir
of the Parahyangan Catholic University in Bandung. However, there
is one condition attached to this ranking. They are the best when
directed by Avip Priatna, the engineer, architect, pianist and
choir conductor who recently received his choir directing diploma
with excellence from the Hochschule fuer Musik und Darstellende
Kunst (academy of music and the performing arts) in Vienna. He is
the person who shapes the choir's tone and gives it character. So
it can't be far wrong to say that Avip Priatna is Indonesia's top
choir director.

I have heard the choir twice before, at a short music event
awhile ago at the Goethe Institut and at Erasmus Huis two years
ago in a proper recital. The choir gave another concert last
Saturday and Sunday, also at Erasmus Huis, and the improvement
was dazzling. It's as if they had kept pace with Avip's own
progress in Vienna, so the word ausgezeichnet (excellent) on his
diploma also applies to the choir members. The choir, I was told
do not read notes, stave notes that is. They do read the cipher
notes which means that the scores had to be converted to the
latter system.

The program was divided in two sections, sacred songs (all in
Latin), and secular songs after the intermission. The works, all
a capella, were by Johannes Brahms, Anton Bruckner, Francis
Poulenc (sacred songs section), Felix Mendelssohn, C.V. Stanford,
Frederick Delius, Camille Saint-Saens and Maurice Ravel
(secular). The works were written in German, English and French,
according to the composers' nationality, except the song To Be
Sung Of A Summer Night On The Water by Frederick Delius (English
composer) that had no text and maybe should be called To Be
Hummed Of A.... Humming is wordless singing with lips closed, or
almost closed, which makes it difficult to project the sound.

Diction

I mention the languages they choir sang in because diction is
a very important. It is, after all, the words that convey the
message. The choir has improved remarkably since two years ago.
Both their German and French sounded quite authentic, and even
their English could be followed. Surprised? Don't be. Ask any
singer, and they will tell you that English is the most difficult
language to sing. It is probably because of the language's
inordinate amount of diphthongs. You need little physical effort
(working your mouth, lips and tongue) to speak English, compared
to German, French, Italian or Spanish.

But diction isn't the only area in which the choir has made
progress. Dynamics, the element that breathes life in music, were
faultless as feather light pianissimo's alternated with
thunderous forte's through perfect crescendo's and decrescendo's.

Of course the beauty of music is very much in the ear of the
listener, which makes it rather difficult to make a verdict to
which song was best. For what it is worth, my choice goes to the
Ravel songs, especially Trois beaux oiseaux du Paradis because it
is pentatonic. Also Ronde seems to have elements that come very
close to what Germans call Sprechgesang which is something like
singing in a spoken manner. But these choices are not by any
means an indication that the works of other masters were any less
satisfactory. There were the sacred songs by Anton Bruckner, a
composer known more for instrumental compositions, rendered
exquisitely profound, six of Mendelssohn's light-hearted lieder,
Stanford's The Blue Bird and the lively Shall we go dance,
Brahms, Delius, Saint-Saens... All, in fact, were radiantly
presented, in a lone example of choir singing as an art,
something no other Indonesian choir has yet achieved.