Building Choral Tone
[Forward to the book]
At the first rehearsal the conductor discovers that there are almost as many varieties of tone-production in his/her chorus as there are singers. Some amateurs, indeed, appear to refute the laws of nature and the textbooks of the physiologists. The source of their voices and the means they employ in an effort to propel vocal sound from the remote recesses of the body are like a mystery.
With all the other singers, vocally endowed in varying degree, they offer a challenge to the conductor's skill and ingenuity; fo it is his/her task to bring every singer into conformity with his idea of what good tone is.
Whatever that ideal my be, homogeneity must be its watchword, for without homogeneous tone there cannot be effective singing.
Archibald T. Davidson
Professor of Choral Music
Harvard University
© Copyright 2000 W. Jay Hoel