The Importance of Singing

I started singing with New College Choir Oxford when I was seven, and so choral music has been an important part of my life and musical education. Ever since leaving New College I have been singing regularly with various choirs in Oxford, Surrey, and Cambridge.

The benefits of such a focus on singing did not fully dawn on me until relatively recently. When accompanying singers either in solo recitals of musical productions, I realised that I knew when the singers were going to be breathing and needing time before they requested it. Knowing what was involved technically with various passages meant that I could instinctively give them the time they needed. Playing with singers either as a piano accompanist in a recital or as part of an orchestra in an opera requires an understanding of vocal technique so that their needs can be accommodated. It is just like a string player may take time in a piece if there is a big shift – the musical shape and phrase is more convincing if it does not sound like the performer is rushing the shift in an attempt to play in tempo.

Similarly, when playing the organ in church I know what it is like to be singing hymns and so am able to choose a good tempo to play at. Hymns are not the coinciding of someone playing something on an organ and a group of people singing some words – the two acts must meet to make a single gesture. The organist must play music at a speed that allows the singers to get across the meaning of the words without having to garble verses or end up dying for breath at the end of each line. The punctuation in the verses of a hymn is there to make sense of the words, and so they should be observed in the singing. The organist must therefore choose a speed with this end in mind.

Singing in choirs from such an early age has also helped me develop my ear and work as part of a group. This is not something I always appreciate, but it is quickly realised when teaching people that have not had much choral experience. How many times do teachers tell their students to “play a phrase as you would sing it”, and how many times must we remember to breathe naturally when we play? The teachers are right – the way we sing phrases is natural, and instruments are trying to imitate the human voice. What use is this, though, if the student does not know how the phrase would be sung? Singing and Aural should therefore, in my opinion, always be included in teaching. If a student has no knowledge of how phrases would be sung and shaped then they are missing a crucial part of deciphering how to play and shape a piece of music.