The Chamber Singers, led by director Benjamin Bergey, held a concert featuring a variety of selections from “The Sound of Silence” to the South African National Anthem. The concert was performed live on Thomas Plaza and was also streamed on Facebook Live. Due to its relaxed nature and sheet music availability, the singers noted it was the least stressful concert in the students’ memory due to its relaxed nature and sheet music availability, but there was a strange sense of performing live after months of not doing so and recording virtual choirs.
Music has seen an entire system reset due to COVID-19 restrictions, yet music continues to be made with creative, technical, and practical new ideas. At EMU, choir and instrumental groups have had to make major adjustments, and they have been remarkably successful, albeit sacrificing the social aspect of music making and some technical aspects.
In choir, the most impactful adjustment has been keeping the singers more than 6-feet apart. Being able to be in tune with each other is much more difficult when the singers are spaced far apart and they are relying on a single speaker to hear each other. This makes pitch adjustments much more challenging because singers can only really hear themselves and the accompaniment. The singers make educated guesses which works some of the time, but a high level of focus is required to truly stay in key.
Having to stay in rhythm with one another is also difficult because the singers are farther apart, so the visual cues of movement can’t be seen or felt. The musicians are generally skilled enough to keep to a steady pulse, but it takes away some of the nuance of organically moving together to a piece. It makes focusing on the director incredibly important, which is easier in the way that the singer is more individualized, but it’s hard because the singer must balance looking at their music and looking at the director.
In instrumental ensembles, there has been a massive change with the wind instruments where spit is involved. Because wind instruments function with more air going through an instrument, the entire instrument is required to be covered by a mask. This comes in the form of a large bag with holes for hands to go in. There is sacrifice with the sound that affects dynamics and articulation. This results in a difference in sound practicing versus performing when the bags are removed for a performance. Instruments are also a lot quieter with the bags, so instrumentalists must push out more air than normal.
The instruments sound fundamentally different with some of the adjustments. Trumpets, for example, are now always played with bell covers which are usually only used for artistic purposes for a more tinny sound. Flutes sound similar, but because the motion to play it is to blow out, flutists are required to wear face shields. This makes it so they can only hear what they are doing, and they can’t easily listen for balance or pitch correction. Saxophones have an airy sound because of the bag and sound perpetually out of tune with everyone else. However, if everyone has bags on their instruments then everyone is in tune with each other, so that actually hasn’t been the biggest issue.
String players just have to wear masks, but have lost having stand partners. The social interaction is limited and the musical experience feels individual. Across the board, musicians express the same sentiment. Music has been a communal experience for as long as anyone can remember, so this shift has been difficult for all. However, the fact that music is continuing to be made is a sign of hope that we are finding a new sense of normalcy in the craziness of COVID-19 and showing that music truly endures all things.
