The angel’s wing” “

Everyone mad about choral singing: that, according to the French Catholic daily “La Croix”, is how the French reveal themselves after the success of the film “The Choristers”. It’s a trend confirmed by the massive participation in the “Festival of Music” that took place in various venues in the country in recent days. Choirs and vocal groups of various inspiration performed at Strasbourg, at Saint-Gervais (Upper Savoy), at Montélimar (Drôme), at Antibes and in Paris. Their repertoire included Bizet, Schubert, Bach, Mozart and Rachmaninov, but also pop music, jazz and gospel. From 2 to 10 August Vaison-La Romanie (Provence) will be hosting the 18th “Joy at heart” event. It brings together seven French-speaking federations of choirs for a total of 40,000 non-professional singers, 15,000 of them belonging to the 500 choirs of the French federation. It’s an event of choral singing for amateurs that for over half a century has been held every three years in the form of concerts, master classes, animation and musical laboratories aimed also at children. We present a series of experiences linked to this passion. THE VIRUS OF THE CHOIR. “I contracted the ‘virus of the choir’ in 1997”, recalls SIMONE SOW, granddaughter of the former President of Senegal and poet of international fame Leopold Sedar Senghor. “I would never have imagined – reminisces Simone – the sheer physical effort or the musical requirements”. After a first session which she calls “epic”, the then neophyte recalls she “had to assimilate in a hurry the ‘theological virtues’ of the choral singer: patience, vigilance and tenacity”. But the results were not slow in coming: the compass of the voice “is amplified in an unforeseeable way”; one is infused with “a new breath of life that makes one sing with all one’s heart, like a single body” and finally “the angel’s wing is brushed”. Simone’s advice? “If, by chance the ‘choral virus’ should strike you, let yourself be happily contaminated…”. According to LOÏC PIERRE, winner with his Mikrokosmos choir of the florilège chorale at Tours 2004, “today, and this is a new phenomenon for France, a vocal group may achieve the same fame as an instrumental group, but what’s lacking is the intermediate level between choirs of the highest quality and all this precious, but often inadequately trained, ‘terrain’ of amateur singing”. In contrast to what happens “in the USA and in Northern Europe – remarks Pierre, who conducts a choir of young amateurs – here choral singing in the universities is really at a very low level and needs to be given a new impetus. New voices and new ears need to be educated”. MOMENTS OF FAITH. The beneficial effects of “singing together”, of which psychologists, sociologists and educationalists are convinced, are endorsed by the journalist EMMANUELLE GIULIANI. “According to a study of the Ministry of Culture, 13% of the French say they have participated in a musical group or choir at least once in their life; 3% of whom in the last twelve months”. “The voice – says Giuliani – is the instrument itself of emotion, negative or positive. It’s an aesthetic emotion, a spiritual emotion also for the singers who practice their art within a parish association (over a third of amateur French choristers)”. MARIE, who has sung in her own church for over twenty years, says: “In expressing my own faith through music and singing I experience a great sense of peace and of purity. Of course I too have my moments of doubt, but outside. The times dedicated to singing are moments of absolute faith”. The motivations of PAUL are similar: “At the age of forty I am a person of a kind normally called fulfilled in his professional and social life. I am however convinced that my equanimity and serenity owe a lot to the choral activity that has taught me to insert my personal melody in a collective harmony”. ELODIE wonders at the sheer physical effort required by singing, “a combination of strength, agility and dynamism that fascinates me and that I would like to apply in every instant of my life”. HAPPINESS AND PASSION. “Conducting amateurs is humanly very enriching, due to the disinterestedness and passion of their dedication. With professionals one can obviously have greater artistic satisfaction, but sometimes they are disenchanted and a bit lukewarm”, says PATRICK MARCO, director of the Parisian choir annexed to the national Conservatoire of the region of the capital, which, among other things, offers children an ordinary school curriculum enriched with musical training of a very high level. For Marco, who conducts both a choir and the ensemble Paris Consort and is accustomed to working with singers of every age and level, “amateurs, taken individually, often have, as is natural, technical defects; nonetheless, during concerts they achieve in most cases a result that is far superior to their objective capabilities”. “It’s a wonderful fact that I am unable to explain, but that fills me with immense gratitude”, realizing only too well “their efforts and their sacrifices”. Marco’s hope is that parents “enable their children to discover singing from childhood on; it’s a source of happiness that lasts throughout life”.