[This is a portion of a series of e-mail messages between myself and a Taiwanese music teacher who happened to be studying in England. She was preparing a paper in which she was surveying Taiwanese choral directors about some issues that exist for choral ensembles. She had read my book, Expressive Singing, Dalcroze Eurhythmics for Voice, and had contacted me for my reactions.]

I will start by letting you know that it is difficult for a Dalcroze teacher to talk-or write-about musical experiences. This is because a basic tenet of the Dalcroze training is that we must first have the experience, then we can talk about it. However, since that is not possible in our case, I will do what I can with words.

I completely agree with the hypothesis of your thesis: movement (kinesthesia) is a big factor in transforming an errhythmic performance into a eurhythmic performance. The music, to quote Claude Debussy, is what happens between the notes. The only portion of your hypothesis I would quibble with is where you state that most choral performances lie “between Errhythm and Eurhythm.” From my experience, a majority of choral performances never move beyond errhythm!

There are many applications of Eurhythmics concepts to the problems dull, errhythmic performance, but I’ll try to be brief. By the way, you should know that if you were to give that same survey to American choral conductors, you would probably receive the same answers. The cultures may be different, but the problems are the same.

Back to your question. It has been said that 90% of problems encountered in learning music are musical, not technical. I think this is quite true. Let’s look at the #1 problem: tuning. I assume this means poor intonation. Here is an experiment for you: Go to a piano. Sing one note in a comfortable part of your range, let’s say a “g” or “sol”-depending on the system you are familiar with. As you hold that note, play a C Major chord, then an E flat major chord, then an E minor chord. Did you feel or hear any difference in your voice as you sustained that one note? Hopefully, you did feel or hear some changes. If so, that meant you were “tuning” the note to fit the chord. The point is, it is not enough to sing the note; the singer also has to hear the harmony surrounding the single note.

This is a quick and simple experiment on discovering that notes, and vocal lines, do not exist in isolation. Now, the conductor has to take into account many musical factors in finding solutions to “tuning” problems. Rather than list them here, look at the section of “Musical Rules” in my book. Also, if you go back to the little experiment above, you will discover that the position in the scale (for example, tonic, sub dominant, leading tone) has an impact on how the note should be sung. All of this for understanding the “tuning” for one note! When you add three other voices, then the possibilities quickly multiply. That is the joy of Western music.

A teacher who uses Eurhythmics ideas (Emile Jaque-Dalcroze maintained that all good musicians-and teachers-used this techniques intuitively. He did not invent them) would find many ways to teach the choir to hear better through many “games.” For example: the choir is told to sing only the first beat of each measure while keeping the other beats silent. This exercise will intensify internal hearing and show the conductor what the choir really hears, or doesn’t hear.

Question 4 has several sub-parts. I’ll deal with each separately.

1. Why does a choir encounter problems in entering on the first beat together?

The most typical answer is that the choir has not “measured” the time-space-energy as an ensemble. The conductor might have the ensemble clap on the first beat-the imprecise clapping will alert the ensemble that they are not measuring their time-space-energy alike. There are movement games for ensembles to help them unify their time-space-energy.

2. Why individual parts cannot make a confident entry respectively?

Do they know where they are without the conductor cueing them? If not, then the conductor should train them to enter without a cue, which means teaching them to listen to everything that is happening right before their entrance. There are games for building attention and concentration skills.

3. Why are the conductor’s gestures not easily followed by the choir?

There can be many reasons for this. When I was a conducting student, my teacher used to tell us that when the ensemble had trouble following the conductor, the first thing the conductor should do is to be sure the conductor is absolutely clear. I have found it very helpful to video tape myself conducting the music in my head-giving all the cues, etc.- then placing the monitor on the piano and playing the score as I tried to follow the conductor-me. I quickly saw why the ensembles couldn’t follow me, because I couldn’t follow me. Often, the conductor’s gestures do not match what the musical score dictates, and this causes the choir to become confused: are they supposed to follow what the conductor “tells” them to do with words, or follow the conductor’s gestures, which are possibly at odds with what he or she had said?

When the choir has trouble following the conductor, the first question is: are the conductor’s gestures clear? Once the conductor has clarified his or her gestures, then we can get into the next question: why isn’t the choir following the conductor?

Exercise: the conductor tells the choir to imitate the conductor’s gestures as they sing. This exercise is known as “mirroring.” Immediately, the conductor can see who is able to follow and who is not. Those who cannot follow closely are not feeling the music as the conductor feels it. The choir can practice this until they can feel the conductor’s gestures even if they are not overtly imitating them.

4. Why does a choir not sing legato?

My experience as a voice teacher has been that choral singers have great trouble singing legato. They tend to “jump” from pitch to pitch because a true legato feels too mushy, too much like sliding. Why are they taught this? Because choral conductors seem to believe that ensembles cannot move together from pitch to pitch unless they “jump.”

Exercise: ask a choral singer to sing a scale in a legato manner as you watch the area of the throat known as the “Adam’s Apple.” You will probably see tiny, jerky motions as the singer moves from pitch to pitch. The motions come from “jumping” from pitch to pitch. If you ask a well-trained solo singer to perform the same exercise, you will see little or no movement-this is because the singer is “sliding” from pitch to pitch.

Another exercise: ask a choral singer to slide down from a pitch to an octave below. Again, you will very likely hear a gap in the pitches where the singer has “jumped.”

How to solve the problem? It takes much patience to teach the singers the difference between sliding and skipping.

Exercise: Have the make skipping and sliding gestures with their arms as they imitate the gesture. The teacher has to listen intently to hear if their voices really match their gestures. When they are able to hear and feel the difference between sliding and skipping (or jumping), then they can try applying similar feelings to their singing. Before attempting to put text to melody, they should first be able to speak the text.

5. Why does a choir not sing expressively?

This is a very large question and calls forth many other questions. Can the choir speak the text expressively? Chant expressively? Does the choir apply the simplest rules of rhythmic, dynamic, harmonic, and melodic expression as they speak the text (refer to the Musical Rules in my book)? Can the choir move their arms and hands and fingers expressively to show how they think the music moves? If the answer for most or all of the above is “no,” then how can we expect them to sing expressively?

Obviously, there are many reasons why it is difficult to sing expressively, but what happens when a choir is singing expressively?

• The text and music lie within their abilities to understand and perform them.

• They clearly understand the meaning of the text.

• They are emotionally connected with the music.

• They are aware of the many nuances of feeling in the text and music and have ways to express them.

• They are more intent upon expressing the music than “getting it right.”

• They are faithful to the composer’s intentions (they perform accurately), yet they are in control of the performance rather than simply responding to directions (this is sometimes called being proactive rather than reactive).

• They are able to take risks rather than “playing it safe.”

Alas, I have heard very few performances either by choirs, soloists, or instrumental ensembles where these elements come together. But I have not given up hope that such performances can take place.

6. Why is a choir not able to repeat a well-sung phrase?

Again, there could be many reasons. The typical reason, though, is that the individual singers in the choir have not learned to remember what they just did. This is why, when they are asked to repeat the phrase exactly, they often reply: “we don’t remember how we did that.”

Eurhythmics teachers have developed games to improve the ability to remember, since imitating and remembering are two primary attributes of successful music students. As an experienced teacher, I bet you have developed those skills for yourself: now you have to understand how you do what you do. Once you can figure that out, you will have ways to teach your students to do the same.