We sing so well together : About conscious or subconscious cooperation between chorals singers and about formal and informal leaders in the choral voice

Aim of the research: This essay describes what can happen between the singers in a choral voice and how the individuals differ in taking initiative and acting in leading roles. Method: I have done qualitative interview studies with conductors and singers, and also recording studies. The recording sessions have been done in following choir rehearsals in a Swedish upper secondary school, and with a simultaneous video recording to be able to also take notice on eventual visual signs between the singers. With close up headworn microphones and by multi track recordings it have been possible through an analyzing program to watch graphically exactly how each individual sings and to compare the singers with each other. The recordings and analyses have been done using Cubase5 and Variaudio with printouts of the same sequence of the music the single voices in the same choral voice. Results: My informants all speak of formal and informal leaders in the choral voice. Many of them also talk about these leaders as leading the choral voice and also with their personal voice and timbre, give color to others. It is possible to graphically view differences in attacks and intonation, and also to notice when someone is ahead and “pulling” others to follow. This leading role can be both positive and negative, a confident but not so good singer can unfortunately bring along other singers to take wrong steps in the music