The Glories of the Human Voice

I recently heard the University of Texas at Austin’s Concert Chorale perform one of the most powerful, lyrical and transcendent recent works of sacred a cappella choral music. Elaine Hagenberg’s “Alleluia” draws upon the Christian promise of eternal life described at the end of St. Augustine’s The City of God.

If you haven’t heard this work, please do. It’s less than three minutes long. I promise, regardless of your background or beliefs, it will thrill your ears and bring tears to your eyes. In the midst of today’s sorrows, it will elevate your soul.

Although choral music continues to be sung in churches and on college campuses, it has—with a few exceptions like the “Hallelujah” chorus from Handel’s “Messiah” or Beethoven’s “Ninth Symphony”—been relegated to the margins of the musical world. To be sure, most communities still have secular and sacred choirs. Unlike orchestral music, choral music is largely participatory rather than performative. Today’s audiences rarely flock to choral concerts.

Why? It’s not because such music isn’t diverse. The concert I attended included Filipino, Maori and Samoan choral works. A high point was Jester Hairston’s arrangement of the spiritual “Elijah Rock,” dedicated to the prophet who convinced the Hebrews to turn away from worship of Baal and return to their covenant with God. Its chorus runs:

Choral music has played a pivotal role in many cultures’ religious and secular rituals. From Gregorian chants to the anthems of the Renaissance, from spirituals and gospel music to their contemporary equivalents, choral music has captured and conveyed the spirit, values and stories of various epochs and societies.

The singing might be done in unison or antiphonally or in counterpoint. It might involve chanting—that is, reciting words or sounds with a musical intonation or various styles of singing, like legato, portamento, staccato and vibrato. Alongside liturgical choral music were secular choral forms, like the frottola, madrigals, the motet and the cantata.

During the 19th century, in stark contrast, choral music was omnipresent. In the United States, most communities had singing societies. As John Ogasapian and N. Lee Orr observed in their study Music of the Gilded Age, these societies embodied “some of the strongest elements of Victorian culture: the strong sense of duty, community participation, broad religious sentiment, rising nationalism and enthusiasm for the new romantic music styles.” Chicago alone had over 60 men’s singing societies in 1885. Many singing groups, like Milwaukee’s Liederkranz, had German immigrant roots.

Many colleges, too, embraced various kinds of choral music for a time. The most popular were glee clubs, in which students sang for their own merriment. Yale had singing meetings as early as 1782, while Harvard’s glee club was founded in 1858. There were also more serious chorales and choirs, including oratorio choruses, madrigal singers and concert and chamber choirs. (Oberlin’s chorale was established in 1865 and Cincinnati College of Music’s in 1878), with a cappella singing on campus peaking in the late 1920s and 1930s.

During the early 20th century, a growing number of colleges (including the University of Southern California) followed Fisk’s example and used choirs to generate publicity and raise funds. Today, however, participation in choral groups is quite small, generally requires an audition and has only limited involvement by non–music majors. I regard this as a great shame.

Interestingly, during the 20th century, many companies had their own singing groups. In addition to Dow Chemical’s Dow Male Chorus, the state of Michigan had two Chevrolet glee clubs as well as the REO Motor Car Company Glee Club, the Studebaker Male Chorus, the Bendix Male Chorus, the Tyler Refrigeration Blue Notes and the Buick Male Chorus.

Choral music is neither dead nor dying. One relatively recent development, exemplified by “Alleluia,” is holy minimalism, pieces that seek to captivate audiences with their “serenity, austerity and sense of mystery.” While many choral works draw on Christian traditions, others do not. The choral composer John Tavener “incorporates Sufi poetry and sacred Islamic and Hindu texts in The Veil of the Temple, and Osvaldo Golijor employs secular Spanish poetry in his passion and closes it with a Kaddish, a Jewish prayer of mourning in Aramaic.”

Many who take part in local chorales never attend a symphony. Yet collective singing allows them “to stay connected with ‘classical’ or ‘concert’ music.”

If you want to learn more about choral music and its composers, genres, historical development, compositional and performance styles and technical terminology, Melvin P. Unger’s encyclopedic Historical Dictionary of Choral Music is available online.

Don’t listen to choral music simply because it’s therapeutic. Listen for its extraordinary aesthetic power and emotional impact. Nothing can match the solemnity of a requiem or the joy of a gospel hymn.

Choral music, not Esperanto or Ido or Volapük, is the true universal language and has an unmatched ability to build community and bridge cultural divides. Since many choral pieces have been passed down for generations, these pieces keep alive cultural and religious legacies and help us maintain a connection to the past.

And don’t just listen. Join a chorus. Choral singing, by its very nature, is collaborative. Members must listen to each other, blend their voices and function as a cohesive unit. You will learn musical skills, such as reading musical notation and understanding harmony and rhythm. You will develop vocal techniques.

Your mental and physical health will benefit, too. Choral singing can improve lung functioning, posture and cardiovascular health. The very act of singing also releases endorphins, which can elevate mood and reduce stress. In addition, membership in a chorus or choir can contribute to a sense of belonging and reduce feelings of loneliness.

When I was an undergraduate, the closest I came to study abroad was conducting extended research at Fisk University. My dorm mates in Emancipation Hall called me their honkie brother. There, one of my roommates was a member of the Fisk Jubilee Singers, the African American a cappella ensemble that began performing in 1871 and introduced the world to the sorrow songs of the enslaved. Listening to those songs was among the most poignant and life-changing experiences I have ever undergone.

Open your soul to the power and glory of the collective human voice. Let the music enter into the very depths of your being. You too will be transformed.