In BCS Connections and Reflections no. 19, devoted board member and soprano Jan Allen describes the role choral singing has played in her life.
Many thanks to all who have contributed! We welcome input, questions, and ideas from our readers.
It’s All About the Harmony
Why does a person come to need—even crave—the choral experience?
In my case, it’s all about the harmony.
I was born into a musical family. Grandpa had been a vaudeville pianist, and Mom was a singer. Whenever Grandpa visited, he’d improvise fancy accompaniments to our beginning piano pieces to see if he could throw us off! I was mystified as to how he made his part fit mine.
Later as a young teen taking folk guitar lessons, I thought about the pitches in the chords I was fingering, and finally understood how Grandpa could harmonize with me on the piano. No longer a slave to the notes on the printed page, I began to improvise on the piano, and also sing harmonies by ear to the pop tunes on the radio.
In the choral program at Horseheads High School in upstate New York, Joe Crupi taught us mature vocal technique, blending, good diction, and a whole gamut of choral repertoire from early Renaissance to jazz. I often got goosebumps when we sang in scrambled formation, standing next to people singing the other vocal parts. Harmony in both music and friendships prevailed throughout the chorus, and left me wanting to continue the choral experience after high school.
And so, in college and in grad school, I continued to sing at church and in choral ensembles. My undergrad roommates joked that they knew I must be sick if when a song came on the stereo, I sang the melody rather than harmony. It was in grad school that I discovered opera, eventually joining the chorus for the Greater Miami Opera. Though it was thrilling to be on stage with major stars, my favorite musical moments came at the cutoffs of resonant chords in the chorus, when the harmony kept on ringing.
As my husband’s career moved us to other cities, I always felt compelled to find a church with a strong music program, and a quality chorus in which to sing. In Orlando, I joined the Camerata Chorus; and in Norfolk, Virginia, the Virginia Symphony Chorus. A friend who had attended Indiana University recommended the Bloomington Chamber Singers to me when she heard we were moving to Indiana.
In my 19 years with BCS, I’ve been privileged to sing alongside gifted individuals of varied backgrounds and professions, united in the passionate desire to sing quality music well. Dr. Gerry Sousa makes sure we understand the music’s structure and style, how it was performed at the time it was written, and what the composer would have us express. We strive as singers to achieve harmony in purpose and in musical expression. My fellow BCS board members and I also aim for harmony as we manage the chorus’s path forward during the COVID-19 pandemic. I’m looking forward to being immersed in vocal harmonies once again!
Musical Offering
The music I've selected is Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, Amen, from Handel's Messiah, Part III. BCS and the Bloomington Early Music Festival joined forces in 2004 to make this recording. My favorite annual BCS events are the Messiah Sing-alongs in December and in the spring, which we hope to resume next year. We so enjoy gathering with other community singers, including many BCS alumni, to sing this masterwork! I love how the text in this final movement quotes the prophetic verses revealed to St. John in Revelation 5:12–13.
