Emotional connectedness in the choir
László Norbert Nemes, director of the New Liszt Ferenc Chamber Choir, knows the sensation that he shares with so many others in Hungary: when someone adds their own voice to the harmony, this choir member becomes part a sublime, majestic unity.
I attended a music primary then a music secondary school, so singing with others was a daily routine for me. When I was accepted to the Liszt Academy, Professor István Párkai asked me to sing in the Liszt Ferenc Chamber Choir. It was a great honour for me, as well as an excellent opportunity to work on choral compositions that require high technical singing skills and are thus beyond the scope of an amateur choir. At the same time, it was professionally very rewarding to sing with much more experienced singers who had graduated from the Liszt Academy but were still members of the ensemble.
Do you mean that choir singers do teach one another, too?
In a community, there are always stronger and more experienced members who pull up the others. In children’s choirs, this is even more the case. The older children are so much stronger in many skills that it is an absolute necessity that mentors support their younger peers. I experienced this to a great extent when I worked for many years as the conductor of the Hungarian Radio Children's Choir. Although the members change every year, as 8th-grade pupils leave and are replaced by much less skilled 5th-grade children, the choir still sounds the same.
How is this possible?
One component is certainly the personality of the choir conductor themself, since they embody a certain level of musical standard, a certain artistic concept, with which the ensemble is shaped every single day, from year to year. Existing members of the choir have already adopted this mindset, and newcomers must respond to it virtually straightaway. Children tune into this automatically and instinctively; but this also happens with adults: if the Berliner Philharmoniker gets a new concertmaster, that traditional sound which was formed over decades and which is the hallmark of the orchestra will not change, even if its members change from one year to the next. The Liszt Ferenc Chamber Choir has a sound that reflects the creativity and the personalities of the singers and their director. At the same time, the relationships between the musicians is also ‘audible’ in the music made by an ensemble. We can often sense that musicians love what they do, but sometimes we feel that the performance is kind of okay but nothing special.
Or it is also possible that we hear they love what they do but not each other?
Yes, this can also be the case, but no-one can love everyone to the same extent, nor should they be asked to. What you can learn in a choir or an orchestra, however, is mutual acceptance and respect. I believe that this depends on how we feel in our everyday lives, whether we notice if someone has a problem, whether we stand by others in need, and whether we accept opinions and viewpoints that we do not necessary agree with. Kodály wrote quite exhaustively on this matter. He stated that by singing in a choir we can acquire skills that may be of use to us in other relationships as well, for instance, in finding a shared path towards a unified sound. We must become able to work alongside the others and to recognise if the other person is more important than us. This is what creates unity, which is the source of harmony.
What does the choirmaster need to do to establish this unity in their choir?
No art can be created without emotional and intellectual unity in the ensemble. I believe that to achieve this we must be fond of and respect those we work with, both as choir members and even more so for me, as the director of the choir. This may sound clichéd, but we cannot instinctively like everyone in the same way or to the same degree, as choir or orchestra members will have different personalities. Nevertheless, we should get to know and accept each other, and even if it does not come to us naturally, we should strive to learn to like each other. My experience, especially with the children’s choir, is that when we are working hard to learn a piece with painstaking thoroughness, to implement all small dynamic markings and to interpret the composition with stylistic authenticity, none of this makes real sense unless there is a very special emotional bond between us, both during the rehearsals and during the concert itself. I have particularly fond memories of those performances in which this bond was established, as this is the kind of atmosphere in which all participants feel valuable and important. I have always learnt a lot from my fellow musicians, from the children, as well as the highly experienced, professional musicians who sing in the New Liszt Ferenc Chamber Choir. They are my partners; I can achieve absolutely nothing without them. And if we cooperate, our joyful joint efforts can bring about marvellous artistic accomplishments. Without this harmony, though, I cannot envisage an artistically authentic production.
Don’t you sometimes feel like singing along?
Of course, I do! And I do sometimes sing along, as I really enjoy experiencing the choir from the inside. We have been welcoming international guest conductors for quite some years, and while they are at work I, of course, join the ensemble. It is a wonderful feeling!
Ágnes Mester