High school choir teacher question.

yeahdisney · May 6, 2019

Why for every concert are all the songs sung foreign language? We are in a rural small community, our school only teaches one language choice, Spanish. None of the songs are Spanish. I have yet to meet one person locally who knows what the words are to any of the songs.

I am not going to ask the teacher ever, I don't want to question their knowledge or make them feel bad for any reason. I just curious why nothing English.

DS just announced a concert this last week of school and I asked any songs in English, he laughed and said nope.

CarolAnn856 · May 6, 2019

Many beautiful songs have been written in many other languages. Limiting choral selections to one language would deny the students an opportunity to sing some of the best works ever written. And, it exposes the kids to other languages beyond what their limited curricular choices allow. I applaud the director for trying to expand their minds!

elphaba91 · May 6, 2019

Any good chorister knows how to pronounce at least Italian and French! I also learnt songs in Mandarin (although that was for a trip to China), Hungarian and one of my favourite pieces (Adieumus) was in a made up language!

That being said, at my school there were 2 choir teachers. One of them always chose such bizarre songs that I refused to be in (well, never auditioned for) her choirs. I think it is nice, especially for younger singers, to have a good mix of songs both to expand their musical knowledge and to make things fun and interesting for them!

Cubbiecakes · May 7, 2019

If any of those singers intend to go to college as musicians, they'll need to be able to sing in French, Italian, and German at a minimum. The director is preparing his students to be successful and knowledgeable about their art.

mjkacmom · May 7, 2019

Our choirs always have songs in many different languages, dd’s voice coach always made sure she had pieces in different languages and genres (opera was her favorite). The kids are required to practice using online tools a lot on their own for their sections.

gwynne · May 7, 2019

yeahdisney said:
Why for every concert are all the songs sung foreign language? We are in a rural small community, our school only teaches one language choice, Spanish. None of the songs are Spanish. I have yet to meet one person locally who knows what the words are to any of the songs.

I am not going to ask the teacher ever, I don't want to question their knowledge or make them feel bad for any reason. I just curious why nothing English.

DS just announced a concert this last week of school and I asked any songs in English, he laughed and said nope.

Have you considered politely asking for a performance program that includes translations or a general synopsis of the story of the song?

FlightlessDuck · May 7, 2019

It's about expanding your horizons culturally. While I do tend to focus on lyrics when I hear songs, it's nice to hear a song from a culture I'm not familar with. Our choir did at least one song in Hebrew and one song in Swahili every winter concert.

Hikergirl · May 7, 2019

My dd was in chorus, they sang alot of songs in English (modern songs) and a few in foreign languages for in school concerts. A good mix of both for when they went to competitions.
The select choir sang mostly foreign languages. I never minded not being able to understand, for me it wasn't about that it was just about how beautiful they sounded.
For our school- chorus was open to all, even if you weren't taking chorus as a class, probably 100 kids in it.
Select choir was an audition, maybe there were 20 kids in it.

anniemae · May 7, 2019

I think it's wonderful. I think all kids should learn about other cultures and doing that through music is a beautiful thing. It's a big world out there.

Lilacs4Me · May 7, 2019

We always sang at least one foreign language song for every season in HS choir. Rarely were they my favorite, but I'm glad I learned them! Most choirs attend competitions/festivals, where they compete with their songs. They have to sing a song that has a wide range of skill for each section (sopranos, Alto, bass...etc) in order to have a chance in competition. Many songs in different languages fit the bill for this. Additionally, learning new songs in different languages exposes kids in certain rural areas (read: not diverse in ANY way) to new cultures and traditions. This is never a bad thing. My high school was in a wealthy rural area that consisted of kids that were 99.7% exactly like me. Personally, I didn't grow up there and had been exposed to much more diversity than the majority of my classmates, many of whom had never left their town except to go to Disney and weekend ski trips. I'm glad that the choir teacher had the foresight to try to get us at least *some* exposure to diversity!

scrhsa · May 7, 2019

My dd was just saying that some of the different languages are harder than others. I would assume it would be for the different experiences and techniques. Great way to build up their talents? She said the one she enjoyed the most was Baba Yetu in Swahili. She still sings it and listens to it 5 +years later

monsterkitty · May 7, 2019

I'm an instrumental music teacher so we don't have to worry about the language of the song. Having students learn and sing a song in a foreign language is expected. However, the teacher should also know his or her audience and should be programming music to fit that audience. I will always teach different genres in each concert so that the audience has a variety of songs to listen to.

yoopermom · May 7, 2019

My mom is a retired music teacher, who still sings with a local (adult) choir. She can sight read at least a dozen languages (aka not know what it "means", but how it it should sound phonetically). However, to keep the audience happy, she would always include a synopsis of what the piece was about, and often something about the region of the world it came from.

I've been to more concerts than I can count over the decades, and think it's beautiful.

Terri

Lilacs4Me · May 7, 2019

monsterkitty said:
I'm an instrumental music teacher so we don't have to worry about the language of the song. Having students learn and sing a song in a foreign language is expected. However, the teacher should also know his or her audience and should be programming music to fit that audience. I will always teach different genres in each concert so that the audience has a variety of songs to listen to.

I disagree! The teacher should be choosing songs that will expand the world of his/her students, and NOT worry about the audience. If every choir teacher did that, choirs all over the country/world would be singing Baby Shark this year.

monsterkitty · May 7, 2019

Lilacs4Me said:
I disagree! The teacher should be choosing songs that will expand the world of his/her students, and NOT worry about the audience. If every choir teacher did that, choirs all over the country/world would be singing Baby Shark this year.

That's not what I said. You can program songs that are educational and that expand the students' worlds and don't have to be in a foreign language. I said program a variety of songs, not just pop songs. In fact, I only program pop songs on our pops concert. If you don't program for the audience in mind you're going to have fewer people attend or more talking and other disruptions in the audience.

bjscheel · May 7, 2019

Yes they should also include some English language songs- they can expand the students' world and be a learning experience too! There should be variety. My DD's choir usually does one foreign language song per concert.

tex1989 · May 7, 2019

Singing in a church choir for many years I can tell you that many of the best choral pieces were written in Europe in the 16, 17, and 18 hundreds and they are beautiful and classic. Also on a more humorous note, those listening can't complain about seprartion of church and state if they don't know what the words mean.

fla4fun · May 7, 2019

When I competed in choir, we had to sing one song in a foreign language and one folk song, and the one other typical choral song from the pre-approved list. The foreign language songs were usually pretty east to learn, but some of the folk songs were amazingly difficult. We were always ranked as one of the top choirs in the state.

jaiminee krikit · May 7, 2019

I'd take that any day over the karaoke concerts our choir director has. I find that kind of music beautiful, current pop tunes, not so much.

High school choir teacher question.

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