Bo Johansson, inaugural address to the Royal Swedish Academy of Music, 18th February 2003
Esteemed members of the Academy!
CHILDREN’S
CHOIR LEADER
-
amateur
or professional?
“What is your profession Bosse?” was the question at a party many years ago.
“I am a conductor,” I answered.
“That is very interesting; and what is the name of the orchestra?”
“It’s not an orchestra, I conduct a choir.”
The interest of the questioner cools rapidly. Nevertheless, they continue to show polite interest and ask the name of the chamber choir I conduct.
“It’s not a chamber choir, - I conduct a children’s choir.”
The level of interest cools to zero.
No one can be a conductor for a children’s choir, can they?
Can a children’s choir conductor be considered a professional?
As a by-the-way, and with a smile, I can point out that in the Academy I bear the title of choir leader, while my colleagues of the same genre are called choir conductors. And I feel highly honoured by this differentiation. I shall explain!
To repeat the question: Can a children’s choir leader be regarded as a professional musical practitioner? Or is a children’s choir leader some sort of youth leader with at best some sort of academic music training from a college of music?
What prejudices do we carry inside us, and what traditions have we established in our adult relationships with the rising generation?
I have lived all my professional life in the world of children and young people. I have been a music teacher at Adolf Fredriks Musikklasser for 32 years. One of the reasons I have not changed my place of work is that I have not found a better job. A job that is demanding, creative and artistic. I have learnt a lot over my years of working in close contact with these young musicians who are living the best years of their life. And, after 32 years as a music teacher, it is a privilege to still think going to work is fun.
I thought to recount here some of my observations, at the same time as you will be able to listen to a small ensemble from the Adolf Fredriks Girls Choir. Normally there are 41 girls in this choir that I founded 30 years ago. A choir that last year was elected “Choir of the Year”. by the Swedish Institute for National Concerts and FöreningsSparbanken (a surprising result in a country dominated by adult choirs. Perhaps an indication that we have taken a first step towards becoming part of official music society).
At last, confirmation that a children’s or young people’s choir can stand up and be counted in a consciously artistic context.
I regard my election to the Academy in the same light. An important milestone in the internationally famous Swedish choir world.
The Adolf Fredriks Girls Choir shall now perform Värmlandsvisan in an arrangement by Jan-Åke Hillerud.
As professional listeners you will by now have formed a fairly clear understanding of who we are.
A choir of pretty girls in nice dresses who sing reasonably clearly with satisfactory articulation and more or less in harmony. You might have already stopped listening with your inner ear when we sing our next song. After all, you have already formed your conceptions of how we sound.
This is why our choice of repertoire is very important when to establishing musical communication between performer and listener.
In our modern society we frequently form opinions of new phenomena much too quickly. The exorbitant tempo of our society today makes us unmusical.
Actually, if you take the time and trouble to get to know your fellow humans inside, we are all quite sweet: “even those who are bandy-legged, have large tummies, big noses, flat chests and itchy eczema”. An outlook on life from a teenager and put to music by Academy member Fru Rehnqvist: (Adolf Fredriks Girls Choir sing :Stora fötter)
When choirs in schools and cultural schools are rapidly beginning to die out, who is at fault? When interest in what we call serious music cools, and when it becomes more and more difficult to recruit qualified music teachers for secondary schools? When “commercial music” is given more and more “space” in the different branches of mass media? When the entire nation flops down in the sofa in front of the television on Saturday night to watch the latest events in the music line?
In my opinion: Mass media works against serious young people’s music by almost never drawing any attention to it (that was a good point, and I shall repeat it; Mass media works against…)
Our licensing funds are being used to create a platform for the kind of music that will not outlast the day, enabling an undeserving few to earn more money than any of our highly educated and skillful musicians will ever earn. The latter frequently having up to SEK 350,000 in student loans to repay!
Why do we become upset and disillusioned? We are powerless to stop these forces – let them go ahead, but we do have to concentrate our strength and energy on an alternative.
What have we got to counter with? Not money – but we do have good music.
Do we have faith in the foundation of this power? After all we do little more than feel sorry for ourselves about not being properly appreciated.
Do our present music teachers give credence to good music (I would not presume to qualify what good music is in such august company) or only to computers, synthesizers, sampling effects and popular music because they are afraid otherwise they might become unpopular?
This is entirely dependent on the matter of leadership – musical leadership.
My mission in life at secondary school is to provide a counterbalance to commercial music. To provide an alternative to the here today gone tomorrow musical trash. When my students sing the music of, for example J.S.Bach, the music enters their bodies and never leaves.
As a pedagogue I am securely and utterly convinced of this.
We so-called adults frequently fail in our attitudes towards the coming generation. We listen with a superior smile when 10 year olds play Chopin in their childish fashion. “Just wait, when you are as old as I am you will understand how Chopin is supposed to be played”. And the child thinks: OK, I will play like this so my teacher is satisfied, and then when I get home I can play it my own way. The way to go! After all, who has the right to decide how a piece should sound?
In my view each age in the upcoming generation is complete in itself. As a seven year old we do things because we are 7. Not 6, or 8.
It should not be an end in itself to become an adult.
We must listen and learn to make use of the dynamism present in the world of children and youth. Before our young musician have discovered that “music is difficult”. An attitude that we pedagogues shall keep them away from as long as possible. It is a question of creating enjoyment in making music. To learn to look up to children – not down. To put ourselves in a position to take the worm’s-eye view.
The voice is as much a part of the individual’s identity as appearance. I have the right to my appearance and the same self-evident right to my voice. For this reason there is nothing that builds up the self-confidence of the individual better than singing and choir singing. Consequently, choir singing is of great special significance. And choir singing is needed more than ever today.
Too many people in our society lack self-confidence.
Sing more!
(Each person in the choir sings Uti vår hage at their own tempo)
You can hear the girls sing in different timbres – that is their identity. It is because they sing in differing timbres that I can create a timbre and a sound that is typical for the Adolf Fredriks Girls Choir.
If everyone sang in the same timbre it would not sound as interesting. And this creates confidence within each one of us. I am unique – there is only one person who sings like me in the whole world. This inescapable fact brings with it an increased raison d’être. I am something! I am needed! Bosse is counting on me.
Using this attitude I liberate an enormous musical force. In which everyone understands they are important. That it is not only those with loud voices and who are of dominant nature that count.
(The girls choir perform an improvisation exercise)
“Everyone sang just right”
What a wonderful thing to be able to tell my ensemble. An exercise that strengthens self-esteem. I can manage my job all by myself, without any help from those seated to the left or right of me.
Of course, everything I am talking about relates to leadership. Or could we say, relates to conducting? I am unsure.
The crucial factor is what attitude I have as a music and exercise leader.
No matter whether I am rehearsing with the Radio Choir or with the Adolf Fredriks Girls Choir, I would conduct rehearsals the same way. The end results (if we can talk about such a thing in the artistic process) take differing lengths of time to reach, but the method of getting there is the same. It is a matter of taking the people who are rehearsing seriously. Of creating a feeling, irrespective of age, that this is something important (the musical phrase should not be frittered away).
By setting a good example I obtain respect.
When I trust, I am trusted in return.
The choir-singer might think: Boss thinks I can do this, so I shall not disappoint him.
When I believe in the music, then the students believe in the music. Irrespective of the degree of difficulty and genre.
We pedagogues have a very large responsibility when we make our choices of music and in exercising with our students. A responsibility to select music of lasting value. Music, which, in a manner of speaking, is resilient enough to use for exercise purposes. Students at colleges of music must learn to believe that music is of the same importance as all other subjects on the secondary school syllabus.
The entertainment genre will survive without us!
I am surprised to note the extent to which the ensemble leadership subject is being pruned back so much in our colleges of music. Vocal ensemble leadership at several colleges of music no longer occupies a central position in the curriculum, and in some districts, song is no longer included as a self-evident part of the admission examination.. What is the Royal Swedish Academy of Music doing?
In this situation it is very naïve to be surprised over the rarity of the school choir. Silence prevails, and even at Lucia Day celebrations at secondary school!
The children want to sing, but where are the music teachers, and what kind of qualifications will they have and have they got?
It is only when we take music and music pedagogy seriously that we can expect to be taken seriously ourselves.
I am of course, proud of my own good sense in having chosen to spend my time with the upcoming generation. Rife with curiosity and where spontaneity and unfettered musical enthusiasm abound. It is here that the musical phrase lifts to unprecedented heights.
Such a situation can never be taught. It is intrinsic to inspiring and frequently unexpected moments. When it is the job of the leader to capture this moment and build upon it.
I believe this is what is called making music.
Finally I would like to congratulate the Royal Swedish Academy of Music on electing me. Not primarily myself as a person, but upon their choice of electing a children’s choir leader.
A leader who functions best of all at the centre of the process. A demanding process that needs a professional in order to keep up.
In conclusion:
During our tours abroad we have learnt to
appreciate our Swedish folk music. And we have chosen to sigh off with an
arrangement by Academy member Herr Samuelsson: Näckens polska.
BO JOHANSSON