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Unpacking Choate’s embrace of a capella and its indifference to choir
“I got into Lilith!” “Kaps sent me an email! I’m in!” Only God knows how many times I have heard these exclamations on my way to class, the students in question eager to spread the good news to their friends. Pictures on social media reveal the lucky singers who have earned this new elite status as a member of an a cappella group. By contrast, almost no one has heard of the seven new students that passed auditions for Choate’s chamber chorus, mostly because they do not win social points for showing off this particular achievement.
As auditions and call-backs for Choate’s five a cappella groups were held last week, countless conversations cropped up around the central topic “a cappella.” Dialogues teemed with esteem for these singing groups, praising the energy of their members during performances or the exciting arrangements of their songs. The kids who love to sing were beside themselves with desire to make it into a group.
This “a ca-crazy” phenomenon is not foreign to those of us who are returning to campus for our second, third, or fourth years. In the meantime, other vocal ensembles on campus – namely, festival and chamber chorus – are rarely mentioned at all among students.
Apart from the fact that chorus has much more administrative backing while a cappella groups are predominantly student-led, the two have no fundamental differences regarding their participants’ musical skill sets. In fact, all five of the presidents of the Choral and Vocal Program are or have been members in an a cappella group. However, it is fairly obvious that the a cappella groups receive much more credit for their work than do choral groups, at least among the student population. Festival chorus has struggled this year with recruitment, while a cappella groups have been overwhelmed with prospective singers, as usual. The question is: why?
I still remember that during my freshman year, whenever the Maiyeros or the Whimawehs or any other group came to Nichols to perform, the whole dorm of 40-plus girls would pack themselves onto the common room floor, looking up at the singers with eyes sparkling with adoration. We could not believe that a cappella was associated with the so-called singing “nerds” not long ago. What we knew was that at least for the time being, this form of musical expression was a trendy obsession.
The media has, undeniably, contributed to this boost in popularity. In the past few years, Hollywood has produced a number of a cappella-themed movies and television shows. These shows have captivated their audiences with their gifted casts and beautiful harmonies — especially well-known films like Pitch Perfect, its sequel, and the TV show Glee. They lifted a cappella out of the shadow of obscurity into the center of the entertainment world. All of a sudden, non-accompanied singing was no longer dorky; it became the new synonym of “cool” and “in.”
Another factor of Chamber Chorus’s lack of appeal is that its repertoire is mostly from the classical tradition. While I am not saying that this should necessarily be changed, these types of musical performances simply do not attract as many Choate students as performances of pop music do. Since our community is mostly comprised of teenagers between the ages of 13 and 19, the genre of music that students are familiar with is unlikely to be classical. If we were to squeeze some time out of our tightly packed schedules, it would be for listening to an a cappella group sing familiar songs rather than for sitting in the Chapel trying to comprehend what foreign language the choir is singing.
At an academically rigorous school like Choate, it is difficult to stay high-spirited with the workload and stress that comes along. It is much easier to be entertained by an a cappella group with a great soloist rather than by a piece of renaissance music sung by the Chamber Chorus, which requires extensive knowledge of music theory to appreciate.
Ultimately, one must acknowledge that the culture at Choate considers a cappella “yay” and choir “nay.” It is just the result of the portrayal of a cappella in the media and the soaring popularity of pop music over classical music among the youth of our day.
