A dozen male voices : Chanticleer to sing at Walton Arts Center

— An all-male, a cappella choral ensemble is touring the globe and plans to make a stop to sing in Fayetteville.

Chanticleer, a singing group comprised of 12 men, will perform Tuesday at the Walton Arts Center.

The group is based in San Francisco and was founded in 1978, said Matt Oltman, music director for Chanticleer. The ensemble will travel across the United States to 21 different states and to 12 foreign countries this season. The group was created to perform music from the European Renaissance, but it has expanded to include contemporary classical music, folk, jazz and gospel, Oltman said. The ensemble was named 2008 Ensemble of the Year by Musical America and has received three Grammy awards for their work.

The group has a variety of vocal ranges, but it is balanced with some men singing lower parts in the bass range and others doing higher parts the countertenor voice, Oltman said.

“For those soprano and alto parts, we have six people that use what we call the countertenor voice, which is the very highest sort of male voice,” he said.

Chanticleer was made to emulate the singing done during the Renaissance. Women were not allowed to sing in the church at that time. Men had to sing all the parts, including the higher ranges that are now usually reserved for women, Oltman said. Because the group has only men singing higher parts, it has a different sound than a mixed gender choir.

“That’s sort of what makes Chanti cleer unique - that sound of all-male voices,” he said.

Oltman said the group, while standing on a blank stage and donning black tuxedos, will begin theirshow with “one of the most famous of all English Renaissance choral pieces,” which is “Hosanna to the Sonof David” by Orlando Gibbons. The end of the program will include popular jazz and gospel pieces that some audience members may recognize, he said.

However, the middle of the show will be different. The middle portion will have new music, created originally for the choir, he said. Five pieces were commissioned by composers for the ensemble in the past few years, and Oltman said it’s doubtful that anyone has heard them outside of this show.

“We’re the only ones who have performed them,” he said.

Since there is no music played while they sing, the group does not have a conductor. Unlike other choirs, there is no one in front of the ensemble who is responsible for keeping the show going and making decisions during the performance, he said.

“You have to just go with the flow,” he said. “There’s no conductor to fix things.”

Oltman said he sits in the audience to watch the show. After the show, he and the choir discuss good aspects of the performance, as well as ones that could be improved on for the next show.

He said audiences will be drawn to the show because everyone sings, whether in a choir or only while in the shower.

“Singing is probably the most universal of the musical art forms,” he said.

It is something that people can immediately relate to and have empathy with. He said singing is something that people do with their own bodies, without any instrument to produce the music.

“It’s just a much more direct form of communication,” he said. “It’s just the human body and words.”

Entertainment, Pages 27 on 10/23/2009

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