Yahoo! hosts e-mail groups for devotees of both; Bay Area Choral List, (yahoo! group name ba-choral) and Bay Area A Cappella, (yahoo! group name ba-acappella). ba-choral has, at present 147 members, and ba-acappella has 920. I would gather that there are fewer a capella singers than choir members in the Bay Area, which leads me to believe that a large number of the members of ba-acapella are purely fans. Is a capella 6.25 times more popular than choral music?
This begs the question, why would a capella be more popular than choral groups which perform the standard repertoire? I want to look beyond obvious reasons, namely, that a capella is a form of popular music with roots in American folk song, Rock, Soul, Gospel, Hip Hop, and Jazz, or that a capella in this country is almost always performed in English. I want to explore, in particular, two reasons for its greater appeal. When compared with performances of the standard choral repertoire,
- A cappella better vivifies the personality and charisma of the individual performers
- A cappella allows for more varied audience response, participation and expression
1 comments:
Celeste:
As "owner" of the ba-choral Yahoo group, I've several thoughts about the reasons for the disparity in the number of subscribers to ba-acappella & ba-choral.
One factor is simply that ba-acappella has been around far longer than ba-choral. ba-choral has steadily grown from about 50 in the first year (2003) to 150 now. We have also never done anything to publicize or promote ba-choral, other than an email to choruses when we first began it. Our original hope--that it might draw choral singers, as well as those in artistic & administrative leadership roles--has been mostly unrealized.
It would be interesting to find out who the subscribers to ba-acappella are (some kind of survey), but my guess is that most are members of acappella groups and their friends and supporters. My sense is that because of the fact that most acappella groups require a more intense involvement on the part of their members, most of them feel a part of an "acappella community" and have a greater interest in and stake in what other acappella groups are doing. They also probably depend more on friends and supporters, and draw more of them into a more active participation as audience and supporters of acappella.
Most choral singers seem content with the opportunity to sing and perform occasionally, and most are able to do so without becoming very involved in choral management and support. Most seem to have little sense of being part of any broader "choral community" beyond the choral group in which they participate.
My point is that there may actually be more choral singers than singers in acappella groups, but their sense of involvement in a broader community of like singers seems quite different, and they appear naturally less likely to be interested in networking groups on the web such as these Yahoo groups.
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