The King's Singers

Dr. Greg Grove is the Vocal Music Director at City High School in Iowa City, IA, USA.

The Eyes Have It

They say that the eyes are the window to the soul. If we are going to communicate with someone on the deepest level we, therefore, must speak with our eyes as well as our tongues. Eye to eye. Soul to soul. May I make a suggestion? As you listen to The King’s Singers tonight, listen with your eyes through their eyes—eye to eye, soul to soul. Only then will you really experience the essence of The King’s Singers. For it is through their eyes that you will experience and share the passion they bring to this purest of art forms; a cappella singing.

It was in 1983 when I was first introduced to The King’s Singers by a colleague in Fort Collins, Colorado. In a discussion on how to teach intonation to our young choristers, she played a recording (vinyl of course) of this group of six Englishmen and stated, “Have your students listen to these guys and they will begin to understand perfect intonation.” Well for Pete’s sake at least two of them were singing in their falsetto voice that I had lost when I was twelve or so! It took all of two minutes or so of careful scrutiny, and boom! I was hooked.

Nineteen years, fourteen recordings (CDs of course), untold hours of listening, and countless classroom demonstrations later, I remain a huge fan of arguably the most popular a cappella singing group of the twentieth century. Though their sterling reputation in musical circles is nearly unchallenged, I admit to being puzzled by a couple of things about this group. How is it, for example that these gentlemen can work hard enough to achieve their well-deserved lofty status, and yet simultaneously appear to be having a darn good time doing what they do? Where are the tell-tale signs of hours of tedious rehearsal, weeks at a time on the road, and arguments about how long to hold the fermata at measure 34? How is it that The King’s Singers can so effectively transport me from a renaissance cathedral, to an English pub, to a street corner in New Orleans, to the dance floor in Vienna and back, all in the same evening?

While years of listening experience and concert attendance have brought me no closer to any kind of deep and sustaining truth on these matters, perhaps I am beginning to understand the quality that, regardless of the combined make-up of the group over the years, has led to enduring popularity and unparalleled success. I believe it is this: They have discovered the joy of singing. This is not to be confused with the thrill of standing ovations night after night and rave reviews from press all over the world. This is referring, rather to the stirring of the human soul when it is touched by the profundity (or even frivolity) of song. Whether it is before a packed house, an empty rehearsal room, a master class, an elementary classroom, or a pre-concert sound check, listening to The King’s Singers gives one an overwhelming sense that hey! Not only are these guys darn near perfect at what they do, but they love it night after night, city after city, continent after continent, year after year. How can I tell that’s true? I see it in their eyes.

From the outset, The King’s Singers have committed themselves to performing a wide-ranging and eclectic program, from renaissance polyphony to twentieth century avant-garde, with stops in Liverpool, England, to visit the Beatles, and other pop and jazz hotspots around the world. To sing this range of styles with equal proficiency takes a great deal of hard work. While the finished product appears effortless and polished, it is, in actuality, the product of hours of tedious rehearsal and attention to details we less-informed would never know exist. This commitment to hard work and excellence can be traced back to their initial training. In the formative years the singers were all Choral Scholars at King’s College, Cambridge, England. However, those singers not trained at King’s College have all been products of similar training at other choir schools: a strict regimen of sight reading, choral singing, vocal production and performance, for several hours each day, resulting in a trademark uniformity of sound.

As one might expect, this choir school and scholastic training exposed the members of the group to a great deal of sacred music from all eras. However, it also developed in the founding members a desire to explore other forms of non-sacred music; folk songs, madrigals, and popular songs. To satisfy this thirst, the two founders of the King’s Singers, Alastair Hume and Simon Carrington invited four of their friends to gather outside the school day at King’s College to sing secular songs. Gatherings such as this were traditional at King’s College. Why six singers? It was purely accidental. Alastair and Simon had discovered some secular pieces for two altos, a tenor, two baritones and a bass. Hence they invited enough singers to fill the parts. Being pleased with the resulting sound, they continued with the same six-singer format, though not limiting themselves to six-part music.

Building on these humble beginnings, The King’s Singers tapped into much of the best of what England offers choral musicians. Besides their training in the King’s College choral training, the singers drew on the rich English folk song tradition rekindled in the late 19th and early 20th century by such luminaries as Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gustav Holst, and Charles Stanford (not to mention such notable Englishmen as Gilbert and Sullivan and Lennon and McCartney). Additionally, the tradition of recreational singing found in the taverns and pubs throughout England and the rich madrigal tradition of the 16th century provided an abundance of materials from which to draw their repertoire. From this background the King’s Singers began to assemble programs of varied repertoire, similar to what we will hear this evening. With a nifty bit of self-promotion in and about the Cambridge area, they presented themselves in concert in an ever-widening area throughout England. It was in 1970 that the group finally applied themselves to a regular rehearsal and performance schedule: “And the rest is history,” says co-founder Alastair Hume.

Beyond their commitment to an excellent and varied product, this passion surely flows from their commitment to each other. Though they rate at the top of their profession and sing hundreds of concerts each year all over the world, beyond a booking agent and a tour manager, there is no high falutin’ corporate hierarchy of an administrative team pushing them into every auditorium and concert hall on the planet. They are just six guys who love to sing, share directing responsibilities, develop their own projects, essentially split the pie six ways, and have a grand time doing it. As former group member Bob Chilcott says, “We take our music seriously, but we don’t take ourselves seriously”. There is great effort on the part of the singers to keep everything and everyone on an even basis. There are no stars. “There is a wonderful sense of lack of ego,” states former manager Gillian Newson. Rehearsals are run democratically, with no assigned music director, and everyone’s ideas weighed equally. Project ideas come from within the group and are given equal consideration. They don’t even sign contracts for crying out loud! They show up for work because they love to work. When they don’t want to do it any more, they graciously bow out. They wear their passion for their job on their sleeves and it proves to be contagious, not only within the group, but with the listening world as well.

So, all this being said, what is the importance of The King’s Singers in the musical world today? Why do they continue to pack concert halls, sell CDs like pints in a pub on Friday, and appear in all major forms of media throughout the world, forty years after they began as a group of six cherubs in choir school? A case can be made for the vast amount of literature they have uncovered, for the new music they have generated through over two hundred commissions, and certainly for their numerous appearances and the good will they spread through the choral art. And of course the sheer quality of their finished product is an inspiration to all who aspire to a standard of excellence at what we do. For me, however, the answer is more simplistic than that. They are living proof that not only can people make a living being devoted to what they love to do but, given a whole-hearted commitment to excellence, the passion becomes obvious, overriding and contagious. Perhaps Bob Chilcott summed it up best, “what we want to communicate is that singing,……not only is it incredibly skilled and communicative, but it’s also incredible fun, and it’s there for everybody.” So, as you listen tonight, go beyond the sheer beauty of the sound, into the depth and passion of it’s performance, be it the frivolity of a Weelkes madrigal or the profundity of a Tavener motet. Journey with The King’s Singers and share their joy. Eye to eye. Soul to soul.