Solo Unaccompanied Singing and Songs

Subject: RE: Solo Unaccompanied Singing and Songs
From: Alice
Date: 25 Aug 00 - 12:41 PM

I think its important to remember that the first "instrument" for music was probably the voice. All through time, people have sung without playing an instrument along with the singing. Most people don't play instruments, but most people can sing, to some degree, anyway.

We've discussed work songs in past threads and this whole notion of keeping silent now that the work place is in public, in offices, no longer so much in fields, mines, forests, barns, ships, and homes. But, singing used to accompany work.

Last night on NPR radio, I was listening to a news report on the type of independent professional (like me and many of you) who work from a computer in a home office. The NPR staff then broke into "The e-works Song", "Logged on this morning, Got to do some consulting..."

I sing around my home while I work. I remember one of our discussions included people talking about whistling as they walked down the hallway at work, etc. I remember hearing alot of people singing in Mexico in markets and especially in Vera Cruz, a city of music, listening to the Coca-Cola delivery man singing as he unloaded his van.

Now I'll have to dig up that NPR song.

Alice

Subject: RE: Solo Unaccompanied Singing and Songs
From: Alice
Date: 25 Aug 00 - 12:48 PM

The NPR E-Works song (scroll down the page) E-Work Song (14.4 | 28.8) -- All Things Considered offers a work song for temporary workers that might need an outlet for their pain at having an insecure status in the workforce. CLICK HERE

Alice

Subject: RE: Solo Unaccompanied Singing and Songs
From: GUEST,rabbitrunning
Date: 25 Aug 00 - 01:18 PM

Mbo, don't worry about Tom Paxton. He got it right. But people who sing the same songs unaccompanied are getting it right too. The trick lies in recognizing that both kinds of singing are challenging, and both have merit. And for certain songs, the traditional presentation is unaccompanied. So if you've gone out looking for a traditional presentation, accompaniment is jarring to you.

It's like illustrations in childrens books. For most people the first picture they saw of the three little pigs will forever define the "right way" to draw them. It takes a lot of work to decide that "pigs is pigs", and appreciate a broad variety of interpretations. And even when we've learned to appreciate new ways of seeing things, in our secret hearts we still _know_ what's "right."

Subject: RE: Solo Unaccompanied Singing and Songs
From: Mbo
Date: 25 Aug 00 - 01:23 PM

Ok, class, we are all going on a field trip over to Jenny/moonbaby's thread about her guitar. And tell her she WASTED her money on a pile of junk that will only impede and detract from her singing and ability to communicate emotion in song.

Subject: RE: Solo Unaccompanied Singing and Songs
From: GUEST,Barry Finn
Date: 25 Aug 00 - 01:44 PM

I once in awhile accompany myself with bodhran but on the whole it's most always been just voice, it's so easy to cart around with you, I never have to go out & buy new teeth when the old ones get worn down or stop mid song to tune up or down the vocal cords & I never get threats like "if he doesn't stop I'll break his mouth" or "I'll kill his throat" where as I'd sometimes get "will someone break his hand or his arm, that'll get 'em to stop". You can disguise yourself in public & getaway with murder will carrying around an instrument case is a dead giveaway & your bound to get caught & blamed for anything. Terrorists can't use your own voice against you like they could an instrument, like hang you by your own guitar string or beat you about the head with your own banjo or poke you with your own whistle or worst play your concertina in your own ear while tied & gaged & you with no means of escape. You'll never go hungry while there's a song in your heart, for example try to call a pig with a harp or get a sheep to come via bones playing or even convince a goat to give milk by gently beating a bodhran, animals I known aren't all that fond of musical instruments but they do like a song. Ever see a whale or a porpoise or even a bird for that matter playing something, ah, but a song. Never heard of a body haul up a sail with a flute or cut down a tree with a mandola or lay track with a uke or row with spoons or cure cloth with a jews harp ( course I've never seen sick cloth either). Try singing under water, now try playing there or try to sing while your trying to fly, or fall, now try playing. Can you blow a harmonica while skating or play an E string on the fiddle while jumping fences. Ok, so what's more natural? Barry who'sduckingallthoseflyinginstruments

Subject: RE: Solo Unaccompanied Singing and Songs
From: Jim Krause
Date: 25 Aug 00 - 02:14 PM

Naemanson, There are a few songs that I feel I can put over a little better unaccompanied. Some that come to mind are
Jack Monore
Jolly Grog
A Canadian Boat Song

I started doing Jack Monroe unaccompanied because I thought it had such a compelling, sparse melody that adding anything would take away. And besides, the recording I learned it from was made in the hills around Galax, VA by somebody from the LOC who recorded Crocket Ward and his wife Perline. Mountain music may be equalled, but it would be hard to improve on the Ward family.

As for Jolly Grog when you get the audience roaring along with you, what's the point of bringing in guitars, or mandolins and such? IMHO sea chanties are always best unaccompanied.

And then there's A Canadian Boat Song. The melody for this is a traditional French Canadian voyageur song originally titled Dans Mon Chemin. Thomas Moore learned it while on vacation in the US and Canada from some boatmen. He took the melody and wrote a separate set of lyrics for it, and had quite a hit back in 1803. It is fun to sing this a capella in three part harmony.

Subject: RE: Solo Unaccompanied Singing and Songs
From: Linda Kelly
Date: 25 Aug 00 - 02:25 PM

I sing unaccompanied almost always english traditional. This suits my voice best although I have recently started singing in a three part harmony group. I am troubled by this because I have the concentration of a gnat and find it difficult to maintain the proper tune. I play several instruments too badly for public outings hence the unaccompanied singing. My favourite tunes are Come all ye maids who live at a distance and Farewell to Tarwaithe -both suit my rather plaintive voice well -I only do sad songs since I do not have a robust voice

Subject: RE: Solo Unaccompanied Singing and Songs
From: Alice
Date: 25 Aug 00 - 02:40 PM

to answer the question what songs I sing solo acapella, here are some that I think are done best that way:
My Lagan Love
She Lived Beside The Anner
Red Is The Rose
The Quiet Land of Erin
Gartan Mother's Lullaby
Paddy's Lamentation (By the Hush)
Wexford Mummer's Song

Subject: RE: Solo Unaccompanied Singing and Songs
From: Naemanson
Date: 25 Aug 00 - 03:26 PM

I also started out singing unaccompanied. It is only in recent years that I started to attempt to play my guitar. I felt as if playing the instrument was a required part of folk music, like my friend I mentioned earlier. And my experience has been largely that the instrument is a required part of the genre. There are many tune sessions around here but almost no song sessions. I went to a few of the tune sessions and found I couldn't get a word in edge wise. And I didn't feel like singing was encouraged.

More recently I have decided that my house needs to be the site for a regular song session that I will be calling "A House Full Of Song". Instruments are welcome but the idea is to sing. In the meantime I think I will relegate the guitars to the living room and concentrate more on my voice.

Mbo, I trust your last post was intended to be funny. No one is saying there is anything wrong with accompaniment. If you review a random sample of the music oriented posts over the last few months (i.e., as long as I have been here) you'll see they speak predominantly of accompanied music. I was starting to feel self conscious about my solo unaccompanied singing. I fo one am glad to know there are so many who enjoy it and perform it.

Subject: RE: Solo Unaccompanied Singing and Songs
From: Diva
Date: 25 Aug 00 - 04:29 PM

DougR thank you for the compliment :-) Mbo sang unaccompanied last night on Hearme and did a grand job,we'll have you singing Muckle Sangs yet,Matt

Subject: RE: Solo Unaccompanied Singing and Songs
From: DougR
Date: 25 Aug 00 - 05:32 PM

A deserved compliment, to be sure Diva. You have a beautiful voice and use it well.

Sorry I missed MBO's unaccompanied song.

DougR

Subject: RE: Solo Unaccompanied Singing and Songs
From: Ferrara
Date: 25 Aug 00 - 06:44 PM

Here's a shameless plug for the FSGW Getaway: Both Linda Rice-Johnston and Judy Cook will be doing half hour mini concerts of their wonderful unaccompanied singing, leading or contributing to workshops, and just being part of the music all weekend. Just a small part of the magic of the Getaway. Ok, sorry. I get carried away.

Alice, when I was in Italy I heard a whole lot of the kind of singing you're describing, for example, I would hear women's voices from houses I passed and I assumed they were singing as they cooked, washed and cleaned. Very Italian indeed.

Barry, I don't know about animals but birds do respond to musical instruments. I had a canary that sang loudly when I played the zither. And I used to play guitar and sing at Great Falls Park, on fall evenings when there weren't many people there. I was amazed to see that birds, chipmunks, etc. came very close to me while I was singing. (even a garter snake.) Maybe it's just because I didn't move around very much.

Subject: RE: Solo Unaccompanied Singing and Songs
From: Wotcha
Date: 25 Aug 00 - 11:39 PM

I haven't been "singing" very long but a good chantey commmands awful respect anywhere in the world. I sing unaccompanied cos I can't read music and haven't figured out the concertina yet. Whenever I do an open mic there is an awesome silence ... you can feel people actually listening; an amazing sensation.
I currently sing solo only because nobody knows the songs out here in Chicago -- I do wish they'd join in.
I haven't given up on Chicago yet -- too much good blues and jazz to distract the locals I fear.
Any local 'Catters wanna give this a push?
Cheers,
Brian

Subject: RE: Solo Unaccompanied Singing and Songs
From: oggie
Date: 26 Aug 00 - 02:35 PM

I sing unaccompanied most of the time because that's how I learnt the songs before I played instruments. I sing a lot of Lincolnshire songs which I learnt from the Joseph Taylor recordings and other unaccompanied singers which, for me, don't work once they are placed within the rigid framework of guitar or melodeon. For contemporary songs (with a modern feel as opposed to modern trad) I tend to use guitar and for social singing in a non-folk enviroment I use melodeon as it gets more attention than voice alone - the material also tends to be stamp-a-long chorus stuff which works.

The english tradition tends to be overlooked but Joseph Taylor, Harry Cox, Walter Pardon are well worth looking up and of course the Coppers and Fred Jordan (made Seeds of Love sound new and vital!)

All the best

Steve

Subject: RE: Solo Unaccompanied Singing and Songs
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 26 Aug 00 - 07:44 PM

When I'm singing my own songs I tend to use a guitar, because it helps me keep in tune, and gives me something to do if I find the next line or the next verse has gone walkabout.

But I know that, when I'm on form, singing unaccompanied is better - the rhythm is freer and the tune can change more easily from verse to verse, which is how I think the kind of songs I sing need to be sung. That's one reason why friends have found it tricky to accompany my singing.

In a non-folky setup, unaccompanied singing tends to confuse people, and gets in the way of them listening.

Accompanied singing for what we'd think of as folk sonmgs is a very recent development in our cultures. Instrumental music has been primarily for dancing, and when it's time for a song the players put down their instruments and listen.

And none of this is to say that there aren't singers who can use their instruments to give their songs greater emotional depth and power. I'm just back today from Whitby Folk Week, and am thinking of people who wereat this year's Whitby, like Vin Garbutt and Tim Laycock and John Kirkpatrick, who showed us how to do precisely that.

But I am also thinking of other brilliant musicians who allow their playing to get in the way of and pretty well destroy their rendering of songs. And I'm not going to name any names here.

Subject: RE: Solo Unaccompanied Singing and Songs
From: Ebbie
Date: 26 Aug 00 - 11:36 PM

In a typical week I take part in several different approaches to music, all in private homes. On Thursday nights 10 or 12 of us get together and have a comfortable mix of instrumentals and vocals. Rarely however is a song or tune repeated. It's a good place to present original works, especially from the semi-professional musicians. It's where we get to hear the cuts from upcoming CDs.

On Saturday nights another group meets and there our focus is on song, sometimes with guitar and/or fiddle but frequently unaccompanied. There are 6 or 8 of us there and we work on harmonies and different presentations until we are all glowing with sound.

Does anyone else here sing Hazel Dickens or Ginny Hawker songs? It's the Primitive Baptist approach, generally speaking, but we also do a lot of their secular songs; we have many favorites. Almost all of those songs we do unaccompanied and they're usually done with one strong vocal lead and everyone else experimenting with harmonies and parts. Awesome.

Ebbie

Subject: RE: Solo Unaccompanied Singing and Songs
From: Margo
Date: 27 Aug 00 - 01:34 AM

Gee Naemanson, I'd sure like to have heard what Louis Killen had to say about a'capella singing since I think he is a Master of the art. Can you remember anything specific that he said that stuck in your mind? I'd be grateful if you'd share, Margo

Subject: RE: Solo Unaccompanied Singing and Songs
From: hesperis
Date: 27 Aug 00 - 01:46 AM

My favorite performance ever was the time when my family sang Christmas Carols in a local mall.
We got a really good response from people, and it was so much fun! I was totally not nervous, and back then, I was usually tied up in knots before a performance.

My stepdad sings bass-baritone on the melody, my mother sings alto on harmony, and I sing alto usually doubling the melody. Sometimes my mother and I switch parts, and sometimes I sing descant if my stepdad feels comfortable carrying the melody by himself.

(The thing that really amazed me was how many people didn't sing along with us!
I still don't understand why they didn't...)

One woman came by with a very young baby. (I don't know babies, so I can't tell how old it was.) My mother sang a song to it, and it stayed quiet the whole time. The woman was amazed. I wasn't, because I know my mother can sing!
(Hey, if she could sing me to sleep, she can sing any baby to sleep!)

We were a capella for the whole thing. We sang for a few hours, and several people thanked us for brightening their Christmas shopping.
It was so much fun!

Sometimes me and my mother sing carols on the bus. Several of the bus drivers in Orillia know me as "that girl with the angel voice." (They're really sweet people.)

~*sirepseh*~

Subject: RE: Solo Unaccompanied Singing and Songs
From: Naemanson
Date: 27 Aug 00 - 08:41 AM

I'm sorry Margo but I don't remember any specifics. It was a workshop situation and there were four or five people there. Generally they all talked of how they learned to sing in their families as they were growing up, they talked of the rare use of instruments and the strength of the unaccompanied voice, pretty much what everyone else here has been saying right along. And, of course, they all sang some great songs.

Another story of that festival: That evening in the YTB the whole crowd was gathered, around midnight or 1:00 AM, when a fellow stood up and brandished a huge chocolate bar. He said, "I have here a pound of the best chocolate you have ever tasted and you can all have a piece." He grinned at us and continued, "But you have to sing for it!" What followed was an entire evening of largely unaccompanied songs rolling out one after the other almost without allowing us an opportunity to applaud. Louis was the third or fourth to sing and later was heard to say the chocolate went very well with the scotch he was drinking.

McGrath mentioned using the guitar because it "...gives me something to do if I find the next line or the next verse has gone walkabout." One of the reasons (try not to laugh) I started working on playing the guitar on stage is that it gave me something to do with my hands while I sang. I generally end up sticking them in my pockets which my fellow members of Roll & Go tell me I shouldn't do.

What do you do with your hands when you sing sean nos?

Subject: RE: Solo Unaccompanied Singing and Songs
From: GUEST,Ann
Date: 27 Aug 00 - 09:47 AM

My but your question has sparked some interest!

The question is 'does the music enhance the song' I sing both unaccompanied and as part of a four part harmony. Most traditional songs and ballads were probably sung unaccompanied (the voice itself being an instrument.)

As an avid listener of other people I feel that on occasion not enough thought goes into accompaniment and the music can detract from the performance and even puts people off joining in choruses.

A subtle accompaniment 'lifts' a song and makes its performance memorable.

Subject: RE: Solo Unaccompanied Singing and Songs
From: Alice
Date: 27 Aug 00 - 11:52 AM

"What do you do with your hands when you sing sean nos?"

... you hold the glass with your drink. ;-)

Alice

Subject: RE: Solo Unaccompanied Singing and Songs
From: Naemanson
Date: 27 Aug 00 - 11:59 AM

But Alice, that would require me to be a two fisted drinker! Or am I supposed to have my other arm around someone else?

Signed,

Brett (with little experience in pub singing but lots of interest in gaining some)

Subject: RE: Solo Unaccompanied Singing and Songs
From: Noreen
Date: 27 Aug 00 - 12:33 PM

Breton singers do that, Brett- two men side-by-side on stage at a fest noz, arms over each others shoulders while they sing 'mouth music' for the dancers. Very supportive.

I find sitting is best as you can lay your hands in your lap, but hands are a problem when standing. Behind your back? Straight by your sides looks best but it's difficult to learn to leave them there!

Noreen

Subject: RE: Solo Unaccompanied Singing and Songs
From: WyoWoman
Date: 27 Aug 00 - 12:59 PM

Ebbie-- Yes, I sing a Hazel Dickens song "Fly Away, Little Pretty Bird," and would love to learn more of hers. (Rcommendations?) Lots of Appalachian songs are lovely sung a capella ("Bright Morning Stars" is one of my faves).

And Alison, every time I've stood up and sung a song without accompaniment, the house instantly falls completely quiet -- in a way it doesn't when there are accompanied voices. Maybe it's because it is unusual, but I certainly haven't experienced any unwillingness on the part of audiences to listen to such songs, when they're given the opportunity.

I'm learning to play the guitar now, just because I got tired of limiting myself to only a capella songs and because I wanted to stop driving guitarists crazy when I'd say things like, "No, no. I think it goes UP right there," but I agree with Alice (and me dear ol' mama, the vocal music teacher) that the first instrument probably was the voice and it ought to be honored as such.

And re. having to ask the instrumentalists not to play -- one of the reasons to have well-established rules for singarounds is to let the players know that whoever's turn it is gets to say whether or not s/he wants accompaniment. I've run into a few guitarists who get a bit snooty about this, but generally everyone is respectful and happy to listen.

WW

Subject: RE: Solo Unaccompanied Singing and Songs
From: Alice
Date: 27 Aug 00 - 12:59 PM

Standing helps to open up the space for breath support, so stand up, Brett, and FORGET about your hands. Don't clasp them behind your back, just relax. If you need to think about holding them a certain way, or if they are shaking to make you noticeably nervous, bring them up together in front of you in some relaxed way, touch the fingertips together or lightly lace your fingers together to stop the shaking, but however you hold them or if you place your hand against your chest, or let them relax by your side, don't focus on it. Focus on the meaning of the words, and you will eventually find that your hands will unconsciously do what you do when you are talking. When you stand and talk to a friend about something, when you are relaxed, you don't think about your hands. You just need to get to that same comfort zone when you are singing.

Subject: RE: Solo Unaccompanied Singing and Songs
From: WyoWoman
Date: 27 Aug 00 - 01:06 PM

Oh, and how is sean nos pronounced? Is it equivalent to a capella?

ww

Subject: RE: Solo Unaccompanied Singing and Songs
From: Naemanson
Date: 27 Aug 00 - 01:06 PM

You are right that I don't focus on my hands when I talk but they move on their own then. I have enough French in me to make sure they try to illustrate my point.

How do you keep a (fill in ethnicity here) silent?

Ties his hands.

We have a member of Roll & Go who used to clasp his hands in front of himself holding his arms straight down such that his clasped hands remained at crotch level. Then he would nervously flick his fingers. It looked like he was playing with himself but we managed to break him of that habit.

I am working on ignoring my hands but when I do that they end up in my pockets when I sing standing up. More work to do but then such is life.

Subject: RE: Solo Unaccompanied Singing and Songs
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 27 Aug 00 - 01:10 PM

"What do you do with your hands when you sing sean nos?"

Well, one thing you see with the real stuff is the singer holds hands with someone else who emotionally (ie not vocally) backs the singer up in wrestling with the song. It sounds a strange idea, and it looks a bit strange too, but it really does help.

And of course you also get singers like Norma Waterson or the late Jeannie Robertson who use the hands as a kind of accompanying instrument. I don't mean they are clkapping or maming a noise, but they are somehow weaving the listener into the song. I don't know how to describe it, but it's very powerful indeed.

But while I'm posting, can I put in once again a strong reservation about using the way term a capella is thrown around. As I understand it, there is a particular style being referred to when the term a capella is used correctly, and it's not the style most of us use when we're singing unaccompanied. And sean nos is a term that is better kept for the styles of singing used in the unaccompanied Irish traditions.

Unaccompanied singing covers everything from sea shanties to flamenco (when that is done without a guitar). That is just to mention two styles for which terms like a capella and sean nos would be grotesquely inappropriate.

Subject: RE: Solo Unaccompanied Singing and Songs
From: Alice
Date: 27 Aug 00 - 01:45 PM

McGrath, you are right of course, those terms a capella and sean nós have a very particular meaning.

Subject: RE: Solo Unaccompanied Singing and Songs
From: Alice
Date: 27 Aug 00 - 02:04 PM

W. W., there are several good sites on the net about sean nós. I used to have a link to a sound file of a man's voice pronouncing sean nós, but I can't find it. Here is a good page about it on Ceolas. There is also a thread on Mudcat I linked to earlier in this thread. Styles of Irish Traditional Singing

John Moulden's Ulstersongs website has lots of field recordings of unaccompanied singers in Ireland. He has tapes of musicians, storytellers, and singers, unaccompanied and accompanied. I recommend his site to get tapes. I love the one where a woman is singing in her kitchen and you can hear the chickens in the yard outside the door. There are conversations and discussions of the songs, where they were learned, who taught them in the family, etc. Great resource, listed in Mudcat links. His site is here: http://members.aol.com/jmoul81075/ulstsong.htm click here I particuarly enjoyed hearing the tape of Annie Jane Kelly, neighbor to Sarah Makem, and wish there were many more songs recorded with her singing.

Alice

Subject: RE: Solo Unaccompanied Singing and Songs
From: PoohBear
Date: 27 Aug 00 - 03:23 PM

I sing unaccompanied most of the time because my guitar playing is worse than my voice - and I have few illusions about either!

Cheers....PB

Subject: RE: Solo Unaccompanied Singing and Songs
From: Noreen
Date: 27 Aug 00 - 05:22 PM

Wyo Woman, the pronunciation of sean-n¢s is somewhere between 'shan noess' and shan noss'.

Alice, thanks for refreshing your compilation of other 'singing threads', there's a lot of good reading there. Maybe a link to that thread should be placed in this thread too? One of the links leads to an extract from the book by Tom s O Canainn which is well worth reading for the definition of the Sean-n¢s.

And I agree totally with McGrath- unaccompanied Irish traditional singing is not 'a capella'.

Good thread, still going strong, Brett!

Noreen

Subject: RE: Solo Unaccompanied Singing and Songs
From: Noreen
Date: 27 Aug 00 - 05:57 PM

Alice, (and others), this Comhaltas book/tape set was mentioned in one of the old threads, and it appears to be still available: TRADITIONAL SONGS AND SINGERS is well worth getting hold of!

Noreen

Subject: RE: Solo Unaccompanied Singing and Songs
From: Alice
Date: 27 Aug 00 - 06:13 PM

Noreen, I did place a link to the old thread about sean nós in this thread click here, but this one is getting a little long and may have been overlooked.

Subject: RE: Solo Unaccompanied Singing and Songs
From: GUEST,Dave Brennan
Date: 27 Aug 00 - 10:13 PM

I'm not sure of the reasons why one would sing unaccompanied. After all if you have a talent for playing a musical instrument then maybe you bring it more alive for your audience.

I don't think I could sing with somone playing along with me. I'd be too worried I'd left her/him behind some way. Maybe when you sing by yourself you get inside the song more.

I can remember Joe Heaney once singing, I think it was the Ship Millross. It was in O'Donohoughs, in Dublin and my mother had asked Maureen to make sure I got a least one hot meal that day, So Maureen told me to come around during the 'Holy Hour' and she'd have something for me. When he was up in Dublin or coming back or for a visit, he usually ate Paddy and Maureen's.

My recollection was that John Kelly, the fiddler from west Clare was there that day, Seamas Ennis too and of course Joe. Anyway, after the dinner and much discussion, Maureen asked if Joe might sing; she loved to hear his voice...we all did. But anyway, he got to the verse where he sung..."a pocket pistol I drew forth and at him I let fly. I gave him have the revolver, Boys, which pierced him through the heart and I let him have the third one there before I did depart."

At the end of that verse, Joe suddenly got off his stool and shouted, "It wasn't me. I didn't mean it."

I think when he was singing, he was there..he was in that cabin onboard the ship, and the horror of what happened was so real. Would it have been the same if Joe had had maybe John Kelly playing too? I don't know, but there you are; that was Joe, God rest him.

Subject: RE: Solo Unaccompanied Singing and Songs
From: Ebbie
Date: 27 Aug 00 - 10:22 PM

WyoWoman, probably my favorite Dickens song is "West Virginia, My Home." I sang it for family once and one of my sisters said, While you were singing, I was feeling so lonesome until I remembered we hadn't lived in West Virginia but in Virginia!

Sung for effect, it's a powerful song. Hazel Dickens' voice is not particularly melodious but she writes some good stuff.

I love instrument-accompanied songs but there are some songs that beg for the purity of voice alone, I think.

Ebbie

Subject: RE: Solo Unaccompanied Singing and Songs
From: Alice
Date: 27 Aug 00 - 11:34 PM

great remembrance of Joe Heaney, Dave. thanks very much.

Subject: RE: Solo Unaccompanied Singing and Songs
From: GUEST,Virginia Blankenhorn
Date: 27 Aug 00 - 11:57 PM

Dave Brennan's post gets pretty close to the truth, I think. (I may be prejudiced -- he's my husband!) But I think one problem that American audiences may have with unaccompanied singing is the intimacy of it. When there's a guitar or concertina, it's entertainment. When it's a singer by himself he is (a) taking a much bigger risk, and (b) asking the audience to connect with the subject matter of a song in a way that's much more emotional -- because unless he sings with intense conviction, the song will be deader than roadkill. That level of participation is asking a lot of an audience, and many Americans (I'm one, so I can speak) are uneasy with that much intense emotion.

There's a curious thing that happens with many songs in Irish, a habit that I think may have derived from the singer's need to distance himself from his material (like Joe Heaney in Dave's story above). Instead of using direct narrative to describe something that happened, in many performances the singer uses an indirect / subordinate clause -- so, for example, instead of saying "our boat was lost at sea" it would be something like "that our boat was lost at sea", as if it were part of a longer sentence that began "and the story goes..." I think it's a way the singers have found to remind themselves that what they're singing is a story. Some singers even go so far as to insert "he says" ad lib in their songs from time to time, for (I think) the same reason -- the singer wants to remind us (and himself) that he's just repeating what he's heard. It speaks volumes about the immediacy of this kind of singing that they need to do that.

Subject: RE: Solo Unaccompanied Singing and Songs
From: Troll
Date: 28 Aug 00 - 12:19 AM

Good point about the closeness to the audience and the risk of being up there all alone Virginia. I can't sing a song unaccompanied unless it touches me in some way outside of the normal range of emotion.
I have a number of songs that I sing unacompanied but I am aware that, most of the time, the audience can only take just so much, so I try to limit them to gain the maximum impact.
Of course, a lot depends on the audience and the venue. I have been in sessions where no one who sang used an instrument and others where the use of instruments was mixed. In each case no one seemed to mind if there were or were not instruments being played.

troll

Subject: RE: Solo Unaccompanied Singing and Songs
From: WyoWoman
Date: 28 Aug 00 - 01:53 AM

Well, Ebbie. You inspired me and I just ordered one of Hazel Dickens' CDs -- it has West Virginia My Home on it, so I'll have to add that to my repertoire.

And re. the difference between a capella and unaccompanied singing, etc. -- what's the distinction? Is a capella chamber music for the voice? And what exactly does sean nos mean then?

Curiously, ww

Subject: RE: Solo Unaccompanied Singing and Songs
From: Naemanson
Date: 28 Aug 00 - 07:22 AM

These last posts about intimacy with the audience have been an eye opener for me. I started out in front of audiences with solo voice because that was all I had. It never occurred to me to ask why the audience became so still when I was singing. Or, in the case of some of the sadder, more emotional songs, it took a few seconds for the applause to start.

I understand what is being said about United Statesians and our discomfort with displays of intense emotion. I guess that makes me realize now, for I didn't realize it before, what a risk I take climbing up on that stage to sing. I hope I can forget that before I go back up there!*BG*

Subject: RE: Solo Unaccompanied Singing and Songs
From: Alice
Date: 28 Aug 00 - 11:03 AM

WW. sean nós literally means "old style". There is recently a thread on Mudcat about sean nós dancing, too.

In the US, a capella has lost its original meaning of being in the chapel, and there are lots of groups, competitions, websites, etc., of everything from jazz to rock and rhythm & blues - one example is Rockapella, who use the term a capella, but it isn't solo. Rockapella used to sing on the kids geography game on PBS called Where In The World Is Carmen San Diego? They would do little doo-wop bits throughout the show with lyrics about the game. Lots of kids recognize Rockapella.

Subject: RE: Solo Unaccompanied Singing and Songs
From: Alice
Date: 28 Aug 00 - 11:20 AM

Here is another page discussing sean nós:

SEAN-NOS

quote in part:
"...All my informants in Donegal sang as they breathed: unselfconsciously and spontaneously. Describing the prevalence of singing in her daily life, Sailí Gallagher exclaimed:

I always sing when I'm working - I never stop singing! I never stop - and somebody'll see us the other day, and I was makin' tea and I was singin' away, and they said, "Well, you're happy, anyway." But I never stop singing - I always keep on! 35

Aine Ní Ghallachóir, recalling her girlhood, remarked, "Oh, I sang everywhere - across the fields and jumping over the ditches - I sang everywhere, to myself!" 36

To the traditional singer, sean-nós is no mere matter of technique or style. It cannot be bounded by concepts of time and space - or even by the folkloristic concepts I have discussed here (function, performance context, repertoire, etc.). Such concepts imply that human behavior and creativity can be separated into discrete units and analyzed accordingly. But to the traditional singer, there can be no such tidy demarcations. To him, sean-nós cannot be detached from the process of living, for it is the stuff of life itself.
Julie Henigan - 14.8.99
This article first appeared in Ulster Folklife No 37 (1991): pp 97-105

Subject: RE: Solo Unaccompanied Singing and Songs
From: jeffp
Date: 28 Aug 00 - 11:33 AM

This is such a great thread! I have been singing and accompanying myself on guitar for thirty years, but I'm planning to give unaccompanied singing a try. Of course I've sung unaccompanied walking down the street or through the woods, but not in "public". What you all have written will be a big help to me, and for that I thank all of you.

jeffp

Subject: RE: Solo Unaccompanied Singing and Songs
From: Ferrara
Date: 28 Aug 00 - 11:46 AM

Threads like this are the heart of Mudcat as far as I'm concerned.

I think I said up above that I sang "a capella" in certain circumstances. Soon as I typed it I thought it should have been "unaccompanied," but hoped nobody would notice... I should have known better!!!

Subject: RE: Solo Unaccompanied Singing and Songs
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 28 Aug 00 - 11:46 AM

When performing, singing with guitar or banjo, I make a great practice of maintaining eye contact with members of the audience--or if there's too big an audience, of looking around AS IF I were making eye contact. I think this is essential to showmanship, to keep from seeming a mere purveyor of others' songs, to make the song "my own".

Howsomever, because most of the songs I sing unaccompanied are so intense, I can't make that personal contact. I will close my eyes or look off at the ceiling or something. To make eye contact would be unbearable for me, and I think probably for the eye-contactee.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Solo Unaccompanied Singing and Songs
From: Naemanson
Date: 28 Aug 00 - 12:48 PM

There is a wonderful sense of purpose and accomplishment when one asks a question that elicits such a lively debate. I have enjoyed reading all the responses and feel that I have learned some very important things here that will improve my performances and my enjoyment of singing.

Thanks to everyone for all the input.

Subject: RE: Solo Unaccompanied Singing and Songs
From: Alice
Date: 28 Aug 00 - 01:41 PM

Ferrara, I agree about threads like this being the heart of Mudcat. When you set the forum refresh button for two or three years and read the threads from back then, almost all of them used to be like this thread.

Alice

Subject: RE: Solo Unaccompanied Singing and Songs
From: WyoWoman
Date: 28 Aug 00 - 01:54 PM

Dave -- that's true for me as well. I end up closing my eyes when I sing unaccompanied, partly because it keeps me in the song and therefore remembering my words. But also because the contact gets to be too electric too soon if I look someone in the eye. As soon as the song's over, i can do that, but not during.

Thank you for that link and the info re. sean nos, Alice. I also agree that this is the heart of Mudcat and what it STILL is about. If I see a thread that's too much B.S. for me, I just back out of the room and find one of these. There are still plenty and if people in another room insist on quarreling with each other, well, that's their affair and not mine.

BUT ... these threads are hard on my pocketbook. They're always inspiring me to buy one CD or another ...

WW

Subject: RE: Solo Unaccompanied Singing and Songs
From: hesperis
Date: 28 Aug 00 - 02:14 PM

Have you ever noticed that a lot of people cough at the most emotional moments?
This happens when listening to songs and watching movies.
If somebody's dying, or the song is at a really tender moment, I'll be sitting there with tears streaming down my face, or just caught up in the magic of it, and there is this HUGE chorus of *hack* *cough* *snort* et cetera.
And then people turn to me saying, "wow, you were really affected by that!" As if I'm the one who's doing something strange...

It's really wierd.