LAMC Presents: The New Swingle Singers

PROGRAM NOTES By Richard H. Trame, S.J., Ph.D. Loyola Marymount University

In 1985 the musical world will celebrate the tercentenary of Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, and Domenico Scarlatti. The occasion will see the Swingle Singers returning to their sources in as much as when first established in 1962, Ward Swingle and seven colleagues began singing Bach fugues in order to improve their sightreading and musicianship. Their experience in pursuing this medium of musical expression resulted in a record album, Bach's Greatest Hits, which firmly established their international reputation. After this Paris-based ensemble disbanded in 1973, Ward Swingle auditioned in London more than eighty classically and operatically trained singers. A double quartet of these expert musicians versed in the great British choral tradition emerged. The New Swingle Singers sang Bach as Bach was meant to be played. Not only Bach, but they embraced a repertoire of such widely distinct musical genre as the French madrigal, classical Mozart, the Romanticists, Scott Joplin, Gilbert and Sullivan, and Lennon and McCartney. Their success was phenomenal and the New Swingle Singers attained the reputation as masters of popular and classical scat. Scat has been defined as "a technique of jazz singing whereby melodies are sung to onomatopoeic or nonsense syllables:' Derived from west African percussive singing practice, scat singing as strongly influenced from 1927 by Louis Armstrong evolved into a technique involving the free invention of melodies and syllables. Essentially, many jazz instrumental devices were incorporated by such great singers as Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, and Cab Calloway into their singing. Consequently a scat singer functioned in an ensemble simply as another instrument freely developing vocally a given melodic theme. The New Swingle Singers, deriving their style from their classical training, Scottish folk music, and New Orleans jazz, applied the techniques of the scat singer to their broadly based repertoire. Their voices became the orchestra instruments whether in the rendition of a Bach figure or a Mozart overture. The founder, Ward Lamar Swingle, was born in Mobile, Alabama on September 9, 1927. He studied piano from the age of six in 1933, played family gigs while learning the alto saxophone and singing. After achieving a Masters Degree in music from the Cincinnati Conservatory in 1951 he went to Paris on a Fullbright Scholarship studying under the famed German concert pianist, Walter Gieseking. Taking up permanent residence in Paris in 1956, he served as pianist for a ballet company, an accompanist, and in a modern jazz vocal group, the Blue Stars. This later developed into another combo, the Double Six. In 1962 he organized the original Swingle Singers. This evening's program divides itself into segments illustrative of the extraordinarily broad ambit of the New Swingle Singers' style. Nothing could demonstrate the acute and precise musicianship of these virtuosi better than their rendition of the fast-paced, breathless, jocose orchestral masterpiece, the Overture to Mozart's great opera buffa The Marriage of Figaro. The Handel Air from his 1720 Suite in E Major is better known as The Harmonies Blacksmith. Handel provides five variations for this famed instrumental aria. In the Air from Bach's Orchestral Suite #3 in D, composed in Leipzig between 1729 and 1731, the New Swingle Singers take this beloved song for strings and return it to the air's origins, the human voice. The next section of the program marks Ward Swingle's arrangements of three medieval songs. Of these, L'Amour de Moi is a Fourteenth Century Old French folksong of exquisite beauty praising the beauties of May. The Agincourt Song, a Fifteenth Century carol, celebrated King Henry V's great victory of 1415 at Agincourt in English verse and Latin refrain. Nineteenth century French Romanticism finds expression in three songs by the prolific Camille Saint Saens (1835-1921). Les Fleurs (Flowers), for example, is an 1892 setting of a poem by V. de Collerville, while Les Arbres (Trees) of 1903 embellished a poem of J. Moreas. Next the program offers original compositions of Ward Swingle on familiar poems of Christopher Marlowe, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Shakespeare. These are followed by his arrangements of two South American dances. The Argentinian Zamba in 6/8 time originated in Peru. The lively Chilean dance Cueca alternates between 3/4 and 6/8 tempo in eight syllable quatrains with interspersed dialogue. Of the popular and jazz oriented selections on the program, many are well-known. We single out the following for comment, because they serve to heighten again our appreciation of the Singers variety of style. Round Midnight originally was a composition of the late Thelonious Monk whose style was characterized by unconventional chord progressions and melodies. Fascinatin' Rhythm illustrates John Carl Hendricks' practice of taking well-known instrumental jazz selections, in this case Gershwin's, and providing lyrics to these or creating original solo improvisations on them. · L'il Darlin' became a singularly popular ballad by Neil Hefti, a composer for numerous popular ballads. It was first introduced by Count Basie. Boplicity marks an example of the style of the Chicago-born bassist Richard Davis. After working with Benny Goodman, Sarah Vaughan, Igor Stravinsky, and Leonard Bernstein, Davis became one of the most sought after modern bassists with numerous record albums to his credit. He places emphasis in his playing style on rhythmic implication, a strong tone, and blues emotions. Who, What, When, Where, Why by the popular organist/bassist Groove Holmes illustrates his straightforward blues-rooted style. His most impressive recording You Better Believe It features him with the Gerald Wilson Band. Sophistication appears best seen in those songs by Noel Coward, who, as Michael Hurd asserts, created tunes closely wedded to their words and matching verbal dexterity with unexpected turns of phrases which, though never compromising the instantly memorable melodic shape, lift them out of the ordinary. Eric Coates (1886-1957) although a famed English viola player, spent all of his time after 1918 as a composer. London by Night illustrates his musical style for orchestra light in substance but of impeccable workmanship.