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Mar. 7th, 2014 10:28 amLast night I saw Roomful of Teeth sing in a half-empty auditorium. The half-empty auditorium part was a bit disappointing, because Roomful of Teeth is amazing and deserved the place being packed to the rafters, but I really can't complain about getting front row seats to see the Pulitzer and Grammy winning ensemble for ten bucks.
Roomful of Teeth is an eight member chorus dedicated to pushing the envelope of the use of unusual vocal technique in contemporary classical music. Their music involves throat singing, yodelling, overtone singing, blends of spoken word and choral singing, unusual rhythmic structures, choral warmup techniques, unusual harmonies. It all works because of clever composing and telepathic precision among the members of the ensemble.
Their debut CD has been at the top of my rotation for most of the past year- probably my three most listened to albums of 2013 were Roomful of Teeth's eponymous debut, Josh Ritter's "The Beast in its Tracks", and Stephane Ginsburg's "42 Vexations of Erik Satie".
So it was amazing to see them live, to see the energy they brought to the music. It also called my attention to aspects of the music I hadn't quite noticed before, like the way many of their pieces involve interplay between the female vocal parts and the male vocal parts as separate units in dialogue. I also liked the way several of the pieces involve moments where a motif is passed conversationally down the line from singer to singer. It's really cool how Roomful of Teeth juggles very informal folk singing practices like that with precisely coordinated, classical timing and technique. And it's particularly striking that they do it with self-conduction and more or less asynchronous antihierarchical coordination. At different moments it was the responsibility of different members of the group to deliver cues, and they passed that responsibility seamlessly.
Roomful of Teeth is an eight member chorus dedicated to pushing the envelope of the use of unusual vocal technique in contemporary classical music. Their music involves throat singing, yodelling, overtone singing, blends of spoken word and choral singing, unusual rhythmic structures, choral warmup techniques, unusual harmonies. It all works because of clever composing and telepathic precision among the members of the ensemble.
Their debut CD has been at the top of my rotation for most of the past year- probably my three most listened to albums of 2013 were Roomful of Teeth's eponymous debut, Josh Ritter's "The Beast in its Tracks", and Stephane Ginsburg's "42 Vexations of Erik Satie".
So it was amazing to see them live, to see the energy they brought to the music. It also called my attention to aspects of the music I hadn't quite noticed before, like the way many of their pieces involve interplay between the female vocal parts and the male vocal parts as separate units in dialogue. I also liked the way several of the pieces involve moments where a motif is passed conversationally down the line from singer to singer. It's really cool how Roomful of Teeth juggles very informal folk singing practices like that with precisely coordinated, classical timing and technique. And it's particularly striking that they do it with self-conduction and more or less asynchronous antihierarchical coordination. At different moments it was the responsibility of different members of the group to deliver cues, and they passed that responsibility seamlessly.