Chorus Contest

Hannah again! My main school, an all-girls school, held their annual コーラス コンクール, or choir competition, last week.

I’ve seen choir competitions in high schools before in America, but it was always the choir club/class competing against choirs from other schools. This was different. Every class, meaning every student in the school, competed in this choir competition. As a class, they had all been practicing for weeks during the summer vacation for this event and finally the fruits of their labor were realized. The whole contest took half a day, and the students all walked to the city’s culture center after lunch (I got to ride in a car :P) Parents attended this event too, most of them bringing cameras on tripods to record the entire show. The school itself also had three cameras set up, recording hi-def video for DVD and Bluray.

The program had the name of each class and their song, and a half-page illustration that the students had designed for their song. They were all really good! At the start of the competition, there were about 20 minutes of speeches. During this time, the three guest judges were introduced and it was explained what they would be judging the classes on.

Then the performances began. Each class went on stage, sang their chosen song, and then returned to their seats. They weren’t easy songs either, some of them had complex harmonies or difficult speeds, but it was all impressive. Everyone sang so beautifully! I am lucky to be part of such a talented school :D And the thing I thought was the most interesting was that the conductors were always a class member, and so was the accompanying pianist. That means the teachers had nothing to do with the actual performance of the songs.

Once all 12 classes had performed, the judges left to deliberate and the choir club performed a series of songs in the meantime, most of them not in Japanese (conducted by the club teacher). There was even an English one that I had heard them practicing before! I was asked to attend another practice and try to help with pronunciation and such, but whenever I went to where I THOUGHT they were practicing, it was usually a class rehearsing in the choir room. So I couldn’t really find them again to help...but they did really good without my help!

Finally the judges returned, and speeches were made, and they even gave the students tips on their singing. The bit I actually understood was that emotions affect how you sing and are conveyed through the music, no matter what the tune or lyrics are. The judge made an example of this by giving the students a note, then telling them they had a giant test the next day. The note definitely lacked emotion and conviction. Then she told them they were all going to Disneyland instead, and the note became louder and clearer. Also, as all the students were doing this, the entire performance hall echoed with this one single note.

On to the end! Third place was given to 3-2, who sang a song called Sakura Kisetsu, which had a nice blend of harmony and melody. Second place went to class 1-2 who sang Ichimo Meichu, a very impressive a capella piece full of difficult blending, punctuated by impressive volume control. And first place went to class 3-3 who sang a song called Haru Ni. I honestly didn’t have much to say about the song except the melody was really really pretty. But they got the trophy so I guess they impressed the judges! Class 2-1 also had a really nice song called Shinjiru that had a nice nostalgic feeling to the melody, and they were called up on stage too during the awards presentation, though I’m not sure what for. All of the classes did beautifully, and I can’t pick a favorite because I teach most of them! But based solely on song choice, I really liked 1-2’s song Ichimo Meichu, and 2-4 had an awesome song called Mordau played in a minor key, and 3-1 had a beautiful song called Aoi Tori that I keep getting in my head.

And that was the end of the choir contest at my school! I hope to be around when they do it again next year :)