Swingle Singers

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Swingle Singers (1964)
The Swingles at the Black Forest Voices Festival in the Kirchzartener Talvogtei on June 29, 2019

Les Swingle Singers (since 2014 and already in the 1970s also briefly The Swingles ) are an a cappella - octet that the American Ward Swingle in 1962 Paris founded. Ward Swingle lived in France from 1951 to 1973 and studied there for three years with the pianist Walter Gieseking .

The group

The ensemble is divided into four female and four male voices, which with a slightly varying cast usually sing two upper voices and one lower part for the women ( soprano I, soprano II, and alto ), and the analogue for the male voices ( tenor I, tenor II , and bass ). In the 1960s these were Jeanette Baucomont, soprano, prizewinner for piano and singing, opera singer and member of the "Societe de Musique Ancienne" (Society for Early Music); Christiane Legrand, soprano, comes from a family of musicians, also trained in piano and singing; Anne Germain and Alice Herald, both alto, also studied piano and singing, the latter also studying harmony with their father, a professor at the Paris Conservatory; Claude Germain, tenor, husband Anne Germains, laureate for piano from the Music School in Paris, also active as a conductor, Claude's brother José Germain, bass, plays piano, violin, clarinet and saxophone and is a mainstay of the ensemble with his sense of swing and rhythm and finally Jean Cussac, bass, he is a laureate of the singing class of the Paris Conservatory and is active as a bachinger.

The Swingle Singers practically always sing with amplification technology in order to make the quietly intoned and fast voices audible for the audience.

The Swingle Singers are characterized by their easy, flexible and fast intonation and voice guidance. They became known when they dealt with classical music and performed pieces by composers such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Johann Sebastian Bach , underlaid with syllables from scat singing, without accompanying instruments. The group released over 40 records.

history

The beginnings

The group's forerunners were the French vocal ensembles Blue Stars , conducted by Blossom Dearie, and Les Double Six , conducted by Mimi Perrin , who had also worked with Quincy Jones . Later members of the Swingle Singers such as the soprano Christiane Legrand were active in both groups . The Swingle Singers themselves began to sing together in Paris in 1962. They consisted of studio musicians and were background singers for Édith Piaf , Charles Aznavour and Michel Legrand . Bored of the monotony of background singing , Ward Swingle had the idea of performing instrumental pieces a cappella and adding syllables from the scat singing.

The group's first record, Bach's Greatest Hits (1963), was not a huge hit in France but became a top seller in the US. In addition to being in the top ten for a while, the LP stayed in the top hundred for over a year and a half. She also received a Grammy for "Best New Artist" and, like the two following records, for "Best Performance by a Chorus". After the first recordings, the Swingle Singers began performing live. The ensemble toured all over the world over the next few years, recording over a dozen records, among others. a. in September 1966 with the Modern Jazz Quartet in Paris and was part of the world premiere of Sinfonia , a piece for eight voices and orchestra by Luciano Berio (1969). All the while, they stayed true to their style with compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach , Georg Friedrich Händel , Georg Philipp Telemann , Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , Ludwig van Beethoven , Frédéric Chopin and some Spanish composers of the early 20th century. In 1973 the singers split and the group broke up. Within the ten years of its existence there have been only a few changes in the line-up, four members have been there from the start.

The middle years

In 1973 Ward Swingle moved to England and re-founded the group there. She first appeared under the name Swingle II , The Swingles , The New Swingle Singers and finally, with the consent of the former French members, again under the name Swingle Singers . Ward Swingle's aim was to expand the repertoire: the group sang madrigals , hits from the 1960s and 1970s, Christmas carols, pieces in the big band sound and works by Luciano Berio, etc. a. Cries of London . Up until this point in time, the Swingle Singers always performed accompanied by a rhythm section consisting of piano or keyboard, double bass and drums. Over time, more and more pure a cappella pieces added to the repertoire and the group began to sing concerts without instrumental accompaniment. In 1984 Ward Swingle left the group, brought Jonathon Rathbone into the ensemble as the second tenor and handed over the leadership to Olive Simpson (first soprano ) and Simon Grant (first bass ).

Til today

In the following years the Swingle Singers began to serve the Asian region and continued to work with contemporary composers. The members changed over time, so that today a young ensemble is touring the stages of the world. In 2000, the 250th anniversary of the death of Johann Sebastian Bach, the group commissioned six composers to write pieces inspired by Bach; the most famous of them was Michael Nyman . The collaboration with the MOMIX dance company and a number of composers compliments the performance of the typical Swingle Singers repertoire.

Discography

American titles in brackets

LPs

French group (1963-1973)

  • Jazz Sebastien Bach (Bach's Greatest Hits)
  • Les Swingle Singers: A portrait - takeover of Eterna (DDR) 8 20 596 from Philips, 1966
  • Going Baroque
  • Swinging Mozart (Anyone for Mozart?)
  • Swinging Telemann (Rococo a Gogo)
  • Place Vendome (Encounter)
  • Les Romantiques (Getting Romantic)
  • Sounds of Spain (Spanish Masters)
  • Noels sans Passport (Christmastime)
  • Jazz Sebastien Bach II (Back to Bach)
  • Les Quatre Saisons (The Joy of Singing)
  • Sinfonia (by Luciano Berio )
  • American look
  • Bitter ending

English group (since 1973)

  • Madrigals
  • Words and Music
  • Rags & All That Jazz
  • Baroque
  • French & English Part Songs
  • Lovin 'you
  • Swingle Bells
  • No time to talk
  • Skyliner
  • Folio
  • Sonnets of Desolation (by Ben Johnston)
  • Sinfonia (by Luciano Berio , cond. Pierre Boulez )

CDs

French group (1963-1973)

  • Jazz Sebastian Bach (includes LPs Jazz Sebastian Bach and Jazz Sebastian Bach II )
  • Anyone for Mozart, Bach, Handel, Vivaldi? (includes LPs Going Baroque and Swinging Mozart )
  • Compact Jazz (includes LPs Place Vendome , Les Romantiques and Sounds of Spain )

English group (since 1973)

  • A-Ronne / Cries of London
  • Mazapegul (by Azio Corghi )
  • Nothing but Blue Skies (on the 100th birthday of Irving Berlin )
  • Best of the Swingle Singers
  • Folk songs
  • A Cappella Amadeus
  • Compilation Album (Reflections & Live at Ronnie Scotts)
  • The Christmas Album
  • 1812
  • The Bach album
  • If It's Music ...
  • Notability
  • Story of Christmas
  • Pretty ringtime
  • New World
  • live
  • Screen Tested
  • Best of the Swingle Singers
  • Ticket to Ride
  • Keyboard classics
  • Live in Japan
  • Mood swings
  • Retrospective
  • ... unwrapped!
  • Dido's lament
  • Live in New York '82
  • Beauty and the Beatbox
  • Ferris Wheels

literature

  • Ward Swingle: Swingle Singing. Shawnee Press, Delaware Water Gap PA 1997.
  • Jürgen Wilbrandt, record cover text for the LP Les SWINGLE SINGERS A portrait - takeover of Eterna (GDR) 8 20 596 from Philips, 1966

Web links

Commons : Swingle Singers  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Record text Eterna-LP, Jürgen Wilbrandt