Auckland was lovely during the recent World Choir Games. Rehearsing singers packed every nook and cranny of the CBD, buskers found themselves unexpectedly accompanied by harmonising choristers, and a Kiwi group, Tawa’s Vocal FX, claimed the champion’s trophy in the Pop Ensemble category.
Vocal FX director Charlotte Murray, a Tawa College music teacher who, with the late Les Nation, co-founded the group as a barbershop ensemble in 2003, is still buzzing. “I saw some other choirs and the standard was amazing, so [to win] was affirming. We had such a great time.”
They should be used to acclaim. Vocal FX also pocketed a gold in the Indigenous With Accompaniment division, and they’re the current Barbershop Harmony New Zealand champions. (In what is perhaps the most egalitarian-Kiwi thing ever, they’re not allowed to defend their title in September – “you have to sit out for a year,” Murray says). Most of the international competitors, though, were unknown quantities.
“It was cool to see different styles. You go to a barbershop convention and you hear a similar sound. But hearing the range of repertoire, soundscapes, was so interesting.”
The Vocal FX soundscape is also interesting. It is not crystalline, the edges are not perfectly chamfered, and the group is clearly from this part of the world. “We just encourage people not to be something they’re not,” Murray says. “I think that’s important, to sing with your natural voice. We have a beautiful instrument already and using it as naturally as possible is key. If we try to manipulate it to be what it’s not, it doesn’t quite work as well.”
Instead, Murray prefers to work on being genuine and believable, which seems a less straightforward proposition than making the choir sound perfect. “We talk about honouring the music: what was the intent of the person who wrote it?” she says. “For a song like Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, we see ourselves as a character, so there’s a sense of being an actor. What also helps is that arrangers put clues in with the way they use embellishments. So has the composer, where they’ve put the melody line or the harmony. So, we trust what the music is expressing, allow that to affect us emotionally and have that come across.”
Murray says that the values of manaakitanga, whanaungatanga, gratitude and growth are also part of the Vocal FX mix. “It’s that willingness to look out for others, but also push themselves and be thankful for what they have,” she explains. “I guess if you’re thankful for what you have, you turn up regularly and you do your best.”
