Many men

This was the Canberra Men's Choir in its 40th anniversary year singing in Wesley and slightly amusingly directed by a woman.  But so what.  The voices are what we come to hear, this close harmony from male voices, TTBB (Tenor 1, Tenor 2, Baritone, Bass) so also pretty close and rich even if for one tune they took 5 tenors to sing countertenor, high voices, female like, but not enough in this context to stand out too much.  There were lots of other low voices around.  And a string of songs of fairly recent vintage, as in C20th, other than King Henry VIII.  The others ranged from George Harrison to Rogers and Hart, Carly Simon to Elton John, Perfect day by Colin Towns rather than Lou Reed, that emotive invitation You raise me up, an Appalachian folk song, and an original by Leanne McKean, conductor and director, called Sing and an opportunity to singalong with the choir while guided cleverly by some choir members, one half of the audience having a rising line, the other a falling line, with lyrics "we sing with every voice / we sing with jubilation" the all coming together very neatly and a very decent song too.  The voices were great, the presence and pleasure was obvious, the costumes were welcoming humourous, black with big yellow bowties (not that I like bowties!).  BTW, those countertenors were in Pastime with good company, the Henry VIII tune, and the Rogers and Hart had another quintet out front, this time singing jazz offbeats.  Nicely done and worthy of an experienced 40-yo outfit.

Canberra Men's Choir performed at Wesley Church under Leanne McKean (musical director, conductor) with accompaniment from Martin Magill (piano).

Men

I've sung in mixed choirs before but a men's choir is different.  In tone, obviously, deeper and perhaps softer, with those lower notes.  MD Leanne spoke of TTBB (tenor, tenor, baritone, bass) and other combinations.  No SA here, although there can be high male voices.  And the songs seemed different, too.  Several shanties and similar styles and themes of the sea and travel and more; just one religious song and some local cultural matters, from Deborah Cheetham and Eric Bogle.  Interesting stuff, not that I caught all the lyrics.  Several songs were sung a capella but mostly with piano accompaniment.  And pardoxical if contemporary, a woman up front directing and speaking for the group. No problem but amusing.  This is the modern world.  I enjoyed the rollicking sea scapes, the occasional touching solo tenor voices, the awareness of issues in the modern Australian songs.  And those yellow bowties on black added as touch of humour and enjoyment to the whole.  Great stuff.

Canberra Men's Choir performed at Wesley under Leanne McKean (director) with accompaniment from Martin Magill (piano).

Mellow tones

This was my second hearing of the Canberra Men's Choir and I recognised some of the faces.  It's a non-auditioned choir that meets weekly at the Harmony German Club.  Despite hearing them before and knowing they have very few sopranos (none), I was still surprised by the tone.  There are four sections, ATBB (alto, tenor, baritone, bass), but any song may be sung in 2,3 or 4 parts perhaps with solos, or almost unison on a sea shanty.   I was sitting admiring the rich, deeper, mellow tones and harmonies and counted 3 parts in one song but there can be more.  And sometimes there may be solo singers for a higher line, but mostly this is characterised by those lush, deeper tones.  They are directed by Leanne KcKean and accompanied by Vivian Zhu  which is somewhat amusing in a gender sense but perfectly effective.  Lovely to be in a time that feels this way.  They sang a range of style, from shanties to Appalachia to Cole Porter, Leonard Cohen and Benny/Bjorn and even a folk song form NZ, so this is of a style but eclectic in sources.  A lovely afternoon interlude with blissfully indulgent harmonies.

The Canberra Men's Choir performed at Wesley under Leanne McKean (musical director) and with accompaniment by Vivian Zhu (piano).

A different sounding song

I've sung in choirs and heard quite a few but they were always mixed choirs, usually with four parts, two male, two female, soprano, alto, tenor, bass (SATB) so it was somewhat a surprise to hear a male choir.  I asked about parts: still four parts, but tenor 1 /  2, baritone, bass, so closer in pitch but still wonderfully satisfying.  I was a little surprised by that.  I thought the choir might sound deep and stodgy but not at all.  There were still some relatively high pitches and they were lovely (one guy stood out to my ear) and the harmonies were lovely although not always so easy to hear.  But suffice to say, I really enjoyed the sound and the performance.  This is the Canberra Men's Choir, directed and accompanied by women in our modern world, Leanne McKean and Vivian Zhu.  The choir has been around since 1986, it's non-auditioned and invites new members.  They played a popular set of 13 songs.  They were mostly short and I might have enjoyed some more substantial numbers, but they were popular and attractive and some faves of mine: '70s/80s pop including Raindrops keep falling on my head, Here comes the sun, Moon river, Love is all around, Hallelujah; early standards like Blue moon, What a wonderful world; some more folky tunes, Wayfaring stranger, Shady grove, Hand me down my silver trumpet.  I liked it all: good harmonies, copious male voices.  I thought some more swing was called for occasionally, but that's something for the jazzers.  A wonderful and entertaining and satisfying concert.  Beats hanging out in the front bar, but they probably do that, too.

The Canberra Men's Choir was conducted by Leanne McKean (musical director) with Vivian Zhu (piano) accompanying.