I first heard this sound in Charleston, SC. (Maybe that was the first time I had the awareness of hearing such a sound.) It was the first ACDA convention that I had attended. I dragged my wife along, post shoulder surgery and she spent long hours sitting in a mechanical chair that we somehow loaded into the car and set up in the hotel room, all for the purpose of rotating her rotater cuff in a way to prevent the creation of scar tissue. Enough about that. Anyway, in some church balcony I crowded into a concert and heard about a dozen singers from Europe. It was 1998. I still remember their Bach Motet VI, Lobe den Herren, and the fabulous Alleluia that closes that impossible work. Ah ah ah ah le heh lu yah. Do you know it? (Aside: Why in the world don't I do the Alleluia with Chamber Choir in the Spring? Second Aside: I wonder if Alan could arrange that for SSAA?) But what I remember the most of the performance was that the singers voices were so carefully matched. There were not sopranos, altos, tenors, nor basses. Rather each voice matched the sound of the person next to them EXACTLY, and each successive voice had a slightly lower range. All in all though, the lowest bass and the highest soprano made the same fundamental sound. Their mental picture of the sound was the same. Therefore, even with so few singers, there were no blend issues. Each sound folded into every other sound.

This year's Singers are making that sound. I can't tell if altos or sopranos are singing. They all make the same sound. I can't tell if anyone is absent. If four first sopranos are missing, the sound does not change. It may be at a smaller dynamic, but the tone remains the same.

Did someone say, "if we have never had hard times then we cannot recognize good times." I remember wondering, years ago, why I was saddled with year after year of wickedly mediocre choirs. (Think silk purse/sow's ear idioms). Perhaps it was in order that I might recognize fully the significance of having a good thing at my advanced age, so that I might be appropriately thankful. It's quite a privilege to direct one of America's most amazing choirs. I have no idea how I came to stand in front of them.