Not an Object But Motion: Choral Improvisation Through Vocal Painting

Improvisation, a spontaneous expression and shaping of musical ideas, opens doors for immediate creation of and engagement with musical materials yet is largely absent from many Western ensemble performance traditions. In particular, it is rarely encountered in choral singing, where the majority of participants are students, volunteers, or conductors for whom improvisation skills are not required for the performance of conventionally notated compositions. Lacunae in both choral literature and prevalent pedagogical practices reflect these untapped spaces for musical imagining and creativity. The present study surveys the intersection of choral singing and idiomatically situated improvisation styles with the aim of providing examples and encouragement for choral directors to facilitate indeterminate music-making with singers. This survey is followed by an introduction to Vocal Painting, a relatively new and under-utilized technique for choral improvisation that relies on physical gestures and rote teaching to generate and manipulate musical ideas in real time. By regularly incorporating such types of guided improvisation in rehearsal and performance, the choral ensemble can become a crucible for fostering individual and collective artistic agency while expanding concert programming to include collaboratively realized works.