Circlesongs meet Soundpainting in a choral improvisation practice known as Vocal Painting.

What is Vocal Painting?

Photo by Guillaume Le Baube
Photo by Carol Friedman

Drawing from Walter Thompson’s gestural language for real-time group composition and infused with the spontaneous vitality of Bobby McFerrin’s circlesongs, Vocal Painting (VoPa) is a method of choral improvisation adapted by Jim Daus Hjernøe as part of his Intelligent Choir philosophy.

Read more about Soundpainting, Circlesongs, and The Intelligent Choir.

Sample Vocal Painting Improvisations (Chapter 3)

First Vignette: Mixolydian Drone-to-Groove

Second Vignette: Variant on “Si Le Le”

Third Vignette: TBD

Harmonized Text

The video to the right is an example of a choral improvisation inspired by the chordal approach to text improvisation practiced by The Choir of Trinity Wall Street in their Compline by Candlelight services. Simple vertical harmonies can be determined from a given mode (or other pitch set) and indicated with numbers; these signs can also be combined with other VoPa gestures to create rich, text-driven soundscapes.

How do I use Vocal Painting with my choir?

  • At the heart of Vocal Painting (VoPa) is the circlesong: a simple musical loop, typically in 3-4 parts. A circlesong can be written down or created spontaneously, alone or in collaboration with other singers. A premeditated circlesong might relate to a particular musical idea, pedagogical concept, or piece of repertoire.

  • Whether you are working from a preëxisting circlesong or composing a new one with your choir, the magic of Vocal Painting is the many ways of adding, breaking down, and changing the circlesong with prompts and input from the choir. Although there is a primary director-facilitator leading the ‘painting,’ singers are free to interpret the VoPa signs as they choose.

    The result is a performance that is entirely unique to that time, place, and group of people. Even if the same circlesong and procedures are followed in a subsequent meeting, the same result can never be recreated exactly.

  • VoPa is a form of indeterminate improvisation: it is impossible to predict exactly what musical ideas will be performed. However, it is this very unpredictability that makes it an exciting addition to a concert program. A VoPa interlude can be a great way to change the mood between canon works, draw attention to a particular idea, or simply celebrate each singer in the ensemble by giving them chances to make artistic decisions.

    Here’s an example of VoPa in a concert. Although the singers had previously learned the circlesong and rehearsed some potential permutations, they did not know how it would be shaped in this particular instance.

    In the hands of a virtuosic artist like Bobby McFerrin, circlesinging performances can erase the line between singer and audience member, uniting all in musical community.