Blesson John

MUSC 324
Concert Report 2
Singing Cadets Spring Concert 2010
This evening, I had the privilege of attending the annual spring concert of the Texas A&M
Singing Cadets, which was held at Rudder Theater at 7:30 pm on April 17,2010. This was a
primarily vocal concert, and thus the main instrument used was the voice. Many of the songs
were sung a capella. However, there was a pianist who accompanied the singers. Some of the
songs employed light drums, percussion, acoustic and electric guitar. The concert was a
somewhat formal affair, as depicted in the dress of the performers who wore a military style
uniform. Their behavior onstage was pretty formal, as they moved with a military like precision
in whatever they did, whether it be dancing or even walking around on the stage. The first half of
the concert followed this theme fairly consistently. The song selection for this half consisted
mostly of well known sacred, religious and classical songs. The concert started off with “The
Spirit of Aggieland”, which was well received by the near capacity on hand to witness the
concert. The next songs were well known hymns which were sung in a classical style. These
songs included “Ode to Joy” by Beethoven, “Amazing Grace”, and “The Lords Prayer” The next
song was also a well known hymn, which was readapted into the swing style, and thus was
renamed “Swinging of the Saints”. This provided an opportunity for my ears to witness a change
of pace. The next piece, titled “Moses”, was another religious piece documenting the life of
Moses, and was musically the most different song of the night, with uncommon chord
progressions and interesting arrangement. After this set of religious and sacred songs, the
director mentioned that the Singing Cadets will be touring in South Africa this summer, and this
provided a bridge to some of the songs that the group will be singing on tour. The first of these
songs was a song called “God Bless Africa” This was sung in a mixture of Swahili and English,
and I thought that it was the first time that the group displayed a more soulful style of music,
although it was still a little reserved. I did get chills when the soloist started to display his range.
The next song in this set was the hymn “All of Creatures of our God and King”, which was
rearranged into a more African feeling arrangement. This allowed the cadets to showcase the
percussion skills of a few of the members, who played African percussion instruments. I thought
that this song was also a good change of pace from the earlier songs. The final song in this set
was the Zambian song “Bonze Abba”. I thought that the soloist from this song was probably my
favorite in the concert. The style was once again very African, and the harmonies were
noticeably different from the more classical styles that the group employed during the English
hymns earlier in the show. The next song was quite entertaining, as the group sang a classical
arrangement of “Kiss the Girl” from The Little Mermaid, as three members from the group
dressed up in costumes and acted out the song, which was a little awkward, but humorous at the
same time. The next song was a ballad song in the style of an artist like Josh Groban, a ballad for
those fighting cancer. It was titled “No Man is an Island”. Although I thought the group did a
good job technically, I really thought that they could have done a better job emotionally, given
the subject of the song. The soloist was good vocally, but he didn’t really connect with me
emotionally. The final performance before intermission was “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”
which was a great performance, one of the best group performances of the half. By this time,
since the group had been fairly homophonic style of music typical of most choirs, I was starting
to get a little bored, though the performances themselves were quite good. However, the second
half game me a little more entertainment than I expected from the group. The second half of the
performance included more popular music, such as a medley from Les Misarables, some
entertaining barbershop quartets, some funny acting, as well as some less reverent songs about
subjects such as love and women in general. The members of the group showcased their
personalities much more in this half of the concert, and the result was quite a pleasure to hear.
There was no program, so I was unable to get any information about the composers of these
pieces. However, since many of the songs which were sung were well known, I think that the
group presented the composers work in the way that they intended it to be conveyed to an
audience. The group overall is nearly on a professional level, as they sing about 70-80 concerts a
year, and have been existence for over a century. As stated before, they were musically and
technically quite proficient in what they did. My only gripe was that since almost all of the
arrangements were written in the same homophonic style, I started to get a little bored, though
the acting did help keep my interest. I felt that the only major flaw (which was just something I
noticed) was that although the director mentioned that he wanted to stir up emotions in the
audience, the group could have done better on that. The focus was more on singing technically
well, with very little room for improvisation or melismatic runs, things which could have
enhanced the performance and made it connect with me more in an emotional sense.