The Swingle Singers

The Swingle Singers are a professional a cappella octet, founded in the 1960s by the American Ward Swingle in Paris. The Swingle name is originally derived from the German surname fescue.

  • 3.1 LPs
  • 3.2 CDs

The group

The ensemble of vocally trained full-time professionals is divided into four women's and four men's voices that sing with slightly varying occupation usually two upper voices and a lower voice for women ( soprano I, soprano II, and alto), and the analog in the male voices (tenor I, Tenor II, and bass).

The Swingle Singers sing practically always with amplification technique to make the softly intoned, fast and highly precise voices audible to the audience.

The Swingle Singers are characterized by an extremely lightweight, flexible, fast and precise intonation and voice leading. She became world famous when they focused on classical music and, darboten pieces by composers such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Johann Sebastian Bach, underlaid with syllables of scat singing without accompanying instruments. They count together with the English King's Singers to the world's best professional a cappella ensemble. To date, the Swingle Singers appeared worldwide in more than 3,000 concerts and released 40 records.

History

The beginnings

Precursor of the group were also the French vocal ensemble Blue Stars, led by Blossom Dearie and Les Double Six, led by Mimi Perrin, who had also worked with Quincy Jones. In both groups, later members of the Swingle Singers as soprano Christiane Legrand worked. The Swingle Singers itself began in 1962 in Paris to sing together. They consisted of studio musicians and worked as a background singer for Édith Piaf, Charles Aznavour and Michel Legrand. Bored with the monotony of the background song had Ward Swingle the idea of ​​instrumental pieces a cappella to present and to be backed by syllables of scat singing.

The first record of the group, Bach 's Greatest Hits (1963 ) in France was not a great success, but in the U.S. was a bestseller. In addition to some time in the Top Ten, the LP was over one and a half years in the top hundred. They also received a Grammy for "Best New Artist" and how the two following plates as " Best Performance by a Chorus ." After the first recordings the Swingle Singers also began performing live. The next few years toured the ensemble throughout the world, took over a dozen records, including in September 1966 with the Modern Jazz Quartet in Paris, and was part of the world premiere of Symphony, a piece for eight voices and orchestra by Luciano Berio (1969). The whole time they remained true to their style with compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach and Handel to Georg Philipp Telemann, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Frédéric Chopin and some Spanish composers of the early 20th century faithful. 1973 separated the singers, and the group broke up. Within ten years of existence, there were few changes in the cast, four members were there from the start.

The mean annual

1973 Ward Swingle moved to England, where he founded the new group. First you stepped under the name Swingle II, The Swingles, The New Swingle Singers and eventually on with the consent of the former French members again under the name Swingle Singers. The aim of Ward Swingle was to expand the repertoire: The group madrigals, hits of the 1960s and 1970s, Christmas Carols, pieces in the big-band sound and works by Luciano Berio sang, including Cries of London. Over time, more and more a cappella pieces supplemented the repertoire, and the group began to concerts singing without instrumental accompaniment. Up to this point, the Swingle Singers were always accompanied by a rhythm section consisting of piano or on keyboard, bass and drums. 1984 Ward Swingle retired from the group, Jonathon Rathbone took as second tenor in the ensemble and handed over the reins to Olive Simpson (first soprano) and Simon Grant (first bass).

To this day,

In the following years the Swingle Singers began to conquer the Asian region and continued the collaboration with contemporary composers. The members changed over time, so that today a young ensemble toured the world's stages. In 2000, in which the anniversary of the death of Johann Sebastian Bach jährte for the 250th time, the group commissioned six composers to write pieces inspired by Bach; the most famous of them was Michael Nyman. Cooperation with the MOMIX dance company and a number of composers complements the performance of the typical Swingle Singers repertoire.

Discography

American title in parentheses

LPs

French group (1963-1973)

  • Jazz Sebastien Bach (Bach 's Greatest Hits )
  • Going Baroque
  • Swinging Mozart ( Anyone for Mozart? )
  • Swinging Telemann ( Rococo a Gogo )
  • Place Vendome ( Encounter )
  • Les Romantiques ( Getting Romantic )
  • Sounds of Spain ( Spanish Masters )
  • Noel sans Passport (Christmastime )
  • Jazz Sebastien Bach II (Back to Bach)
  • Les Quatre Saisons ( The Joy of Singing )
  • Sinfonia ( Luciano Berio )
  • American look
  • Bitter Ending

English Group (since 1973)

  • Madrigals
  • Words and Music
  • Rags & all that Jazz
  • Baroque
  • French & English Partsongs
  • Lovin 'you
  • Swingle Bells
  • No time to talk
  • Skyliner
  • Folio
  • Sonnets of Desolation (by Ben Johnston )
  • Sinfonia ( Luciano Berio, Pierre Boulez Dir )

CDs

French group (1963-1973)

  • Jazz Sebastian Bach (includes LPs Jazz Sebastian Bach and Jazz Sebastian Bach II)
  • Anyone for Mozart, Bach, trade, Vivaldi? (includes LPs Going Baroque and Swinging Mozart)
  • Compact Jazz (includes LPs Place Vendome, Les Romantiques and sounds of Spain )

English Group (since 1973)

  • A- Ronne / Cries of London
  • Mazapegul ( Azio Corghi by )
  • Nothing but Blue Skies ( on the 100th birthday of Irving Berlin)
  • Best of The Swingle Singers
  • Folk Songs
  • A Cappella Amadeus
  • The Christmas Album
  • 1812
  • The Bach Album
  • If It's Music ...
  • Notability
  • Story of Christmas
  • Pretty Ring Time
  • New World
  • Live
  • Screen Tested
  • Best of The Swingle Singers
  • Ticket to Ride
  • Keyboard Classics
  • Live in Japan
  • Mood Swings
  • Retrospective
  • Unwrapped ...!
  • Dido 's Lament
  • Live in New York '82
  • Beauty and the Beatbox
  • Ferris Wheels
Bass (voice type) Grammy Award Discogs Integrated Authority File
757587
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