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The King's Singers

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The King's Singers

The King's Singers is an a cappella group. Their name recalls King's College in Cambridge, England, where the group was formed by six choral scholars in 1968. Although their popularity in the United Kingdom peaked in the 1970s and early 1980s, the group were fortunate to have made good contacts in the United States by this point, including Johnny Carson (who became a fan and invited them regularly onto his talk show), and began to reach wider audiences. However, in more recent years the current King's Singers have started to perform more regularly in the UK once again, and in 2007/08 will perform more concerts in their home country than anywhere else apart from the USA.

Today they remain one of the world's most popular and sought-after vocal groups. They travel worldwide for their performances, appearing in concert around 125 times each year, and are mostly heard in Europe, the U.S. and the Far East, where they have recently added the People's Republic of China to their long list of touring territories.

The first stable incarnation of the group, from 1968 until 1978 was:


The group has always consisted of six singers in total, with their membership changing over the years. The current ensemble is composed of (with their starting year in brackets):

Former members of the King's Singers have been Jeremy Jackman, Bob Chilcott, Nigel Short, Bill Ives, Bruce Russell, Colin Mason, and Gabriel Crouch. The group celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2008, and part of the group's longevity can be put down to their low membership turnover; the average length of tenure in the group is around 12 years and there have only been 19 members in total.

The group cites as its influences the Hi-Los, the Comedian Harmonists and (perhaps most importantly) the style of singing instilled into them by Sir David Willcocks, their Director of Music at King's College, Cambridge. It was this serene and precise sound, with vibrato used only as a colour rather than a default setting, that was expanded by the early King's Singers to be used on all genres of music whether renaissance church repertoire such as they had performed as part of the daily chapel services at university, or pop/jazz/folk/spiritual arrangements that were soon added to their concert programmes. They took hold of the idea that concerts need not contain merely one form of music; audiences could be educated as well as entertained. For those who came expecting pop music there would be classical music as well, and vice-versa. This started out of necessity; for their first few concerts the group simply had to perform everything they knew in order to fill a concert programme, and this included religious music from their chapel library, along with folksongs and other "lollipops" they had picked up from entertaining conference delegates during the university holidays. Over the years their library has expanded so that it now houses some 3,000 works of all styles.

Although the King's Singers are mostly a cappella in their live performances, they sometimes use one or two musical instruments to provide accompaniment in their studio recordings and as part of their more recent "concept programmes", and occasionally use amplification in large venues such as the 21,000 capacity Conference Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. The group is best known, however, for singing purely a cappella, and uses as its foundation a strong bass/baritone blend on which the other voices sit, a principle known as the "Pyramid of Sound."

There are few of the world's greatest concert halls that have not played host to The King's Singers at one time or another. In recent years the group has performed in all the major US concert halls, including Washington DC's Kennedy Centre, New York's Lincoln Centre and Carnegie Hall, and Spivey Hall in Morrow GA. Across Europe, recent venues have included Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, Vienna's Muziekverein, Rome's Santa Cecilia concert hall, Budapest's Liszt Academy and National Concert Hall, Luxembourg's Philharmonie, the Palau de la Musica in Barcelona and Paris' Salle Gaveau. In the Far East, The King's Singers regularly appear at Suntory Hall, Tokyo, and the National Concert Halls of Taipei and Seoul. In 2008 the group will host its own concert series at London's newest international concert venue, Cadogan Hall. Special performances have included those at the Salt Lake City 2002 Winter Olympics, before a baseball game at Shea Stadium, NYC, and a private performance for the English Royal Family at Windsor Castle.

Most of their a capella concerts are divided into five distinct groups of pieces. The first four vary widely (madrigals, folk songs, recently commissioned pieces, etc) but are generally taken from the serious side of the group's repertoire, but the last group of the concert is typically a “close harmony” set. Often it consists of lighter fare, including music of The Beatles, Billy Joel, Queen, George Gershwin, Harold Arlen or Irving Berlin, many of which have been arranged for the group by composers such as Richard Rodney Bennett, Jeremy Lubbock, and John Rutter. Sometimes the final set (in a concert of religious music) will be a spiritual harmony set - entitled "Songs of Faith and Hope." This set could be composed of American Spirituals, arranged by contemporary composers, including group member Philip Lawson and former member Bob Chilcott. Pieces in this set could include The Gift to be Simple, Deep River, Down To The River To Pray, and Stand Still, Jordan as well as more spiritual pop songs such as "Some Folks Lives Roll Easy" by Paul Simon.

More recently, however, The King's Singers have begun to perform "Concept Programmes" which have a set theme running throughout. These could be simply a 60-minute first-half sequence, often performed in European Cathedral concerts, with a Mass or Requiem setting providing the backbone, interspersed with other shorter works, or a more fundamental concept which infuses every piece performed. Examples of this latter art include "Sacred Bridges," a programme of Jewish, Islamic and Christian Psalm settings, performed with Dr. Vladimir Ivanoff and his ensemble, "Sarband." The group has also created concert programmes relating to recent CD recordings, including "Landscape and Time" and "Treason and Dischord," the latter a programme commemorating the 400th anniversary of the Powder Treason, and including a script read in live performances by actors Joss Ackland and Bill Wallis, amongst others. The group works closely with concert promoters and local agents to determine the best possible programme for each concert, whether for church, concert hall, open-air venue or private house.

The King’s Singers are also known for frequently commissioning works from contemporary composers. Starting with "Timepiece," commissioned by the Camden Festival in 1972 from composer Paul Patterson ( and still regularly performed today), they have continued by commissioning pieces from (amongst others) Ned Rorem, György Ligeti, Libby Larsen, Daron Hagen, Francis Pott, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Sir John Tavener, John McCabe, Sally Beamish, Jackson Hill, Geoffrey Poole, Joby Talbot, and Jocelyn Pook. In 2008 they will perform a piece commissioned jointly for them and the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain, to be written by Eric Whitacre.

Many former members of the King’s Singers have remained active in the world of choral music. Former baritone Gabriel Crouch is now the director of choral ensembles at DePauw University and former countertenor Nigel Short founded a professional choir, Tenebrae, on leaving the group in 2001. Baritone Simon Carrington is the director of the Yale Schola Cantorum, at the Yale University Institute for Sacred Music and Tony Holt is on the music faculty at St. Olaf College as a voice instructor.

In addition to recording and performing, the King’s Singers have a commitment to education, often participating in master classes and workshops. Every two years they hold a residency at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival in Lubeck, Germany, at which up to 12 a cappella groups from all over the world are taught over a period of 4 days, culminating in a final performance in front of a public audience. The group also lead around two dozen additional one-off masterclasses throughout the year, normally in conjunction with concert performances and often as part of their US tours, which take place twice-yearly in February and between October-December. During its time, the The King's Singers have taught many groups that have now become known in their own right, such as The Real Group, Amarcord, Rajaton, Singer Pur and Calmus Ensemble, in all of whose performances the influence of their former teachers is evident.

Several of the King’s Singers also arranged pieces, both for the group and pieces to publish in their line of music. Recently, Philip Lawson and Bob Chilcott have been the most prolific composers in the group.

In 2003 the group signed with Signum Records, with whom they have released nine albums in just over four years, with another two in the pipeline at the time of writing. In addition, the group made an experimental recording of Thomas Tallis' 40-part masterpiece, "Spem in Alium," using modern studio multi-tracking techniques to turn their 6 voices into 40, the results of which can be heard on a Signum CD and Iambic Productions DVD, which includes a documentary on the making of the CD.

The group's latest CD was released on 11th December 2006 and is a selection of 19 classic Salvation Army songs. The CD is called The Quiet Heart - Choral Essays Vol. 1, with Volume 2 to follow in 2009. Planned releases for 2008 (their 40th Anniversary Year) are a disc of Spanish Renaissance Music and an eagerly-awaited first studio CD since the mid-1990s.

Discography

Currently Available King's Singers Albums
Disc Name Release Year Instrumentation # of A cappella Tracks # of Tracks
1605: Treason and Dischord 2005 Concordia Viol Consort and Sarah Baldock (organ) 7 15
À la Française 1990 Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Carl Davis
All at Once Well Met 1987 Lute and Tabor 29 35
America 1989, 2006 English Chamber Orchestra 0 10
Annie Laurie 1993 Guitar, Flute, Piccolo 7 18
The Beatles Connection 1986 19 19
Capella (compilation) 2003 41
Captain Noah and His Floating Zoo; Holy Moses 1972, 2006 Rhythm Section 0 18
Chanson d'amour 1993 11 21
Circle of Life 1997 Metrapole Orkest 3 12
Colouring Book 2005 18
Christmas 2003 String Quartet and Drums 23 25
Deck the Hall 1991
English Renaissance 1995 20 20
Fire~Water 2000 Andrew Lawrence-King, The Harp Consort 17
Gesualdo: Tenebrae Responses for Maundy Thursday 2004 14 14
Good Vibrations 1993 13 13
Here's a Howdy Do! 1993 Sound Effects, Organ 11 15
De Janequin aux Beatles (compilation) 1999 Various 55
Kid's Stuff 1986, 2000 Judi Dench, Various 14
The King's Singers Original Debut Recording 1971, 1994 15 15
György Ligeti Edition, Vol. 4 (Vocal Works) 1997
Landscape & Time 2006 11 11
A Little Christmas Music 1989 Kiri Te Kanawa, City of London Sinfonia 7 20
Madrigal History Tour 1984, 1989 Consort of Musicke 0 34
My Spirit Sang All Day 1988 25 25
New Day 1980 9 15
Nightsong 1997 Various 5 15
The Quiet Heart - Choral Essays Vol.1 2006 19 19
Renaissance (Works by Josquin Desprez) 1993 21 21
Sacred Bridges 2005 Sarband 7 12
Six 2005 6 6
Spem in alium 2006 (One interview track) 1 2
Street Songs 1998 Evelyn Glennie (percussion) 7? 18
Tribute to the Comedian Harmonists 1985 Piano 6? 16
The Triumphs of Oriana 2002, 2006 25? 25
Three Musical Fables 1983 Cambridge Singers and City of London Sinfonia 0 3
Watching the White Wheat 1986 Various 9 16

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References

  1. ^ DJ Records Splash Page
  2. ^ kingssing.com - Home
  3. ^ Welcome to the King's Singers official web site
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