I auditioned a vast number of singers - all classically trained - who impressed me not only by their singing, but by their musicianship, sight-reading ability and knowledge of different styles. For the auditions I had them sing a popular and a classical piece of their own choosing; one of my Bach arrangements (in which the scat syllables were not written down - they had to invent their own); a section of Berio's Sinfonia; some sight-reading material; and the 'finalists' did a mike test. Curiously enough, the singers I eventually chose were often those who did the Bach fugue the best. With that piece I could test several things at once: musical imagination (inventing the scat), vocal agility (important in mike singing) and the ability to make the fugue swing (without rhythmic backing).
Once we had the eight singers, we began looking for a name. I had promised the French group I wouldn't use the name Swingle Singers for any group I might form in England. We first tried Swingle II, but dropped it a few years later because people were confusing II with the number eleven, and thought we were a rugby team. After that came the Swingles, then the New Swingle Singers and finally, with the kind consent of the French, we returned to the original, and best, name.
In the early seventies there was a lot of labour unrest in England resulting in difficulties getting to London from East Sussex. Although we were only forty miles from St. Paul's, driving through the endless southern London suburbs took forever. The trains were often delayed, or didn't come at all. As a consequence, our recording sessions were often late starting, then hampered further by power cuts. Inevitably, just as we would finish a 'perfect' take of a difficult passage, the lights would dim and the tape machine would grind to a halt, trashing what we had just done.
Despite the technical difficulties, we managed to record a collection of Renaissance madrigals, the first of several albums for CBS. In the madrigal arrangements I left the original vocal writing intact, but added the usual bass and drums, plus a synthesiser that imitated Renaissance instruments in a kind of jazzy ground-bass realisation. With a program made up of the madrigals and quite a bit of the French group's repertoire, we started giving a few concerts around England, gradually getting our act together.
As we spent more and more time together, I found out how different the English singers are from the French. In France I would often scream and holler at a singer who wasn't getting the notes right. Sometimes there'd be a few tears, but then we'd kiss and make up. In England, you do not lose your cool. The first time I screamed at an English singer, faces went white and there was a stunned silence. I realized that I'd have to curb emotional outbursts if I was to get good results.
In our recording sessions, it was evident early on that we would have problems with close-miked singing. Most of the singers had always sung full voice. I was asking them to scale down the vocal production and project the voice directly into the mike without taking anything away from its timbre and personality, i.e. its essence. When I listen to the "Madrigals" album today, I hear some rather wimpy sounds. In fact, it's my own fault. I had been working for so long with people who only sang on mikes, I had never had reason to analyze the technique.
The French singers, who like myself were 'instrumentalists who sang', rarely used full voice. When imitating instruments, they focused more on pitch, blend and rhythm than on vocal production. In a sense, they let the voice produce itself. Where they were comfortable using a small voice, the English felt inhibited, letting their good natural sound become diluted. I didn't want the English group to sound like the French, but they did have to learn good mike technique. I hoped that the English singers' lovely classically-trained timbres would still be heard, even when scaled down, making sounds that would fit the madrigals and the other more classical repertoire I hoped to do with them later. This eventually happened, thanks to the good ears and musicality of the English singers.
After the "Madrigals" we recorded hits from the 60's and 70's, other Baroque repertoire, some rags and early jazz pieces, a Christmas album and some Double Six-like big band recreations. But in my opinion there are two LP's that stand out. One is a collection of English and French part songs (not at all jazzed up) sung with close mikes (no longer a problem for the singers) in a clear and intimate choral style that brings the words nicely forward. The other is a duo of works written for the group by Luciano Berio: A-Ronne and 'Cries of London.' In A-Ronne Berio has written what he calls a documentary, using a poem of Eduardo Sanguinetti: the singers giggle, cry, shout, whisper and even occasionally sing. "Cries of London" evokes the sounds of vendors touting their wares on the streets of the East End.
We've tried a few times to combine works of Berio with our traditional recital repertoire, but it doesn't really work. In the same program, an audience will accept arrangements of Bach, madrigals, folk songs and jazz standards, but is unwilling to extend its eclecticism to include Berio. People sometimes come to a Sinfonia performance expecting to hear something like our 'doo-boo-doo' Bach. They generally look for the nearest exit after the first movement. (Could they possibly have been expecting the Sinfonia from Bach's "Second Harpsichord Partita"?)
The English group eventually had a touring schedule like that of the French. We had a rhythm section - bass, drums and keyboards - with a sound engineer using a complex sound system. After a while, I started writing more and more a cappella arrangements for reasons both practical and aesthetic. Moving twelve people and bulky sound equipment around on tour was very expensive. Besides, I like the idea of expanding the use of the voice as an instrument so that the singers could themselves become a self-contained vocal-instrumental ensemble. One of the first arrangements in that vein was of a Renaissance piece called "Pastime with good company": a vocal trio sings the words while the other singes form a little Renaissance band, imitating shaums, recorders and tabors.
Once we had enough repertoire, we began doing all of our concerts a cappella. As an arranger I found it more challenging, as did the singers. We could now expand our instrumental imitations to include bass, drums, and keyboards - with the help of an ever-improving sound technology - and go into different periods and styles of music: folk songs, jazz standards, Renaissance pieces and original compositions. The early Bach pieces - which we continued programming because they were fun to do and the audience continued to expect them - proved quite easy to swing without the help of bass and drums.
In 1981 we were asked to make a second recording of Berio's Sinfonia , this time under the direction of Pierre Boulez. We recorded it at the IRCAM in Paris, where the sound studio is four floors below street level. There was one incident I'll never forget. Boulez, after a gigantically dissonant orchestral passage in which everyone was playing fortissimo, stopped the orchestra and gently asked the 2nd bassoon player, "In the 9th bar of letter I, shouldn't that be an F-sharp?" Realising his mistake, the bassoon player just looked at Boulez in utter disbelief that he could have heard it.
By 1984 I had toured with the group(s) for more than 20 years, written over 200 arrangements and compositions, recorded 24 albums and performed in more than 2000 concerts. It was time for a change. Still, I wanted very much for the group to carry on. We had a fine bunch of singers who were eager to do just that. I found a young singer named Jonathan Rathbone to replace me as second tenor, and made an agreement in which Olive Simpson (1st soprano) and Simon Grant (1st bass) would share responsibilities for the direction of the group. I would be 'Musical Advisor' and receive a commission on the group's fees in exchange for the use of the name.
The most satisfying aspect of the whole Swingle Singers experience is the fact that it began as a labour of love. Even had it not been commercially successful, I think that the people who took part would still remember it as a special event in their lives. I like to believe that there was a nice conjuncture of time, place and people that made the original group happen.'
Taken from Swingle Singing by Ward Swingle. See Ward's biography in Associates for information on his activities since 1984.
Some Highlights From 35 Years of the swingle singers
In 35 years of touring the swingle singers have given over 3000 concerts
The group has produced over 40 albums and hundreds of a cappella arrangements
1970s
- the swingle singers return to New York for four performances of "Sinfonia" with Leonard Bernstein, and perform the work over 200 times in the following 15 years.
- The group performs in prestigious venues including Carnegie Hall in New York, the
Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Neue Philharmonie in Berlin, the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires,
- La Scala Opera House in Milan and the Wolftrap in Washington DC.
- King Hassan II invites group to his summer palace in Fez, Morocco.
1980s
- the swingle singers record further new works by Luciano Berio - "A-Ronne" and "The Cries on
London".
- In 1981 the group is asked to record Berio "Sinfonia" for a second time at the IRCAM in Paris.
- From 1987 onwards the swingle singers collaborate with ballet companies on Ravel's "L'Enfant
et les Sortilèges" and, from 1992, on a Rossini tribute "Adieu à l'Italie".
1990s
- In 1990 the group premières "Blimunda", a new opera by Azio Corghi, with La Scala Opera
Company, Milan, winning critical acclaim throughout Europe.
- The group appears in concert with Stephan Grappelli in the USA.
- the swingle singers begin touring regularly to the Far East, including Japan, Singapore and
Taiwan.
- The group performs "Blimunda" in Lisbon and Turin and in 1995 in Rome gives the world première of Corghi's a cappella suite "I Sogni di Blimunda".
- In 1996 the swingle singers participate in the world première of the opera "Outis" by Berio, at Teatro alla Scala, Milan.
- In 1997 the group premières a new opera by Corghi, based on Handel's "Rinaldo".
- In 1999 the group returns to Milan for the opera "Outis" by Berio and then travels to Paris for a new production of the same work at the Chatelet Theatre.
- The group collaborates with pop group PULP on new theme tune for British TV series "Randall and Hopkirk (deceased)"
- New jingles are broadcasted regularly on British Radio station 'Classic FM'.