An Audience Singing
| WOULD never have expected Paul Hindemith to conduct community singing. Yet this is in effect what he did in The Canticle to Hope (1YC), his choral work for Unesco on Paul Claudel’s libretto, which provided for the audience to join in the final portion, Hindemith’s manifesto spoke of the need to return to simpler forms in modern music, and urged "audience participation" to bridge the gulf between performers and hearers. To my ear the Canticle sounded by no means easy, but, at the appropriate place, the huge Brussels audience, who had copies of the music, joined in with stirring effect. Musically this was an impressive work, suggesting aspiration and optimism, although the performance verified Gilbert’s theory that: No single word is ever heard When singers sing in chorus. There may be something in Hindemith’s idea. Surely the yearly audience at our Messiahs could take a hand in the "Hallelujah" chorus by now. However, even if they did, I doubt whether the result would be half as effective (or as melodious) as that achieved by the polyglot audience in this unusual
Unesco programme,
J.C.
R.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19540528.2.21.7
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 775, 28 May 1954, Page 11
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187An Audience Singing New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 775, 28 May 1954, Page 11
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