2. Virtual Choirs:
What Are They, or
What Could They Become?
Michael Cumming
BArch (Dalhousie), PhD (Carnegie Mellon)
ambitiouscity.com
michaelcumming.com
3. Summary of presentation
Introduction to the idea
• Examples
Some Introductory slides
• What I think a Virtual Choir might be
• Why I like the idea of a Virtual Choir
Discussion
2013-12-24 Ambitious City—Virtual Choirs: What Are They? 3
4. Virtual Choir: Examples
Erics Whitacre
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyLX2cke-Lw
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xGBWhWgydw
• http://www.ted.com/talks/eric_whitacre_a_virtual_choir_2_000_voices_strong.html
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7o7BrlbaDs
• http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2085483835/virtual-choir-4-bliss/posts/389251
Paul Mealor: Royal Wedding
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQE4ryqdvMg
Where the Hell is Matt?
• https://www.youtube.com/embed/Pwe-pA6TaZk?rel=0
Ableton Live
• https://www.ableton.com/en/live/
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CS2r13xX-nk
2013-12-24 Ambitious City—Virtual Choirs: What Are They? 4
5. Question 1
What do you think a Virtual Choir is, or should
be?
Is making a choir virtual a good idea?
2013-12-24 Ambitious City—Virtual Choirs: What Are They? 5
6. Question 2
Do you have any experience with Real Choirs?
How do you like them?
2013-12-24 Ambitious City—Virtual Choirs: What Are They? 6
7. Question 3
What kind of musical, or choral styles do you
like?
• Gregorian chant?
• Sufi chants?
• 16th C polyphony?
• Handel arias?
• Samuel Barber?
• Celtic crooners?
• John Cage?
• Chilly Gonzales?
2013-12-24 Ambitious City—Virtual Choirs: What Are They? 7
8. Question 4
Beyond the music, should singing have a
message? Or,
Do you like to sing about issues, or topics?
• State of society?
• Our environment?
• Toronto?
• Your late mother?
• Nothing in particular?
2013-12-24 Ambitious City—Virtual Choirs: What Are They? 8
9. Question 5
If the Virtual Choir got off the ground, what role
would you like to play in it?
• Just singing
• Social distribution of results
• Making videos or audio recordings
• Composition
• Repertoire
• System design
• Hosting events
2013-12-24 Ambitious City—Virtual Choirs: What Are They? 9
10. What I think a Virtual Choir (VC) Is
Choir in which participation can be distributed
over time and space
One in which not all participants need high-
level musical skills (such as sight-reading)
One that enables some kind of compositional
creativity
One in which the final result is emergent
2013-12-24 Ambitious City—Virtual Choirs: What Are They? 10
11. Why I love the idea of a Virtual Choir
Choirs are endorphin-rich experiences
• Singing in a choir can be very satisfying
• Listening to a choir can be very satisfying
Real Choirs are hard to join for many
• It is difficult to get people together physically
• It may be easier to get them together virtually
New forms of musical expression are possible
• Automation of creative processes; Ableton Live
• Lots of things to sing about: Toronto now
2013-12-24 Ambitious City—Virtual Choirs: What Are They? 11
12. Real Choir (RC) compared to a VC
User Process
• RC: show up at same time as many others
• VC: contribute whenever you want
Coordination
• RC: in real time; based on skills of choristers
• VC: asynchronously; based on structure of system
Musical score
• RC: pre-determined; yet depends on performance
• VC: emergent; depends on performance
2013-12-24 Ambitious City—Virtual Choirs: What Are They? 12
13. Eric Whitacre’s [apparent] VC Process
EW composes multi-part choral piece
• Uses standard SATB notation
EW creates conducting video
EW requests and gets choral submissions
• Each contributor sings one part from the score
EW splices together submissions
• Both audio and video
EW distributes results on social media
2013-12-24 Ambitious City—Virtual Choirs: What Are They? 13
14. A top-down VC process
Completely based on EW’s compositions
• EW is obviously a skilled composer but what if you
don’t like his compositions?
Lots of back-end work done by associates of EW
• What if they don’t do a good job of splicing the
submissions together?
• What if someone wants to do remixes of the
submissions?
If work is successful do contributors benefit?
2013-12-24 Ambitious City—Virtual Choirs: What Are They? 14
15. An Alternative Open VC Process
Have VC members compose choral fragments
• Music or lyrics
Get submissions based on these fragments
• From other VC members
Have VC members collaboratively splice results
together, and create compositions
• In various combinations
Distribute results on social media
2013-12-24 Ambitious City—Virtual Choirs: What Are They? 15
16. A bottom-up VC process
Everything is crowd-sourced
• Composition, repertoire, singing, splicing and mixing
are all done collaboratively
Results come from contributors
• Perhaps more meaningful for more people
Requires more sophisticated front and back-
end infrastructure
• But not necessarily at the start
• Implement in Ruby on Rails?
2013-12-24 Ambitious City—Virtual Choirs: What Are They? 16
