Finding our voice in every language

So, what happens when RMCC gets music in a language they aren't familiar with?

Step 1: Panic

Okay, not really, but a little bit! Most singers in RMCC have sung in many different languages. There's the typical singer languages: Latin, Italian, English, German, and even French (the scariest of the typical singer's languages for us, but we manage with minimal stress!). Experience with these usually provides a helpful basis for similar languages.

Step 2: Ask the composer

Ironically, this is not often the most helpful step, and we sometimes skip it! Sometimes composers are not all that familiar with the language they are setting. They may know only the basics. And sometimes, they are fluent speakers who send us files of themselves speaking the text---usually way too fast! This often leads to many back-and-forths to make sure we fine-tune the language.

Kiersten prepared the IPA for "Pslam 91" with a little help from the composer to make sure we got all of these words right!

Step 3: Ask a friend and fellow musician

Throughout our travels and connections throughout the years, we've made some wonderful friends who are often willing to help out and give us some advice. This isn't always fool-proof; there's no guarantee that we know someone who happens to be fluent in whatever language we are singing in. However, we've gotten really lucky when singing something in Swedish, Norwegian, Japanese and more that we happen to know someone who is also a singer who can help us out!

CW got some help from his good friend Sawako in Tokyo to make sure we got the IPA for "My Neighbor Totoro" right.

Step 4: Do our best with the resources we have

We are an American choir who all speak fluent English, and some of us are fluent in more than one language (usually Spanish) and we make no qualms about that---and our composer's don't either. They know that if they want perfect French or Portuguese, they would be best off hiring a French or Portuguese choir. But don't worry! We know about a lot of resources and are trained in how to use them, and we work hard to make sure our languages are as good as possible! We take a lot of pride in the humanity of our recordings. They may not sound like computer software level of perfect, but the humanity of our small imperfections are what make us special and make our recordings really connect, and we are proud of that! So whether your song is in English, Latin, Polish, Hebrew, or Bengali, you can be sure we are going to do our best with all the resources available to us!

Here's a recent recording we did in Norwegian, a language none of us have ever sung, and assisted by one of CW's former coworkers and language enthusiasts, Nate.