Against the odds: pandemic early choral music
Against the odds: pandemic early choral music
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克服困难：流行的早期合唱音乐
作者：
Goursaud C
至少可以说，合唱音乐和那些制作和收听它的人在过去的一年半里经历了一段艰难的旅程。连续的封锁剥夺了观众和会众在配偶中听到现场声音的独特和令人振奋的体验，业余合唱团和合唱社团无法提供他们通常的联谊和娱乐机会，而专业歌手及其家人则失去了收入。孩子们尤其受苦;一个大教堂唱诗班的唱诗班成员毫不客气地错过了他们最后一年的服务，这是一个巨大的遗憾。不仅如此，对唱歌行为的有害不信任已经根深蒂固，主要源于2020年初第一波COVID-19感染期间媒体报道产生的误解。1最初的担心，唱歌可能会比说话带来更大的气溶胶或液滴传播风险，这在很大程度上已经-或者至少应该已经-被2020年PERFORM研究的结果所缓解，该研究由耳鼻喉科顾问外科医生和歌手Declan Costello及其团队进行，该研究得出结论，虽然发声比单独呼吸具有更高的传播风险，以相同的音量说话和唱歌产生的粒子数量和大小大致相似。2尽管如此，虽然专业歌手目前（在编写本报告时）能够在适当的缓解措施下表演，但非专业和业余合唱团在室内最多只能有六名歌手。2021年6月15日，芭芭拉·基利议员（Barbara Keeley MP）和迈克尔·伯克莱勋爵（Michael，Lord Berkeley of Barghton）分别担任古典音乐各党派议会小组的主席和联合主席，他们写道，这些限制“对合唱团参与者的心理健康产生了重大影响，对他们中的许多人来说，他们的合唱团是摆脱孤立和孤独的生命线[，]并对领导这些合唱团的自由音乐家产生了重大影响。[3]本·帕里，英国国家青年合唱团的艺术总监和首席指挥，专业合唱团伦敦之声的总监，音乐助理总监和剑桥国王学院的拜伊研究员，分别提供了以下反应：虽然目前对合唱的限制并没有直接影响到我，但我和我的许多同事一样，感到困惑和沮丧的是，权力如此公然地阻碍业余歌唱。我们已经接受唱歌会增加气溶胶传播的风险，但合唱团和歌手为减轻这些风险所做的非凡努力，而酒吧，餐馆和体育设施则充斥着大声，不戴面具，非远距离的客户，这令人难以置信。自2020年7月以来，我一直在符合COVID标准的条件下定期与我的专业合唱团合作，没有发生任何污染事件-为什么业余歌手要受到任何不同的待遇？对合唱界的心理健康的影响，更不用说一般的艺术产业，是巨大的。4
Choral music and those who make and listen to it have had, to say the least, a rough ride over the past year and a half. Successive lockdowns have deprived audiences and congregations of the unique and uplifting experience of hearing live voices in consort, amateur choirs and choral societies have been unable to provide their usual opportunities for fellowship and recreation, while professional singers and their families have lost their incomes. Children have suffered particularly; for a cathedral chorister to have unceremoniously missed out on what might have been their final year of service is a great pity. More than that, a pernicious mistrust in the very act of singing has taken hold, originating largely in misconceptions engendered by media reports during the first wave of COVID-19 infections in early 2020. 1 Initial fears that singing might present a greater risk of aerosol or droplet transmission than speaking have largely been—or at least should have been—allayed by the results of the 2020 PERFORM study carried out by the consultant ENT surgeon and singer Declan Costello and his team, which concluded that while vocalization carries a higher risk of transmission than breathing alone, speaking and singing at the same volume produces particles of broadly similar number and magnitude. 2 Despite this, while professional singers are currently (at the time of writing) able to perform with appropriate mitigation in place, non-professional and amateur choirs are limited to a maximum of six singers indoors. On 15 June 2021, Barbara Keeley MP, and Michael, Lord Berkeley of Knighton, respectively Chair and Co-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Classical Music, wrote that these restrictions have ‘had a major impact on the mental wellbeing of choir participants, for many of whom their choir is a lifeline out of isolation and loneliness [,] and on the freelance musicians that lead these choirs’. 3 Ben Parry, Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain, Director of the professional choir London Voices, and Assistant Director of Music and Bye-Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge has separately provided the following reaction:Although the current restrictions on choral singing do not affect me directly, I am, nevertheless, bewildered and frustrated—like so many of my colleagues—that the powers that be have stymied amateur singing so blatantly. We already accept that there is an increased risk of aerosol transmission with singing, but the extraordinary lengths to which choirs and singers have gone to mitigate these risks, while pubs, restaurants and sports facilities are heaving with loud, un-masked, non-distanced clientele is beyond belief. I have been working regularly with my professional choir since July 2020 in COVID-compliant conditions, with no incidences of contamination—why should amateur singers be treated any differently? The impact on mental wellbeing amongst the choral community, not to mention the arts industry in general, is immense. 4