The Effect of Synthesized Accompaniments on the Perception of Choral Music
Research Question Summaries:
Does including synthesizers in choral accompaniments impact someone’s desire to sing or listen to choral repertoire?
Do factors including age, choral singing experience, genre preference, and digital instrumentation familiarity predict the preference for synthesized choral accompaniments? MOL Comm. p <. 001* , d = -.566
DI Aud p <. 001* , d = .578
Symposium for Research in Choral Singing
April 25, 2024
The purpose of this convergent mixed methods study was to investigate if adding synthesizers to choral accompaniments had any effect on listener preferences. Specifically, I investigated whether replacing or supplementing piano accompaniment with digital synthesizers evoked greater feelings of familiarity and preference. I investigated the listening preferences of several participants (N = 371) on piano versus synthesized choral accompaniments. Participants (N = 371), including college choir singers (n = 101), community choir singers (n = 90), and audience members (n = 180), reported demographic information and their preference for various music genres (i.e., classical, choral, country, EDM, hip-hop, pop, and rock). They then listened to recordings of three paired choral pieces (i.e., Britney Boykin’s “Music of Life,” Ryan Main’s “Dies Irae,” and Eric Whitacre’s “Fly to Paradise”) that varied in only their accompaniment, with one example utilizing exclusively piano and one incorporating some kind of synthesizer.
Results indicated that listeners significantly favored piano accompaniments enhanced by synthesized bass lines over those with just piano accompaniment. However, most participants favored strictly choral piano accompaniments when the synthesizer replaced the piano entirely. Although age and years of choral singing experience did not predict synthesized accompaniment preference, small relationships did emerge between genre preference and enjoyment of specific accompaniments. Individuals who enjoyed classical and choral music preferred traditional piano accompaniment, while those favoring genres such as rock, EDM, and hip-hop preferred the synthesizers. In addition, the extent to which individuals were familiar with the synthesizer timbres significantly predicted how much they would enjoy synthesized accompaniments in choral music.
These findings offer new potential ways to merge the fields of digital music production and choral music. The results of this study suggest that incorporating digital instrumentation into choral accompaniments could diversify the kinds of people who would enjoy listening to choral music and expand the tools composers could implement to create new and compelling works. Training choral conductors to utilize this digital instrumentation could provide them with tools to increase the cultural relevance of choral music and connect with audiences that may not regularly consume classical and choral music. Although the exploratory nature of this study limits its generalizability, the emergent trends provide ample opportunity for future research. Future researchers and practitioners might begin incorporating digital instrumentation into choral accompaniments by supplementing preexisting piano accompaniments and honoring traditions while delivering new possibilities for the future.