Blah, la, la: Exploring Modern Wordless Choral Music and Suggested Works

How important is the text anyway?* Text, after all, is the unique and exclusive aspect of the voice that no other instrument can replicate. So, naturally, text is essential to vocal music everywhere. But what happens when we can’t understand the words, or even sing without text at all? When we hum or a whistle a tune, sloppily sing along to the guitar solo in Bohemian Rhapsody, add the universally accepted "ba ba ba" to Sweet Caroline, or even hear beautifully-tuned chords of a choir we can’t understand does the sound turn into meaningless droll? Of course, this is likely not the case, as all of these are deeply ingrained in modern western culture as are countless other variations of wordless singing in cultures throughout the world. Non-lexical, musical vocalizations are ubiquitous and essential uses of the human voice and, as research outlined by Steven Mithen in The Singing Neanderthals suggests, likely have been since our evolutionary ancestors. The musical human voice, by itself, must therefore be intrinsically meaningful and valuable without necessarily expressing language.

(*I, of course, understand and respect the extraordinary importance of text in choral music. I did shamelessly just use this cheap little anecdote at the beginning as a hook, which if you’ve read this far, probably worked!)

The many use cases of these wordless vocalizations in music are among a much broader — more rather enormous — canon that one blog post cannot begin to scratch the surface of. Therefore, my scope in this post concerns wordless choral works notated in western classical style, and more specifically to what I believe to be an emerging genre within those works over the past twenty-five years (which is, admittedly, a niche within a niche). I’ll outline a few classifications and a brief history of these works, discuss their use cases for teaching vocal timbre and exploration, and list some suggested works for your choirs. 

[so… if you want to skip my rambling and get to the good stuff, scroll down!]

I have found that wordless singing in the choral/group vocal canon tends to fall into a few categories. The first, and arguably one of the most popular, includes emulations or imitations of instruments, often used as accompaniment to another instrument or solo voice. To name a few, this includes scat singing, backgrounds in vocal jazz, pop a cappella syllabication, and beat-boxing. The second includes any incorporation of folk music traditions containing some form of improvised, wordless singing, such as the Quebecois mouth reel, or turluttes (as in Marie-Claire Saindon’s Turlutte acadienne montréalaise) , Norwegian tralling (as in Gjermund Larsen’s Gropen), or the Sardinian cantu a tenores (as in Fahad Siadat’s The Vast Sea). The third, and my primary interest in this discussion, concerns wordless writing that is the central component of a composer’s original work. Works that fall into this category intentionally avoid the use of text and instead create colors and dramatizations that drive their narratives forward, just as an instrumental work would do. 

Robert Reynolds (The Choral Journal, 41,2) outlines the potential start of wordless notated music in the ninth and tenth centuries through the late medieval period. Mark Chilla credits its start with Felix Mendehlsohn’s textless (and voiceless) Songs without Words (Lieder ohne Worte) in 1845. I would venture to say that the practice really came to popularity later in the romantic era when composers were writing wordless arias (Rachmaninoff, Villa-Lobos, Ravel, GliÃ) and added groups of humming and “oo”-ing singers to their operas and symphonies (Berlioz, Holst, Puccini) . 

While these composers certainly promoted wordless singing into the western canon, textless vocal works in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century warrant distinction from their predecessors, as they began the real sub-genre within choral music, primarily within the Avant-garde. Luciano Berio’s Sequenza is a notorious example of composers’ interest in vocal exploration starting in the 1960’s. This was followed in varying directions by Karlheinz Stockhausen, Meredith Monk, Pauline Oliveros, and R Murray Schaffer, to name a few. The body of work during this period of time is incredibly unique, as composers were exploring vocal timbre, tonality, alternative notations, and “extended vocal techniques”. (Perhaps the best account for wordless works within this time period is in Robert Reynolds’ comprehensive list through Arizona State University.)

The plethora of these works in the latter twentieth century I believe laid the groundwork for wordless works which are now, within the last ten years or so, really entering into the mainstream eye of the choral industry. Those of you in the new music world are probably agonizing over the fact that I haven’t yet mentioned the vocal band Roomful of Teeth, who might just be the reigning champions of modern, wordless group singing. Their virtuosic repertoire — usually written exclusively for them — is epitomized by Caroline Shaw’s Pullizer-prize winning Partita for 8 Voices which draws from vocal techniques around the world to “reimagin[e] the expressive potential of the human voice”. Their 2012 debut album, featuring Shaw’s Partita, also included two other wordless works in Judd Greenstein’s A e I O U and Caleb Burhan’s No (also see Brad Wells’ Otherwise). 

All of the works I’ve mentioned are explorative in some capacity and use the voice in ways that are not typically employed in western classical singing, usually through deviations in vocal timbre or the use of “extended” vocal techniques. I have found this to be true of the vast majority of modern wordless works I have encountered, many of which have come to exciting levels of popularity in the past ten to twenty years. In my experience teaching these works to my choirs and in singing them myself, they have encouraged singers to explore vocal timbre and have helped build an awareness and control over ensemble sound in many contexts. Perhaps this is due to the lack of text requiring greater variation to create interest, or the reverse is true and the greater variation in color no longer requires narrative guidance through text. 

Regardless, I believe these wordless works are an essential part of current trends in choral repertoire, are becoming more accessible (sometimes) for younger singers, and offer unique opportunities for singers to explore their voices. From my experience, the works in this proposed sub-genre are wonderfully joyful, playful, and deeply genuine expressions of composers’ imaginations. 

*The List (STOP here if you scrolled ahead earlier!)

The list below includes some works that I have begun suggesting for conductors and teachers that explore the voice in the ways mentioned above while avoiding the use of text. These works are organized by their appropriateness for choirs of varying levels (high school and above) and are selected under the following qualifications:

1. They are choral works (for a group of singers) written in western notation.

2. They avoid the use of language-based text, contain significant portions that avoid text, or use text in a non-narrative way (i.e through considerable repetition, aka Semantic Satiation). 

3. They are written by living composers within the past twenty-five years**.

4. They are published either by an incorporated publishing house or by the composer (and are therefore available for purchase). 

*This version here was compiled by me in October 2024 and is meant to be a suggested works list, rather than a comprehensive catalog. There are certainly (and forever will be!) works I am unaware of that belong here, and I strongly encourage readers to suggest those works to me so I can add them. An updated version of this list exists on my site at samschiebe.com/wordless. If you would like to see works added, comment on this post or contact me through my site!

**My scope is limited to the past twenty-five years primarily due to an already existing catalog compiled by Robert Reynolds of wordless works written in the twentieth century [see also Fahad Siadat’s sample wordless program]. 

Beginning to Intermediate High School Choirs:

Angel Song II - Will Todd

Demon - Matthew Brown

Ding-a ding-a Ding - Greg Gilpin

Elements II: “Air” (opt. add “Fire”) - Katerina Gimon

Gropen - Gjermund Larsen

Jam! (Jom – Ayuh – Mari!) - Tracy Wong

La Lluvia - Stephen Hatfield

Lo Dello: The Dance - Jennifer Lucy Cooke

Malakatumba - Josu Elberdin

Meditations on 7 Down - Jason Fieler

Past Life Melodies - Sarah Hopkins

Vox - Greg Gilpin

Vum Vive Vum - Kevin Siegfried

Advanced High School, Community, and Intermediate Collegiate Choirs

Abacus - Kathryn Parrotta 

Again - Sam Scheibe

Ave Maria - David MacIntire

Bohemian Highway - John Olmstead

Boundless - Katerina Gimon

Celestial Light - Benjamin J. Cramer

Elements - Katerina Gimon

El Hambo - Jaakko Mantyjaarvi

Hymn to Aethon, the Bird-Headed, the Many Taloned - Fahad Siadat

Journey - Sam Scheibe

Numbers - Shruthi Rajasakar

Nyon Nyon - Jake Runestad

Pal-So-Seong - Hyon-Won Wu

Pseudo-Yoik - Jakko Mantyjaarvi

Ritual - Jake Runestad

Soundchants: Ta Tikee Tei - Sid Robinovitch

Stomp on the Fire - Andrea Ramsey

There is Also Loneliness - Henrik Dahlgren

Three Ways to Vacuum Your House - Stephen Hatfield

Turlutte acadienne montréalaise - Marie-Claire Saindon

The Vast Sea - Fahad Siadat

Vocal Dance - Greg Jasperse

Advanced Collegiate to Professional Choirs

Hee-oo-mm-ha - Toby Twining

Hymn - Toby Twining

No - Caleb Burhans

Mouyayoum - Anders Hillborg

Tears, Apples, and Stones - Jonathan David

Without Words - Huang Ruo

Additional Mentions

R. Murray Schafer (1933-2021) - sadly no longer with us, but has a huge body of wordless works that I couldn't possibly not mention. His contribution to this genre is immense and his creative approach to choral writing is delightful. Check out Miniwanka!

Meredith Monk - similarly to Schafer, many of her works are written prior to 25 years ago, but I highly recommend exploring her works as they are still incredibly engaging and in many cases quick learns! Check out Panda Chant II and Astronaut Anthem.

Frederick Delius -Two Songs to be Sung on the Water & Midsummer Song (1917)

Shawn Crouch - To the Joyous, Eclectic All (not published but a worthy mention)

*Opinions expressed on The CCCC Blog are reflections of the individual author, and may not represent all members of The CCCC Community.