Making a gleeful noise
What is a glee? An unaccompanied song scored for at least three voices (traditionally male), a form that was especially popular in the 18th century and is making a comeback with groups like the six-man a cappella group Mosaic.
Glee clubs, which as the TV show “Glee” demonstrates, can be more angst-ridden than mirthful, date to the late 18th century in England. In North America, they are mainly still found at colleges and universities.
Some of the oldest include the Harvard Glee Club (1858), the University of Michigan Glee Club (1859) and Yale University (1861).
The Ohio State University Men’s Glee Club was established in 1875. If you go to its website (http://mgc.osu.ed) guess what song will welcome you?
No, not “Hang on Sloopy,” although a complex arrangement of that would not be unheard of for a school show choir.
The correct answer is the OSU fight song, “Fight the Team Across the Field.” If you’ve never heard the words clearly, it’s worth a visit.
KETTERING — It isn’t called “glee club” at many Ohio high schools anymore.
“Show choir” has been the operative term for two decades and more.
But the hit TV series “Glee,” about a glee club at a fictional high school in Lima, Ohio, definitely resonates with current and would-be show choir members, as well as others who may never sing a note.
Many directors and singers say “Glee” bears little resemblance to their typical school experiences.
“But it has made singing of all kinds seem cooler,” said Brody McDonald, director of choirs at Kettering Fairmont High School.
“ ‘American Idol’ and ‘America’s Got Talent’ have also helped with that.”
The show is having an impact at auditions being held now for the 2010-11 school year.
According to the Boston Globe, a poll by the National Association for Music Education earlier this year showed that 43 percent of choral instructors believed “Glee” had increased interest in their ensembles.
That figure might be higher now because ratings climbed for “Glee,” which returned in April after a four-month hiatus.
When asked whether the show influenced their decision to audition, four in a group of six incoming Fairmont female freshmen immediately shot their hands overhead during a break from a class being held to prepare them for the group’s upcoming dance tryout.
Another raised her hand tentatively. The other raised hers about halfway.
“I was half and half about whether I would try out. ‘Glee’ convinced me. I wanted to try and be like them and what they are doing,” Caitlin Dybvad, one of the hopefuls, said about the characters on the show.
Future freshman Courtney Combs said the show made her “want to learn to sing and dance better. That’s such an advantage when you are trying to push the mood of a song.”
Some parents don’t approve of their children watching “Glee,” which has some strong language and some suggestive situations.
Ross Partin, who just turned 14, said that’s his situation. “But I’ve known for three years that I wanted to do show choir when I got to high school.”
Ryan Perrin, vocal director at Ferguson Middle School in Beavercreek, said “Glee” “has made somewhat of an impact. The group is more recognized now. Many schools seem to be starting show choirs up, or at least have plans to do so in the future.”
Directors of established high school programs emphasized that their choirs were popular long before “Glee” and will probably remain so after “Glee.” It’s no fad.
“But ‘Glee’ has brought new recognition to something we’ve done for 30 years here,” said Piqua High School choral director Tom Westfall, whose group has been consistently ranked in the state’s top five in recent years.
“I’m sure some of our students see themselves in some of the characters and the stories. But our kids already had the respect of the school and their peers. We have a following. We already had so many kids trying out that we’ve had to be quite selective.”
Piqua gave its final concert of the season the weekend of March 21 and 22. Both shows were close to sold out.
The story lines on “Glee” fill the minutes between the singing and dancing. The episode on March 25 featured songs by Lady Gaga and Kiss.
Broadway and film star Idina Menzel, the original Elphaba in the musical “Wicked,” has been featured this season as a woman who gave up her baby years ago. That baby is now Rachel Berry (Lea Michele), a featured character in the “Glee” cast. Her birth mother (Menzel as Shelby Corcoran) directs the rival school choir.
Besides a battle for attention and school funding between the singers and the cheerleaders, another ongoing theme has had to do with verbal gay bashing. Boys who try out for the glee club or show choir — even football player Finn Hudson, portrayed by Cory Monteith — are immediately suspected of being gay on the show.
One character, Kurt Hummel (Chris Colfer) is openly gay. His blue-collar dad is the first to defend him and preach equality. The Lima depicted on the show is an enlightened place, even if, as Finn says, when people in his town eat vegetables, they are usually fried.
The male effeminacy aspect definitely rings true.
Alex Phan, assistant director of choirs at Fairmont and a respected choral arranger, said the TV characters are “stereotypes, to a certain extent, and one of those is that show choir is effeminate or gay.”
Ryan Crouch, a graduating senior who’s heading to Bowling Green State University to major in music, said he had to deal with that perception immediately and often.
“I was in the choir in eighth grade. Things changed when I joined show choir in the ninth, which I loved immediately. I started getting the ‘gay’ remarks,” he said.
“Some of the misconceptions might be based on the fact that the entire school only gets to see us perform in the Christmas show, and that can look a little cheesy. We also do modern pop and hip-hop. That might change their ideas,” he said.
Michael Casey, 13, a baseball player who was encouraged to try out for show choir heading into his freshman year at Fairmont, brought two of his male friends to the audition-preparation class.
“I don’t think either one is going to come back,” he said. “I don’t think guys respect it as much as they do sports.”
Crouch said that’s true, even though, “if they were here today, they could be out there dancing with 40 girls.”
Actually, 30 of the 40 students taking the class were girls.
Phan said not all of the girls will make it, and that the number of boys will have an impact. “We like to have similar numbers of girls and boys, even though there are always more girls.”
The girls know the situation and try to recruit boys to join the choir.
Katherine Bacon, who will be a freshman, said one way to motivate them “is to get mad at them.” If that doesn’t work, “crying sometimes does.”
Perrin credits “Glee” for helping Ferguson Junior High buck that trend. “I have more than doubled my boy numbers since my first year of directing. We began with five and I am now up to 12.”
Students who are passionate about the costumed, choreographed and highly theatrical form of singing typically pay an activity fee of a few to several hundred dollars to participate in the performances and competitions.
Ryan Lynch, who will be a Fairmont sophomore, said he tried out last year, but couldn’t afford the fee. So, he worked for the choir backstage “to stay part of it.” This year, he’s auditioning again and hopes to land one of the scholarships offered at the school.
“I love the characters on ‘Glee.’ But what I really love is how they set it up so that anybody can come out of the blue and sing like the next star. That has made me want to do this even more.”
Caity Jackson, who transferred to Fairmont from Carroll High School this year and will be a junior in the fall, has put to use a lot of what she has learned in her first year of performing.
She was recently named outstanding teen in the Miss Miami Valley World pageant. “I’m not a big TV watcher, but I’ve been impressed by what I’ve seen of ‘Glee.’ ”
“Glee” has barely touched on one of the biggest local trends in show choirs — a cappella singing. McDonald, who established one of the first high school groups at Fairmont several years ago, said that’s where the growth is. “If schools start show choirs now, they are usually a cappella ensembles. That started in colleges 20 years ago and has trickled down to the high schools.”
He credits that to the increasingly synthesized and electronic nature of popular music. “Something that signals a return to humanity and a more organic, natural sound is welcome.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2377 or terry morris@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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