DIANE SARE

The Choral Principle

This is an edited transcription of remarks made by Diane Sare to the Schiller institute conference in Morristown, N.J. on Feb. 16, 2019. Mrs. Sare is the Managing Director of the Schiller Institute NYC Chorus.

I think we’ll begin with a voice clip from Lyndon LaRouche. He said to a meeting of the National Executive Committee of his philosophical association in July 2015:

Classical musical vocal performances are not entertainment. They are an experience, a social and moral experience, which changes the attitude of populations.

The Schiller Institute NYC Chorus

When we began this process, I didn’t fully appreciate the incredible insight of that comment, and I probably still don’t. But, in this process that has become the official Schiller Institute NYC Chorus, we are discovering the truth of Mr. LaRouche’s forecast, over and over. My current assessment of the process in Manhattan, relative to what Lyn suggested, is that we’re perhaps halfway there, but of course, you can never get all the way there, as John Sigerson will tell us. Lyndon LaRouche said 1,500 voices—with 1,500 voices you’ll develop 150 or so who can actually sing, and the others will be in the process of learning to sing or learning to hear as the audience. In the case of Manhattan, probably about 700 people have come through the choral process. We now have about 85 voices in the greater Manhattan chorus as a minimum solid core.

As usual, however, the truth is not in the numbers, although the numbers are a prerequisite for the effect. I got a glimmer of this in a negative way—that is, what makes LaRouche’s choral process truly unique, and why our chorus attracts the most dedicated and wonderful people. A few weeks, or maybe months ago, I had sent an audio recording of one of our rehearsals—and I knew it was a little rough; it was an early rehearsal of something—to a very dear friend and collaborator, who wanted to hear how we were coming along and make suggestions. He wrote back, “Diane, you are the problem,” [laughter] he said, “as long as you keep so many people in your group who can’t match pitch, get the rhythm right or the words right.”

Now, I had told him it was an early rehearsal. But it struck me that our chorus is the only chorus, at least in the greater Manhattan area, and maybe more than that, which is dedicated to actually improving the standard of Classical performance and Classical hearing, by teaching our singers how to sing, and not only vocal technique, which is also very important, but how to think about what they are doing. This approach has led to our chorus being one of the most diverse, friendly, and fun choruses in the city! And that’s what our members, who sing in other choruses, say about our chorus. They say they love the repertoire, they love the sectionals, and they love to hear John Sigerson lecture about the background of the piece they are learning.

We love the chorus, because we love the experience of the continuous quest for improvement and the social process that is developing as a result. In our chorus the improvement of the individual participant, immediately uplifts the whole. Everyone who is a part of that process is inspired by that. Some of you here, who have formed other choruses around the country, have a sense of this.

I could say much more, but we should get to the music, which is where you’ll get to experience that choral work. Lyndon LaRouche has more that I think it will be helpful for you to hear, so let us listen to Mr. LaRouche:

What you want to do, is you want to get people out of the idea of being practical, because practical people are inherently stupid people. That is, they don’t have anything in themselves, which defines them as the process of meaningful expressions.

The point is, we want that kind of thing where the placement of the singing voice, real placement, not making noises, not throwing their throat out all over the place, but actually placing the voice. When people place the voice well, in the process of choral singing, you get an effect which is otherwise inaccessible. And therefore, if we have that number of voices, then we can do it. And when people learn how to use the singing voice properly, not as throat-throwing things, but the actual placement of the voice, you have a change in the attitude of the people, where they are inspired, because they are not trying to think about the noises they’re making. They’re going through the experience of placing the voice. And when they start to place the voice, their attitude about life changes. And therefore, the purpose is, to use that factor, the placement of the voice, the placement of the singing voice, in a competent placement, changes the mental outlook of the population.

First of all, you change the choral group of the singers, and then you effect those who are not such good singers, and they will tend to hear what they cannot project, not project efficiently. And that attitude is the basis for morality.

Now, the point is, instead of saying, “let’s be practical,” you say, “let’s be inspired.” And we need a population of sufficient numbers of people who are in the process of qualifying themselves, as choral singers in general. When they qualify to do that, and when they can take more and more difficult challenges in the repertoire, then you have changed the attitude about the people in general with respect to themselves, how they feel themselves, how do they locate their identity, themselves. And, without that kind of inspiration, I don’t think we can rebuild the kind of choral activity which we require for the leadership from the significant part of the population.

It’s not making noise. It’s not making sounds. It’s what you experience in your own voice which changes the way you think about yourself, and about the people around you. That is the essential basis. It’s not practical things. Practical things do not solve that problem. Only the Classical musical composition sets a standard, to which a resonance occurs out of that, and therefore, until you can get an area, like New York City in which you can say, well, there’s potentially 150 people who are prospective choral performers, in training, and then a certain part will be qualified. The others will be sort of still the amateurs, or they have problems with the voice otherwise. But when a chorus projects an effective performance, then even the people who can’t do it themselves, will be inspired by hearing it, by the experience. And that creates what we really call a morality, a popular morality among the people. And that is what my intention is that we should achieve.

Thank you. [applause]