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Blogs: Rory Johnston

Rory Wainwright Johnston is a conductor and composer from Bradford-on-Avon, based in Manchester. He joined ORA Singers as our one of our ‘Bloggers in Residence’ in 2018, eager to share his experience of choral writing, singing, directing with the next generation.

About Rory...

Rory is a composer and conductor based in the rainy city of Manchester. Having just finished his Masters in Composition, he is gradually forging a path in the professional world of music.

Growing up within the English choral tradition as a treble at Bath Abbey, Rory’s musicianship was formed by composers like Howells and Byrd. Luckily having been played plenty of Radiohead and Manic Street Preachers on cassettes in his parents’ car as a kid, his taste broadened to encompass more than just the classical sphere. Nowadays, Rory enjoys listening to Renaissance polyphony and contemporary art music alongside R&B and 90's hiphop.

Rory is passionate about encouraging people to engage with contemporary music, opening their ears to new possibilities and sound worlds. He admires the ORA Singers for their commitment to new music and is thoroughly looking forward to working with them.

Textual emphasis in the context of a celebration

Author: Blogger in Residence, Rory Johnston

Author: Blogger in Residence, Rory Johnston

When writing music with words it’s always really important to think about how you set those words, and how they are emphasised.

Most of the time (if not ALL) a composer wants the audience to be able to understand what is being sung about, otherwise they may as well have written a piece without words.

Consequently, if a word is poorly set and the wrong syllable emphasised, or an insignificant word like ‘and’ and ‘or’ or ‘a’, the listener will have a harder time deciphering what is being sung about.

Tomorrow is my birthday, and because of that I thought it highly appropriate to share this video with you on the topic of word emphasis and text setting!

It’s a well-known Hungarian composer, Ivan Fischer, talking about how terrible the tune and word setting are to Happy Birthday. I think it’s a good way to start thinking about how you can better write your choral parts to present the text in its truest form…

Written by Rory Johnston

ORA Singers