A tribute to


Ward Swingle

Ward Swingle is the product of an unusually liberal musical education. In his home town, Mobile, Alabama, he grew up with the sound of jazz and played in one of the great Big Bands before finishing High School. He graduated Summa Cum Laude from the Cincinnati Conservatory and studied piano with the celebrated Walter Gieseking in postwar France. In Paris in the sixties he was a founding member of the fabled Double Six of Paris,then took the scat singing idea and applied it to the works of Bach, hence The Swingle Singers, whose early recordings won five Grammies.

When the Paris group disbanded in 1973, Swingle moved to London and formed an English group, expanding the repertoire to include classical and avant-garde works along with scat and jazz vocal arrangements. This group is still very active, however without the participation of Mr Swingle as a singer.
In 1984 Swingle returned to live in America. Since then he has remained as Musical Advisor for his London-based group, but most of his time has been devoted to seminars, guest conducting and the dissemination of his printed arrangements through his publishing company, Swingle Music.

His pioneering ideas in new choral techniques have produced invitations to conduct a wide variety of choral ensembles: The Stockholm and Netherlands Chamber Choirs, The Dale Warland Singers, The Sydney Philharmonic Motet Choir, The BBC Northern Singers, The Gregg Smith Singers and the MENC National Honors Choir at Kennedy Center. Over the last ten years he has given a long series of workshops and seminars at outstanding universities in both Europe and North America.

In March of 1994 he and Mrs. Swingle moved back to France, where he continues his work in arranging, composing, seminars and guest conducting. He also recently completed his book called "Swingle Singing"
The book is published by:
Wessmans Musikförlag
No. 9723
ISBN 91-87710-12-9

Ward Swingle and his groups over the years.

This section contains links to pages with some pictures and notes about various groups with Ward Swingle (Also with some sound clips!)

Les Doubles Six (1960)

The Swingle Singers (1963)

The Swingle Singers (1973)

"Swingle II" (1974)

The New Swingle Singers

The "Swingle Sound"

The development of the vocal group singing of today has been strongly influenced by a small number of persons. Without a doubt Ward Swingle is one of these few. Leif Åkesson, swedish singer and choir-leader says:
"Since I don´t have a formal musical education I had to learn by studying recordings and sheet music on my own. My first and foremost teacher in this respect has been Ward Swingle, who made a very strong impression on me already at my early age. The Swingle Singers recording of Mozart music did really make countless revolutions on the recordplayer in my home. It made me want to sing in a group myself, and since the age of 14 singing in vocal groups has been an important hobby for me"

What is it then that makes the music of Ward Swingle so great both 30 years ago and today? We think the answer lies in the "sound". Ward Swingle made popular a very special sound. This sound is light and intimate. The voices of the singers are really talking voices although singing. Singing with a talking voice gives the singer a wide range of equal sound quality. Ward Swingles choice of music such as baroque music performed in a jazz style also contributed to his early success. Another part of the Ward Swingle sound is the way in which his singers take the role of instruments.


To Leif and Johan´s Vocal hall of fame
Updated at 2001-07-05 by Johan Stäck.