One-on-one with Aella - Ellen Badcock (arranger edition!)

by Teri Slade

(Click here to listen to a solo version of Gjendines bådnlåt, a haunting Norwegian lullaby which Ellen has adapted for SSAA voices. Aella will premiere Ellen’s stunning arrangement at their December 7, 2019 show, Carols & Cake.)

This weekend I had the pleasure of chatting with Ellen. She’s an Aella, a music director, and a pianist who has arranged two of the pieces in Aella’s upcoming concert. Ellen is an absolute joy to sing with and one of the most kind and honest people you’ll ever meet. She is also my doppelgänger. (picture below for proof.) 

See? We could be sisters!!

Here’s what she said about the upcoming concert:

Ellen: I think everybody’s pretty excited that we’re doing a Christmas concert this year. We’ve carolled every year but we’ve never actually sung a Christmas concert before, so it’s extremely fun. The music on the program speaks to many of the different themes of Christmas; for example, there’s a set all about Mary, and there are cradle songs and there’s a Scandinavian set too, which is really cool.

And then of course we’re going to have our request set which will have the carol that wins the Carol Cage Match and people will be able to vote at the concert and we’ll sing whatever people vote for. So that’s really exciting because we literally don’t know what we’re going to sing that day.

Sounds thrilling and nerve racking! If you haven’t participated in the Christmas Carol Cage Match, you need to. Aellas have been making sales pitches to encourage votes for their favourite carols on the list.

Ellen: I guess you read [Aella’s manager] Erin’s sales pitch for Past Three O’Clock?

Teri: Yes! It was hilarious! And I love that carol, but the pitch was just so great!

Ellen: Well, it certainly made me think about that carol in a new light, that’s for sure! And even though I’m going to be writing an appeal for another carol, it makes me want to vote for her carol! Then, of course after Jenn’s emotional plea for Jesus Christ the Apple Tree, I wanted to vote for hers! 

Since our interview, [Aella member] Kelly also made a great pitch for Jingle Bell Rock, and I believe Ellen will be making one for Ding Dong Merrily on High, which she arranged!

Teri: Tell me about the arranging process for Ding Dong Merrily on High.

Ellen: Well, I had always wanted to sing in a small treble group like this. One year, long before I found Aella, I ordered a whole bunch of SSA music just so that if maybe I had the music, maybe I would find the people to sing it with. It was a situation where you couldn’t look at the music before you ordered it, so I had just ordered a whole bunch of SSA music sight unseen and I was particularly excited about Ding Dong Merrily on High. As I was waiting for my music to arrive, I found myself wondering, “What is this music going to sound like?” I would be driving in my car and think, “Oh, I wonder if it will do this? I wonder if the alto part will go like this?” and I was doing so much wondering about it that I decided to write down some of my ideas, and then I enjoyed that process so much that I just ended up writing the whole arrangement before my music ever arrived. 

Teri: Did you like the one that came in the mail?

Ellen: You know what, I don’t think I did!  But you know, I think that experience helped me realize how much I enjoyed arranging, because I had written music before that, but I’d never arranged anything and when I wrote this arrangement I really loved it. It’s been just a dream come true that I’ve been able to sing this, which was my first ever choral arrangement with Aella, with these wonderful beautiful talented singers.

And now I want to go vote for Ding Dong Merrily on High! But there’s another arrangement by Ellen that is definitely going to be sung at the concert. It’s called Gjendines bådnlåt. 

Ellen: This was a first for me because it was my first time arranging a piece that I had never heard before. All I got was this beautiful, haunting melody, and there are arrangements in existence, but I purposefully didn’t listen to them before writing mine because I didn’t want to be influenced. I wanted to just listen to this melody and see what I came up with. It was a really cool experience because the style and the language and everything about it was so different from what I’m used to. It’s a cradle song and I got to play with that a little bit and try to make it sound like it was rocking, and I added some interesting rhythms and I put a fugal section in the middle. It was really a lot of fun.

I love fugues. You know what’s even better than fugues? Fugues and cake. 

Teri: What is your favourite type of cake?

Ellen: [laughs] Much like Christmas carols, I can’t pick just one! But I think if I had to, I would probably choose black forest cake. But I’m also looking forward to trying the traditional Norwegian Christmas cake!

Yes, the kransekake! If you didn’t know, this cake is stunning! It has about a million layers and tastes like the regal distant cousin of macarons and seven layer squares. 

Now for a special musical Christmas moment. 

Ellen: A few years ago, I was planning the music for my church’s candlelight service and the final hymn was Silent Night, so I decided to play an arrangement of Silent Night on piano right after the closing hymn. Normally the church can get pretty noisy after a service, especially at Christmastime because people are excited and everything, but that night, I don’t know, just something about the magic of that piece seemed to kind of cast a spell on the entire congregation and the whole church fell totally silent. You could hear a pin drop. Even after I played the last notes, nobody moved. Nobody made a sound. Everybody just got up from their seats in silence. It was a really powerful moment and I still get chills thinking about it, to know that music can do that.

I got chills hearing about it! And I think YOU will get chills at the Aella Carols & Cake concert, particularly during the Biebl Ave Maria. It’s so beautiful, someone will definitely cry (probably me).