Click sound
A click sound made while speaking.
What it means
A click sound arises when a partial vacuum is created in the mouth and suddenly released; it clicks, without air streaming from the lungs. In several languages of southern Africa, such sounds are regular consonants and carry meaning. In German they occur only as extra-linguistic signs, for instance as a disapproving tongue click. Because they are formed without breath, they can be produced independently of the singing tone.
Musical use
In music, click sounds appear in two ways. On the one hand they belong to the vocal music of those languages in which they are part of the sound inventory; there they are nothing special, simply consonants of the text. On the other hand they are used in twentieth- and twenty-first-century music as sound material of their own, in choral and solo works that work with noise-like elements. There they serve as a percussive layer produced by the same performers who also sing. The notation for this is not uniform and is usually explained in the preface of a score.
Performance practice
Produce the sound with tongue and palate, without using breath; it also works while inhaling and can therefore be placed freely in rhythm. Practise evenness in volume and tone colour, for in a choir differences stand out immediately. Take care that the click is not connected with an audible breath noise. With contemporary works, clarify from the score's preface exactly which sound is meant. With texts in languages that have click sounds, seek linguistic advice, instead of imitating the sounds by ear.
Bear in mind that such sounds in choral works must be executed together, so that they work as a rhythmic layer: unequal volume or tone colour stands out immediately. Practise them first without pitch and fix a shared execution. Practise the sounds first in isolation and at a slow tempo, before building them into the musical context. With contemporary works, clarify the score's preface. In Xhosa and Zulu, click sounds are fixed components of the language, as in the well-known song "Qongqothwane."