Catholic Church Music, forty-eight years later (Part VI of a series) « The Recovering Choir Director

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Catholic Church Music, forty-eight years later (Part VI of a series)

Chapter 2, part 2 of Paul Hume’s Catholic Church Music discusses the difficulties that a choir director faces when making the decision to improve the state of sacred music at the parish level. He asserts that the more familiar the choir director is with his choir, the more difficult the task will be.

Choir work means a great deal to a lot of people, whether they can sing or not. And people who sing, or think they can, are often very sensitive types indeed. Although I have not kept statistics to prove it, twenty years of dealing with musicians convinces me that the self-deception practiced by singers far outstrips that practiced by any other kind of performer…The choir director who introduces any new wobbles, rasps, quavers, honks, or flats into the group has only himself to blame.

He then shares stories given him by actual choir directors that illustrate how they had improved the quality of the volunteer voices through auditioning, evaluation of prospective choristers’ sincerity, vocal work outside of rehearsal, and even pruning.

“Hume’s Law of Diminishing Flats” makes its appearance here as well:

The further a choir moves, both in repertoire and in discipline, toward the liturgical and musical ideal, the less appeal it will have for its problem members.

More suggestions by the author:

Rear back and pass and edict against solos of any kind, however short. Also against extended duets.
Start an all-out campaign for balance—until the choir dreams nightly of the word.
Let your choir hear great choral singing in good hi-fidelity recordings.
Choose material that will be kind to the deficiencies of your choir instead of exaggerating them.
What method is least effective in getting people to join the choir? The appeal from the pulpit.
“As soon as word got round that we had an entirely new set-up and were doing good music, people not only from our parish but from all over the city came to audition.”
There is a corollary to “Hume’s Law of Diminishing Flats”: the higher the ideals of your choir, musically and liturgically, the higher will be the musical and liturgical calibre of the people who want to join it.
Choirs of all degrees of sophistication, from New York to Wiscasset, react vigorously and favorably to kind words from the rectory.
Like any other organized activity, a choir operates most effectively when its work is carefully planned in advance.

Posted 06.04.2004
by Aristotle A. Esguerra
6 comments.
Filed under: Book Excerpts; Catholic Church Music (Hume).

6 Comments

Peace, Aris.

” … the higher the ideals of your choir, musically and liturgically, the higher will be the musical and liturgical calibre of the people who want to join it.”

Here’s something I can be a signatory of!

Todd
06.04.2004 @ 6:26 pm #

Many fine points, but an absolution prohibition (as opposed to healthly caution) on solos and duos is flawed in conception and practice.

Liturgically and scripturally, quite a number of psalms are at their most forceful when verses are offered in a solo voice. The church’s own tradition and documents on the subject wisely envision a role for psalmist and cantor. Ignoring that is a personal preference, not thinking with the church, as it were.

Also, allowing for solos (especially in psalms and sacred canticles) greatly expands the textural possibilities of liturgical music.

I understand the concerns about solos, and their potentially harmful effect on developing a proper espirit de corps and dampening egoism in a choir. But there are better ways of managing those issues than a facile ban. An absolute ban is the tool of a weak director, in my experience.

Liam
06.05.2004 @ 9:11 pm #

But zero tolerance is so easy….

Geri
06.05.2004 @ 9:32 pm #

Judging by these standards, our choir has quite a way to go! Our psalm verses are indeed sung by a soloist ( and I don’t see anything amiss with that). However, there are sometimes duets, and descants galore — the choir directors seem to be obsessed with them! Interesting and thought-provoking ideas … Don’t know if our directors would be interested in these ideas, since the main focus of our choir seems to be a social gathering more than anything else. Such things definitely have their place, but IMO our choir doesn’t focus on the main idea of Mass : the worship of God. That, to me, seems almost completely secondary to the “Kaffeeklatsch” which happens each week. As I said, we definitely have a long way to go!

Patricia Gonzalez
06.07.2004 @ 9:46 am #

“The further a choir moves, both in repertoire and in discipline, toward the liturgical and musical ideal, the less appeal it will have for its problem members.”

Also, in my experience, the further a choir moves away from the liturgical and musical ideal, the less appeal it will have for some of its better members.

Jane
06.13.2004 @ 8:28 pm #

I’ve always felt that there’s a difference between a solo and the work of a cantor and/or psalmist. The practice (becoming more regular) of having a so-called “communion meditation” where the congregation has to sit and listen to an extended solo voice or a duet singing a piece of music that they couldn’t excuse putting anywhere else in the Mass may be to what the author is referring. When the congregation has to debate about whether or not they need to applaud, then the work of the musician has not, indeed, been in the service of God, His worship, and His community. It has become a self-aggrandizement best left to the concert hall.

I’ve never seen anyone applaud or tempted to applaud a psalmist or a cantor when they are intoning the verses of the psalm or the litany of the saints, no matter how well it’s delivered!

Scherza
06.18.2004 @ 9:36 am #

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