In which choir is unintentionally amusing
Jan. 10th, 2013 12:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cahnSo (as people who have been around for a while know) I sing for this Catholic choir, despite not actually being Catholic or knowing anything about Catholicism -- but they sing polyphony and they pay me (a very small amount, but still), and I love it very much, when I'm not being frustrated by it.
The church recently got a new pastor, who has very different ideas on the role of the choir than the choir director does. The pastor believes that church music should be about accessibility and participation by the congregation; the director believes it should be about preserving tradition and broadening the horizons of the congregation. In brief, the pastor would like us to sing simple hymns in English with the congregation joining in, and the director would like us to sing Latin polyphony.
I've never myself talked to the pastor, but I see both sides -- I mean, I'm only there for the polyphony, myself! And I have strong feelings about the Latin liturgy, which I love disproportionately as a result of a high school choir director who fed us Vivaldi's Gloria and one of the Schubert Masses. But on the other hand, both D and I belong to separate religious traditions which stress accessibility of the music -- and D's in addition stresses congregational participation in the liturgy. (Mine doesn't really have a congregational liturgy in that sense, but given that different people give talks every week (instead of, say, a pastor sermon), all church jobs including pastoral duties rotate, etc., it certainly extremely emphasizes participation and accessibility.) And it is such a rush to me, when I direct music at my own church, to hear the strength of the congregational voices coming up to me... So I've been staying out of all these discussions.
(Also, the whole thing has made me believe that my own church? I complained about it a lot at Christmastime, but really, we're amateurs at this picking fights about music thing! But anyway.)
The other thing that came up was that we usually sing from the choir loft -- but the pastor thought that it would inspire more congregational participation if we sang at the front of the church. So we did that for the first time this Sunday.
It was terribly amusing. I am fairly sure that Director would rather not have had amusing be the word applied to it. Everyone in the choir except for two people forgot not to bunch up as we walked into the church, so there was a bunch of people, then a big gap, then another bunch of people. We were not at all good at standing up and sitting down, and it was very ragged. Director had to sing the entire Gloria by himself because no one in the choir (except for me, and then I just looked like an idiot and shut up) came in for the "peace on earth" part like we were supposed to. To make up for this, or something, everyone in the choir sang the memorial acclamation that Director was supposed to sing by himself before everyone else came in. The organist usually gives an intro to the communion chant but couldn't because she was rushing from the organ to the piano, so we waffled for a while before finally Just Doing It (fortunately I was doing the cantor part for that, and my pitch is good). Not knowing how Communion worked, I think I may have jumped in line, oooops? (No, I did not actually take communion, I just got a blessing from the priest. I know that much about Catholicism.) We had never practiced our one sanctioned polyphonic song up at the front, so everyone got off count because the acoustics were all weird -- and we couldn't hear Director (who anchors the bass section) or the piano (which everyone is dependent on). (Maaaaybe DK and I can turn this into an excuse to practice things a capella, like God and Tallis intended!)
...It was also really cool, or will be once we get the hang of it. I feel terribly disloyal to Director, but I kind of agree with Pastor: it was better having us at the front. And I loved being part of the big processional and recessional, and I thought it just made a lot of sense for the church and for the congregation feeling like we were part of it. And it was better for me. I have never been able to understand anything that goes on down there at all -- this was the first sermon I've actually been able to understand at all.
I also have this bad feeling, in retrospect, that the officiating priest might have thought I was trying to flirt with him, because I could not stop smiling at him while he was singing at practice with us, because I have never seen a priest sing parts of the Mass before at that church and I thought it was so cool! (And he had a surprisingly pleasant voice that stayed mainly on pitch; I was kind of steeled for tone-deaf priests.) One thing you have to say for Pastor -- he has consistent convictions; he may be driving Director nuts with his harping on participation, but he's also making all the priests sing in the Mass, including himself. But really, Father, I was not flirting with you, I'm sorry if you thought I was -- I'd have been smiling at any other priest who was officiating and singing with us. The sneakers under your robes were cute, though!
The church recently got a new pastor, who has very different ideas on the role of the choir than the choir director does. The pastor believes that church music should be about accessibility and participation by the congregation; the director believes it should be about preserving tradition and broadening the horizons of the congregation. In brief, the pastor would like us to sing simple hymns in English with the congregation joining in, and the director would like us to sing Latin polyphony.
I've never myself talked to the pastor, but I see both sides -- I mean, I'm only there for the polyphony, myself! And I have strong feelings about the Latin liturgy, which I love disproportionately as a result of a high school choir director who fed us Vivaldi's Gloria and one of the Schubert Masses. But on the other hand, both D and I belong to separate religious traditions which stress accessibility of the music -- and D's in addition stresses congregational participation in the liturgy. (Mine doesn't really have a congregational liturgy in that sense, but given that different people give talks every week (instead of, say, a pastor sermon), all church jobs including pastoral duties rotate, etc., it certainly extremely emphasizes participation and accessibility.) And it is such a rush to me, when I direct music at my own church, to hear the strength of the congregational voices coming up to me... So I've been staying out of all these discussions.
(Also, the whole thing has made me believe that my own church? I complained about it a lot at Christmastime, but really, we're amateurs at this picking fights about music thing! But anyway.)
The other thing that came up was that we usually sing from the choir loft -- but the pastor thought that it would inspire more congregational participation if we sang at the front of the church. So we did that for the first time this Sunday.
It was terribly amusing. I am fairly sure that Director would rather not have had amusing be the word applied to it. Everyone in the choir except for two people forgot not to bunch up as we walked into the church, so there was a bunch of people, then a big gap, then another bunch of people. We were not at all good at standing up and sitting down, and it was very ragged. Director had to sing the entire Gloria by himself because no one in the choir (except for me, and then I just looked like an idiot and shut up) came in for the "peace on earth" part like we were supposed to. To make up for this, or something, everyone in the choir sang the memorial acclamation that Director was supposed to sing by himself before everyone else came in. The organist usually gives an intro to the communion chant but couldn't because she was rushing from the organ to the piano, so we waffled for a while before finally Just Doing It (fortunately I was doing the cantor part for that, and my pitch is good). Not knowing how Communion worked, I think I may have jumped in line, oooops? (No, I did not actually take communion, I just got a blessing from the priest. I know that much about Catholicism.) We had never practiced our one sanctioned polyphonic song up at the front, so everyone got off count because the acoustics were all weird -- and we couldn't hear Director (who anchors the bass section) or the piano (which everyone is dependent on). (Maaaaybe DK and I can turn this into an excuse to practice things a capella, like God and Tallis intended!)
...It was also really cool, or will be once we get the hang of it. I feel terribly disloyal to Director, but I kind of agree with Pastor: it was better having us at the front. And I loved being part of the big processional and recessional, and I thought it just made a lot of sense for the church and for the congregation feeling like we were part of it. And it was better for me. I have never been able to understand anything that goes on down there at all -- this was the first sermon I've actually been able to understand at all.
I also have this bad feeling, in retrospect, that the officiating priest might have thought I was trying to flirt with him, because I could not stop smiling at him while he was singing at practice with us, because I have never seen a priest sing parts of the Mass before at that church and I thought it was so cool! (And he had a surprisingly pleasant voice that stayed mainly on pitch; I was kind of steeled for tone-deaf priests.) One thing you have to say for Pastor -- he has consistent convictions; he may be driving Director nuts with his harping on participation, but he's also making all the priests sing in the Mass, including himself. But really, Father, I was not flirting with you, I'm sorry if you thought I was -- I'd have been smiling at any other priest who was officiating and singing with us. The sneakers under your robes were cute, though!
no subject
Date: 2013-01-13 05:59 am (UTC)