DIRECTING THE CHURCH CHOIR
[Sidenote: THE PROBLEM]
In taking up the special problems of conducting involved in directing
a church choir, we shall first of all need to consider the dual nature
of church music--its religio-artistic aspect, and in studying the
matter from this standpoint we shall soon discover that most of the
difficulties that have encompassed church music in the past can be
traced directly or indirectly to a conflict or a lack of balance
between these two factors. The churchman has not been sufficiently
interested in the _art_ side of church music, while the music
director, organist, and singers have all too frequently been not only
entirely out of sympathy with the religious work of the church, but
have usually been wholly ignorant concerning the purpose and
possibilities of music in the church service. The result in most
churches at the present time is either that the music is vapid or even
offensive from the art standpoint; or else that it emphasizes the
purely artistic side so strongly that it entirely fails to perform its
function as an integral part of a service whose _raison d'être_ is, of
course, to inculcate religious feeling. "The church wishes for worship
in music, but not for the worship of music," is said to have been the
statement of Father Haberl at the Saint Cecilia Conference in Mainz
(1884).[28] And it is indeed a far cry from this demand to the very
evident deification of music that exists in many of our modern city
churches, with their expensive soloists and their utter failure to
cause music to minister as "the handmaid of religion." The problem is
not a new one, and in a book written about a century ago the author
says:[29]
The guiding rule which ought always to be present to the
mind of a clergyman should also be held in mind by all good
musicians who would help the church's object, and not employ
the sacred building merely as a place where all kind of
sounds that tickle the ear can be heard. All kinds of music
are suitable for sacred use that do not raise secular
associations. A _Largo_, an _Adagio_, a _Grave_, an
_Andante_, an _Allegro_, a fugal or a non-fugal composition
can all be performed in the Church but should one and all be
of a staid and dignified character throughout, elevated and
sober, and of such a nature that any preacher of note could
say: "This splendid music is a fitting introduction to my
discourse"; or "After such singing my lips had better be
closed, and the spirit left to its own silent worship."
[Footnote 28: Quoted by Curwen on the title page of _Studies in
Worship Music_ (second series).]
[Footnote 29: Thibaut, _Purity in Music_, translated by Broadhouse, p.
24.]
A distinguished modern writer voices the same thought in the following
words:[30]
The singing of the choir must be contrived and felt as part
of the office of prayer. The spirit and direction of the
whole service for the day must be unified; the music must be
a vital and organic element in this unit.
[Footnote 30: Dickinson, _Music in the History of the Western Church_,
p. 401.]
But in most churches music does not function in this ideal way and in
many cases (especially in non-liturgical churches) there is no unity
whatever in the service, and the music is evidently both performed and
listened to from a purely art standpoint; or else it is so crude and
inartistic as to be actually painful to the worshiper with refined
sensibilities.
[Sidenote: THE REMEDY]
What is to be the remedy for this state of affairs? Or is there no
remedy, and must we go on, either enduring tortures artistically, or
suffering spiritually? We are not omniscient, but we venture to assert
that conditions might be caused to improve by the adoption of several
changes of procedure that are herewith recommended.
1. Educate the minister musically during his general and
professional training, causing him not only to acquire a
certain amount of technical musical ability, but attempting
also to cultivate in him that intangible something which we
call musical taste. A few seminaries--notably the Hartford
Theological Seminary and the Boston University Department of
Religious Education--are doing pioneer work along this line,
but they are the exception rather than the rule, and the
thing must be done by all if the desired result is to obtain
in the future.
2. Encourage the organization of chorus choirs composed
largely of those who belong to or attend the church and are
therefore vitally interested in its work.
3. Select more churchly music, _i.e._, a type of music which
when appropriately rendered will tend to bring about a mood
of worship. This will often mean a simpler style of music;
it may mean more _a cappella_ singing; and it undoubtedly
implies music that is fundamentally _sincere_. That many of
our modern sacred solos and anthems fail in this latter
respect must be evident to any one who has given the matter
any thought whatever.
4. Let the church make an attempt to secure as its musical
director one who possesses a type of seriousness and
high-mindedness that will make him sympathetic with what the
church is trying to do, thus enabling him to minister to the
people through music even as the priest or preacher does
through words of consolation or inspiration. We admit that
this sort of a man (who is at the same time unimpeachable in
his musical authority) is often hard to find; but that the
two elements are incompatible, and that such a type of choir
director cannot be trained, we absolutely refuse to believe.
If the church sufficiently recognizes the failure of music
as now frequently administered, and makes a strong enough
demand for leaders of a different type, they are bound to be
forthcoming.
[Sidenote: CORRELATING THE MUSIC WITH THE REST OF THE SERVICE]
Having trained our minister from a musical standpoint, organized a
chorus choir, selected appropriate music, and secured the right type
of choir leader, let us now make a strenuous attempt to correlate the
musical with the non-musical parts of the service; and if we succeed
in our effort at this point also, our task will be at least in sight
of completion. This desirable correlation will only result if both
minister and musician are willing to work together amicably, each
recognizing the rights of the other, and both willing to give in upon
occasion in order to make the service as a whole work out more
smoothly. Many humorous stories are told, the point of which is based
upon the absolute incongruity of the various parts of the church
service. The writer remembers most vividly an incident that occurred
during the first year of the Great War, in the church in which he was
at that time the choirmaster. The choir had just finished singing an
anthem written by an English composer as a prayer for peace,[31] the
concluding strains being sung to the words "Give peace, O God, give
peace again! Amen." As the choir sat down, after an effective
rendition of the anthem, there was a hush in the congregation, showing
that the message of the music had gone home to the hearers. But a
moment later the spell was rudely broken, as the minister rose, and in
a stentorian voice proclaimed the text of the day--"For I come not to
bring peace into the world, but a sword."
[Footnote 31: John E. West, _O God of Love, O King of Peace_.]
The responsibility in this case rested as much upon the shoulders of
the choir director as upon those of the preacher, for he should at
least have taken the trouble to acquaint his coworker with the nature
of the anthem, so that some reference might have been made to the
subject in either the prayer or scripture reading or in some of the
hymns, if not in the sermon itself. It is perhaps not always feasible
to have sermon and anthem agree absolutely in subject, but it is
entirely possible to avoid such occurrences as that cited above, if
even a small amount of thought is given to the matter of correlation
each week. Surely the choir leader could at least provide the minister
with the titles of the anthems and solos to be rendered.
[Sidenote: DIFFICULTIES INVOLVED IN THE CHORUS CHOIR]
In advocating a return to the volunteer chorus choir instead of the
salaried solo quartet, we are well aware of the disadvantages that are
likely to accompany any attempt along this line. We know that the
chorus choir composed of volunteers is often poorly balanced, usually
contains for the most part indifferent voices and often unskilful
readers, and frequently consists largely of giddy young girls, whose
main object in singing in the choir is obviously not based upon their
interest in the spiritual advancement of the community! But we believe
that under the right type of leadership most of these bad conditions
will in time disappear, and that, through the chorus choir, music may
well become a vitalizing force in the life of many a church in which a
revitalizing process is badly needed.
In order to make ourselves perfectly clear, let us summarize at this
point the qualifications especially needed by the conductor of a
volunteer church chorus.
1. He must be a reasonably good musician, possessing not
only familiarity with music in general, but in particular an
intimate knowledge of vocal music, and knowing at least the
fundamentals of voice training.
2. He must understand the purpose of church music, and must
be in sympathy with the religious work of the church.
3. He must be young in spirit, and thus be able to take a
sympathetic attitude toward the members of his choir as
human beings, and particularly as human beings who are still
young, inexperienced, and frequently thoughtless. This
implies, of course, a certain amount of personal magnetism
and this is as necessary in the volunteer choir for holding
the membership together and securing regular attendance as
it is for inspiring them musically.
[Sidenote: THE DANGER OF INDIVIDUALISM]
One of the chief difficulties encountered in more or less all choral
organizations, and especially in the volunteer church choir, is the
tendency on the part of many members to do all they possibly can in
the way of dress, actions, loud singing, and lack of voice blending,
to call attention to themselves as individuals. This not only results
in frequent offense to the eye of the worshiper because of clashing
color combinations (the remedy for which is, of course, some uniform
method of dressing or perhaps a vestment), but what is even more
serious, it often causes a lack of voice blending that seriously
interferes with both the religious and the artistic effect of the
music. For this latter state of affairs there is no remedy except to
learn to listen to individual voices, and when some voice does not
blend with the rest, to let the person who owns it know that he must
either sing very softly or else stop entirely. This can often be
accomplished by a look in the direction of the singer who is causing
the trouble; but if this does not suffice, then a private admonition
may be necessary--and here we have a situation in which the diplomacy
and the good humor of the conductor must be exercised to the utmost,
especially if the offending voice belongs to a prominent member of,
and perhaps a liberal contributor to, the church. In such a case, one
may sometimes, without unduly compromising one's reputation for
veracity, inform the offending member that his method of singing is
very bad indeed for his voice, and if persisted in will surely ruin
that organ!
Needless to say, the conductor must exercise the utmost tactfulness in
dealing with such matters as these, but it is our belief that if he
insists strongly enough in the rehearsal upon a unified body of tone
from each part, and backs this up by private conversations with
individual members, with perhaps a free lesson or two in correct voice
placement, or even the elimination of one or two utterly hopeless
voices, a fine quality of voice blending will eventually result. It
might be remarked at this point that such desirable homogeneity of
tone will only eventuate if each individual member of the choir
becomes willing to submerge his own voice in the total effect of his
part; and that learning to give way in this fashion for the sake of
the larger good of the entire group is one of the most valuable social
lessons to be learned by the young men and women of today. It is the
business of the choir leader to drive home this lesson whenever
necessary. It is also his task to see to it that no member of his
choir by his actions causes any interference with the worship of the
congregation. In plain speech, it is his duty to see to it that choir
members conduct themselves in a manner appropriate to their position,
and that they do not by whispering, laughing, note writing, and other
similar frivolities, hinder in any way the development of a spirit of
reverent devotion on the part of the congregation.
[Sidenote: SOLO SINGING IN THE CHURCH SERVICE]
Another type of undesirable individualism is to be found in the case
of the church solo singer. We have no quarrel with the sacred solo
when sung in such a way as to move the hearts of the congregation to a
more sincere attitude of devotion; and we are entirely willing to
grant that the sacred solo has the inherent possibility of becoming as
pregnant with religious fervor as the sermon itself, and may indeed,
because of its esthetic and emotional appeal, convey a message of
comfort or of inspiration to many a heart that might remain untouched
by the appeal of a merely intellectual sermon. But it has been our
observation that the usual church solo very seldom functions in this
way; that the singer usually considers it only as an opportunity to
show how well he can perform; that he seldom thinks very much about
the words; that the selections are usually not chosen because they are
appropriate to the remainder of the service but because they are
"effective" or perhaps because they are well adapted to the voice or
the style of the singer; and that our congregations have grown so
accustomed to this sort of thing that the performance of a sacred solo
is now usually listened to, commented upon, and criticized in exactly
the same way in the church service as would be the case at a concert
performance.
Instead of thinking, "I am delivering a _message_," the singer is only
too palpably saying to us, "I am singing a _solo_, don't you think I
am doing it well?"
The remedy for this condition of affairs is the same as that which we
have been recommending for church music in general, and before church
solo singing can be commended in very glowing terms as a method of
assisting the congregation to become more thoughtful, more fervent in
their devotional attitude, we must have:
1. More appropriate selections.
2. A more sincerely reverent and a more thoroughly
non-egoistic attitude on the part of the soloists.
Because these things are so difficult of attainment under present
conditions our feeling is that, all in all, chorus music is probably
considerably more effective as a vehicle for making a religio-esthetic
appeal, than solo singing.
[Sidenote: PROGRESS IN PUBLIC SCHOOL MUSIC AS RELATED TO CHURCH
CHOIRS]
The public schools are doing very much more in the way of teaching
music than formerly, and in many places consistent work is being
carried on as the result of which the children now in school are
learning to read music notation somewhat fluently, to use their voices
correctly, and are cultivating as well a certain amount of taste in
music. Because of this musical activity in the public schools, our
task of organizing and directing volunteer church choirs should be
very much simplified in the near future. Community singing will help
at this point also, and the very much larger number of boys and girls
who are receiving training as the result of the development of high
school music, ought to make it considerably easier to secure the right
type of choir director in the future than has been the case in the
past. As a result of the present widespread interest in music and
music study, it should be possible also to get very much better
congregational singing, and withal to interest the congregation (and
the preacher!) in a better type of music. All in all, the outlook is
extremely promising and we venture to predict a great improvement in
all that pertains to church music during the next quarter century.
[Sidenote: IMPORTANCE OF CONGREGATIONAL SINGING]
Let us close this discussion by urging the choir director to remember
that the most important music, at least in the Protestant church, is
the congregational singing; and to consider the fact that if music is
to help people worship without becoming a substitute for worship, it
will be necessary for him not only to inspire his choir with high
ideals of church music, but also to devise means of inducing the
congregation to take part in the singing to a much greater extent than
is now the case in most churches. It is usually true that the finer
the choir, and the more elaborate the accompaniment, the less hearty
is the congregational singing. If there is to be steady growth in the
efficiency of chorus choirs, therefore, it will not be surprising if
congregational singing sometimes falls off in volume and enthusiasm.
The reasons for such a decline are: First, because the people take no
responsibility for the singing, knowing that it will go well whether
they join in or not; second, because the choir often sings so well
that the people would rather listen than take part; third, because the
director frequently stands with his back to the congregation and
apparently does not expect much singing from them; and fourth, because
the choir leader often insists upon a highly musical interpretation of
the hymns, this involving the carrying over of phrases, _et cetera_.
These latter things may well be done after a long period of training,
but in the early stages the way to arouse interest in congregational
singing is not to insist too strongly upon the purely artistic
aspects, but to remember that most of the congregation are musically
untrained and not only do not see the point to all these refinements,
but will frequently become discouraged and stop singing entirely if
too many of them are insisted upon. It will be well also to apply to
this type of group singing the principles already discussed in
connection with community "sings," having the congregation sing alone
part of the time, having a stanza sung as a solo occasionally, making
use of antiphonal effects, and in other ways introducing variety and
placing more responsibility upon the congregation; and, most important
of all, calling attention more frequently to the words of the hymns,
either the preacher or the choir leader sometimes giving the stories
of their origin, and in other ways attempting to interest the
congregation in the meaning of the hymn as a poem. Perhaps a more
careful selection of the hymns would help also, especially if a
consistent attempt were to be made to give the congregation an
opportunity of practising the more musical tunes, so that they would
come to feel familiar with them and at ease in singing them. If the
choir director will take the trouble to go through the hymn book and
select forty or fifty really fine hymns and tunes that are not being
used, suggesting to the minister that these be sung sometimes in
connection with the more familiar ones, he will very often find the
minister more than willing to meet him half way in the matter. In
these various ways the choir leader and the minister may by consistent
cooperation inspire the congregation to the point where the vocal
response is as hearty and as _heartfelt_ as it used to be in the olden
days.