NOTES ON THE PRACTICE OF VARIOUS CHOIRMASTERS IN PARISH CHURCHES.
In the course of journeys and interviews extending over many years I
have gathered much experience from choirmasters, and have watched and
noted their plans. Here follow some of the results of this work. The
churches described are some of them small, and but little known. This
fact, however, does not affect the value of the experience. The highest
degree of credit is due to the choirmaster who obtains good results from
poor materials, and this book is especially intended to help those who
have to make the best of ordinary opportunities.
LEEDS PARISH CHURCH.
This church has long been noted for its music, which is sung in
cathedral style. There are about thirty boys, whose voices, even up to
A, are round and clear, and throughout are big, true, and rich. Notable
features of the style of the choir under Dr. Creser, are the long _dim_.
cadences in responses, and the independence which enables the singers to
go on without the organ, if the expression suggests it. At the rehearsal
in the parochial room Dr. Creser sits at the grand piano with the boys
in their cantoris and decani places on each side of him just as in
church. The boys rehearse five days a week after evensong, and the
juniors have an additional practice. After Saturday evensong there is a
full practice with the men. All the boys are trebles. Yorkshire is about
the only district in England which produces adult male altos. The boys
are chiefly promoted from district churches. They live at their homes,
and receive a free education--the seniors in the Leeds middle-class
school, and the juniors in the parish church school. There is also a
small salary paid quarterly, and when a boy leaves he receives from L15
to L25 if an ordinary chorister, and L50 if a good solo boy. Fines are
imposed by the precentor for misbehaviour or mischievous tricks in
church or precincts, but not for mistakes in singing. Dr. Creser teaches
sight-singing on the lines of Curwen's "How to Read Music." The boys use
the old notation, but have learnt it through Tonic Sol-fa, using the
course entitled "Crotchets and Quavers." Occasionally the whole
rehearsal consists of sol-faing. In every difficulty as to key
relationship the Sol-fa makes matters clear. Dr. Creser was first led to
use Tonic Sol-fa by noticing how easy it made the minor mode. The junior
boys are always taught by Dr. Creser. Until the voices settle he would
on no account delegate them to an assistant. The two chief rules of
voice-training are to forbid forcing the chest register above
[Illustration: a music staff with a treble clef and a whole note "E" on
the first line.] and to begin scales at the top. Flattening takes place
occasionally, but it is nearly always the fault of the congregation, who
drag the pitch down. The arrangement of the music-library here is a
model of order.
ST. PETER'S, EATON SQUARE, LONDON.
Here, under the direction of Mr. de Manby Sergison, a very fine Anglican
service is maintained. There are twenty boys, and a few probationers.
The boys have an hour's practice every day, and sing the Psalms and a
hymn at the daily choral service. Formerly a choir boarding-school was
kept up, but this was abolished, being found to be too expensive. Now
the boys are selected from schools in and near the parish, and Mr.
Sergison finds the ordinary London boy equal to all the demands of the
church. When the choir-school was given up he was able within a month to
prepare an entirely new set of boys, so proficient that the congregation
scarcely noticed a difference. The vocal practice of the boys includes
"Concone's Exercises," and their phrasing in the service music is very
good. The full choir sings on Sundays and Saints' Days, and their
rehearsal takes place once a week in the church, Mr. Sergison being at
the organ. In the chapter on the management of choir-boys I have quoted
some wise remarks by Mr. Sergison, which explain his success as a
choirmaster.
ST. MARK'S COLLEGE, CHELSEA.
This is a Training College for schoolmasters, which has long been noted
for its musical services. Mr. Owen Breden, the present organist and
choirmaster, is the successor of Dr. Hullah, Mr. May, and the Rev. F.
Helmore. The choir-boys, who number 26, only sing on Sundays. They are
drawn from the practicing school, which contains 800 boys. They enter
the choir at nine years of age, and there are always six or eight
probationers, who attend the practices and are ready to fill vacancies.
Thus a good style of singing is maintained. People say to Mr. Breden,
"There is no telling one voice from another, your boys are so much
alike." At the bi-weekly practice with Mr. Breden the boys have
voice-training. They sing to _la_ and sol-fa syllables scales gradually
rising. They are not trained above G, but if a boy has a good G he can
always go higher. The boys can all read from the Sol-fa modulator, and
Mr. Breden gives them ear-tests. The alto part is taken entirely by boys
at St. Mark's. The choir-boys, past and present, perform an operetta in
costume every Christmas. Anthems like Macfarren's "The Lord is my
Shepherd," Bennett's "God is a Spirit," Goss's "O Saviour of the world,"
&c., are sung unaccompanied. In fact, whenever the organ part merely
duplicates the voices, they take the opportunity at St. Mark's to enjoy
the pure chording of human voices.
ST. MARY'S CHURCH, BERLIN.
My friend, Herr Th. Krause, the organist and choirmaster of this church,
allowed me to attend a rehearsal of the eighty boys and twenty men who
form his fine choir. The large number of boys is explained by the fact
that nearly half of them are altos. The motet of the Lutheran church is
invariably unaccompanied. It closely resembles in form our anthem, but
the German Protestants look upon the _a capella_ style, which continues
the tradition of the Sistine Chapel at Rome, as the purest and highest
in church music. On no account would they use the organ to accompany a
motet. This gives rise to elaborate compositions, often like
Mendelssohn's "Judge me, O God," in eight parts. By treating the boys
and men as separate choirs, each in four parts, and getting responses
between them, a variety of tone colour, which is almost orchestral, is
obtained; and when both choirs unite in solid eight-part harmony, the
result is imposing. As the Germans are usually not sight-singers, the
labour involved in learning these motets is immense. The higher register
of the boys is well trained. They sing up to B flat without effort, and
with purest tone. The same may be said of the Dom Choir, for which
Mendelssohn wrote his motets. At my last visit to Leipzig, I carried an
introduction to Dr. Rust, trainer of the Thomas Church choir, but I was
there just after Whitsuntide, when the yearly shifting of classes had
just taken place, and Dr. Rust, who wished me to hear his boys at their
best, asked me not to come to a rehearsal. Speaking generally, the
voices of German boys are thinner than those of English boys, more like
fifes than flutes.
ST. CLEMENT DANES, STRAND.
The choirmaster here, Mr. F. J. Knapp, is also master of the parish day
school. Here he insists on quiet singing, and stops coarseness directly.
The boys are taught on the Tonic Sol-fa system, which, says Mr. Knapp,
has alone enabled him to produce his results. Some time ago at St.
Stephens, Walworth, he was called upon to produce a choir in a week, and
he did this, by nightly rehearsals, to the satisfaction of everyone.
Complete oratorios, with band, were frequently given by this choir of
sol-faists. At St. Clement Danes he had to produce a choir in five days,
and here again he succeeded by the use of Tonic Sol-fa. "Our
choir-boys," he says, "can now sing at sight almost anything I put
before them. We never have more than two or three practices (one only,
full) for the most difficult anthems we do. There is an anthem every
Sunday, a choral communion once a month, offertory sentences on
alternate Sundays, cantatas and oratorios at Festivals." Mr. Knapp
adopts the useful plan of "tuning-up" his boys before the morning
service. Flattening, when it occurs, is due, he considers, to damp
weather, a cold church, &c. But he is rarely troubled with it. The boys'
voice exercises are taken at the harmonium, first slow notes to
"koo-ah," or to "oo-ay-ah-ee," or to a sentence containing consonants.
This exercise is done both ascending and descending, but especially
descending. He also uses the chromatic scale from B flat up to
F:--[Illustration: A music staff with a treble clef on the left. Two
quarter notes: B flat below the staff and F on the top line.] He tells
the boys nothing about the registers, but watches constantly against
shouting.
SALZUNGEN CHOIR.
This (Protestant) choir of men and boys is well-known in Germany, and
not only sings at Salzungen, but occasionally makes tours, and gives
concerts. Herr Muehlfeld, the trainer, tells me that he takes the boys
from 11 years of age upwards, and that before entering the choir they
have a fair knowledge of notes, and can sing at sight. The voices are
examined on entry, low ones being put to sing alto, and high ones being
put to sing soprano. The boys have two lessons of an hour each per week,
in which they practise exercises, _choraele_, school songs, and church
music. Flattening, according to Herr Muehlfeld, is due to (1) bad ear,
(2) imperfect training, (3) fatigue of the voice. The boys are taught to
listen to each note that they sing, and to make it blend with the
instrument or the leading voice. In order to do this they must sing
softly, and thus hear their neighbours' voices. The 3rd, 6th, 7th, and
8th tones of the scale are, says Herr Muehlfeld, often sung flat, and
exercises should be specially given to secure the intonation of these
sounds. The boys must also learn the intervals, and whenever they appear
to be tired a pause must be made.
UPTON CROSS BOARD SCHOOL.
This is not a church, but a boys' school, from which a good many
choristers are drawn, and where excellent results have been obtained.
The boys have often won prizes in choral competitions. Mr. H. A. Donald,
the headmaster, tells me that he examines the voices of the boys one by
one in his own room, once a year. Those who can take G and A
[Illustration: musical notation] sweetly and easily are put down as
first trebles. Those who can go below C [Illustration: musical notation]
are altos. The rest are second trebles. He finds that after a year a
boy's voice will often have changed--a treble become an alto, or vice
versa. In modulator practice, and as far as possible in pieces of music,
he keeps the trebles above [Illustration: musical notation]. Below this
they get coarse. He never gives on the modulator an ascending passage
which begins below this G. One may leap up, and come down by step, but
not ascend by step. He uses Mr. Proudman's "Voice-training Exercises"
(J. Curwen & Sons) for first trebles, and his contralto exercises for
contraltos. Coarseness he checks at once, and he silences boys whose
voices are breaking.
[Illustration: Decoration]