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Pope Saint Paul VI (3 April 1969): “Although the text of the Roman Gradual—at least that which concerns the singing—has not been changed, the Entrance antiphons and Communions antiphons have been revised for Masses without singing.”

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Views from the Choir Loft

Precious Rehearsal Time

Andrew R. Motyka · October 23, 2013

F YOU ARE ANYTHING LIKE ME, you are loath to spend any of your choir rehearsal time doing anything but rehearsing. Next Sunday is always approaching and the liturgical calendar waits for no one. Sometimes, though, spending a little time with organization within rehearsal can same immeasurable amounts of time otherwise spent correcting tonal issues. Intentional seating of your choir members is one such technique.

James Jordan outlines this technique in his invaluable text, Evoking Sound: The Choral Rehearsal. Its goal is to create a choral blend of your singers using the complementary natural overtones of each voice.

Start with “principle” in each section (if you sing divisi, do it with the divisions individually). The principle is the voice type in the section that you would most like to represent the whole section’s sound. Next, seat one singer from the section next to the principle and have them sing the first phrase of “My Country ’tis of Thee” together, making no attempt to blend. Try this with each singer in the section coupled with the principle, and choose one that sounds the best naturally with him or her. Repeat this process, having all the seated singers sing together, and seating whomever sounds best in the next position. When all the singers of a section have been seated, shift the last singer in line to the other end, next to the principle. Repeat this process for all sections of the choir.

The first time I tried this technique, I was skeptical. I was going to forfeit a solid 20 minutes of rehearsal. What I found, however, was a natural, choral sound with many of our previous intonation problems ironed out. Furthermore, the strong singers of the choir were fairly well spaced out in each section, giving everyone a bit more confidence.

One other arrangement Jordan encourages in his book is a different arrangement of sections in the choir. I was used to a fairly standard setup: Sopranos to my far left, Basses next to them, then Tenors, and Altos on my right. What Jordan recommends, though, is a 4-row setup, with the sections seated by row from back to front: Basses, Tenors, Sopranos, then Altos. Again, this setup gave an outstanding choral blend, since everyone benefits from hearing the Basses, and the Altos benefit from hearing everyone.

As hesitant as I was to spend my precious rehearsal time on something as mundane as seating the singers, the time was well spent, and the time was easily made up since there was much less time needed correcting pitch and intonation problems. Setting up your choir in an acoustically advantageous position is just one basic way to maximize your rehearsal time and improve your sound.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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About Andrew R. Motyka

Andrew Motyka is the Archdiocesan Director of Liturgical Music and Cathedral Music for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.—(Read full biography).

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President’s Corner

    17th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)
    All of the chants for 27 July 2025, which is the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C), have been added to the feasts website, as usual under a convenient “drop down.” The COMMUNION ANTIPHON—both text and melody—are particularly beautiful and exceedingly ancient.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Jeff’s Mother Joins Our Fundraiser
    To assist our fundraiser, Mrs. Kathleen Ostrowski has drawn several beautiful sketches which she offers to all our readers free of charge. If you have a moment, I invite you download them at this link.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Errors in Latin: “17th Sund. Ordinary”
    The COMMUNION for the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) contains several typos in the Jogues Illuminated Missal with regard to the Latin text. That particular COMMUNION ANTIPHON is extremely ancient, and the English Adaptation is utterly gorgeous. For the record, it’s normal for books to contain typos; even books by Father Fortescue and Monsignor Knox have errors. Books by Solesmes Abbey—surely among the finest ever produced—contain many printing errors. Click here to see a few examples of typos.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    Pope Pius XII Hymnal?
    Have you ever heard of the Pope Pius XII Hymnal? It’s a real book, published in the United States in 1959. Here’s a sample page so you can verify with your own eyes it existed.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    “Hybrid” Chant Notation?
    Over the years, many have tried to ‘simplify’ plainsong notation. The O’Fallon Propers attempted to simplify the notation—but ended up making matters worse. Dr. Karl Weinmann tried to do the same in the time of Pope Saint Pius X by replacing each porrectus. You can examine a specimen from his edition and see whether you agree he complicated matters. In particular, look at what he did with éxsules fílii Hévae.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    Antiphons Don’t Match?
    A reader wants to know why the Entrance and Communion antiphons in certain publications deviate from what’s prescribed by the GRADUALE ROMANUM published after Vatican II. Click here to read our answer. The short answer is: the Adalbert Propers were never intended to be sung. They were intended for private Masses only (or Masses without music). The “Graduale Parvum,” published by the John Henry Newman Institute of Liturgical Music in 2023, mostly uses the Adalbert Propers—but sometimes uses the GRADUALE text: e.g. Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (29 June).
    —Corpus Christi Watershed

Random Quote

In the place of liturgy as the fruit of development came fabricated liturgy. We abandoned the organic, living process of growth and development over centuries, and replaced it—as in a manufacturing process—with a fabrication, a banal on-the-spot product.

— ‘Pope Benedict XVI, describing the postconciliar liturgical reforms’

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