Views from the Choir Loft

Institutions Rather Than Events

Lucas Tappan · February 9, 2015 ·

LLOW ME TO USE an analogy. Imagine if you will Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens’ beloved character from his novel of the same name. Oliver’s prospects for enjoying a happy and healthy adult life were less than ideal. Between the orphanage and the workhouse, and Fagin and Monks, the circumstances of his childhood spelled foreboding for his later years. Had Twist lived in more recent times, he might have been sent to a couple of workshops on family life, with the expectation of his rehabilitation. Fortunately for him, however, the kindly Mr. Brownlow takes Oliver into his home and cares for him, providing a loving home which proves to be Oliver’s salvation. It is a beautiful story, but how does it relate to sacred music?

Just as a child’s family generally provide him with the healthiest environment possible, the Church needs institutions where musicians can go to be thoroughly immersed in the art of sacred music, rather than weekend events that can never give full justice ¹ to the demands of sacred music. Fortunately for us, that institution exists and we call it a choir school.

But what is a choir school?

“I posit that a choir school consists of an institution where children are given a well-rounded musical education as well as liturgical formation in the ars celebrandi, and where they put these skills at the service of the sacred liturgy on a regular basis within a specific community (often that of a cathedral or collegiate chapel). In return, these children are given an outstanding elementary and religious education.”

(from my DMA document on the Madeleine Choir School).

Just as Oliver needed to live in a family to learn what family is about, so too, do our children, our future musicians, need to live and breath in an environment that promotes that greatest of all arts, music.

More on the choir school next week. ²

NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:

1 Please don’t misunderstand; I think these weekend events do much good for musicians who are already stretched in a million directions, but more is ultimately required.

2 Regarding the notion of “Institutions rather than events,” Mr. Gregory Glenn—founder and director of the Madeleine Choir School in Salt Lake City, UT—introduced this idea to me.

About Lucas Tappan

Dr. Lucas Tappan is a conductor and organist whose specialty is working with children. He lives in Kansas with his wife and four children.

Could Pope St. Pius X Sing?

“On 12 March 1908, the complete publication of the Roman Gradual was issued by the Vatican Press. On that very day, Dom Pothier solemnly presented the first copy to the Holy Father. A witness of the audience says that Pius X wished to be the first to see the new book; he opened it at random, at page 128 of the supplement pro aliquibus locis—it was the Introit of the new Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. The Pope sang it with perfect taste to the last note.” (Catholic Choirmaster, February 1915)

—Jeff Ostrowski

Julius Bas Accompaniment

A very prolific harmonizer of Gregorian chant in the early 20th century was Mr. Julius Bas. He often uses a very strange technique, wherein he employs rests to eliminate the Alto, Tenor, and Bass voices. Consider what he did with “Lumen ad revelationem” here:

* JPEG • Lumen ad revelationem

It seems quite lazy, and I’ve never seen anyone else use such a technique, although Dr. Peter Wagner often switched to parallel octaves when he ran out of ideas… (Yuck!)

—Jeff Ostrowski

Hitting wrong notes

Fr. Valentine Young, OFM, used to say: “The organist can play 1,000 correct notes and one wrong note—and the only thing people will care about is the wrong note.” Last Sunday I hit some wrong notes, and felt bad. Then I remembered a story about Rudolf Serkin and started to chuckle. Charles Rosen (or was it Leon Fleisher?) told the story of Serkin playing a Beethoven Sonata in front of a large audience. The theme is all in octaves; but Serkin hit some wrong notes, and played parallel 7ths instead. This so unnerved him that every time the theme returned, he played the entire thing in parallel 7ths! We must remember that even the greatest hit wrong notes. Alfred Cortot, Vladimir Horowitz, Wilhelm Backhaus, Edwin Fischer, Sviatoslav Richter, Egon Petri—they all hit wrong notes, which we can hear on recordings. (Josef Hofmann was an exception, but he was super-human so he doesn’t count!)

—Jeff Ostrowski