Views from the Choir Loft

Warm ups

Veronica Brandt · July 18, 2015 ·

O, I’M NOT TALKING ABOUT SNOW. This topic has been germinating from before it started snowing. The chance to mention snow in Australia is only a side effect of the title. I’ll try not to mention snow again.

A few weeks ago I was looking at drama games to fill in a gap at our local homeschool co-operative. A little digging revealed a wealth of activities designed to encourage participants to work together, pay attention and even have fun along the way. A program would begin with a few warm up activities leading into skill building and scene-work. I fondly remember these games from school, although I was rather shy, they allowed everyone to have a turn.

On the weekend I used one of the warm ups when going over some music with a small group of children. We did a five count shake which I had seen from a local drama teacher. It really helped lift their spirits and set us up to lift their voices.

Andrew Motyka has written about the value of warm-ups. Like many pieces of good advice I have read, and nodded, and then shelved it away.

Now I am noticing that things like watching the conductor, singing together, blending, listening to each other – these are all learned skills and choir practice is the time when my singers will be learning these skills as well as the music.

Choosing warm ups is going to depend on the people in your choir as well as the space you have. A bunch of kids with a wide grassy area is very different from a group of adults in a small meeting room.

One thing I still like to start with is a prayer before choir practice. I’m not sure where it came from originally, but it serves as a call to put aside chatter and remember we are here in God’s service.

About Veronica Brandt

Veronica Brandt holds a Bachelor Degree in Electrical Engineering. As editor, she has produced fine publications (as well as valuable reprints) dealing with Gregorian chant, hymnody, Latin, and other subjects. These publications are distinguished on account of their tastefulness. She lives in the Blue Mountains near Sydney, Australia, with her husband Peter and six 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