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Views from the Choir Loft

It’s All About The Players

Dr. Alfred Calabrese · October 29, 2015

321Pyramid blue LIKE BASEBALL. I LIKE BASEBALL A LOT. I especially like baseball when my team is in the World Series. This is the case this year. A quote by New York Mets manager Terry Collins caught my attention last week. When asked about how he felt about getting to the World Series he accepted no credit, saying “It’s all about the players. They did all the work.” This comment made me think again about choirs, choir leadership, and choral sound.

There are many different approaches to the choral sound. One of the more famous ones is the concept formulated back in the 1930’s by John Finley Williamson at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ. Williamson described this sound as the shape of a New England church. (See: Ray Robinson and Allen Winold, The Choral Experience: Literature, Materials, and Methods, New York, Hagerstown, San Francisco, and London: Harper’s College Press, 1976, 179). This can also be thought of as a pyramid. In this choral sound the basses, greater in number than any other section, created the foundation. The altos and tenors created a rich middle. Second sopranos were fewer in number and rested above the alto and tenor. Finally, the fewest singers were in the first soprano section, which rested at the top of the pyramid. These days, this concept of choral sound is probably not utilized in exactly this way, but we do find instances of a pyramid effect, in which the choral sound is created from the bottom up. In this concept, sopranos are asked to create a shimmery, light and pure sound over a rich and warm foundational bass.

If choral sound can be thought of as a pyramid, perhaps the social construct of a choir can be thought of as an inverted pyramid, with the conductor at the bottom. Balancing everything, never tipping, the conductor is the least of all the individuals involved. Above the conductor, along the rich middle, sits all the singers, in increasing numbers and importance. Let’s face it – without people there is no choir. At the very top of the inverted pyramid, along the largest and widest swath of space, is the music itself.

People join choirs for many reasons. Some join because of the great repertoire, some for the social aspect, and some to serve. But conductors can also become the reason people join. People become attached to their conductors, who may be charismatic, great teachers, big personalities, or excellent jokesters. Some conductors relish their reputations as maestros, scholars, or gurus, achieving an almost cultish following. Conductors can sometimes fall into the trap of thinking they are the reason the choir exists, or why people join the choir. This is dangerous. Conductors should think of themselves as small, at the bottom, with the people of the choir and its repertoire growing and expanding in importance above them.

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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Dr. Alfred Calabrese

About Dr. Alfred Calabrese

Dr. Alfred Calabrese is Director of Music and Liturgy at St. Rita Catholic Church in Dallas, TX. He and his wife have two children.—(Read full biography).

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Quick Thoughts

Surprising Popularity!

One of our most popular downloads has proven to be the organ accompaniment to “The Monastery Hymnal” (131 pages). This book was compiled, arranged, and edited by Achille P. Bragers, who studied at the Lemmensinstituut (Belgium) about thirty years before that school produced the NOH. Bragers might be considered an example of Belgium “Stile Antico” whereas Flor Peeters and Jules Van Nuffel represented Belgium “Prima Pratica.” You can download the hymnal by Bragers at this link.

—Jeff Ostrowski
15 February 2021 • To Capitalize…?

In the Introit for the 6th Sunday after Pentecost, there is a question regarding whether to capitalize the word “christi.” The Vulgata does not, because Psalm 27 is not specifically referring to Our Lord, but rather to God’s “anointed one.” However, Missals tend to capitalize it, such as the official 1962 Missal and also a book from 1777 called Missel de Paris. Something tells me Monsignor Knox would not capitalize it.

—Jeff Ostrowski
15 February 2021 • “Sung vs. Spoken”

We have spoken quite a bit about “sung vs. spoken” antiphons. We have also noted that the texts of the Graduale Romanum sometimes don’t match the Missal texts (in the Extraordinary Form) because the Mass Propers are older than Saint Jerome’s Vulgate, and sometimes came from the ITALA versions of Sacred Scripture. On occasion, the Missal itself doesn’t match the Vulgate—cf. the Introit “Esto Mihi.” The Vulgate has: “Esto mihi in Deum protectórem et in domum refúgii…” but the Missal and Graduale Romanum use “Esto mihi in Deum protectórem et in locum refúgii…” The 1970s “spoken propers” use the traditional version, as you can see.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“As often as possible they gathered together the children of the village and sat them down in the cabin. Father Brébeuf would put on a surplice and biretta and chant the Our Father, which Father Daniel had translated into Huron rhymes, and the children would chant it after him. Next, he taught them the sign of the cross, the Hail Mary, the Apostles’ Creed, and the Commandments.”

— Biography of St. Jean de Brébeuf

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