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Views from the Choir Loft

Don’ts for Choirmasters (Part 1)

Andrew Leung · January 4, 2018

CTL Christchurch Priory IGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS, I had the opportunity to work with Paul Phoenix, the former tenor of The King’s Singers. Paul sang with the ensemble for 17 years and he “retired” in 2017 to start his own company: Purple Vocals. He now tours around the world to coach and helps “building” choirs. It was definitely a wonderful and unique experience! He conducted the choral workshops from a singer’s perspective instead of the conductor’s and I was rediscovering some of the basics of choral singing. During our time together, Paul introduced me to this new book called Don’ts for Choirmasters, written by John Newton. The book was rediscovered and republished recently, and Paul wrote a foreword for its 2017 new edition.

Little is known about the author John Newton (different from the John Newton who wrote “Amazing Grace“) except that he was the organist and choirmaster at Christchurch Priory, England, from 1922 to his death in 1928. And we know that he wrote a series of manuals for church musicians and Don’ts for Choirmasters is one of them. It is a 43-pages booklet and it is a pretty easy and fun reading; John Newton listed 70 straightforward advice in point form. Even though this book was first published over 90 years ago, I think it is still pretty relevant for church musicians nowadays and I believe our readers would enjoy reading it a lot.

I was very surprised to find out that John Newton, coming from an Anglican background, showed great appreciation for plainchant (and also “the spirit of Gregorian chant”) and praised it highly in his book!

12. DON’T be satisfied with merely a correct rendering of the pointed psalter, but aim at an intelligent rendering of the psalms…put the words first, and let the chant—whether plainsong or anglican—be your humble and obedient servant, not your master…

13. DON’T be too fond of the double chant; singles are usually preferable. What more destroys the rhythm of a psalm or canticle than the repetition of the second part?…we must bear in mind that in all church music WORDS matter most. The Church does not exist for choirs, but choirs for the church…

52. DON’T forget that rhythm is the soul of music…The three fundamental principles of rhythm are: (1) Accent, (2) Time, (3) Grouping. And now to acquire rhythmical singing—first of all sing less music that has been built in brick-wall fashion, and sing more “free” music of the Palestrina school, sing also Missa de Angelis and Merbecke, above all sing Plainsong.

And to sing modern music rhythmically—(1) think less of strong, weak, medium, weak, in quadruple time, and let the words bear their right accent: (2) try not to see the bar-lines, forget their existence as much as possible: (3) observe and mark the balance of the sentences, catch the antiphonal spirit…

57. DON’T neglect the study and practice of plainsong. Apart from its use for public worship no choirmaster can afford to neglect such an important study, and its influence is enormous. Read up this subject with an open mind: hear plainsong correctly and well sung by those who have caught the spirit of this music, which is in the world but not of it: introduce it at an organ recital (I have actually sung and played chants in recitals before and people always find it very inspiring) or weekday evensong, it matters not whether you are four strong or four hundred, if carefully and lovingly sung—yes, that’s the secret, con amore…plainsong creates an atmosphere and does not smell of the pier, the theater, or the restaurant.

Stay tuned for the second part. I will share more of Newton’s practical, spiritual and entertaining ideas and advice.

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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Andrew Leung

About Andrew Leung

Andrew Leung currently serves the music director of Vox Antiqua, conductor of the Cecilian Singers, and music director at Our Lady of China Church.—(Read full biography).

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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

Tournemire could be charming or he could bite your head off. One day I could not replace him at St. Clotilde because I had a wedding to play at another church. Tournemire played on Sunday, period—that was all. He did not play weddings and so forth. (He put all that on my back.) So I went to Tournemire’s house to tell him, “Master, I am sorry but, for once, I cannot replace you. I have another obligation to fulfill.” He said, “Get out of here!” I left for good.

— Testimony of Maurice Duruflé

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