E LOST AN ENTIRE year of rehearsals due to the way California’s government responded to Covid-19. I suspect we will begin rehearsals in August—and I look forward to working with the choir members. One good way to help a volunteer choir improve is singing hymns; they learn to listen to one another, and they learn to balance the harmonies. Even though we did not have rehearsals, we attempted alternating between unison + SATB parts last Sunday. Essentially, we sang each verse once with just Soprano—then we had the full choir come in SATB. Here’s a live recording.
This is certainly not a perfect recording. (As I said, we lost a whole year of rehearsals.) However, I really like the effect of the SATB parts coming in around marker 0:20. I think the contrast is wonderful. The hymn is #851 from Brébeuf hymnal, an English translation of “Consors Paterni Luminis.”
We can do anything we want with hymn harmonies, due to the unique and awesome way the Brébeuf hymnal printed the Choral Supplement…with each verse written out. It’s utterly astounding to me that this had never been done prior to the release of the Brébeuf collection.
