HE PEOPLE who attended the Sacred Music Symposium last year—believe it or not—really enjoyed my presentations dealing with how to recruit (and retain) volunteer choir members. Based on that feedback, this summer I will reveal more ‘tips’ for working with volunteer choirs. Conscientious choirmasters know it’s crucial to get as much “bang for your buck” as possible. From the standpoint of practicality, common melodies are certainly part of this. After all, there’s only so much one can accomplish in each rehearsal. Moreover, choirs need to live with a piece for a surprising amount of time before it starts to sound amazing. Today, I will describe three (3) tricks every choir director should be familiar with.
(1) “Same-Different” Trick:
When it comes to a strophic SATB hymn, one should consider using the “same-different trick.” Essentially, you have the choir alternate between verses in SATB and verses with SOPRANO and ALTO singing unison on the melody. Most people will (erroneously) think the choir is singing two different melodies. And that’s a good thing, because it helps avoid aural fatigue. Indeed, it’s much better than approaching verse after verse after verse the same way. Here’s an example of what I mean, recorded last Sunday by our volunteer choir:
* PDF Download • “VEXILLA REGIS PRODEUNT”
—Number 532 in the Brébeuf Hymnal printed in Latin instead of English.
M To access this hymn’s media in the Brébeuf Portal, click here.
(2) “Secret-Refrain” Trick:
Working with volunteers, one eventually discovers something profound: Music is more than notes. In other words, there are words—particular words—connected with pitches, even in a strophic hymn. The choir members (and I realize this sounds pretty basic) must rehearse what they will sing: vowels, rhythm, dynamics, tone quality, and so forth. If you give them an SATB hymn with 9 verses, there won’t be sufficient time to rehearse each verse properly. Therefore, consider using the secret-refrain trick, which means using one of the verses as a refrain. Here’s an example:
M To access this hymn’s media in the Brébeuf Portal, click here.
(3) “Explain-By-Doubling” Trick:
The third trick has to do with English translations. It goes without saying that a conscientious choirmaster tries to provide English translations. Nevertheless, rehearsals (being so limited) do not allow the requisite time to review these translations. Nor is it possible to spend hours explaining the various “shades of meaning” contained in the ancient Catholic prayers, hymns, sequences, and poems. To solve this problem, our volunteer choir will frequently sing a particular text in Latin and English—on different occasions. For example, here is Stábat Máter Dolorósa in Latin:
M To access this hymn’s media in the Brébeuf Portal, click here.
Here’s the self-same song in a special English translation from 1599AD:
M To access this hymn’s media in the Brébeuf Portal, click here.
The Brébeuf Catholic Hymnal usually has the original Latin (along with a literal translation) followed by several “singable” translations. These provide an excellent opportunity to delve deeply into the rich texts of our Roman Catholic heritage. Indeed, many ancient hymns had never been given a literal English translation before the appearance of the Brébeuf Hymnal. (Priests fluent in Latin were commissioned to accomplish this task.)
One of the priests involved with the project exclaimed: “I’ve been praying some of these hymns every day for thirty years, but until I was forced to translate them, I’d never fully realized their depth.”
