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Views from the Choir Loft

Should Every Child Be Accepted Into the Choir?

Dr. Lucas Tappan · August 4, 2023

HOULD ALL CHILDREN be accepted into a church’s or cathedral’s choral foundation? This is a valid question we must ask ourselves, as the answer will have definite ramifications for our programs down the road, whichever path we chose to take. As with many musical questions, the answer will depend upon our circumstances. I am mostly of the opinion that in the average parish each child should be admitted, simply because choir offers not only the chance to hone one’s musical skills, but also to receive a liturgical and catechetical education that is sadly lacking in most other formation programs. I have had a couple of men enter the seminary after singing in the Schola Cantorum and both have mentioned to me how much singing in the choir helped them to broaden and deepen their understanding of and love for the Holy Mass. Children most likely won’t received this education outside of a good liturgical choir. On the other hand, if a child struggles to match pitch, it will be a titanic trial for even the most patient of choir masters. Perhaps we should exam a few concrete situations in order to answer our question.

The Cathedral • The cathedral, as the mother church of the diocese, should be the arbiter of liturgical good taste, exemplar of the Church’s best musical offerings and a light to her suffragan parishes, especially those lacking the financial means and staff to implement such a vision. Or worse, those parishes that somehow possess more bad taste than copious amounts of funds. In order for the cathedral to discharge her duties, she must needs put her best foot forward in all things, which means possessing a professional choir capable of tackling the best the Church has to offer on a weekly, if not daily, basis. In this setting it makes no sense for the director to be pulling his hair by the roots trying to move a choir forward in all aspects of the choral arts, yet finding himself constantly weighted down by 2-3 choristers who can’t match pitch or who simply do not want to be there. Honing a Philip’s motet, such as the beautiful Ascendit Deus, for the Feast of the Ascension isn’t possible under these conditions and such children would be better employed elsewhere (for their own good as well as that of the choir).

My assistant and I recently had the privilege while in England to have lunch with Dr. Ronny Krippner, Organist and Choirmaster of Ripon Cathedral, as well as attend a full rehearsal and Choral Evensong later that day, which proved to be a revelation. When Dr. Krippner took the musical reigns of the choir a year-and-a-half ago he found it in a deplorable state, but within this short span he has worked marvels with the choristers and has amassed a large group of willing boys and girls (recruiting has been a top priority). Nevertheless, he has only three requirements for incoming singers: A) the ability to match pitch, B)  the desire to be in the choir and C) the willingness to commit. Simple, direct, fair AND effective.

The Smaller Parish • The smaller parish is sometimes the most difficult place to build a choral foundation because the one absolute thing necessary for choristers is to have boys and girls a plenty, and in such a situation the choirmaster might have no other choice than to accept every child who desires entrance into the choir. Church politics can very often play a part as well. If the choir is small and choristers come with varying degrees of desire and capabilities, the choirmaster will need to stick to a steady diet of good, but simple music, chant, hymns and occasional motets. In the inevitable likelihood that a child can’t match pitch, the director will either have to accept the fact that things will always be “off” or find some other job besides singing that the child can engage in—a choral “bat boy” if you will. I highly suggest the latter.

Healthy Parish w/ Large Child Population • In some ways this situation is the most ideal because the choirmaster can start young children in some kind of preparatory choir on a steady diet of good folk music and simple hymns and chants. In my experience, very few children in like circumstances struggle to match pitch by the time they are old enough to enter the choir and the introduction of very simple music theory and sight-singing games will cut down on the amount of training time expended on new choristers.

A large number of children also allows for a tiered choral system based on a child’s ability as well as his desire, and the beauty of such an arrangement is that the second tier will actually become a better group of musicians by themselves than if they were lumped into one choir with those better than they are. They will have the higher standard of the top choir to constantly measure themselves by, and competition breeds greatness in children.

The Answer • In answer to my own question I would have to say that I agree with Dr. Krippner that students should have to A) be able to match pitch, B) desire to be in the choir and C) be willing to commit to the whole of the program no matter how taxing. It is true that good choirs might offer children the best possible liturgical formation in most parishes at this time, but a healthy parish should be able to provide that for all children regardless of whether or not they are in a choir.

At the same time, if a choir is automatically open to all children with no qualifications whatsoever, parents will forever view it as a free candy shop that children should be able to frequent whenever they feel like it. And if the choirmaster allows children to sing only when they feel so inclined, the experience won’t mean anything and all the best singers will leave. Much like a sports team, a choir is a group of individuals who must commit to the group in order that together they will be greater than the sum of their individual voices, and without some choral discipline and basic choral standards this simply isn’t possible.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: August 4, 2023

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About Dr. Lucas Tappan

Dr. Lucas Tappan is a conductor and organist whose specialty is working with children. He lives in Kansas with his wife and four children.—(Read full biography).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    “Music List” • 5th Sunday of Easter (Year C)
    Some have expressed interest in perusing the ORDER OF MUSIC I prepared for the 5th Sunday of Easter (18 May 2025). If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. The Communion Antiphon was ‘restored’ the 1970 Missale Romanum (a.k.a. MISSALE RECENS) from an obscure martyr’s feast. Our choir is on break this Sunday, so the selections are relatively simple in nature.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Communion Chant (5th Sunday of Easter)
    This coming Sunday—18 May 2025—is the 5th Sunday of Easter, Year C (MISSALE RECENS). The COMMUNION ANTIPHON “Ego Sum Vitis Vera” assigned by the Church is rather interesting, because it comes from a rare martyr’s feast: viz. Saint Vitalis of Milan. It was never part of the EDITIO VATICANA, which is the still the Church’s official edition. As a result, the musical notation had to be printed in the Ordo Cantus Missae, which appeared in 1970.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Music List” • 4th Sunday of Easter (Year C)
    Some have expressed interest in perusing the ORDER OF MUSIC I prepared for the 4th Sunday of Easter (11 May 2025). If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. I don’t know a more gorgeous ENTRANCE CHANT than the one given there: Misericórdia Dómini Plena Est Terra.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    Antiphons Don’t Match?
    A reader wants to know why the Entrance and Communion antiphons in certain publications deviate from what’s prescribed by the GRADUALE ROMANUM published after Vatican II. Click here to read our answer. The short answer is: the Adalbert Propers were never intended to be sung. They were intended for private Masses only (or Masses without music). The “Graduale Parvum,” published by the John Henry Newman Institute of Liturgical Music in 2023, mostly uses the Adalbert Propers—but sometimes uses the GRADUALE text: e.g. Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (29 June).
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    When to Sit, Stand and Kneel like it’s 1962
    There are lots of different guides to postures for Mass, but I couldn’t find one which matched our local Latin Mass, so I made this one: sit-stand-kneel-crop
    —Veronica Brandt
    The Funeral Rites of the Graduale Romanum
    Lately I have been paging through the 1974 Graduale Romanum (see p. 678 ff.) and have been fascinated by the funeral rites found therein, especially the simply-beautiful Psalmody that is appointed for all the different occasions before and after the funeral Mass: at the vigil/wake, at the house of the deceased, processing to the church, at the church, processing to the cemetery, and at the cemetery. Would that this “stational Psalmody” of the Novus Ordo funeral rites saw wider usage! If you or anyone you know have ever used it, please do let me know.
    —Daniel Tucker

Random Quote

“Pope Francis breaks Catholic traditions whenever he wants because he is free from disordered attachments. Our Church has indeed entered a new phase: with the advent of this first Jesuit pope, it is openly ruled by an individual rather than by the authority of Scripture alone or even its own dictates of tradition plus Scripture.”

— Fr. Thomas Rosica (31 July 2018)

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