ROFESSIONAL. Do you consider yourself a professional church musician? I suppose it depends upon one’s definition. Josef Hofmann once gave a series of twenty-one concerts in Saint Petersburg night after night without any interruption (!) during which he played 255 different works from memory. He was certainly a professional musician. Hofmann’s pupil, Abbey Simon—while still in his 20s—had a job at a radio station in which he was expected to show up and immediately sight-read (!) any concerto placed in front of him (during live broadcasts). He was certainly a professional musician. After just one year of study at the Conservatoire de Paris, César Franck took his final examination. He was given a difficult piece to sight-read. Not only did he play this never-before-seen composition perfectly, but the young César transposed it (!) a third below the key in which it was written. After some discussion, Luigi Cherubini (d. 1842) announced: “The jury has now decided that Monsieur Franck stands so incomparably far ahead of his fellow competitors that it’s impossible to nominate another to share the prize with him. Accordingly, a second first prize will be given to those who would in ordinary circumstances have deserved the senior award.” Clearly, Franck was a professional musician. Obviously, I would never compare my own meager skills to the three artists I just mentioned. At the same time, I consider anyone who stands in front of a choir on a regular basis (and gets good results) to be a professional musician.
Try This! • Standing in front of a choir in real life and never wasting a single minute of the singers’ time during rehearsal is no small feat. In our rehearsals, I often take the men outside while the women rehearse plainsong. With the men, I rehearse the Tenor and Bass parts to a hymn (without the aid of a keyboard). This may sound simple, but it really improves one’s musical ear! I’m talking about teaching men to sing the Tenor and Bass lines perfectly. It’s one thing to play through the Tenor and Bass lines at home on a piano. It’s another thing—when you have 20 singers standing in front of you—to instantly diagnose problems and make meaningful observations with regard to the voice-leading and “tuning points” (i.e. fifths and octaves). Try it and you’ll see it’s anything but boring. It really keeps you on your toes!
A Great Hymn • At rehearsal last week, I taught my volunteer men choristers to sing Tenor and Bass lines for a melody called “Ave Virgo Virginum” (a.k.a. Gaudeamus Pariter). It’s truly a marvelous tune:
Limited Forces • In the summer, we don’t have the full choir—but it’s still possible to make wonderful music. For example, when we had only a few females, they sang Gloria IX. It was “simple” but very nice. It’s possible to sing the hymn Ave Virgo Virginum with female voices only. To demonstrate, consider this fabulous Eucharistic Hymn every Catholic should know:
To access this hymn’s media in the Brébeuf Portal, click here.
In the Brébeuf Catholic Hymnal, that same melody is also married to a gorgeous English translation of the “Ave Maris Stella” (an ancient hymn to the Blessed Virgin Mary):
To access this hymn’s media in the Brébeuf Portal, click here.
Room For Improvement • Needless to say, this hymn can also be sung in full SATB. Below is a version by our volunteer choir. It’s not perfect, but it will get better the more we sing it:
To access this hymn’s media in the Brébeuf Portal, click here.
Try It Yourself! • Some people who listen to the recording (which is imperfect) will think to themselves: “I could easily do better than that.” However, to sing a simple hymn properly is more difficult than one might think. If you doubt this, try recording your choir sometime and send us a copy so we can hear it!
Article Summary • Sight-reading in the privacy of one’s home is one thing. Standing in front of a choir in real life and making sure not a moment of rehearsal time gets squandered is something else entirely—in spite of what some internet trolls say. In this article, I revealed one of my best rehearsal techniques, and spoke candidly about it. I also revealed a Eucharistic hymn every Catholic should know.
