Three (3) Tricks Every Choir Director Should Learn
Conscientious choirmasters know it’s crucial to get “as much bang for your buck” as possible.
“What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too…” Pope Benedict XVI (7 July 2007)
Conscientious choirmasters know it’s crucial to get “as much bang for your buck” as possible.
“In nothing are English Catholics so poor as in vernacular hymns. The real badness of most of our popular hymns (endeared, unfortunately, to the people by association) surpasses anything that could otherwise be imagined.” —Father Fortescue
“Our hymnbooks know nothing of such a treasure as this, and give us pages of poor sentiment in doggerel lines by some tenth-rate modern versifier.” —Father Fortescue
The songs and hymns were pleasantly familiar … to the point where after twelve years I could play by heart every song in the ‘Breaking Bread’ hymnal.
In my 25 years as a choirmaster, I’ve witnessed hypocrisy and mistreatment that would make your head spin.
During Passiontide, the hymn at Vespers is the mighty Vexilla Regis Prodeunt of Bishop Venantius Fortunatus. In 2015, I composed an organ accompaniment for this hymn with each verse written out. This comes in pretty handy on occasions when the organist must “lead the hymn from the organ bench.” Please feel free to download my […]
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