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Sheer Joy
Over the week-end I had the privilege of leading a 30 voice choir in a performance for a church conference. We sang John Rutter’s For the Beauty of the Earth, Mack Wilberg’s Come Thou Fount, and Mendelssohn’s I Waited For the Lord. Garrison Keillor, who I generally wouldn’t quote but who has a point, says that singing in a choir is better than sex and almost as good as fresh-picked sweet corn. I don’t entirely agree with that order, but singing is pretty high up there.
Directing a choir is like singing with one on steroids. Your instrument is your choir. Your job is to act or even dance the music in a way that the singers can follow using your hands, your face, your body. This is deeply satisfying because the emotional range of the human voice in concert is infinite. In my mind there is nothing so joyous as worship through music, and when you direct a choir, you have that joy at your fingertips.
Highlights of my life include evensong in Westminster Abbey, King’s College Cambridge, New College, Oxford and numerous English Cathedrals. Listening to music soar through those majestic, ancient, acoustically alive, artistically conceived and rendered Cathedrals that are tributes to God is as close to heaven as it gets in this life, short of Christmas eve caroling with the family, my all-time favorite yearly moment in life.
Preparing a choir is a process. We spent about 5 hours preparing the three songs, starting with sectionals and pounding notes. We clapped some rhythms, which are especially tricky in the Rutter, then worked on sections one at a time, pencils in hand, as we got our notes, dynamics, enunciation, emphasis and a hundred other little details down.
When performance time arrives, there are thirty faces staring intently at me, all concentrating on the music, the sheer beauty and joy of the music. We begin the Rutter with flowing arpeggiated eighth notes from the piano. Then the ladies’ voices soar with the sweetest melody, For the beauty of the earth, For the beauty of the skies. The men join in the second verse, and from then on, the interplay of low and high voices is intricate, dance-like, and full of the happiness of a beautiful day in this amazing world God has created, distilled into a four minute song.
Mendelssohn, a master of weaving voices together contrapuntally, combines two soloists and with a back-up chorus to convey with a lovely, lovely melody the message, I waited for the Lord, he inclined unto me, He heard my complaint, he heard my complaint. Oh, blessed are they who hope and trust in the Lord. Look it up on you tube. It is sublime.
Wilberg’s Come Thou Fount also begins with ladies singing the stately traditional melody slowly and in unison, Come thou fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy grace. Then altos enter with a low and surprising harmony, almost a counter-melody. The organ plays a glorious, verse-long solo, then the men sing together, Here I raise my Ebenezer, hither by thy help I’m come, And I hope by thy good pleasure safely to arrive at home. Th song ends with eight parts at full volume declaring, pleading,
Oh to grace how great a debtor daily I’m constrained to be,
Let thy goodness like a fetter bind my wandering soul to thee,
Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love,
Here’s my heart, oh take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above.
And there I stand, in the middle of all this beauty, conveying the music to the singers, whose faces reflect and return my deep concentration as they communicate with each other and me, I with them and all of us with the intently listening audience, who have joined together with us in worship.
Of all the joys in this life, this one is the top of Everest.
My life flows on in endless song
Above earth’s lamentation,
I hear the real, though far off hymn
That hails the new creation,
No storm can shake my inmost calm
While to that rock I’m clinging,
It sounds an echo in my soul,
How can I keep from singing?
Published in General
I’ve sung it several times. I adore it. I’m hoping SDSO schedules it again soon. I’m ready to sing it again. I have had the chance to sing a number of other Requia (is that how you say it?) with them over the years and that is a joy.
A beautiful post! You really captured it for non-singers like me. Can’t wait to read this to my wife. She doesn’t share my interest in politics so I rarely pass along things I read here. However, as a former choir member in college she laments not being in a musical group. John Rutter’s requiem is one of her favorites and we used several other tracks from one of his other recordings in our wedding.
Vespacon, there are usually community choirs in most places. Why doesn’t she join one?
Much more.
It is not our bodies that convey intimacy. It is our souls.
G-d breathed his spirit into Adam. So each time we exhale, we are channeling the same spirit that created the world with the spoken word.
Vocals touch people not only because they combine the body and soul, but also because vocals are are the most pure personification of divine creative power that we have.
Beautifully stated iWe. Many of us sing to commune with God. Exactly so. When we sing together we all join in the ride and all our souls commune in concert with our audience. That’s why it is such an unforgettable, crowning experience. Some people say that they think the vision of heavenly choirs is boring. Not me! That ‘s what I’m hoping for!
Wonderful! I think you were having a glimpse of heaven. To quote St. Augustine: To sing hymns is to pray twice. You are so blessed! Thank you for sharing.
That’s a nice thought. I’ll send you links to the score and mp3 of the performance when the dust settles, and if you like it you can pass them on to your director.
Yes–please do!
Wonderful post. Having sung with several church choirs and the Pittsburgh Symphony Choir, I can readily relate.
Don’t know the source, but it is true: “Those who sing pray twice.”
Merina Smith:
The choirs I have sung in have enjoyed many Rutter pieces, but his rhythms are often difficult, and some of the rhythms of For the Beauty of the Earth are particularly diabolical.
Heh–they sure are! I’m not sure we got them entirely right, but we did pretty well. The tricky rhythms are part of what capture the beauty and intricacy of nature though.
I sometimes find coming out of choir practice feeling I’ve worshipped as much as I have on many Sunday mornings.
Another comment I’ve enjoyed from my only large-scale singing experience (in the choir for a Billy Graham crusade in the 1980’s) was a comment by Cliff Barrows at one of our rehearsals. He noted (with tongue in cheek) that the musicians are practicing for eternity, but the preachers are going to have to learn something new. :-)
Among the methods used by our choir director to increase our repertoire are:
We had a significant repertoire challenge for a few years because we were seriously deficient in the Soprano section, during which we discovered what a high percentage of church choir music depends on a strong Soprano section. We found a couple of good sopranos hiding in the congregation, and so are now in a better position.
(Just to make the Merina and other church choir directors jealous of what our director has, we have a choir of about 22, with 6 sopranos, 7 altos, 6 basses, and 3 tenors. It is not unusual for our director to have to quiet the men (especially us tenors) so we don’t overpower the women.)
I’ve found a lot of repertoire at festivals and from singing with choirs for years. I love playing through music. Yup–jealous. That kind of balance is rare. I find myself listening hard during congregational singing for good voices!