Chanting psalms in choir
  • OlbashOlbash
    Posts: 314
    Here's a conversation starter.

    In traditional practice, when chanting the psalmody of the Divine Office, it is customary to pause between each half-verse, often annotated by an asterisk. This has a two-fold purpose: it is both BEAUTIFUL (it gives the first line of chant time to resonate in the room) and PRACTICAL (it gives the singers a moment to breathe).

    Now, according to that same traditional practice, the singers on the other side of the chapel are expected to begin the next verse immediately when the preceding verse ends. This is indeed PRACTICAL (the folks on the other side of the room have plenty of air, since they haven't been singing... plus, it moves the psalm along efficiently) but not BEAUTIFUL (there is no time for the preceding line to cadence naturally in the room)

    This practice has always irked me. Invariably, when chanting the Hours, there are some chant jocks on either side of the aisle who insist on barking rather aggressively at the first possible instant, lest the rest of us slouch into a more relaxed and musical rhythm. Plus, I think there is a little of the "I know how it is SUPPOSED to be done" attitude among these types, like the people who insist on standing during the Hallelujah Chorus or who insist on calling Ralph Vaughan Williams RAIPH Vaughan Williams.

    The only times I have ever heard the psalms beautifully sung have been when chanting with groups of people who don't know any better, and who allow the natural rhythm of the music and the prayer to come through without imposing some supposedly historically informed performance practice.

    What's your take?
  • Jeffrey TuckerJeffrey Tucker
    Posts: 3,624
    I think that's hilarious actually, that anyone would live and breath an environment in which there are people who would do this. Oddly, I vaguely recognize myself in your description - "chant jocks....who insist on barking rather aggressively at the first possible instant, lest the rest of us slouch into a more relaxed and musical rhythm." This is good corrective and I'm glad you made the point!

    This is undoubtedly a crowd similar to those who shout the full text of "DOMINUS NON SUM DIGNUS!!!" during Mass.
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,499
    I feel that chanting in choir is a delicate balance between doing it right and doing it together. To come in on time, singing well--and yet to be sure that the others are there with you too--that is the challenge.

    To my mind it speaks loads about being ecclesially-minded. We do the right thing, and we move along together.
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,157
    Thanks, Olbash, for bringing up this point of performance practice. All too often, the final consonant of verse "n" is still sounding when the other choir leaps to start declaiming verse "n+1". The effect makes the hand-off like an interruption instead of a continuation. Come on, folks, let the phoneme be heard. The two halves of the choir are not in a contest of self-assertion.

    Even one "tick" of silence between the verses would be fine. At the monasteries I've visited, that seems to be roughly the norm.
  • incantuincantu
    Posts: 989
    Ugh, this drives me crazy too. I remember a wonderful master class I went to with pianist Gwendolyn Mok, a Ravel specialist who brought with her a 19th century straight-strung Erard piano similar to what Ravel himself would have played. She demonstrated the time it takes for a sound to decay on the Erard vs. the modern Steinway. Especially in the case of the former, the sound does not make a gradual decrescendo, but rather swells, sustains for a moment, and then drops away suddenly. She used this to demonstrate the proper length for certain notes, and proper tempos for pieces in general. It was clear, however, that some of the students just couldn't hear this phenomenon. It strikes me that chant singers sometimes just don't have a "feel" for how the music needs to go, both in terms of its musical rhetoric and also the amount of space between phrases that a certain acoustic requires. Any practice that says "exactly one beat" regardless of other performance conditions is completely utilitarian and in my opinion entirely unmusical.

    I'm personally struggling to get my singers to chant recitatives as eighth notes (that is, nothing that could be written with triplets or sixteenth notes) that are not all of the same length and weight. This whole even-eighth notes approach to psalmody is effective in keeping groups together, yes, but I find it to be so abecedarian. The same goes for doubling the long cadential pes or clivis, when the individual notes are already doubled (i.e. not shortened) compared to the syllables that carry a single virga. But I suppose that's another whole can of worms.
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,451
    And I thought I was having a hard time getting my organist to breathe with the congregation before each verse of hymns.
  • mjballoumjballou
    Posts: 993
    To my knowledge there is no written law on this subject, Michael, but I know about the self-appointed guardians of "tradition." (Cue in Zero Mostel.) Part of the problem is that we don't work with monks or nuns who sing the office 365 days a year several hours a day. They develop a sense of ensemble that no weekly rehearsal can produce.

    I delayed the alternatim practice with my women because we just couldn't get it to sound good. We just sang straight through and were not struck by lightning. Now that the group has a better sense of itself and is better at listening, we're making the transition. My solution is to have the "off side" inhale on the last syllable of the "singing side." That gives a nice small pause and seems to control bolting out of the gate too soon.

    If it's any comfort, the problem seems timeless. In the Rule of the Carthusian Order, it specifically states that no one is to come in early or drag out the endings.
  • rsven
    Posts: 43
    This is a particular thing with me, the chanting of the Psalms, as it is the heart of Gregorian Chant. When I first started sining the Office, I was taught by Fr. Samuel Weber at Mundelein Seminary Liturgical Institute, and he taught us to make a pause between the two halves of the psalm. Subsequently, my schola members who have visited European monastaries have told me that this is the way the psalms are chanted there. Also, this summer at the CMAA chant colloquium, I particularly asked Dr. Marht this question, as he was teaching a class in the chanting of the Office; and he said to leave a strong pause between the two halves of the psalm, although he said that it is difficult to restrain the schola in this way. I have found in my own own private practise of chanting the Office, that it is lovely to leave this pause, relax, breathe, and for a few seconds absorb the text of the first half of the psalm verse.
  • Liam
    Posts: 4,942
    One must also consider the dimension of the loyalty factor: students will tend to be loyal to the praxis and principles taught by beloved former teachers. That's an admirable trait. But even beloved former teachers can teach things that are not necessarily best practice for a given situation. Thus, one must have some detachment from that loyalty.
  • IanWIanW
    Posts: 756
    There can be meaning in silence over and above its association with loyalty to former teachers, especially in the context of sound. Consider Messiaen's Regard du silence, or the silence between Stravinsky's blocks of sound. The significance of silence can be difficult to express beyond surface observation, but that can be said of any artistic artifact that moves us. Psalm chanting traditions are profoundly moving in their repitition and simplicity. Their employment of silence deepens their beauty and the prayer and contemplation that are their purpose.

    I'm toying with the idea of buying Emma Hormby's essay on "Silence in early western chant", part of Silence, Music, Silent Music. Some of the other essays look like they might be interesting, too. The price dampens my enthusiasm somewhat. Perhaps a student or academic on the list can get it from a library and summarise Hornby's argument for us.
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