Fear of the unknown: How do you help your choir not panic when introducing new music?

I would have to wake them up first in order for them to panic. ;-)

Confidence comes with time and successful performance. Compliments from members of the congregation help tremendously. Our congregation compliments the choir even when I don't think they deserve it, but it helps.

Well, that close chord stuff is more distracting for amateur singers because they are having to sing in prolonged ways that they normally only sing temporarily. So you might try having them sing without having to sing the text, but I am sure many professionals here would object that such would be a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, and Very Bad Thing To Do. While the text is not difficult, mastering the close chord stuff *well* is not exactly a cakewalk for typical Catholic amateur choirs. (I get rather tired of it; I am like Natalie Wood in "Miracle on 34th Street" saying sullenly, "I believe" as in "Yes we can sing a lot of close chords and it's so uplifting").

Our unauditioned community choir had a new director a few years back. She had just been training in Hungary and was full of ideas, particularly Kodaly type ideas. She gave us a lot of vocal exercising (not gymnastics but ear training), and particularly wanted us to listen to one another - not just to sing but to be a choir. It worked. I can't remember whether Lauridsen featured in our first year, but before long we were on Lauridsen, Pärt and similar, quite successfully. I should add that some members left because they wanted to sing things and NOT to 'waste time' on exercises.

@melofluent: I admit to having similar thoughts because I listened to the Victoria on the way home and thought oh geez that's a lot simpler. I LOVE Poulenc....so many ideas, so little time! All in good time...

My singers (as yours) are talented and yet need a lot of encouragement.

{...}

OK maybe this can only happen over time, and you & choir are new to each other; but if something new is introduced far enough ahead, so that they can lose their fear of it, it will be fine - and the next one will come easier - and then the next.

I just need to share the following:

I've been blessed to be in a few situations recently where it's my choir members who are providing me with encouragement. I just started about a month ago with a parish choir hoping to sing a Latin Mass, as requested by Father. I start practices, thinking that such a small parish choir would never be up for Gregorian chant and Palestrina. I'd always been told that your average Midwestern Catholic doesn't go in for that sort of thing. Boy was I wrong - and how! This choir is eating it up. I offer to send them music; they go to the effort to produce a whole set of CDs for the choir to listen to. New members are showing up every week. I am bombarded with emails from multiple choir members - POSITIVE e-mails! Stuff like sharing websites, suggestions for music, basic musings on life. They're bringing me food after practice and inviting me over to their house for coffee and such. It's like I'm an old friend of theirs and I've barely known them a month! The best part? They sound great, and they're not afraid to take chances. I show them a polyphonic mass - it's a breeze. They sing it like they've known it their whole life. The organist is sight reading complex accompaniment with ease, and he's not even out of high school. And they're already asking me what we're going to do in the long run.

I thought my college choir was encouraging. (It's hard to top twentysomethings for enthusiasm.) But this choir is just a diamond in the rough. It's best summed up by a reply to an email of music I sent out at the last moment - one of my altos shooting back "BRING IT ON! WE LOVE A CHALLENGE!"

This has been encouraging to me, especially as my life has been pretty rough of late. So why do I bring this up? Because choirs are encouraged when 1) they are introduced to new, quality music 2) you believe in them enough to coach them through the process of learning and 3) treat them like family. So please, pray for us. These guys are awesome and I hope I haven't jinxed them by waxing poetically about them at length.

You might want to start with just one section of the piece and see how they do. Even if they do well, have them put it away. You can do another section the next week until you finally get through it.

@Chaswjd: That's the plan, just do little bits at a time.

@francis: aww. Well, we already purchased the parts and I spent a long time deciding whether or not to do it, and I like it, and I think they do, too. I cannot remember but I think it was someone on this forum that suggested Lauridsen to me, not necessarily the O Magnum but maybe just his name. So that's how I came across it anyway...

@eft94530@ Thank you that is a really great idea!!

I found their bad habit this morning...Men had their faces buried in their music and missed an entrance. Not getting nearly enough eyes on me, definitely need to nip that in the bud.

Eft that is an interesting idea. I can hear the calls to the pastor already:

Caller one: "She tied us up!"
Caller two; "She put ropes around our necks!"
Caller three: "She turned me into a newt!"

...
it got better...

I second the recommendation for the Victoria. Lauridsen doesn't know how to write idiomatically for the voice and the Victoria will be both easier and more rewarding for your choir.

Post script

As someone who prepared his HS Chorus and performed the Lauridsen "O Magnum..." with Salamunovich as a clinician (and am amenable to providing remarks), I can safely attest that the motive to EXHIBIT "mastery" is of secondary concern.
Whether a director examens his/her motive for programming any piece seems a paramount concern, to me.
YMMV

Then there are Handel's choral tenor parts....

The problem for practically all church choirs, except large choirs singing in a very large space (think cathedral choir/performance), with the Lauridsen is not the music nor the genius of the composer. It's the usual inability, even for very good choirs, to bring off a very good, let alone inspired and moving, performance in a liturgical setting. In a liturgical context, a mediocre to okay to fairly good rendition of a large scale work requiring a large number of competent singers such as this (the piece is rife with divisi passages) is far less effective than a very good to inspired rendition of a less complex work, especially when ones vocal resources are somewhat limited by size or ability (or both). The Lauridsen was composed for a LARGE chorus (L.A. Master Chorale has about 120 singers), on what might be called an epic symphonic-choral scale. In reality, it is a concert piece or, perhaps, a cathedral piece. I've been underwhelmed by too many (much) less than ideal performances, most of which I've endured as a listener, but two of which I got roped into singing. I've sung in only one performance (with about 20-25 competent singers) that came off quite well, in a large church with excellent resonance and acoustics, in a concert, not a religious service. YMMV

A similar problem exists for a number of other "popular" works, although usually on a smaller scale, such as the Biebl Ave Maria or the Allegri Miserere. Performances & recordings by Chanticleer-Cantus or the Tallis Scholars, etc. notwithstanding, these works are very difficult to bring off well with the average church choir. Although, with much work and attention to detail, these are closer to being within reach, and they are more suited for liturgical use.

Yes Chuck! Thanks for your thoughts. I was, until now, seriously debating trying the Lauridsen with my choir. I think it is beautiful. My problem was the length. I just don't need a piece of music that is over six minutes in length. And then, after reading the posts, I realized that the time it will take to learn it and the attention it will take away from all of the other parts of the Christmas Masses would be too significant. We did learn the Victoria a couple of years ago and I think I will resurrect it this year.

We did sing the Allegri Miserere two Easters ago and it was not satisfactory. I will never do that one again. Instead we opted for simpler music on Good Friday to better effect.

The Biebl works for us because I had a string trio play the trio portion. It didn't thin out my choir and I think it worked well.

I've enjoyed this discussion. Fidem, I hope it works for you. I would love to know how it goes!

Again thank you all for your thoughts. Indeed there is a lot to consider when programming any piece, and I spent considerable time thinking about the Lauridsen, discussed it with many people, made sure I had enough choir members who could handle the soaring high notes and the rich low notes, discussed it with the pastor over a very long phone conversation, listened to it, played through it, and did all of this over and over again before I made my decision.

@canadash: Length could be a problem if it's not performed with the composer's intentions. The LA Master chorale does it in under six minutes, and since it was written for them I think that's a good reference. Many other recordings are painfully slow and long, and I don't think that is necessary at all. Another thing I've noticed is many recordings going for the clean, zero-vibrato sound. That's nice, and great I'm sure in a big cathedral where that sound can travel, but again LA Master Chorale did not sing it that way. It was this particular stylistic preference in recordings that gave me the most concern, actually.

We will have ample time to learn and practice this piece. Everything else I'm doing with them is either music they already learned before I was there or a few new pieces that are very simple. My intent is not to overwhelm anyone, just to give them a challenge and also an insight into what I wholeheartedly believe they are capable of. For what it's worth, none of us would be where we are today if we said "That's too hard we can't do this" and the person in charge just said "okay we'll just do something easy" and didn't give us a chance. That is not how I was trained, not how I run my choir, or teach my students, or raise my own kids.

"Can you give us a cue here?"

Gives cue there.

No one is looking up.

Bash head against wall.

Repeat.

And two of my fifth grade violin students didn't show up today because they were on a field trip and didn't tell me. Or the orchestra teachers.

My mother in law is in town visiting us this week too.

Wonder what my elementary kids have planned for me tomorrow morning...

*good news* We are doing the Rutter setting of Lo, He Comes With Clouds Descending for the first Sunday of Advent. Parts finally came and the choir loves it. Yay.

We do a different setting of the O Magnum Mysterium every year - this is how I keep track of how long I've been working here. Year II we did the Lauridsen (by request from some of my singers). It was fine but I've preferred every other year's settings over it.

I'm afraid the point of my comment, Schönbergian , (nice nom de plum), was not about music "values" or profit, it was countering your claim of an inability to write vocal lines "for the voice" on the part of the composer considered. "Dirait 'on" is merely one example of Lauridsen's penchant for "writing for the voice." To his merit/demerit, his melodic vocabulary suits the voice in a manner as does Mozart (merit) or Rutter (de... nevermind.) His constructs are far more accessible than say those of Whitacre, Taverner or Part, IMHO.

How did Rutter get in this?

Me decided!

As we were discussing popular composers, his music fits into the sentimental variety.

there is nothing 'pop' about Lauridsen.

YMMV... he is pop to me. Start a thread on the best modern choral music composers (that will stand the test of centuries of time) and I would list very few. Sorry. YMMV

Francis is spot on about transparency. I do believe, though, that some besides polyphonists have entered into this sacred niche. Some Howells, for instance. Some Britten. Certainly some RVW, including but not limited to his great g-minor mass. There is much being written for the English cathedrals and collegiate chapels that is both polyphony and not polyphony which puts the rest of the world to shame as regards truly modern sacred music. None of this is meant to prejudice the supreme achievement of the late mediaeval and renaissance polyphonists, who forever will be tutors to the ages.

And, whilst we are discussing Part, Lauridsen and such, Hovhaness should not go without mention. (Hovhaness also wrote a few very clean motet-styled anthems that are really rather easy and are a delight to sing. Praise ye the Lord is one that comes to mind - there are a dozen or so of them.)

This is how far we have fallen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gafx66Coyc

MJO... tried to find Hovhaness motets online (youtube)... none to be found... his Magnificat seems to be rife with aural effects... would like to hear his polyphony (a cappella, of course)

Charles... holy cameron carnival canniptions, wonderboy! (Wish I had that simulacrum for my LR to keep my chops up.)

Francis - there is a catalogue of all of Hovhaness' choral works on the internet. Just google alan hovhaness list of vocal works and you will find the motets clearly labeled and listed with everything else, I believe that they may currently be had from AMP. I've been unlucky in finding them on youtube. Some of these pieces would be ideal for a choir's first polyphonic efforts.

And about your 'rife with aural effects' - can we really eliminate works just on the basis of these? If we did we would eliminate much of our beloved polyphony, which is far from free of such effects. (And, their effects were likely far more noticeable in their own time to their own hearers than they are to us!). Effect and affect are part a parcel of any musical language and discourse. It is how they are used, with what purpose, and with what gout that bespeaks the difference betwixt a master and an hack, a poet and a jingler. No music, no language, no art, is without either affect or effect.

Ah, but this just begs to be performed.

Charles... Yea, well... I grant you permission to perform it in a secular hall, institution, college or concert hall. However you must adhere to the copyright notice.