best way to incorporate new singers

Viola

How do people cope with new singers turning up part way through the season?
We have just acquired two new tenors (wonderful!) with pleasant voices, some previous choral experience, but neither reads music.
We have been singing our current Mass, in three part harmony, for some weeks now, so the present choir members know it well. We have 3 hymns each week, which, as the new tenors come from outside the UK, they may not know.
We also sing the introit and Communion, but to simple tones so they should be ok with those, and other pieces of plainchant, but to cut a long story short, they will be faced with a large amount of unfamiliar music all at once, so I'm worried that they may be disillusioned and/or discouraged.
Other new choir members have either been able to sightread or have come at the start of the choir season.
Has anyone any advice please, on dealing with this?

PaxMelodious

In a secular choir I know, new members are only welcome in the first four weeks of each term.

But in a church choir, it's not such an issue because there is new material all the time anyway.

You don't mention their having English as a second language. Do you have evidence that because they come from outside the UK they will not know the hymns you use? I'm not sure that UK repertoire is THAT special - when I moved to the northern hemisphere, I found that the most unfamiliar material was in the realms of popular piety rather than "serious" hymns. (That said, if they come from Africa, my experience is that they may know a number of hymns to different tunes to the ones you use.)

I wouldn't overthink this: just let them know that you understand there may be too much for them to learn all at once, and ask them to focus on the things you want them to learn first. Presumably they've been attending your church for some weeks before joining the choir, so will already have some familiarity with the Mass you are using.

CharlesW

We had some African folks join our choir. Wonderful people. However, one of our notoriously politically correct singers who panders to nearly everyone in one shape or another, had to get involved and make our culture more "welcoming," or so she thought. So Ms. Busybody told the Africans how much she respected other cultures and wanted the choir to be sensitive to the music sung by these folks in Africa, again, so they would feel "welcome" - I am starting to dislike that word.

It was near Christmas, so she asked what music the folks from Cameroon usually sang for Christmas. The Africans responded, "We sing O Come, All Ye Faithful." I have found those Africans are quite knowledgeable on music and liturgy, even more so than our own U.S. natives. By all means, don't overthink this.

M. Jackson Osborn

Well, if these tenors are as 'wonderful' as you say, I would snatch them up anytime they came - so long as they are committed, regular, genuinely eager to learn your repertory and become one with your choir. Lacking these qualifications they would not be choir material, no matter how 'wonderful' their voices sounded.

mmeladirectress

Two new tenors !!! Hurrah !!! :-)

If your choir sings Latin polyphony or chant, you might want to start them focusing on the Latin primarily, and maybe invite them to the Christmas practices for English pieces you may be using.

For new singers who have no exposure to "Church Latin", we give them our old Liber copies and ask them to follow along with Father's singing of the Collect, Epistle, Gospel, Preface, Pater Noster, to get a feel for pronunciation - when added to formal study, people have reported this to be helpful.

stulte

Our men's schola has two (and, hopefully, soon three) new guys I'm teaching with minimal musical exposure. They're learning to sing the chant using fa-so-la solfege and 4-shape notation. Until they become fully proficient, we'll be singing Propers mostly on psalm-tones and sticking to the same Ordinary for a while. The motto has been, "Just do it." So far, so well.

Viola

Thanks for helpful advice.
One new recruit, Jorge, is from Venezuela and the other, Bernardo, from the Philippines. English is a second language for Jorge, though he is reasonably proficient.
Interestingly both know Missa de Angelis, which we plan to do over Christmastide. We are doing the Glendalough Mass at the moment, which is new to them, as they have not been here long.
Bernardo, whose background is musical theatre (which causes me a little trepidation) knows some of our hymns and several Christmas carols, but everything in English is new to Jorge.
Btw, we have considerable numbers of Poles and Africans in the parish, both of whom have their own separate choirs and sing their own material. There is also a rather sporadic Spanish choir, which I hope will not poach Jorge. If everyone joined together we would have a mega-choir.
I think more chant/Latin could be the way forward, and this might advance our cause to have more of it.

StimsonInRehab

I just had a (semi)new choir member join last night (she had broken her leg, but is now all better, thank you St. Anthony). She had a lot of catching up to do, but I introduced a lot of new music last night as well, so I think she found it helpful knowing that she wasn't alone in feeling the sense of excitement mixed with urgency and terror at seeing a new piece.

So try something new every time, even if you're just looking at it. Sauce for the gander is sauce for the goose. Everyone needs a moment where they step out of their 'comfort zone' at choir - it helps build good musical intuition, I've found. Also drive home the point - don't be shy. Mistakes at rehearsal are okay. Be bold enough to make a mistake at rehearsal. That's how you fix things.

Also, send them sound files of their parts. Even if they think they can't read music (and a lot can and don't know it, such as my friend mentioned above found out last night) they can learn their part by rote; that also help develop a good musical sensibility.

StimsonInRehab

Also, socialize with them outside of practice. Being in a choir is like being in a family. Just less diapers to change. (Well, if it's an older choir . . . Depends.)

MarkS

Depends

Heh.

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