Practicing Pieces with a certain 8-letter 'A' Word During [Septuagesima and] Lent
  • StimsonInRehabStimsonInRehab
    Posts: 1,916
    Just for fun - unless you really are as scrupulous as I am (God forbid!):

    So, we had a burial last Saturday night. The poor fellow will recover, thank goodness, but in the meantime there's the question of what word we use in his place while he's away, because we need to get a head start on the Easter season. (Yes, yes, I know - it's only at liturgical celebrations where mentioning his name is taboo. Again, see scrupulosity comment above.)

    So I'm wondering - does anyone else use a 'filler' word for practice during this holy season of penance? I've experimented with a variety of four-syllable words starting with 'A' to see what works:

    Albequerque - gives the text a curiously colloquial flavor,
    Ayatollah - there's a connotation I decided best to avoid!
    I finally settled on Anathema - for some peculiar reason, this seems to fit!

    Although I'd gladly take suggestions of yours on this topic?
    Thanked by 1Chrism
  • Liam
    Posts: 4,945
    Mercifully, this is just for fun, because if I encountered this in rehearsal as a serious direction, it would induce irrepressible laughter. Fortunately, in my decades in choirs, I never encountered it other than as momentary grist for silly humor.

    One approach would be paraphrase:

    O praise the Lord / Praise ye/we the Lord / The Lord be praised

    Another would be simply to mispronounce:

    Al-lee-lie-yay.

    That said, saying the correct word allows the director to more accurately assess diction-related impairment of pitch and tone. As well as reduce the risk of a chorister singing the replacement word by habit when it's no longer needed to salve scruples.

    Which should suffice to overcome scruples.

    Thanked by 2Carol PaxMelodious
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Around here, there's one person who sings "Forbidden Hebrew word".
    Thanked by 2Carol StimsonInRehab
  • Liam
    Posts: 4,945
    But is it Hebrew or Hebrew-derived? And the syllables don't scan.... ("Forbidden word" works.)
  • CCoozeCCooze
    Posts: 1,259
    We had a monk in our choir for a while, and it wasn't a joke to him... he absolutely would not say the word, for any reason, when it was not to be said. I think he may have just settled for singing that entire portion on "ah," while I thought perhaps we could just do the vowels: aeua.
    Thanked by 2M. Jackson Osborn StimsonInRehab
  • aldine
    Posts: 32
    .
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  • Carol
    Posts: 849
    When I taught in Catholic school, we used to sing a bunch of Alleluia hymns during Religion class on Fat Tuesday and we would color a banner with the word Alleluia on it, roll it up and put it away until Easter had come. It was a good way to stress the beginning of the Lenten season and tune little ears to notice the Gospel Acclamation during the Sundays of Lent. It got so bad the class would gasp if I somehow mentioned the word accidently.
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,368
    ...Anathema...

    As in the 'Anathema Chorus' from Handel's Messiah?

    Actually, I have often used 'eleison'.
    Most of the time. though, I've used 'Alleluya' with an admonition not to be overly joyous - after all, we are practicing our praises, not actually doing them - and there often are valid reasons to be practicing the correct diction, etc.
    Perhaps another appropriate substitue would be 'adumbration', for our rehearsals really are adumbrations of the glory that is to come on Easter day.
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • JL
    Posts: 171
    Trinity (Episcopal) in Boston sings "jalapeño".
    Thanked by 3CHGiffen M. Jackson Osborn StimsonInRehab
  • DavidWilde
    Posts: 11
    Our former parish priest strictly forbade us to us the A word during rehearsals. We made sure that he was not within earshot when we rehearsed.
    Thanked by 1Incardination
  • Liam
    Posts: 4,945
    David

    "Himself-Himself" might have been an appropriate substitution if he were within earshot.
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,151
    "Ayulella" (or "Aiulella")?

    In former (ancient?) times, the 'Anathema' chorus was known amongst my friends as the 'I Hate Handel' chorus.

    I rather like 'Algorithm' (some twist of logic, eh?).

    Thanked by 1StimsonInRehab
  • Liam
    Posts: 4,945
    Of course, I should have thought of this at the start. How could I have forgotten the most sublime answer to the OP's question?

    What is Handel?

    Hialeah! Hialeah!

    Who is Handel?

    Hialeah! Hialeah!

    * * *

    A Simple Little System, from Bells Are Ringing:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rccTav52lAI

    From a time when America had enough of a middlebrow culture to make humor (not just lyrics, but musical pastiche before the Age of Mashup) of this sort possible and feasible.

    Anyway, *if* one were to deploy the most sublime answer, one should share this number with one's choristers so that they are in on the recursive humor.

    (We'll be rich! We'll be rich! We'll be rich! - Not.)
    Thanked by 1Carol
  • matthewjmatthewj
    Posts: 2,694
    It's probably best just not to practice and show up on Easter and sight-read the motets.
    Thanked by 14CCooze CHGiffen JonathanKK JL CharlesW DavidWilde Casavant Organist Liam Marc Cerisier StimsonInRehab MNadalin Carol bhcordova Jeffrey Quick
  • NihilNominisNihilNominis
    Posts: 986
    I'm afraid I'm uncreative... Allelala.
  • eft94530eft94530
    Posts: 1,577
    In the 1990s when I was a Dominican brother
    we took great delight in using the name of a classmate:
    Alejandro
    Thanked by 5M. Jackson Osborn CHGiffen StimsonInRehab Carol JL
  • MichaelDickson
    Posts: 419
    Sometimes choir rehearsal is penitential regardless of what words are spoken or sung.
    Thanked by 10CharlesW CHGiffen M. Jackson Osborn Incardination CCooze MarkS Liam StimsonInRehab Carol bhcordova
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,934
    We sing it during Lenten rehearsals, and don't worry about it.
    Thanked by 3Incardination Carol bhcordova
  • Casavant Organist
    Posts: 800
    We've always sung it during Lenten rehearsals. I always raise a stink about it. Conductors say "we don't mean it" which is of course quite contradictory to what they should be saying...
  • Liam
    Posts: 4,945
    "I always raise a stink about it."

    Don't be that person, please (unless you're just indulging it as a form of humor). It's one thing for choristers to have to humor a director/pastor's scruple as a matter of obedience, but for the chorister to try to force a scruple on others would be to force others to abide by a personal pious preference without sufficient warrant.
    Thanked by 7Incardination CharlesW WGS Marc Cerisier Carol CHGiffen JL
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,934
    It's called PRACTICE, folks. A necessary evil. Go forth and rehearse.
    Thanked by 5Incardination Marc Cerisier Carol CHGiffen Brian Michael Page
  • StimsonInRehabStimsonInRehab
    Posts: 1,916
    We sing it during Lenten rehearsals, and don't worry about it.


    Of course you don't. You're an Easterner. You probably do it backwards twenty times in a row.


    (Oh wait. Your choir's Latin Rite. Well, there goes my analogy . . .)
    Thanked by 1CharlesW
  • StimsonInRehabStimsonInRehab
    Posts: 1,916
    I can hardly wait for the "triple Anathema" at the Vigil!


    The best is that traditional stand-by, "Anathema! Anathema! Let the Holy Anthem Rise". Which reminds all of us that "anthem" is only a few letters away from "Anathema". Which means we must remember to be joyful in pronouncing our "an(a)them(a)s".
  • Carol
    Posts: 849
    Liam, great link! Hialeah, Hialeah indeed!
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,934
    Don't mention "Anthem," which has to be the worst piece of trash ever, maybe second only to Beagle's Wings.

    We are old we are hateful
    We despise one another...
    Thanked by 3Carol Liam CHGiffen
  • Carol
    Posts: 849
    Charles, thanks for calling my attention to this "Anthem: which I had to look up since I have (mercifully) never it heard sung. My personal "most detested 'hymn' " is waiting in the wings since it is February- "Ashes." I remember someone saying they liked it and I asked them "What do the words mean?" They replied, "I never really thought about them." !!!!!!!
    Thanked by 3Incardination CHGiffen eft94530
  • Liam
    Posts: 4,945
    Charles

    Perhaps my most detested item in commonly available in missalettes. This parody goes back a generation:

    We are culled, we are frozen,
    we are stuck in here together,
    we are promised to tomorrow
    while we're in this bag today.
    We are corn, we are onions.
    We are peppers - just add cheese.
    We're the harvest for your hunger,
    We are carrots, we are peas(e).
    Thanked by 4Carol CharlesW bhcordova CHGiffen
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,934
    "Ashes." I remember someone saying they liked it


    It is awful and I have never programmed it. Some years ago I filled in at an area mass on Saturday evenings where they were fond of, "Dust and Ashes." I called it the 'dirt and mud' song, which I am not sure they liked.
  • Liam
    Posts: 4,945
    I've not heard Ashes in decades. Then again, it's been many years since I've been able to go to church on Ash Wednesday. Hmm. Another good reason to continue not going.
    Thanked by 2CharlesW CCooze
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,934
    I abandoned Ash Wed. about three years ago. The Hispanics, who won't attend Dec. 8, have a firm belief that Ash Wednesday is a Holy Day of Obligation. Their kids make so much racket I decided the only way anyone could hear me would be if I used the SFZ on everything.

    Charles,
    Not politically correct and who doesn't care.

    I should add this is the evening mass, only. Most of my choir and congregation go to the morning mass.
    Thanked by 1bhcordova
  • bhcordovabhcordova
    Posts: 1,152
    You mean Ash Wednesday isn't a Holy Day of Obligation???????
    Thanked by 3Incardination CharlesW eft94530
  • TimTheEnchanterTimTheEnchanter
    Posts: 195
    If my choir sang a word other than "Alleluia" during rehearsals, they would also sing that when they sang for realsies. I'm not making things any more complicated for them than I have to.

    I put "Ashes" down as an emergency third hymn during the distribution of ashes. But I also put two long hymns ahead of it, virtually guaranteeing we will not get to it at any of the four services. That way, when someone complains, I can go, "Well, darn, I had it down, but we just didn't get to it. Such a bummer."
    Thanked by 3CharlesW Carol Viola
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,934
    No, it isn't. Neither is it mandatory to wash feet on Holy Thursday.
    Thanked by 1Joseph Mendes
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,934
    Fortunately, "Ashes" isn't in our hymnal. The dirt and mud piece is, but I don't use it.
  • Jeffrey Quick
    Posts: 2,046
    I suppose one could lose ones scruples.
    This whole discussion reminds me of the young Christian employee of my father, who, when Dad would use the Name in vain, would say, "Cheese and rice!"
    If you mean Alleluia, and say something else, aren't you just saying Alleluia anyway?
    (There. I said it. Twice. "This halibut is good enough for Jehovah".)
    Thanked by 2CharlesW StimsonInRehab
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,934
    Jumping JHVH! He said the "J" word.
    Thanked by 1StimsonInRehab
  • Carol
    Posts: 849
    Once I was substituting in a second grade public school class. A boy came running up to me and said, "Jeffrey called me the J word!" Jeffrey was right behind him and declared "I did not call you the J word!" As the 2 boys went away, Jeffrey said, "Besides, I don't even know what the J word is."
    Thanked by 2Incardination CharlesW
  • ViolaViola
    Posts: 394
    Some hardline Calvinist choirs over here refused to use any sacred words at all when rehearsing, so made up alternatives. The most famous example is the Seceder Cat. Instead of singing Charles Wesley's 'O for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer's praise etc' they sang to the same tune 'There was an auld Seceder cat, and it was unco' grey. It brocht a moose [i.e. a mouse!] intae the Kirk upon the Sabbath Day! They took it to the Sess-i-on, wha it rebukit sair, and made it promise faithfully tae dae the same nae mair'.
    I think our practices would be really enlivened by doing something similar, but as T the E said above, people might well sing the wrong words when singing for real.
    Thanked by 4a_f_hawkins CHGiffen StimsonInRehab Carol
  • StimsonInRehabStimsonInRehab
    Posts: 1,916
    If you mean Alleluia, and say something else, aren't you just saying Alleluia anyway?


    Minced oaths do have their place in society, JQ. If, instead of comparing a gentleman to the classical character of Oedipus, I refer to him as "thou fool, Raca!!!!!!" surely that's an improvement. May still send me to Hell, sure, but the Politically-Correct Section nonetheless.
    Thanked by 1Carol
  • StimsonInRehabStimsonInRehab
    Posts: 1,916
    Jumping JHVH! He said the "J" word.


    No way! Ja, weh!
    Thanked by 1CharlesW
  • Jeffrey Quick
    Posts: 2,046
    instead of comparing a gentleman to the classical character of Oedipus

    As the late Rudolph Bubalo, one of my teachers at Cleveland State, would say, "He's a real mezzo-forte!"
    Thanked by 1StimsonInRehab
  • music123
    Posts: 100
    A friend of mine was in a choir that tried using the name of a certain carbonated sweet beverage for Lenten rehearsals. So, yes, they were in effect practicing the "Coca-Cola Chorus."

    They soon gave up on this....
    Thanked by 3Carol StimsonInRehab Viola
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