Kimberly, I decided to recruit a diocese-wide schola. In my note to all the music directors (we have an email list) of the diocese, I said that I was starting with men and then would open up the women's group. It seems to have worked pretty well. My women's group doesn't quite have the singers I want yet, but I know that these things can evolve if one keeps a high standard. The guys are sounding pretty good now and are getting quite good a reading new chants.

Mike

I'm interested in the plan to develop separate male and female scholae. It isn't the first time I've seen this mentioned. Does it imply an intention to limit the repertoire to chant?

"we hate Latin, we hate chant, none of the music is fun, blah blah blah, all with two people joining who left within a month."

Indeed, this addresses a point I meant to make earlier. Try to make sure the singers you recruit understand (or seem at least capable of coming to understand) your position on sacred music in the Church. People join choirs with their own expectations and perceptions of what it will mean musically to sing with this group. A lot of grief can be spared if they come into your group knowing your expectations as a director.

An esteemed colleague and friend of mine directs the choir in a northern Ontario cathedral. She described to me once an occasion when a new singer joined her choir. After 2 hours of rehearsing the likes of Palestrina, Lauridsen and Durufle, the new members asked in front of the whole choir "don't you guys sing any real church music?". The director replied, "We are singing church music. What sort of music are you referring to?" The singer answered "You know, like Be Not Afraid, Peace Is Flowing Like A River, that sort of thing. That's what I'm used to." This singer disappeared after that first rehearsal.

On the other hand...I have a singer in my choir who tends to favour "happy-clappy" music. She never hesitates to weigh in with her opinion when we pull out a new motet. When she says "I don't like this", I simply respond very kindly with a smile "I don't care." She hasn't quit yet, nor do I want her to. Why does she stay? Possibly because the music we sing is speaking to her although she is not ready to admit it.

As Winston Churchill said, "Never, never give up." You never know how the music may be touching someone, even if they do not choose to respond to you directly. You are planting an idea.

And by all means, although I speak out of frustration (and I am frustrated and eagerly awaiting returning to college to finish my B.Mus) I don't mean to make such remarks to say, "RUN FOR YOUR SANITY!!!!" I rather mean to say that one can't, in my experience, have high hopes for ANY recruitment campaign. What worked for me is to stop thinking about how to get more people and start thinking how to make due with what I have, even if it were to mean recto tono propers. It's a huge load off my back and allows me to more easily get a plan of attack for doing what the Church wants rather than remaking the music program to fit my expectations and desires.

Gavin and Jeffrey,

An additional concern is the pastor’s receptiveness to “changes” in the music program like constantly dwindling numbers in the choir.

Gavin, I have followed your posts on NLM and this forum (maybe elsewhere?) and understand your situation to be thus: your pastor is/was interested in fostering a greater presence of traditional liturgical praxis in your NOM parish, possibly including an occasional TLM. In that regard, you and he work very well together and see eye-to-eye on many/most matters of principle concerning liturgical music.

The situation in which I find myself is that the size of the parish choir is itself seen as a major (the primary?) indicator of the health of the music program. The pastor of my current parish gave me a pretty sharp talking-to less than 3 months after I arrived wherein he expressed dismay at the apparently dwindling numbers of choir members. In some ways, this was completely out of my control; in some cases, I was given very little indication that choir members were unhappy about this/that before they left. (Actually, this trend continues and has been a major source of headache for me this past week.)

You can’t do Howells well with four people, even if they’re four great pro-quality voices singing one voice per part. And if you’ve only got three, that shoots many plans for choral pieces in the foot.

Maybe that’s the real reason Gregorian chant is unison – then the monks didn’t have to worry about how many were there that day. :)

Gavin and Cantor,

Your posts ring true with me. Cantor, I feel your pain on the so typical passive aggressive technique that many choir members use, whether they're departing or not. To your face they'll say something innocuous; behind your back they're saying what they really think, and you're always the last person to know about it. Oftentimes this information is withheld from the music director until the yearly "job evaluation," which is usually an occasion for thinly veiled insults.

One of the reasons that choir numbers dwindle under a conscientious music director is that such a leader tends to expect actual effort from the members. This is not very kosher in most Catholic parishes, in my experience. What the "liberals" and the "conservatives" often have in common is that they'll all tolerate mediocrity. Anyone that insists on anything better is automatically considered a "perfectionist" and has his sanity, not to mention his motives, questioned. (I suppose it goes without saying that I'm speaking from experience.)

Want to have a real rehearsal rather than a social hour? Expect to hear an earful about it.

Planning to ask the choir to be in church early for Mass--even by a mere fifteen minutes? Expect them to ignore it, and force you either to drive yourself nuts or to give up.

Want to ask them to look over their music at home--even just a little bit? Just assume they won't do it.

I used to think that certain clergy with particular mindsets were standing in the way of better church music. How wrong I was! It is not fiat that is doing us in; it is laziness.

Folks, the emperor has no brocade. Everywhere, whether they're speaking Latin or English, whether the priest is facing the altar or the people, whether the church looks like a bank or a Medieval cathedral, Catholics generally want pious music, not good music. There are precious few exceptions. Gavin, I'm with you: I'm beginning preliminary work on grad school applications and am getting myself into another area of music.

BTW I don't play organ nor particularly sing well. I'm a brass playing musicologist who loves the Church and prays for its music.

Mike

incantu is correct. Good music programs/choirs will attract more people to them in the same way that good liturgy fosters and nurtures faith. Stay true to your passion for quality music that serves the needs of the liturgy and you'll set a great foundation in more ways than one.

As for building a choir from scratch, whatever your approach is (ie., bulletin inserts, pulpit announcements, posters in the vestibule, begging congregants on your knees after Mass at a coffee hour, etc.) stay positive and never give up hope. It is not hopeless and people will join your choir. Remember that Rome wasn't built in a day and taking babysteps is sometimes not just helpful but absolutely necessary. (Go watch the movie "What About Bob?")

You must never allow yourself to get discouraged and give up. There will certainly be frustrating moments along the way, but chatting with other colleagues is one thing that will keep you from going out of your mind and over the edge. Take things slowly, and always do the best you can with the resources you have at hand. Ten years ago in my small parish in central NJ, my predecesor was accompanying Mass on a Clavinova and using broadway music that had been suited with semi-liturgical texts. There weren't any choirs at all. Since then, things have change substancially - 45 in the choir, 12 in the schola, 15 in a chamber choir, 30 in the children's choir and correct use of the propers and ordinaries. Hang in there, never lose hope, and best wishes!

It may well be true that the decline is a foreshadowing of the increase, but I know of no parish leadership with the patience to see the whole process through. To too many, "involvement" has become a false god.

Sorry to be such a wet blanket, but I'm tired of rounding the hard edges off the reality that I see right in front of my face.

Every situation is different, but...
Personal engagement and requests work better than bulletins announcements IME.
Network via any cultural organizations in town, high school music programs, community chorales, community theater.
Think long term but work short term.
Always have contingency plans.
Jeffery's father's 3 rules are excellent.
Bring donuts.
Distinguish between what the Church wants and what you want.
Give people some choices.
Be extravagant with praise.
Try to be satisfied with tiny victories. Here's a recent one of mine... I let my choir, (which adored and used to perform under a previous director, such fare as Hosea, Jerusalem My Density, and Change Our Hearts This Time,) vote on something to sing for a Lenten prayer service (I am adamant that music for Liturgy be up to a certain standard, but give more latitude for devotions.)
The (attributed to Palestrina?) O Bone Jesu won in a landslide.
I could have cried.
Simple and well done is better than tarted up and mediocre.
Organize musical/cultural/liturgical outings as a group, (road trip!) if a church in a city near you, even of another denomination has a beautiful Vespers service , for instance drive in together.
Or have everyone over for coffee and to listen to the latest CD by the Westminster Cathedral choir.

Pray a lot.

(Save the Liturgy, Save the World)