Stand up straight, hold your music high, face forward.
  • SoniDee
    Posts: 1
    Thank you for reminding me of everything music and liturgy should be - one breath, with focus, direction and ... freedom in the silence that follows. Thank you.
  • tomboysuzetomboysuze
    Posts: 289
    Noel,
    Interesting concept. PVC? hmmm. What do you use for the flat part of the stand? I don't ever see PVC except in pipe form.

    - THE CHOIR LOFT - USE IT! I've always been a stickler about this and actually made announcements before mass that if the choir and I are not in the loft, we will be a distraction to the 'moments' of the mass and take away from the liturgical action.
    You can't properly 'work' the liturgy with volunteers in front of the congregation week after week. On occasion, yes. But it adds too much tension, vocal strain, etc. and encourages all the wrong things....i.e. egos.
    We:
    - Removed all the pews by unscrewing them and stacking them in the back -
    - Stood in a semi-circle, or as close as we could get to a semi-circle - which is the ONLY WAY to get a good blend with more than 5-6 people and still project over the side of the loft - (a circle is best in my opinion)
    -and used stands with 2 people on a stand AND -
    -rehearsed a LOT
    -memorized as much as possible
    -and I stood very close to the group - two feet away from the closest singer - the other members wrapped around to my sides - if there were more than 10 people, the second row stood on the first step and we just kept working the positions until the blend worked.

    -I also think you have to move people around a bit to make sure that choir members who need to be near each other can be and vice versa.

    TANGENT WARNING:
    -Posture, stands, use of a semi-circle -- all vital. But we should start another thread discussing how important it is for the Director to be aware of the "psychology of the choir members" at every rehearsal and every mass.

    Bad vibes ruin good music.
    Thanked by 2CHGiffen noel jones, aago
  • mahrt
    Posts: 517
    In the 1950s Annie Bank in Amsterdam produced a complete Gradual for Sundays and solemnities with a Kyriale on pages 17 by 19 inches. We acquired a copy in 1973 and this made a remarkable difference in our singing. We had been singing from the Liber Usualis, and after a few minutes, the book found itself resting on the stomach and the singers singing down into it. With the new choir pages on a stand about eye level, singers stood up straight and sang well. Their voices projected out instead of downward. Ensemble was improved. They could see the director much more easily, and they could look at each other more as well. In rehearsal, the director could point directly to a passage and not have to wait for people to find it. The singers' participation in the liturgy was enhanced as well, for they could see the altar just beyond the choir pages.

    Some years ago, I inquired whether I might be able to purchase another copy. I received a reply from Annie Bank (still in business providing editions of sacred music) saying that they could no longer get the paper to produce the books. The chants had been copied by Annie Bank herself onto translucent masters and then produced by a wet-process on light-sensitive paper. The result was in an attractive dark brown print in a very competent musical hand. We have sometimes needed second copies for certain days, when the choir sang a double-choir Mass and stood divided, or when the choir was augmented with many more voices (the single set of pages is quite sufficient for fifteen or so voices). At one time, Kinkos had a photocopy machine that would make copies the size of our pages, and we made such copies, which then had to be fastened onto a stiff backing. A bit tedious but workable.

    These pages were once handled by World Library of Sacred Music, and so there might be copies around in this country. Does anyone know of such copies, especially copies that might be sold? mahrt@stanford.edu
  • JahazaJahaza
    Posts: 468
    A copy was apparently spotted in Cincinatti in the 70's. ;-)
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