Accompanist workshop--what should be included?

Heath

I'll be holding an accompanist workshop for some of my students tomorrow. Anything that I should be sure to teach/mention? What are deficiencies you've noticed in the accompanying skills of otherwise fine keyboardists?

ronkrisman

Correctly handling the interval of time between the conclusion of one stanza of a metrical hymn and the beginning of the next

MaryAnn Carr Wilson

Our choir sings acapella 85-90% of the time. When we are accompanied, I instruct the singers to consider the organ another instrument and move with it. The key word has been "anticipate" what the organist does. Don't wait, don't try to lead, but "get in the groove" and move together. The organist shouldn't have to herd cats. The singers should be at full attention, and in the music rather than thinking the organ can do the singing for them- what I call "backseat singing". The organist cannot be so into their favorite Bach harmonization to drag or otherwise move counter to the sung phrases.

How does an accompanist anticipate?
Some quick thoughts-
Singers need to breathe, and, depending on the size and experience level of the group, and whether the congregation is being led, the keyboardist needs to anticipate tempo and phrasing accordingly.

Perhaps the biggest obstacle is the switch toward hearing/thinking/moving musically as part of an ensemble when one is used solo performance. This does not mean going with singers' wrong rhythm, etc., and being an enabler. I think the biggest difference for the solo performer can be to have to accommodate, consider, and anticipate other performers. It's a new sensitivity for most.

Gavin

For my own part, I rarely feel comfortable in my control of dynamics and properly balancing the registration.

ryand

I echo everything that has been said so far

CharlesW

Some years ago, I went downstairs while someone else accompanied so I could hear what the congregation was hearing. It was interesting. I discovered the place where volume drops occurred with the organ, where there was an echo, where the choir sound became muddled, where their diction became fuzzy, and where some dead spots were in the building. It wasn't like what I was hearing while playing in the loft. I recommend that everyone do that at least once.

Guadalupe

I've heard final chords held excessively long.

Mad_Dan_Eccles

How to lead congregational singing vs accompanying even a partly-trained choir. Many otherwise fine solo performers seem to struggle with this, though PIPs in large groups can be very wayward in their sense of time

Some. Times. You. Have. To. Help.Them. Along. So. That. They. Don't. Drag. or Pull.

Adam Wood

Correctly handling the interval of time between the conclusion of one stanza of a metrical hymn and the beginning of the next

If i wasn't holding baby right now I'd do a little markup hack to "thank" this comment dozens of times,

Ben

Same here, Adam, same here. This point was hit close to home lately.

[rant]

I was at a holy hour last night (with my bishop, in union with Pope Francis, for peace), and at the hymns for exposition/benediction/recessional, the organist was incredibly sluggish at the transition points, and I found myself, normally confidently singing with almost any organist, forcing myself to wait that extra half-second at the beginning of each stanza. It was a consistent delay every time, so I doubt it was unintentional.

I was in the pews. Extremely distracting when trying to sing, and definitely bad technique.

NB: this organist had tempo issues overall as well, but that's another matter. The tempo issues became worse at the transitions.

[\rant]

CharlesW

I pause long enough between stanzas to let everyone breathe. It's a real inconvenience that people don't have an inexhaustible wind supply like the organ. Unfortunately, my organ console is state-of-the-art 1950s technology. That pause is necessary for registration changes. Then there's the diva soprano who thinks a cutoff means she has a bit longer to release the last note. Some days there is murder and mayhem in my heart. LOL.

miacoyne

My organ teachers and organ classes told me to add usually one measure for 3/4 or a half measure for 4/4 (or a full measure) to the last note of the hymn between stanzas, and the last two beats (or one beat, depend on the acoustics) are rests in the extension. When I practice with the cantor, have her count the beat, especially on the transition to make it rhythmical and maintain the steady beat together. (this is very crucial especially because the cantor and the organ are very far from each other. We can not have the cantor in the choir loft at least for a while.) It's working out very well for me. My challenge in the parish is tempo. They really like fast tempo and 'peppi (?), so I went too fast sometimes. Now I make sure I sing the hymn when I practice so I don't go too fast, and give a good break for breathing.

Andrew Motyka

Now I make sure I sing the hymn when I practice so I don't go too fast, and give a good break for breathing.

Do this. Always do this.

ryand

Ben,
Do you have a way to contact the organist? If the timing issues were problematic, it would be beneficial for him to hear some kindly-worded feedback from someone in the pews, where the aural experience (and mental focus) is, in most acoustics, different than at the console.
Some folks might throw a little fit for being "corrected" - whatever, that's their problem. As long as you're not coming across as "You should have ___" but instead say "It might help if ___", the feedback ought to be welcomed. I've only gotten such feedback (solicited) a few times, but its always appreciated.

Adam Wood

ryand

I have never been successful in changing anything at all about the way an organist plays or otherwise behaves.

I've specified tempo, sung things, ask them to speed up (often), slow down (not often, but it happens), breathe, sing along, etc. etc.

And for all my blustery pronouncements on online fora and blogs, I'm pretty damn pastoral about it (if I do say so myself). I have successfully directed singers, actors, and several flavors of non-foot-requiring instrumentalists.

One time, with a sub, I said before service: "Please, whatever else is going on- can you look up? Especially when you aren't playing." - Face down, whole time. Not just while playing. The whole time. If you miss a cue (of course!) how am I suppose to get your attention?

Like any other profession or avocation, there are good organists and bad organists. It has been my experience that the ones who most need to be given some feedback have no interest in hearing it from a non-organist.

ryand

I'm just speaking for myself. If I were Ben's organist, I'd like to hear from him ... but not all organists are like that, I understand. I've known some who'd love to hear, I've known some who'd go home in a puff of angry smoke. Again: whatever, that's their problem. The best we can do is offer input, the worst we can do is try to correct someone when they aren't even part of the conversation.

They might not hear what we have to say when its directed right at them, but they certainly will not hear what we have to say when they aren't even in the room.

Ben

I think I could probably find his email. I was half considering doing it already, and I think I may. I know I love kindly worded feedback myself, so I think I will. Thanks for the push, ryan :)

M. Jackson Osborn

If you have anything approaching fine accoustics (English or other) hymns should be taken at a rather elegant pace, without a hint of hurriedness to besmirch the aesthetic. Time between stanzas should be a calculated number of seconds or beats, after which the next stanza begins after a mini silence 'when the moment is right'. Never ever hurry or people will think that they have an evangelical for an organist... you know, he plays everything at a more or less peppy tempo and leaves not space for so much as a gulp before the next stanza is begun as if we had to hurry lest the building burn down. The only musicians who have an inborn and inbred liturgical sense for just the right aesthetic in these matters are, um.... Anglican cathedral organinsts. Baptists certainly don't. Some high-church Methodists may. Catholics, as a rule, don't even know what we are talking about. [Whatever is done must be done artfully to the last detail - thus, it comes alive and communicates spirit, the geistlichenkunst of the music... and all else.]

kevinf

Some Methodists and Lutherans do it very well. And yes to Anglicans. Maybe Catholics will in about a hundred years.

I was taught by an Anglican and a Methodist.....

CharlesW

I was taught by an Anglican, too. He often said to never drag the hymns since it kills all the life in them. Also, give the congregation time to breathe. Now Polly Presbyterian, the infamous organist down the street, may play hymns differently. Let her, with my blessing!

Salieri

Something about finding a good tempo for hymns (real hymns like LOBE DEN HERRN or ST CLEMENTS). Catholics for some reason seem to like impossible tempos like quarter = 26.

MaryAnn Carr Wilson

Yes
Yes
Yes!
to Andrew's comment. Sing along (at least in reh).

Heath, how did your workshop go?

Liam

MJO

"The only musicians who have an inborn and inbred liturgical sense for just the right aesthetic in these matters are, um.... Anglican cathedral organinsts."

Some, yes; others, not so much, especially when they move out of the Anglican cathedral environment.

A good tempo rule of thumb in the abstract is one where proficient amateur (and trained) singers can sing an entire line without being too tempted to break the line: think even of a hymn line like a chant line, with an overall arch of energy.

My own experience with organists in US Catholic churches is that the temptation to be slower and louder than is necessary to support the congregation is greater than the opposite tendency. YMMV.

Heath

Mary Ann, thanks for asking! The workshop went fine . . . 2 of my 3 accompanists have been doing this for awhile in different places and the third is a piano performance major, so I fortunately wasn't starting at ground zero.

Thanks to all for the input. The main headings I had in my presentation outline were the following:

--Following the conductor

--Psalm/Accompanying a cantor

--Introductions/Transitions in congregational music

--Improvisation

--Organ accompaniments on the piano

--Accompanying on the organ

BruceL

I always start to give advice in threads like this, only to realize that I grew up Anabaptist in a congregation with a significant Baptist hymn influence, was occasionally taken to Presbyterian churches, had my first church job at an Episcopal church, was taught by an Anglican known for taking hymns very slowly (so many passing tones could be added), became Catholic, worked for Disciples of Christ, worked for a Catholic place with a significant St. Louis Jesuit's fanbase, and now am in a place where I do (praise the Lord) mostly chant and Anglican hymnody.

So many neuroses in this head!

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