Today during Mass the MD decided to add a very high pitched, loudly mic’s descant to one of the communion “hymns” (it was a contemporary song). From the pews it felt like a metal spike going through my head while trying to pray despite wearing sound filtering, noise reduction earplugs that reduce noise by 25 decibels. It was so distracting, painful, annoying, and irritating that I couldn’t pray. Aside from being counter intuitive to the liturgical action (communion), it just didn’t make any liturgical sense and it was just a distraction. I’m debating whether or not to provide constructive feedback. In times past, the MD has been open to such feedback, but the past two years something seems to have changed and I don’t want to make waves. It feels like walking on eggshells at my parish.
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I think it incredibly telling that you had earplugs in during communion to begin with. Unless this is a general modus operandi for you, then this already speaks volumes (no pun intended).
I don't think that descants during communion are categorically wrong (the lilting canon sometimes heard on silent night immediately comes to mind) but over amplification is a real problem. I actually turn our mics down during communion depending on who the cantor is and if they are projecting too much.
But "taste" (and by that I do not mean 'preferences' but rather 'aesthetics' and 'discretion') is a subjective matter, and not everyone is gifted with a good sense of it, regrettably. It could also be a "this is a favorite of mine" moment where someone indulged and went too far, not thinking much of the context.
I'd offer the feedback, but politely and gently. The main point to stress is that you couldn't help but feel that the music on the intrusive side and it made it more difficult to pray. Perhaps if descants are to be included during communion, they could be offered more subtly or with less amplification.
Offer the feedback *in person* - anonymous feedback is counterproductive at best - after Christmastide. This is not the week to offer it to any music director.
You are part of the parish, and your voice matters. I wouldn’t hesitate offering feedback on it. As stated, it’s best to wait until after the new year begins, but I would certainly say something.
I have this issue with my MD, too. She’s a friend of mine, and she takes criticism well…for the most part. She will often sing (while mic’d) with the cantor during the Communion hymn, and I find the two amplified voices to be distracting, too. It’s especially noticeable when she sings the wrong words or line as she does sometimes. I’ve told her about it, but I think I need to mention it again.
I know there might be some on here who mic up and join their cantors, but I find two different voices both projecting into a mic that is already up pretty high to be a distraction. Let the cantor do her job, and the organist can do his job.
I love the renaissance masters… their’s is an art unto itself… somewhat timeless… although it limits itself to very strict harmonic progression.
On this particular performance:
Way too much vibrato destroys the upper (resulting) harmonics in vocal blend… because the two conflicting voices never “really resolve into one …” that is where you have that “resonant” harmonic beauty … (also in that rendition the high soprano seems to be singing sharp… JMPO)
I wonder why one person is singing without a score?!
Here's a routine reminder: Avoid flames: critique principles, not people. Be discriminating but don't nitpick. Be academic not acerbic. Be principled not polemical.
That performance was also in a very hard acoustical setting, a large 18th century Poor Clares conventual church of Santa Clara in Tolosa in the Basque region.
Way too much vibrato destroys the upper (resulting) harmonics in vocal blend
Polyphony isn’t supposed to be sung with any vibrato. The more impure the tone, the more ugly polyphony sounds and its otherworldly essence is destroyed.
In the video above, there was very little vibrato, and what vibrato there was contributed vitality and shimmer resulting in a dynamic sound. It is ridiculous to say that that the vibrato in those voices ruined the blend, and uneducated to claim that it reduced the upper harmonics. If there was a problem with the performance, it was that the voices contain too much upper harmonic in the tone resulting in the noticed sharpness. More warmth is needed in the tone to balance the steely brightness of the upper harmonics.
Vibrato is a natural feature of healthy, relaxed adult vocal production. While the early music movement is deeply committed to straight tone singing, the reality is that in the 5+ second acoustics for which Renaissance polyphony was written, there is such a wash of sound during a piece that some vibrato in the voice will not even be noticed. Remember that microphones don’t capture the real sound in a room.
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