That sounds like a problem for the new director.

This would be up to the director / the pastor. I worked as a professional musician for more than a decade and I don't sing in the parish choir. I cantor whenever they can't find someone. Just show up and do it. I hope no one in the choir takes offense at what I'm able to offer the parish

Blending and leading are two different skills.

Someone with the ability to cantor is not necessarily a good choral singer. Similarly, many choir members are not suitable to cantor.

I also want to clarify that I am not in any way criticizing the director for choosing to allow this. A director has to work with the people they have. It just saddens me that it's so difficult to get a decent sized choir together.

Very good points, Abbysmum, particularly on volunteerism. I know several women who sing very well in my parish, but have zero interest in joining the choir. One woman's excuse is that she want to sit with her husband. The problem is that parishioners want a good choir, but no one is willing to join it. Good choirs don't just happen on their own, after all.

I know several women who sing very well in my parish, but have zero interest in joining the choir. One woman's excuse is that she want to sit with her husband. The problem is that parishioners want a good choir, but no one is willing to join it. Good choirs don't just happen on their own, after all.

This can be more complicated than you realize. I stopped attending parish events because I got tired of being asked why I’m not in the choir and having to come up with a charitable reason that a) isn’t a lie, b) isn’t going to cause scandal, or c) doesn’t require me to detract against our MD. He doesn’t want me there, and I don’t want to sing contemporary music.

Please respect people who say they don’t want to be in the choir and don’t make judgements about them. You may not know the entire story.

Also, American Catholics in the pews - not benefitting from the historically strong cultural singing habits of Lutherans, Methodists, or Episcopalians (let alone Anglicans) - are greatly helped in their congregational singing by having able voices dotting the middle of the church. And choir directors should learn to appreciate that if they don't already.

And then there's the issue that most people have mezzo or baritone voices (IIRC, something like ~60% of women and men, respectively) rather than SATB voices properly speaking, and may have a good intuition that they are better off not being forced into SATB compromises (e.g., the problem of the seeming baritenor singing T parts to which his voice is not actually suited...esp if there's a tenor music director who considers baritones simply to be lazy tenors...and those guys are out there.)

Preach!

When pressed, I've said "I love supporting congregational singing from the pews", and in other contexts when pressed by people wanting me to join a choir whose repertoire would not sustain my commitment, I learned to be direct and say "Thank you kindly, but the repertoire here would not sustain my commitment." (I won't go so far as to say what's underneath that: I did my time in solid service in the trenches of Missalette Beige repertoire, but wasn't sustained by it for the long run and have no interest in revisiting it.)

PM

To clarify: I'd feel the same way with a repertoire that was *exclusively* from the Kyriale and Graduale, as it were.

This whole issue is a terrible hornet's nest of trouble for a Music Director. There is no doubt that "ringers" enhance the quality of what one can do with a choir and particularly what one can do in a given period of time. However, one must be very careful on several different levels when using them. Many are the singers who become offended for several reasons. If there are singers with musical skills and who sing well they may become offended as they see their opportunities to use their solo skills diminished. Others, whose skills might be at any level just get offended because they interpret it as a judgment that they aren't good enough and sometimes stomp off to be seen no more. Some become offended because the new guy contradicts what the previous guy had to say about almost anything or, worse yet, those who are studying singing with someone else become offended because they are studying with someone from a different school of vocal pedagogy of which there is a staggering number! Often there is a problem with spousal cooperation. Most often it is the wife, but it also goes the other way, who wants family togetherness at worship. I recall one situation where room was made in the choir area for a tenor's wife and several children to sit with him during Mass (yes, really!). These things require patience, long suffering, keeping our mouths shut when we really don't want to and, most of all prayer in order to solve the incredible tangle of complication these things can cause. Each case has its own face and complications and each has to be solved or not on its own terms. When Nietsche said, "Hell is other people", although I certainly don't agree with him, I understand the problem he was talking about.

Sartre was talking about Nietzche.

Sorry for the wrong credit! I stand by the point, though!