Redefining the "Ward Choir"

I'm often surprised at how limited our North American view of a choir can be. In North America, we have a very narrowly defined view of choir: SATB with many voices on each part, always with a choir director standing up front. OK, that works, but it's not the only way to do a ward choir. You'll find the "Guidelines from the Church Handbook of Instructions" written on that assumption, but you'll find no such constraints. Read it. You'll see. :)

From the Guidelines:

Ward choirs and other special choirs can teach and inspire Church members.

Here are some examples of ways this can be met:

You can fulfill that role in a variety of ways. You don't need 20 singers, 4 each on the SATB parts. If you have only one or two willing singers, you can fulfill the purpose of a ward choir. Really. Simply have those two sing once or twice a month (the suggested frequency for ward choirs). You don't need special arrangements. Underscore the role of this "choir" by having them first sing from the hymnal always (though that is certainly not an imposed constraint, according to the Guidelines).

I know a ward in my stake that has a handful of really talented singers, but they are not organized into a ward choir. They believe that they don't have anyone capable of leading the group, so they do nothing. What a loss to that ward! Instead of a "choir director," the bishopric could call a "choir coordinator". The singers can gather, practice, and stand and sing without the traditional leader. That's made even easier if they have a really competent pianist who can set and hold tempo for them, etc. Are you missing a Bass voice? Then omit it! The piano will carry it.

Can't find any consistently willing singers to form a "duet choir"? Then use a "hymnal choir" once a month. Designate a well-known, well-loved hymn as the chosen piece. When it's time for the "choir" to sing, invite anyone interested in singing to come up from the congregation. Then sing the hymn. After you do this a few times, you can even indicated that the women will sing one verse alone. Simply say it into the microphone as they come up to the stand (rostrum). Even if you have a successful choir, this can add variety and allow more people to participate in music. It does help if you have a least a handful of singers who will sing, just in case no one else comes up. If your congregation is particularly resistant, you can have they hymn practiced in Relief Society and Priesthood meetings for a week or two beforehand, and encourage them to join you when it's time.

Don't have any singers? (I don't believe you, but for the sake of argument....) Then have the ward pianist/organist play a solo hymn once a month. Or have the primary sing once a month. The primary children are always willing to sing!

Expand your vision further by using the "special choirs" idea from the Guidelines. Schedule the Priesthood, Relief Society, Young Women or combined Youth, and Primary organizations to sing regularly. It really can be a simple hymn. It is enough to meet the goal and accomplish the purpose.

There really is something that you can do. There is a lot that can be done to meet the goal of ward choirs and worship music without having the traditional SATB choir.

Tune Names and Meters

So, we've all seen or heard about the pioneer hymnals where they simply had the lyrics and a tune name to sing to. That fascinates many of us modern lay musicians who've learned music in a way that makes us dependent on the printed score.

Our "new" LDS hymnal (1985) (online version) includes an index of tune names and meters and suggestions on how to use them.

So, I had this idea yesterday.

What if for the anniversary of the printing of the first hymnal, or on the anniversary of the revelation of July 1830 (D&C Section 25) that commanded Emma Smith to compile a set of hymns, for a month we sang all the Sacrament Meeting congregational hymns to different tunes, just like we presume the pioneers did?

To do this, you'd have to do some planning and experimenting to find hymns of like meter that could be interchanged; the hymnal provides some guidance on this. Then, you'd need to talk briefly to the congregation to explain the history, the old practice as you understand it, and how that will be done in your own congregation.

For example, after you've picked the mix of lyrics, meters, and tune names, then you could print that in the bulletin each week like this:

"There Is a Green Hill Far Away" #192 to tune EMMALINE (#182)

(or some such listing)

Alternatively, you could decide to print the lyrics to the hymn in the bulletin, and simply refer to the tune name, mimicking a little more closely to how the pioneers may have been apt to sing the hymns.

Obviously, you'll want to be sure the organist and the conductor both are in sync and have run through this change beforehand. It's surprising how confusing this can be when you are not accustomed to changing tunes!

Welcome!

I've planned on this blog for quite some time, but have been lazy about how to proceed. I get to do a lot of music in church, and over time, I think we've had some pretty good ideas. I'd like to share those and help other ward and stake music leaders. This blog is the beginning of that effort.

Purpose: The purpose of this blog is to convince you that you can have a successful music program in your LDS branch, ward, or stake, regardless of the musical talent that you have (or don't have) in your area . . . and to show you how.

This blog is for LDS Ward and Stake musicians, like Music Chairs, Choir Directors, Choir and Congregational Accompanists, and any other music leadership and music participants. This blog is not about LDS music from a marketing perspective, selling LDS pop, etc.; there are plenty of those sites already. This is about the LDS musician doing music at church every week.

Why you should listen to me: Perhaps you shouldn't. Or at least you shouldn't listen blindly. But I think that I have some ideas that may be helpful to you. I've had some success with both small groups and large groups, using both lay and experienced singers.

I stared leading my first ward choir when I was 18 years old. Janet, the choir leader and music chair at the time, insisted that I begin expanding that talent. I started leading the choir in a hymn or two, and before my 19th birthday, she'd turned the choir over to me. It was a great experience. I found success. The hardest part was to get at ease telling people my parents' age what to do and how to do it! They were receptive; I was very hesitant. But we made it work.

I've also had the pleasure of singing for some great choir directors. Mr. Fogleman at Western Alamance High School in North Carolina taught me the basics of good vocal production; Bill Carroll at UNC-G was a great choir leader and built up my own confidence as a singer; Mac Wilburg at BYU had great directing style and also built up my confidence; and with Barlow Bradford at the Utah Chamber Artists I finally found my voice, the voice with which I was finally satisfied, and Barlow had such spot-on musical interpretations. I've incorporated into my own singing and leading styles things that I learned from each of them, and my life is richer for them.

Some years ago, I had to stop singing with Utah Chamber Artists because I no longer was healthy and strong enough to do the rehearsal schedules. As health has improved, I've been able to do more music in my ward and stake. I enjoy leading stake choirs and I enjoy putting together small ensembles (2-16 people) to do special projects.

I'll write about some things we've done that worked. I'll write about ideas I've had that I've not executed yet. I'll write about some leadership and coordination ideas. I'll write about music training. Some things I'll do here directly. Some things I'll to at Squidoo.com in "lenses". But you can come here for all of it; I'll link to everything else from here.

How to participate: Please participate. If you have an idea you want me to address, email me (see Profile). If you have a comment on a post I've made, click the Comments link and add your thoughts. Subscribe to the Atom feed (see bottom of paged) to get new posts delivered straight to you.