HOW TO TRAIN CHURCH CHOIRS (4) – Practice, Practice, Practice,

– Aurelio Porfiri

When choirs rehearse, that is really the moment when things happen. I have always said that the most important moment is not a choir concert, but the rehearsal. This depends, for the most part, from the ability of the choir’s director.

A choir practice is not only about learning the pieces. A choir’s practice  is about listening to intercept that inner harmony that most of the choirs can produce, if they are led properly. A choir’s practice is about listening, waiting for the “magic to work.” For this you need a conductor who is really able to listen on a very deep level. As I said in Less is More: “Moreover, who is an interpreter? What is the idea beyond the word “interpretation”? The word come from the Latin interpretatio, made of inter (between) and pretem (knowledge). Interpretation is thus mediation, not appropriation. And, as I have already explained before, this mediation of knowledge cannot result from the cultural limitations of one single person, regardless of his or her years of studies. Interpretation grows in the interaction between the conductor and the other performers (and even the audience) in much the same way as a baby grows in the womb of a mother. How many times have you heard arrogant conductors telling the world that they have followed “the intention of the composer”? How do they know so well the intention of the composer, who may have lived hundreds of years earlier or in a completely different cultural and geographical environment? When strange signs are put on a musical score, it should act as a stern reminder for conductors themselves, their parents who paid for them to study music, and the system of which they are a part that violations of a score’s nature are intolerable. I am not saying that you cannot mark the score, but only that to base everything on it is an act of musical imperialism. Today interpretation is the will of someone imposed on the passive receptivity of someone else. Indeed, what a conductor can and should do to respect interpretation is to listen, and listen on a deep level; deep listening will give time and a way for the “baby” to make its way along the winding path that leads to that big mystery we call “sense.” What do I mean here? I mean that the conductor is not the one that “orders” other people how the music should sound, but is the one with an idea about a certain sound and has awareness about the style or the tradition of a certain piece, but who is always open to make this piece come alive in the experience of a certain and given choir. This does not mean betraying the style of a piece, because a good conductor knows how to lead a practice in a way that favors a good understanding of what everyone is doing. It is like a school lesson: a teacher can be very creative in teaching a given subject and be ready to recognize how this subject resonates in a given classroom, but at the end what is important is that the task is achieved. What we want in a choir is that this task is achieved in a more meaningful way.

Again, as I wrote in Less is More: “A good conductor is not one that imposes his or her will, but one that is able to listen on a very subtle level. Good conductors are the ones that channel the creative energies of their performers, allowing, in a way, the performance to grow like a baby in a mother’s womb. The conductor has to allow this process and be a facilitator of it, accepting that the sound of the music must speak to him or her. A conductor is not a dictator but a facilitator. Only by understanding the meaning of this will performances result in real creative energies creating authentic enjoyment for those who love music and view it as a way of knowledge.” So you understand that this is not a diminution of conductor’s prerogatives, but a big advancement of his or her role.

Everything happens in choir’s rehearsal. American conductor Robert Shaw (1916-1999), one of the most influential figures in the choral world in the 20th century, has written well about the importance of practicing. A conductor should understand from the beginning what is the goal of what he is doing. And this goal has to be ambitious but not unreasonable. Everyone may dream that the choir will be able to perform on very high standards of music, but you need time, and the rehearsal is the incubator where this growth will eventually happen. It would be good to practice as much as possible, but the rehearsal should not become a punishment. Choral activity is not about winning choral competitions, those who focus on this are hugely wrong, even if they are not  conducting a church choir. Especially when singing in the church and for the church, the goal is giving glory to God and help others be sanctified through music. It is a huge task, this is why sacred music is the highest form of music.

It is good to start the rehearsal with a prayer. The following is one I have found online: “Oh Lord, please bless this music that it might glorify Your Name. May the talent that You have bestowed upon me (us) be used only to serve You. Let this music be a witness to Your majesty and love, and remind us that You are always watching and listening from Your throne above. May Your presence and beauty be found in every note and may the words that are sung reach the hearts of Your people so they will draw closer to You. May Your Spirit guide us through every measure so that we might be the instruments of Your peace and proclaim Your glory with glad voices. Amen.” Also remembering the patron of Church music, Saint Cecilia with a short invocation would be very appropriate. A choir for sacred music should always remember that when they are singing, as Saint Augustine said, they are praying twice.

A rehearsal should have a part for the vocal warm up. Let us be clear: warm ups have to be tailored to what will be sung in that rehearsal and on building some fundamental skills, as intonation, range, pronunciation, flexibility and so on. The warm up is a way for the conductor to solve some problems before they are presented during the practice of pieces. Warm ups should not be very long, maybe 10 to 15 minutes. Then, it is good to start from a piece the choir already knows and that they already perform quite well. This will serve as encouragement for the learning process of other pieces. Sometimes there are difficult pieces, so one of the secrets is to slow down a piece or break it into pieces, in the same that you repair your computer by isolating the elements that are not working properly. There is no point in trying a piece many times without addressing the main issue. Let us remember that a good number of vocal problems are psychological. Do not make the choir feel they are not able to solve that problem, but address this difficulty, make aware the choir of what is going on, and try ways to solve the same problem.

Many years ago I was a student at the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music. The teacher for choral music was Giuseppe Piccillo, a choirmaster who was also teaching at the Rome conservatory. Sometimes we have to perform pieces of a very difficult level and I remember how he was able to overcome some complicate problems just discovering certain “tricks” that allow the choir not to be stuck on that issue. It is here that the conductor has a very important role, in the immediate understanding of a given problem and on the search for the most effective solution. Here, the rehearsal is of fundamental importance.