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“Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.” Arthur Conan Doyle

Believe it or not, I get many emails about loyalty. Loyalty to a chorus or church choir or alumni group and perhaps another type performing group of some sort. I get questions such as: if my university has disbanded an ensemble I was a part of and I don’t see why they disbanded it, should I still donate to the university? Or: the new choir director at my church often schedules anthems not to my taste, should I still sing every Sunday, even if I don’t like what we’re singing that morning?

In addition to those types of questions of loyalty, several of my recent correspondents are board members or audience members of community or professional choruses. All want to know a variation of: if I don’t like the music on a particular concert, do I still have to attend?

The answer to all these queries is simple: it depends. If your idea of loyalty is punishing someone when they do something you don’t agree with by withholding money or attendance, then sure, do what you want with your money and attendance. But you’re not being loyal. If you see a chorus or church choir or other performing arts organization as someone providing you a SERVICE and you are unhappy, then don’t attend, don’t donate, and don’t support them in other ways. But I feel music is different from hiring a contractor or ordering take-out.

In our household, I am usually the one who organizes home repairs with the plumber or hires the lawn service or gets estimates. If I need a plumber, I hire someone I’ve had a pleasant experience with, not the company who punched a hole in my ceiling for no good reason. If I need the lawn mowed, I contract with someone who has done a good job for me and continues to do a good job for me. There have been a few times when my current Lawn Guy has NOT done a good job and he usually explains WHY. The backyard was too muddy and his mower kept getting stuck in the goo or he didn’t want to mow over 100s of Cicadas. The reason he is my Current Lawn Guy is for exactly this reason, he explains why.

If you are upset your University’s Glee Club, or Show Choir or Swedish Chorus has been disbanded, ASK WHY. Perhaps there isn’t interest from current students or not enough funds to pay the director. If you want to be loyal, see what you can do to prevent the disbanding, perhaps you and other Alumni could start a fund. Or you can accept their explanation. No one expects you to continue to donate if you don’t like their explanation unless YOU WANT TO.

Church choirs are notorious for using attendance and participation as some sort of punishment for anthem choices. If you think you shouldn’t sing if you don’t like the anthems, then don’t sing but TELL the director why you won’t be singing. Perhaps there is a reason for the choices, such as getting younger singers involved or it’s a request from clergy, for those Sundays and if you knew, you would want to sing. During Lent, I had a tenor in one of my former church gigs moan about the “Dirge of the Week” because he thought the music wasn’t “peppy enough.” He threatened not to sing unless the music was happier. It was LENT and the music wasn’t peppy because it was LENT. As we began rehearsing for Palm Sunday and Easter, he was much more at ease, but I’ll never forget having to EXPLAIN to him why we didn’t sing more upbeat anthems during LENT.

If you are a board member of a chorus and you’ve attended board meetings, you should know why certain repertoire is chosen for each concert. If a concert is not to your taste, don’t attend, but purchase tickets for the concert, that would be loyal. If the music for every concert is no longer to your taste, then perhaps it’s time to reevaluate your relationship with the chorus. And if other board members feel as you do, perhaps it’s time to reevaluate your music director.

As an audience member, if you don’t like the repertoire, don’t go to the concert! A concert of “not Beethoven or Mozart” or “All New Music” might appeal to others and if that’s not you, it’s perfectly fine. In this case, the chorus provides a service, and no one suggests you need to attend a concert if you don’t like the music to be performed. It’s the chorus’s responsibility to choose music to get “behinds in seats” and if they don’t, it’s on them. However, they might be surprised, good or bad, what their repertoire selections bring.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Search Results for: choir

CJ Replay: Training Young Singers

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     “To any music educator who is actively involved in the training of adolescent singers in today’s public schools, it becomes evident that there is a definite need for a renaissance in the musical training of boys between the ages of ten and fourteen. A real problem exists in recruiting, maintaining, and improving musically the […]

Monday Motivation: You Just Never Know

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“I didn’t know I could sing because I didn’t sing around anyone until junior high when this new choir teacher heard me in the hallway.  My mother was a teacher and I was helping move books into classrooms. I was singing along when the choir teacher said I should join. I said no. I was […]

New Choral Releases from Lighthouse Music Publications – Fall 2011

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Lighthouse Music Publications has recently released the following works:   Annunciation (2-part, melody instrument, piano) – Richard Nye Cradled in a Manger (SATB, flute, piano) – David Barton Holy, Holy, Holy (SATB) – Rick Bartlett Hostias et Preces (SATB) – Richard Nye I Saw a New Heaven (SATB) – Richard Nye Lord, Art Thou to Me (SATB, organ or piano) – […]

Play List for Great Sacred Music, Sunday, October 16, 2011

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The show can be heard on 89.7 fm in Central North Carolina and online at http://theclassicalstation.org   08:01:00a Gregorian chant: Cantique, Benedictus I Monks of Saint-Benoit Abbey, Andre Saint-Cyr 08:09:36a Gabriel Faure: In Paradisum ~ Requiem, Op. 48 Winchester Cathedral Choir; Bournemouth Sinfonietta, David Hill 08:16:08a Franz Schubert: Benedictus ~ Mass No. 2 in G, […]

The Rise of Micro-Volunteerism

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The muscle of ACDA comes from our volunteer membership. Our success as an association depends on the voluntary acts of our membership. I am certain the same is true for the choirs and organizations of most of our professional membership–we succeed in our choral mission and work, based upon the efforts of volunteers.   However, […]

Rarely heard Yom Kippur music by Schoenberg set for new release

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There’s news of a new recording, in a different arrangement, of Arnold Schoenberg’s 1938 choral adaptation of “Kol Nidre,” one of the Yom Kippur’s central prayers. Schoenberg himself conducted the 14-minute work’s premiere on Oct. 4, 1938, at the Ambassador Hotel’s Coconut Grove Ballroom, which the Society for Jewish Culture, a liberal congregation also known […]

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