Left Coast Mama » Choir

Letting Go of the Reins

Gwen — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 03:42:58 +0000

I have for the past few years been in charge of a church choir in an unpaid position. Before that I was a singer in the choir as a favour to the organist. This year I am not in charge. This year they brought in a new organist who is very young and very enthusiastic. It is a good thing in some ways, but I must admit I am having a bit of a hard time with the change.

I love the enthusiasm that the new organist has for the organ and music. He is a fantastic organist and can play like nobodies business. He doesn’t however know the practical accoustics of the church, and he doesn’t yet know the core of people who put so much into the Advent carol service every year. Oh god, he doesn’t know the politics of finding the readers, the extra people who come to be part of the choir and service. Ugh.

This is my problem. How do I help him be paid for a job I did without payment? How do I help him in such a way as to make sure that I am not pushing my ideas on him? How do I get the people who make this service possible come back this year? How do I give him my practical knowledge of the building’s accoustics without sounding like I am telling how to do his job?

My other problem? How do I get over the feeling of not being appreciated? I did a lot of work for free while the interim organists were paid per service. I tried not to be bitter, and mostly I am not. I know that I didn’t get the choir to sing more often because I had a lot on my plate and organizing took a lot of my time. I might have been much more motivated if I too, had some sort of an honorarium, like all the other musical organizers and interim organists had.

I am feeling a little ambivalent about this year’s service. Do I try to pressure the outside help to come and help again this year? Do I just give over the music to M. and hope he doesn’t screw it up? Or do I put aside all my feelings, try to get a meeting with him and make sure we have all the bases covered for this year and let him change what he wants next year?

I hoped that by writing this out I might come up with some answers, but I am still not sure. I feel like I was excluded from all the decisions that lead up to him being appointed organist and choirmaster, and it is a hard transition. I love this service and I want it to be beautiful. I also don’t want to feel like a stranger in my own church and choir. Sigh. Maybe I need to find a new choir outlet and let this one be. Anyone want a good alto? Apparently I am cheap.

This Practice Didn’t Suck

Gwen — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 05:29:52 +0000

I have made no bones about how hard getting the choir together for church has been this year. It has been like herding an army of cats with very different schedules and rhythms. The last two weeks without our accompanist have been incredibly frustrating for me and I am pretty sure everyone else. My conducting has been getting better, but if we are working on individual parts so much, not very useful.

Tonight I wasn’t sure it was going to go any better. My accompanist was 20 minutes late. The two people who were on time other than myself are enthusiastic if not so much in tune singers. I though what the hell, once our organist was there we might as well try some of the pieces in the sanctuary while we have time. Then we added another soprano and our tenor. We almost had a full choir. Well, we had almost all the parts. The two latecomers were two who knew the music and even when having a bad night would be fine.

Once I was able to sing my solo and have all well almost all some the parts of the section where the rest of the choir comes in present I began to relax. Maybe I am also ok, because despite not having all the choir there, including any of the newcomers, the ones that were there reminded me that those that will make the last rehearsals know the music well enough to sing it right now. Things will be good, maybe even great on the day. Hopefully I won’t need to remind myself of this next year.

Practice Makes Perfect: I Need A Little Faith

Gwen — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 06:00:43 +0000

I am part of my church choir. In fact as the past choir director and organist gets older I am taking on more and more of the administrative and musical directing of the choir. This is scary for a few reasons, the first being my absolute inability to play the piano.

Most of the time my ineptitude on the keyboard is ok because there is an organist who is willing to be part of rehearsals and the main choir services. Rehearsals like tonight are a different story. Without a pianist getting new members up to speed is a much more difficult task. We started out very rough. Of course the fact that half the choir was still not able to get to rehearsal was also a problem. Once the main tenor was in the rehearsal and I wasn’t trying to sing three parts at once the rehearsal went much more smoothly.

I know that every year this is a problem. People are busy and can’t make rehearsals until practically the last two weeks. This really stresses me out even though I know it will come together. This year I even tried to start the rehearsals early. I figured giving the choir a few more weeks to practice that we wouldn’t be scrambling.

I think some prayers wouldn’t be amiss. Or hey, anyone who can sing and read music available for a service on December 6th, and a couple of rehearsals beforehand, email me.

I guess I just gotta have some faith.

A Halo Around My Head

Gwen — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 06:12:03 +0000

Now from the title of this post you might think that I am some kind of angel. I am sorry to disappoint but it it mearly another migraine. I think it might snow.

On another note despite the migraine choir practice went well. We are sounding pretty good and our organist for the advent service was at the practice. It is a relief to know that things will work out. I am liking the organizational aspects, but I am not sure if I am pushing too hard. I don’t want to make things harder for Ted, I am just trying to take away the organizational stress. I think this may be the last year that Ted conducts, but then again one never knows.

Anyway, I am off to bed, or I will be after I get it cleared of the clean laundry. I hope tomorrow’s post makes more sense.