The Art of Breathing

Choir Schools, Chorister Training, Discipline, Most Pure Heart of Mary Schola Cantorum, Probationer Training

In my previous post, I wrote about the three main goals I have for new choristers during their first month of rehearsals:”1) to ingrain a healthy vocal technique in the students (while getting rid of any unhealthy singing habits they have picked up), 2) to teach proficiency in solfege (only the diatonic notes of the scale) and finally, 3) to teach a proficiency in reading basic rhythms (eighth note through whole note, no dot) and their corresponding rests.” Today I would like to talk about the first goal.

I find it interesting to watch each new student standing in the choir room immediately before we begin the first rehearsal. Each one is breathing from his diaphragm in the most normal and healthy way possible, but as soon as we begin to sing, the weirdest things begin to happen. Shoulders raise and tighten, the mouth opens and tightens, the jaw juts forward and the neck muscles begin to bulge, and all I asked of them was to take a breath. Nothing is ever easy! I imitate the children so they can see how silly they look. After the giggles have died down, I have them lie on the floor with one hand on top of their stomachs and ask them to breath normally. No deep breaths or shallow breaths, just breathe. Most of them are able to breathe normally in the prone position and feel the rise and fall of their stomachs. The key is getting each child to become aware of what happens during relaxed breathing. I ask them to feel what is happening to their stomachs? What is happening to the shoulders (their shoulders should simply be relaxed)? Ultimately, the only thing necessary is for the stomach to fill up with air like a balloon and then to exhale. Finally, I ask for them to stand up and replicate good breathing in a standing position. This does not happen automatically, but must be worked on for 5-10 minutes at the beginning of every rehearsal. I use a number of techniques employed by Frauke Hausemann, who was a legendary vocal coach at Westminster Choir College. I would recommend her book (co-authored with Wilhelm Ehmann) entitled Voice Building for Choirs. I have also found the RSCM Voice for Life to contain useful information regarding vocal training. If there are only two concepts you are able to instill in a child in the early stages regarding breathing, they would be 1) fill and empty the stomach with air just like a balloon (don’t use the chest) and 2) keep the shoulders down and relaxed.

Teaching New Singers

Choir Schools, Chorister Training, Discipline, Most Pure Heart of Mary Schola Cantorum, Probationer Training, Sight-Singing, Uncategorized

Chorister rehearsals are currently underway and the children are working on some exciting repertoire. At the same time, I am in the middle of auditions for new choristers (probationers) and looking over plans for their weekly rehearsals. As I have posted before, we are in the process of integrating the Schola Cantorum into our parish school, so the new students will be receiving a solid music education in the school as well. Still, I like to cover (or re-cover) all of the basics with the boys and girls. I thought I would share my goals for the lessons and some general lesson plans in hopes that they might be of benefit.

Because of current time restraints, I meet with the probationers only once a week, for two hours immediately after school (yes, a number of shorter rehearsals would be better, but this is how it is). I first take them to the gym for 10 minutes to run out pent up energy from being in a seat most of the day. During the rehearsal, I make sure that no one exercise lasts more than 8-10 minutes, otherwise I loose them quickly. I also give them a 10 minute break in the middle of the rehearsal when they can eat their snacks and talk. This is the basic overall outline of each class.

In the first month of rehearsals (4), I have only three main goals: 1) to ingrain a healthy vocal technique in the students (while getting rid of any unhealthy singing habits they have picked up), 2) to teach proficiency in solfege (only the diatonic notes of the scale) and finally, 3) to teach a proficiency in reading basic rhythms (eighth note through whole note, no dot) and their corresponding rests. There are other musical items the students learn in the first month, but those are only secondary to these three goals.

Next week I will give a basic outline of how I approach the teaching of the three main goals.

Another Job For Your Children

Choir Schools, Discipline, Music for the Liturgy

Some things never change—the vicissitudes of toiling in the field of sacred music being no exception. I recently re-read Sir Richard Terry’s Catholic Church Music, first published in 1907, as a way to re-energize myself for the new choral year.  Toward the end, I hit a passage about congregational singing that I don’t remember reading before, but which is, nevertheless, apropos to our current situation.

One great difficulty in the way of making our hymn singing as popular as it is with Anglicans, and impressive as it is with German Catholics, is the tenacity with which the older members of our congregations cling to some half-dozen tunes of such a fatuous type as ” Daily, Daily,” ” O Mother, I,” and the rest of the terrible contents of “The Crown of Jesus music.” It is not difficult to understand how even the most fatuous tunes can be beloved if they are in any way connected with hallowed associations of a pious life, and who is he who would ruthlessly deprive these good souls of things which they hold dear ? But the difficulty is not insuperable ; the writer knows of one church where all these bad tunes were eliminated in the course of a single generation by a very simple process. At the public services for adults, no change was made in the old tunes, but the children in the schools were never allowed to sing them, and at the children’s Mass and on other occasions, good tunes were substituted for the popular ones sung by their elders. By the time the children had grown to youth, they had become as familiar with, and as fond of, the good tunes as their elders were of the bad ones, and so the new tradition was established. If our Hymnology is to be improved it must be by educating the taste of the younger generation, and not by doing violence to the prejudices of the elder, however mistaken we may think them to be.

All one need do is substitute almost anything from the Gather Hymnal or from the St. Louis Jesuits for Daily, Daily or O Mother, I and this passage could have been written last week. More importantly, look at the answer to the problem—I guarantee you it works. I have proposed this before to friends and the retort is always “but that’s too long.” Excuse me, but we have been in this desert for almost 50 years. Any parish could have been through this process three times. Simply dive in and do it. Remember how quickly your children grew up and left home? That is all the longer it takes.

Choir Schools, Choral Vespers, Chorister Training, Music for the Liturgy

On August 2, Andrew Leung posted an article about Colin Mawby, the former Master of Music at Westminster Cathedral, London, and suggested I might be able to add to the discussion. Unfortunately, I have never actually been to Westminster Cathedral (God willing, that mistake will be corrected before I die), but I have had a couple of email conversations with Mr. Mawby about his time at Westminster and I would like to share part of one with you here. I am doing this for two reasons. The first is to highlight the fortitude of an incredible church musician and the second is to encourage that same virtue of fortitude in myself and all other musicians toiling in the field of sacred music. It is easy to become discouraged at the infinite challenges confronting us, but take heart, even the best of us has “been there and done that.”

“When I became Master of Music in 1961, Westminster Cathedral sang or recited the complete daily Roman Ofiice and had a daily Capitular High Mass. The choir also sang daily Vespers. There were many low Masses and when the changes of Vatican 2 were introduced the former went into English and the High Mass remained in Latin. The Archbishop, Cardinal Heenan, said to me that it would be unthinkable for the Cathedral not to have a daily Latin High Mass. This was highly controversial and many clergy opposed his view and wanted the Cathedral to be at the forefront of liturgical experimentation: “giving a lead” to the rest of the country. There was also divided opinion on “participation”. Some people were happy with external participation while others looked for internal participation I continually stressed that one could participate and worship the Creator through listening to great music.

“When the changes were introduced, many choirs, including Cathedral Choirs, were disbanded and many fine musicians were sacked and in many cases totally disillusioned. In the light of this I decided that the Cathedral should best give a lead by preserving the great heritage of Catholic music as demanded by the Council’s Liturgical Constitution. This attitude was roundly condemned by the reformers who did everything that they could to make the Cathedral liturgy a beacon of the new.

“There were many attempts made to disband the Cathedral Choir and there was one very serious threat to the continuation of the Choir School. The chorister’s parents were informed that it was to be disbanded. It was saved by the vision of Cardinal Heenan’s successor, Cardinal Hume. The professional men were even given three months notice on one occasion on financial grounds – the Cathedral couldn’t afford a professional choir. However, I was able to find sufficient money to keep it going and eventually Cardinal Hume ensured that the money was available to keep the professional men in place.

“It was Cardinal Heenan’s unswerving support that enabled me to preserve the music and the Cathedral traditions through 11 years of extreme difficulty- I never knew from one day to the next if the choir would still exist in 6 months time!

“Cardinal Hume, a Benedictine, understood the spiritual value of the Cathedral’s music and established it on a firm foundation.

“About ten years after I left, Bishop Victor Guazelli, an auxiliary in Westminster, said to me at the large reception after George Malcolm’s Memorial Requiem: “Colin, you were completely right, we were completely wrong. We owe you a great debt of gratitude for what you did”. This honest, magnanimous and public statement made my struggle totally worthwhile.

(From an email to the author on June 11, 2013.)

A Must Have for the Choir Director’s Shelf

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Nearly a year and a half ago, I came across a must have book for every choir director’s shelf, Choral Repertoire by Dennis Shrock. Mr. Shrock presents the major repertoire spanning the history of Western choral music, from Medieval to Modern, with notes on more than 5,000 works, arranged in such a way to make research easy. Since a vast portion of that music is sacred in character (and much of that specifically written for use in the Catholic Church), the book is invaluable for the church musician. I find the section on Modern Music helpful in finding new works for use in the liturgy, from settings of the Mass to motets. You can buy it here on Amazon.

More Thoughts on the Chorister Audition

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Last week I posted on my belief in chorister auditions and this week I would like to share my method of auditioning choristers, but before I do, I need to clear up one point from my previous article.

In Should Children Have to Audition? I argued that they should, which did not sit very well with a few people, who felt that learning the church’s music should be available to everyone. Let me begin by writing that in principle I agree with them. Ideally, each parish should have a school where music is taught to all students and all students are given the opportunity to sing in some sort of general school choir. Even if a parish does not have a school, teaching simple hymns and chants could and should be a part of a parish’s weekly religious education program. However, let me also share two concerns that I have.

Firstly (and I would love to get feedback from readers who direct children’s choirs), from conversations I have had with directors of children’s choirs, most directors want to take every child who comes to them, and often do so, but then the question becomes how to have a meaningful rehearsal with 20 children who range in age from 8 to 18, and whose talents range from those who struggle to match pitch to those who can sing a melody perfectly after hearing it only once. You simply have to break up such a group into smaller units where you can teach and challenge children according to where they are musically, otherwise you will loose children who do not feel engaged at their appropriate level. If you have the time as a music director, by all means, do this.

Secondly, we need to raise up a new generation of musicians who not only know and love the Church’s musical patrimony, but who are capable of performing such a demanding repertoire. While it is true that many clergy and congregations are resistant to such a repertoire, it is equally true that there are many clergy and laity who would love to have this music sung in their churches but can’t find musicians to do it (and, I admit, there is the problem of being able to pay such musicians). We need special choirs and schools where those with the gifts and the drive can be challenged and given the tools to bring the entire treasury (not just the simpler chants and Mozart’s Ave verum corpus) of sacred music alive.

Now I would like to write a few words on how I go about leading potential choristers through an audition. It goes without saying that you should make each child as comfortable as possible in his audition (if you want to call it something other than an audition, that is fine). After talking to the child about his love of music, I ask him to sing Happy Birthday, beginning on whichever note he chooses. I specifically want to know if the child can navigate the octave leap in the middle of the song. If the child can, great, but if not, I have him hoot or make a siren sound in his head voice and then have him pitch the top note of the octave jump. After this, the majority of children are able to sing the song entirely on key.

The second thing I do is to determine how high and low each child can sing (I let the child choose whether to sing up or down the scale first). Sometimes a child will automatically stop at a certain note and say he can’t sing any higher, but after a little coaxing, he can usually go much higher. I also want to listen to the timbre of each voice and note how it sounds. This sometimes factors into whom I have them stand next to in choir.

Thirdly, I play random notes on the piano and ask the child to sing them back to me on a neutral syllable. Sometimes a child will have difficulty pitching the note from the piano, so I sing them for him. Often this is enough. If students have any other difficulties, it is usually with very high or low notes.

The fourth exercise is to play five descending half steps (repeating this three times), after which I ask the student to sing the melody back to me a cappella. Some can do this and some can’t. For those who can’t, I ask them to sing the same notes along with the piano.

The fifth thing I do is play a short, two measure melody for the students. The melody contains only one skip, otherwise it is entirely made up of step-wise motion. After hearing it twice, I ask the student to sing it back to me without the piano. I specifically look for the child’s ability to navigate the skip. This can be difficult for some children.

The sixth thing I do is to play a chord, usually in its first inversion, and ask the child to sing the highest of the three sounds (which most children can do). Then I ask the child to sing either the middle or the lowest sound he hears. Invariably he sings the highest note again, or if his ear is more advanced, the tonic of the chord. Very, very rarely will a child be able to sing back the correct middle and lowest notes.

Finally, I clap a series of rhythms, mostly composed of quarter and eighth notes, and at some point adding the dot. I want to determine each child’s sense of rhythm.

Obviously, 99 percent of children cannot do all of these things (the one percent that can probably end up at Westminster Cathedral!), so why do I ask them to try? First of all, I generally take any child who can match pitch and doesn’t have a vocal handicap that prevents the actual act of singing. In all, that means that 95 to 99 percent of the children who try out for the choir are accepted. However, I want to know as much as possible about each child so I can help him (or her) to become the best chorister possible, and the above audition allows me to do that. It also gives me a chance to determine the child’s ability to learn new musical concepts and his level of desire, which, as I wrote last week, is almost more important than his ability to match pitch. To be honest, I also find that at the end of the audition, most of the students experience a great sense of accomplishment and really consider it an honor to be accepted into the choir!

Should Children Have to Audition?

Choir Schools, Chorister Training, Discipline, Most Pure Heart of Mary Schola Cantorum, Probationer Training, Sight-Singing

When I first began a children’s choir, long before our parishes’s current Schola Cantorum was born, I took any child who came to me (quite frankly, I needed all the kids I could get). That year was such a nightmare (for a whole host of reasons) that I contemplated shutting down the whole enterprise. In the end I pushed forward and things SLOWLY got better, though I still took everyone who came, regardless of ability or desire.

Several years later I attended my first conference on the training of the child chorister at St. Thomas in New York. Someone in our group asked Dr. John Scott, the choirmaster, how recruiting was going for the choir for the following year, and Scott replied that he was a little concerned because only 8 boys had auditioned and he had only accepted 4 of them (boys who wish to join the Choir of St. Thomas have a pre-audition before they are even allowed to formally audition). It was then that I realized one of the reasons why their choir was so good. Not only did the boys have incredible and inspirational training, they also entered with a high natural aptitude and desire to learn and make music. Admittedly, most parishes have neither the musical nor financial resources to put together such a program, but I firmly believe there is a proper balance between this and the usual “any child can join” policy that exists in the typical parish children’s choir. If you only have time to run one children’s choir with one weekly practice, it is difficult to balance your time between bringing some of the singers up to speed while trying to challenge those who want it, all while dealing with behavior issues from children who don’t really want to be at rehearsal. I would propose the following: begin an “informal” audition to 1) look for a child’s ability to match pitch and determine his general musical aptitude, 2) determine his desire to sing in your choir and finally 3) make sure the child is free from any physical vocal deformities that would make singing of such music impossible.

Regarding pitch and musical aptitude, I only want to know if the child has the capacity to match pitch and to learn (I don’t care if he has never had a music lesson in his life). It is easy enough to present some simple music concept the child doesn’t know and see if he catches on. You will find that most children will have no problem matching pitch and learning simple music concepts.

The second thing to look for, the desire of the child to sing in a liturgical choir, is of the utmost importance. To be honest, this is more important than a child’s natural aptitude for learning music. If you have a chorister who loves to sing and will work his hardest, you have a keeper. I have several home schooled students in our choir who, without my knowledge, decided to sing Elgar’s Ave verum corpus as a communion motet for our city’s monthly Mass for the home schooled community. By pure chance I happened to attend the Mass, and was impressed and proud when they sang it a cappella (they didn’t have an accompanist) and in two parts (and did a great job!). Those kids bring the same pluck and desire to every rehearsal. It makes for a fun rehearsal.

Lastly, I listen for any physical vocal issues that might keep a child from singing, which, to be honest, are very rare. I have only encountered this with two children in my career. I once worked with a young grade school student who wasn’t able to sing a range of more that five notes (he also had difficulties speaking in general), while another child, who was able to sing a wide range at first, lost much of it over the course of a couple of years (he was no where near the age of voice change). His parents took him to the doctor, who discovered a nodule approaching the size of a tennis ball on his vocal chords. After this was removed the child could sing normally again.

It is sometimes difficult not to admit a child to the choir (again, this doesn’t happen often), but I explain to parents that not only am I looking for a child who is a good fit for the choir, I also want the choir to be a good fit for the child. The process is a two way street.

A Must Have Resource for Catholic Schools

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It is  true that we have to keep the end goal of whatever it is we are trying to accomplish in mind. For example, most of us pray and work for the day when beautiful sung liturgies are de rigueur, not simply because we like it that way, but because the Church, in Her concern for us as Her children, teaches us that this is best for the good of the entire Family of God. However,  it is going to take a lot of baby steps to accomplish such a goal, and in case you haven’t seen it, I want to blog about a resource for parishes with schools that are just starting out on the way to better liturgy and music during school Masses.

The American Federation of Pueri Cantores and the National Catholic Education Association have teamed up and put together a list (here) of appropriate Mass settings and hymns for use at Catholic school Masses. Small though it is, the list represents a solid foundation of hymns that a child in any Catholic school should know, without trying to throw in questionable material for the sake of political correctness. One large benefit I see coming from such a list is that pastors now have a selection of music from an “official source” to give to their school music teachers in order to open a conversation and plot a course for music at school Masses. Pastors and music directors, this is for you!

A Musical Diet

Music for the Liturgy

Several weeks ago, a friend of mine and I stood outside after Mass discussing literature and music. He is an English professor at the local university with an incredible grasp on the nature of a classical education and I am a musician who likes to talk. At one point, he asked me what kind of music I listen to in my down time, and I had to confess that I have so little love for pop culture that I am the freak who jogs listening to Viennese Masses and the like (there is nothing better for jogging than the Gloria from Haydn’s Heiligmesse). Outside of German folk music (it’s a family thing), my musical tastes gravitate toward classical music, including everything from chant to Taverner and MacMillan.

Such prodding made me curious to know if he read things like The Hunger Games, or if he kept strictly to the classics. He never gave me a direct answer, but he did tell me that literature is like food. Everyone’s diet should consist mostly of either good or great food (this was his tip of the hat to John Senior), otherwise one gets sick. At the same time, there is nothing wrong with a little junk food now and again (I assume he was talking about The Hunger Games), as long as one stays clear of anything poisonous (he gave the example of Fifty Shades of Gray). We eventually ended the conversation when our kids got restless, but I kept thinking about his analogy and how it applied to the music we hear every Sunday at Mass.

Ideally, one should enjoy a lot of good and great music, such as chant and polyphony, excellent hymns and beautiful Mass Ordinaries, either choral or congregational. At the same time, it isn’t necessarily a bad thing to sing to some schlock every now and again. I find that each generation has music, not necessarily of high quality, they are attached to for various reasons. Unfortunately, most parishes get their musical diets backwards, providing their parishioners (and ultimately the good Lord) with nothing but junk food and poison. I had to cringe once when I found myself at St. So-and-so and the cantor announced the hymn for Holy Communion, Precious body, precious blood, here IN bread and wine. Yikes!!! I asked my wife if we ended up at the local Lutheran church by mistake.

I usually hear the argument that this is what a certain congregation is used to and to change would be pastorally insensitive, or perhaps the pastor has bigger problems than music to deal with. When I respectfully disagree with these points I get the response, “Okay, so what would YOU do?” All right, that’s a fair question. Here is my response as a musical dietitian.

If I were to find myself newly appointed to the musical helm of St. So-and-so, my first act would be to ask each organist, cantor, pianist, guitarist and choir member, you name it, to meet me for an hour at the local coffee shop in order to get to know them personally. I would find out about each one’s history at the parish, musical tastes, etc. I would ask if there were anything he or she felt they needed from me or from the parish to grow as a Christian or as a musician. Did they have any suggestions or hopes for music at the parish? Believe me, I know I would receive all kinds of answers. Someone would tell me that her favorite song was Precious body, precious blood. I would be prepared for anything, but I WOULD NOT try to convince them otherwise at that point. I would only get to know them. They would appreciate this more than I could ever imagine.

Secondly, I would go through my parish’s hymnal and strike out any hymns that were openly heretical (I WOULD NOT strike out the junk food yet–depending on the hymnal, I might not have anything left). I would work through this list with the pastor, since he needs to be involved in the process, and get his feedback. To be honest, I probably wouldn’t find more than half a dozen openly heretical heretical hymns, which I would simply stop scheduling, and I would not send a letter to the musicians bringing it to their attention. This would simply cause an uproar. Most people wouldn’t notice anyway, and I would deal with those who did on a person-to-person basis.

Thirdly, I would ask every group in the parish to start using the same singable setting of the Mass Ordinary for the next year. Proulx’s A Community Mass or The Heritage Mass come to mind (you might call me a traitor at this point, but if you think you can introduce even an English chant setting this early in your work, you are signing your own death warrant). If I were an average parishioner with no musical expertise,  two things would drive me batty. The first would consist of being forced to sing settings of the Mass that were overly syncopated and whose melodies jumped all over the place. The second would be having to learn a new setting of the Ordinary only six weeks after the last one had been introduced. No wonder Catholics don’t sing!

Fourthly, I would begin introducing one new piece of music every six months, either a new hymn or perhaps a chanted Kyrie, while at the same time indiscreetly removing another piece of schlock from the line-up.

Lastly, I would invite anyone willing to form a special group that I would teach to sing the Communio at one Mass each Sunday while father distributed Holy Communion to the army of Eucharistic Ministers (I would still begin the hymn as soon as father began distributing Communion to the rest of the congregation). After a couple of years I might even teach them to sing the Introit as a prelude. I have found that if I don’t subtract anything from the parish’s normal routine, I can usually get away with adding one thing.

I realize what I propose seems like moving forward at a snail’s pace, but considering how long the average parishioner has been in the liturgical and musical desert, anything more would cause the musical equivalent of refeeding syndrome, and you might as well hand in your resignation. You will slowing turn your congregation from arsonic and cyanide, chips and soda, to meat and potatoes. Who knows, you might even serve them a lobster one day!

Musical Green Eggs and Ham

Music for the Liturgy

Do you ever wonder why some very good and holy Catholics, ones who will enjoy much higher places in heaven than I could ever hope to attain, seem to enjoy and pine for the Church’s greatest hits from the 70s and 80s? I remember staying up late one night in high school to watch Mother Teresa’s funeral. Considering the great gift Mother had been to the world, I had to wonder why her sisters chose something as dubious as Shepherd Me, O God to be sung at her funeral?

I also think about my Grandma Schmidtberger and the music she chose for her funeral. She was a woman of incredible faith with an intellect to match. Christ was her life and daily prayer her food. She voraciously read First Things and Crisis and a number of other good Catholic periodicals. When she lay dying of cancer and the priest came to anoint her, she asked him if he would please give her the Apostolic Pardon, and when he said he hadn’t heard of it, she explained to him what it was. He expressed gratitude for having learned of it and readily gave it to her. Her funeral was held in her parish church of decades upon decades, St. Fidelis (pictured above), a church whose beauty is a testament to the faith of the farmers who literally built it. I served for the funeral, and as I carried the crucifix and lead the procession down the aisle, the choir director announced the “Opening Hymn,” none other than The Old Rugged Cross. As I thought of my grandmother’s legacy and looked at the saints and angels surrounding me, my heart sank. I don’t know if it was out of hurt or out of love (probably a bit of both), but I started humming to myself… Requiem aeternam, dona eis Domine…

I firmly believe most Catholics love the music they do because it is what they know, which is why On Eagle’s Wings has become the de facto funeral Introit at every progressively leaning parish and why one can’t get away from On This Day O Beautiful Mother during the month of May in the more traditionally leaning parish. It is all very much like Dr. Seuss’s Green Eggs and Ham! We like what we know.

There are several ways we can reverse the trend. First, parents can add some of the Church’s musical patrimony to family prayers, perhaps singing the Lord’s Prayer or ending night prayers with the appropriate Marian antiphon. If parents have to hit the play button on a YouTube version of the Salve Regina so the family can sing along until everyone learns the music, so be it. Pastors, make sure the children in your school can sing the hymns for Benediction, the Marian antiphons (you could sing these as the recessional hymn at daily Mass) as well as a few chants and some good hymns. If you are the director of music for your parish, choose two good hymns to teach the congregation over the course of the next year and then fail to schedule two of your more questionable hymns. That is already four steps forward. Then, ask your pastor if he, as the father of your parish family, wouldn’t mind leading by example and singing the Preface. I would be thankful to encounter such a parish on vacation!