Page 551 - Demo

Churches And Temples Break Forth With Vocal VarietyAs Brooklyn%u2019s Choir Singers Get Ready For The HolidaysBY LIBBY HAYMANIn Brooklyn, it generallyin a while or once a month, like block association meetings, but every single week. And when holidays near, it%u2019s even more often, but the people who do it wouldn%u2019t trade it for an evening at home; meet a choir singer, and you may find someone whose schedule has been this way for 10 or even 20 years.The explanation is predictable: %u201c because 1 love to sing%u201d , %u201c because I love music%u201d , %u201cbecause 1 like being a special part of the service%u201d . As the holidays approach, choir members feel they%u2019re on the inside track for enjoying the celebration while, as one choir member says, %u201c you%u2019re helping others to get the Christmas spirit.%u201dThe pleasure of sharing an effort with others is there too. A party after the big concert, special rehearsals in people%u2019s homes, or caroling together in the neighborhood are part of what keeps choirs going. You can meet husbands and wives who first met in a choir; for some the choir is a family affair, with babysitting sometimes provided.OLD TIME RELIGION At the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church in Fort Greene, the extensive music program includes a choir which is part of the life of the church. For choir members who don%u2019t have time to go home for dinner between work and rehearsal, the parish serves a quick dinner. For parents who want to sing, there is babysitting. On Sundays, the choir sits in the congregation, leading the hymns with others singing while sitting with friends or family, then gathering in front to sing the anthem. Jim Wingate, the director, points out that attendance requirements, auditions, and numerous extra rehearsals have no place in this lively organization. When Christmas approaches, %u201c we pace the rehearsals so that we don%u2019t need extras if possible,%u201d Wingate says, adding that an hour of rehearsal before the Sunday service helps to supplement Thursday night efforts.Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian, like many of the churches, hires a quartet of professional singers to rehearse and sing weekly. Paid singers play the dual role of soloists and section leaders, with their music reading abilities helping to make learning quicker for the whole group.But even the singers who do it %u201c because I%u2019m paid to%u201d , say that the money involved isn%u2019t their only reason, since it isn%u2019t usually very much anyway. One paid singer at Lafayette, Marlene Clary, is a great booster of the choir and music program atA Sampler OfChoir Music Forthe HolidaysWith the holiday music season in full swing, the next two weekends will see a number of choir concerts, while Christmas Eve is the time for most choirs to sing Christmas Carols before and during their church services. Here are just some of the upcoming musical events in neighborhood churches. BROOKLYN HEIGHTSFirst Unitarian Church, 51 Monroe PI., MA4-5466, Clifford Gillmore, Organist and choirdirector. Sun., Dec. 16, 11am, a performance of W. H. Auden%u2019s Christmas Oratorio, spoken by a voice choir led by Clark Gesner. Dec. 24, 5 pm Annual Christmas Eve Candlelight Service.Grace Church (Episcopal), 254 Hicks Street, 624-4030, Bradley Hull, Organist and choirmaster, Sun., Dec. 23 at 4 pm Service of Lessons and Carols. Arrangements of traditional and modern carols performed by choir of men and boys. Mon., Dec. 24, 11 pm Midnight Mass Service. Music will be Shubert%u2019s Mass in G.Plymouth Church of the Pilgrim(Congregational), 75 Hicks, 624-4743, Arnold Ostlund, Jr. Director. Sun., Dec. 23, 4 pm Annual Christmas Carol and Candlelight Service. Carols and arrangements from all over the world.St. Ann and the Holv Trinltv(Episcopal), Montague and Clinton Sts., Eric W. Aldorfer, Organist and choirContinued on page 16At Lafayette Avenue Presbyteriandinner together. (Feldman Photo)Church, the choir rehearses afterThe First Unitarian Church choirservice, (van Slyke Photo)the church, where her whole family has become involved in music lessons and singing. Another choir director mentions that one of his paid singers is %u201cnow on the Board of the church itself%u201d having taken what one pastor referred to as the %u201cback door%u201d into the congregation.CHOOSING A CHOIRHow do these singers choose their choirs anyway?In the Roman Catholic churches, especially, the choir comes entirely from the congregation. Whether the Catholic church has no choir, but one or two songleaders, as St. Joseph%u2019s in Prospect Heights does, except at holidays, when a special choir is assembled, or has a full choir, the pastors of the Catholic churches all see the role of the singers as leading the congregation. One Catholic songleader points out that it was the Second Vatican Council which led to extensive participation by the congregation, and that emphasis is not on the choir%u2019s performance, but its leadership. At St. Mary%u2019s Star of the Sea, in Carroll Gardens, a folk group of adults and children leads the music.In other denominations, choirs tend to draw on a combination of parish and neighborhood. Then the choice of choir is based on the kinds of music sung, on the organ and organist, on numerous other considerations.A member of the First Unitarian Church choir in Brooklyn Heights said, %u201c I%u2019m not a member of the church here, but I enjoy the repertoire.%u201d At the Unitarian church %u201cthe liturgy is very flexible, so that the director can choose virtually whatever music he wants: Palestrina, Gregorian chant, Jewish music, or anything else.%u201d First Unitarian is a church where the schedule builds to the holidays with careful pacing. %u201cThere will probably be an extra rehearsal or two,%u2019 a choir member says, %u201c but it%u2019s not crazy.%u201dA choir which boasts members of all denominations, including at least one Jewish member, is the team at Old First Reformed Church in Park Slope. The Pastor at %u201c Old First,%u201d Rev. Steve Giordano, has emohasized that the church is part of the community, and the choir reflects that, with all the singers coming from the neighborhood.rehearses before Sunday morningIt%u2019s director, David Byrkit, says, %u201c I would guess that we%u2019re the hardestworking choir around%u201d , witl; an extra Sunday evening rehearsals during %u201cthe busy season%u201d and members who take the choir responsibility quite seriously. The paid quartet at Old First has been dropped, with professionals and amateurs all now singing for the satisfaction of it. There are %u201c semi-auditions%u201d and a tough schedule so that only those who can keep up do the singing, while the heavy schedule and the excitement about music make a busy, devoted crew. %u201c We operate a little like a theater group%u201d Byrkit says, %u201c especially since we always have a bash after a big concert.%u201dGRAND PERFORMANCESA member of the choir at Old First, Patti Buckwalter, who also serves as accompanist, says that for her the Christmas season involves a lot of effort. Her job gives her extra evenings of work, and so does the choir. During the rest of the year, if she and her husband Wyn are away onthe weekend, she says, their voices and leadership are missed. In a big choralr%u00bb . . : r> 1 i, . . ub u u t i j ', l a m u u L A w a n u i_u i u u i c u i:>, m eindividual can have the fun of %u201c being part of the grand performance%u201d , but the church choir member is a lot more crucial, where perhaps a dozen people carry the weight of leading all the music every Sunday. At Old First, the choir also pitches in to raise money for the Church, and even plans to help in a trip to the Midwest to get an organ which the Church is obtaining.Since it%u2019s impossible to sing in more than one choir, some choir singers join choral societies too. The Grace Choral Society, which sings its concerts at Grace Church and is conducted by Grace's music director, Bradley Hull, involves many of the choir members there, but it doesn%u2019t serve as the choir. Grace has both a hired Men and Bovs Choir, and a volunteer adult choir, to sing on Sunday mornings, though Hull says that boys for the choir have become so hard to find that he will probably have to give up having them.Another choral society which adds to the schedule of many a choir singer is the Brooklyn Philharmonia Chorus. Providing the special opportunity of singing with the Brooklyn Philharmonia Orchestra, the Philharmonia Chorus can be choosy. Its Director. Alexander Dashnaw, estimates that as many as half the members come from Manhattan or Long Island to rehearse and perform with the group. Rehearsals are on Tuesdays, (maybe so singers can still get to their Thursday night and Sunday morning church choir stints). Auditions are twice a year, with January auditions coming up. Dashnaw says that a call to the Philharmonia office at BAM, 636-4100 is all that%u2019s needed to find out more.AN EXTENSION OF THE CANTORChoirs aren%u2019t just in Brooklyn churches, they are also part of the services at local synagogues, too. One Rabbi explains that the choir is an extension of the Cantor%u2019s role in leading the singing. At Congregation Beth Elohim in Park Slope, and at Union Temple on Eastern Parkway, paid quartets serve as choir. At Congregation Baith Israel Anshei Ernes, (the Kane Street Synagogue) though, there is a choir made up of members of the congregation called the DiRossi singers. DiRossi was an early Italian composer of Jewish music, and the choir was formed to sing his and other works. It even performed at the Atlantic Antic this year, and sings at services at least once a month.It all leads to the conclusion that choirs are a very big part of this borough%u2019s musical life. Brooklyn is called \churches%u201d after all. In a time when clergy and churches sometimes bemoan their vacant pews, they also see music as a way of involving people. Many clergymen are musicians themselves: as are Dr. George Knight, the pastor at Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian, and Pastor Myron P. Douglass, of Duryea Presbyterian in Prospect Heights, who leads the choir himself. They know that for a choir singer, it%u2019s not a case of separating religion and music. Whether the day%u2019s music is Bach%u2019s B Minor Mass or a simple hymn, the result is the same: hard work, a lot of fun, and a great feeling.How I Acquired A ChoirBY LIBBY HAYMANI%u2019ve been pitching into the St. Ann%u2019s choir for two weeks now. Why St. Ann%u2019s? It was choice by chance, and casual as any-I first saw St. Ann%u2019s when I was working on a story about its renovation hopes, and I fell in love with the stained glass, as everyone does. %u201c You don%u2019t happen to have a choir?%u201d , I asked Father Vilas and Father Meyer. They said one was being started soon, but I forgot about the whole thing until the choir director, Eric Alderfer, called me at work asking if I wanted to audition.St. Ann%u2019s is squeezing rehearsal in before the Sunday morning service, a great help when evenings are already full. There is a paid quartet, as in so many churches, and the rest of us have the job of filling out the sound, blending in and following as best we can. Could I keep going if the professional next to me stopped singing? Just barely, I found, when a coughing fit took her off the melody for a minute.We do anthems that aren%u2019t too difficult, and lead in the service music, as well as singing lots of good hymns. With half the day given to the effort, I find that I am keyed up about it afterward. And like all the people I talked to for this story, I just love to sing, and can%u2019t explain it much better than that. Since I am just barely a soprano, I know that I get a lot of pleasure out of hitting notes that I used to miss, and I love the cooperative feeling when a piece sounds right, especially if we%u2019ve sung it without accompaniment, from our perch in the small balcony looking out at all that faded Gothic expanse. And after the service, everyone is great. %u201cThe choir sounded wonderful,%u201d they say, and I am happy to take the credit, as if I had just made my debut at Carnegie Hall.December 13,1979, The PHOENIX, Page 13