My pastor has asked that I concentrate my efforts on recruiting good, strong cantors, and not worry about the choir, which is the approach I am now taking. I think in the long run, this approach will eventually bring others to start really thinking about music ministry. Only time will tell. I started out 5 yeas ago with About 3 felt they should dictate to me how the music will go - and they only wanted to sing songs they had learned by previous directors.
Then some move in and out - very big college community and lots of internships going on. Finally, I lost about 6 due to old age and their voice just wasn't making it anymore This past season, Fall I started out with 16 on the books.
We average about singers per week. At christmas concert 2 weeks ago - we had 15 of my own singers - plus the local high school a cappella group join us on scholarship.
I will tell you, it is not always the same directing up to 8 as it is directing up to 20 but - the level of music reading has gotten much better. We average about in worship per weekend - the choir sings only the Heritage liturgical service and that averages around per week.
When I came here a few years ago - the liturgy service was basically liturgy on the 1st Sunday of the month and a traditional format hymns only the other Sundays. They had no organ - and only a piano. We now have an organ, do liturgy 2 times per month - and then for all Advent and Lent services we do our Evening Prayer or Vesper service.
They also only averaged about 90 in worship at 1st service when I first came. So, we have had some large changes. I'd still like to have a 20 voice choir - but only if they all read music well.
It makes finding music for no tenors, 3 baritones, and 1 basso profundo, 1 maybe 2 altos and 2nd sopranos Sadly, we have a pianist who does not take to the organ well - I am not an accompanist at all, and I love the music of St.
But the piano does not always sound best with that music - Oh well - some day. I just need a few tenors and a higher soprano. Perhaps I can pay some high school students a scholarship to help us out. Also - I run the praise service. You know that watered down - pop MTV experience that defies church history in every sense Starting this spring, because of vocal numbers, I am using more hymn arrangements where the choir learns 1 verse and the rest is people singing together.
This will change what we do and help us out a lot. So, it is not all bad. Thanked by 1 JulieColl. JulieColl December Posts: 2, We have 5 - 3S, 1A, and me Tenor.
Its a challenge but sometimes we really nail it and it is well worth it. Each Mass has its own choir. My 8am Sunday choir is probably the only one with a consistent group always there. For feasts Christmas, Triduum some members of various choirs come together to sing and I'll have anywhere from 10 - 25 people. This is also a challenge with some not liking chant so they either fight me on it and leave, or complain until I kick them out.
Oh, and we have snow birds from the mid West and Canada, who have great voices but come and go. Our regular local-ish singers are mostly parents with young families, so it's a bit of a tag-team choir at times. I have five children, the eldest is 12 and he sings well. I'm hoping the local choir will start growing. See my blog, "I Love my choir! We're the congregation. I have to admit we must rehearse Richard's Choral Communio's, they so fine! Lest you think I'm boasting, I'm not.
I'm advocating being in service to the same parish, and ergo the same choristers for 21 years. And new ones will join as older ones retire. We're not huge, but we're sure proficient. They're all family, including their spouses and kids. Thanked by 3 donr JulieColl Wendi.
StimsonInRehab December Posts: 1, Our highest number in recent memory was This is from a congregation that has on average 45 souls in attendance, from multiple zip codes.
Adam Wood December Posts: 6, S - 4 two of whom sometimes sing alto when needed A - 1. Other than that, we don't tend to rehearse hymns. Everyone reads very well for pitches. Our big problem is rhythm. So we do almost exclusively homophonic texture- with contrapuntal polyphony no more than a few times a year. Wendi December Posts: I want to be you when I grow up.
And I want our choir to be like yours too. JPike December Posts: We have between 6 and 12 depending on the weekend. We now combine with our two other clustered parishes for major feast days Christmas Eve and Triduum which usually results in about For Christmas this year we have: S - 5 A - 2 T - 1 B - 2 Most can read somewhat but I find that if my wife and record the audio parts for them it comes along a lot faster and we can concentrate on dynamics rather than learning the piece in theory anyway.
CharlesW December Posts: 11, Thanked by 1 expeditus1. Our parish choir currently has 19 members, with an additional 2 on sabbatical. S - 7 A - 4 another on leave T - 3 B - 5 another on leave I have found myself administering some spankings recently, as a result of Christmas demands and some rehearsal attendance issues. What does it tell you about the singing group? Does size matter? Can you have a chorus of four people, or does that become an ensemble?
Here is a summary of part of what they said. A chamber choir has 20 — 36 singers. On Last choir Standing the number of singers in choirs ranged from 10 to Three singers is a trio, four a quartet, and so on, eight is an octet, but 10 can be a choir or an ensemble. British Broadcasting Corporation Home.
Jonathan Ansell: "Hmm - that's a difficult question! I think a choir needs to be, in my eyes, at least Otherwise it's a vocal ensemble I guess. From 10 upwards the sky's the limit really!
Stephen Bowman: "You've got to have more than one person per part; otherwise it's just a quartet like ourselves. Realistically it's a group thing - it's got to be a large group of people.
Obviously what we've seen in this show is that it doesn't matter if it's a very large choir or a very small choir — the effect is the same - it's people working together to create one harmony, one wall of sound. The smaller groups have shown that you can do it with only 12 people, and sometimes they've made more noise than the groups with 50 people! Mike Brewer: "One??! What a difficult question! Also a dozen people singing in parts I can say is a choir. But it's a self-definition, it's just a word - it just means people singing together to me Although if it's only one person it's much easier to blend!!
Sharon D. Clarke: "Gosh! Well in the programme we've got choirs as little as 10, and then in some there are 50! As long as you can make a sound that is choral, as opposed to backing vocals, I think you can be a choir! Oh I don't know it depends. But come to think of it.
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