Joining the Choir

[Dewi Sant]

I am finally going to join the choir!


I have always wanted to join a church choir. My dad wouldn't let me join the choir at the church I used to go to, I think it is because he was worried that I would go a bit sissy . It was Church of England with the red robes and white gowns and frills. Very traditional.



But now I am finally going to be in the choir. This isn't by choice really, I am sort of pulled into the choir because I am a music student.

So I have to learn the divine liturgy in one day, shouldn't be too difficult.


Only been with the church for about 2 months and already in the choir.

I am looking forward a lot, I just hope I don't sing some dud notes because it really is a quartet rather than a choir, I will be adding a bass section and any mistakes I make will be noticed .
The bass section has a lot of responsability for keeping a ground to the harmony, without a bass the harmony can sound quite empty.

 

[stillerfan]

you'll do fine......

does your church sing in slavnoic too????

 

[rainbowbright]

It's a lot different than an Anglican choir which has more concert-like music and different varieties of genres. I foundthe Orthodox church choir it harder because I'm a first soprano and I had to sing an octave lower than I'm used to. It started effecting my voice to where it hurt to sing, so I had to drop out. I miss the choir because I was learning so much about the services.
What exactly are you studying? I was a piano major in school.

 

[ufonium2]

I will be adding a bass section and any mistakes I make will be noticed .
The bass section has a lot of responsability for keeping a ground to the harmony, without a bass the harmony can sound quite empty.

Thank you! I'm going to show this to my husband, who thinks I'm making stuff up when I tell him that it sounds awful when he sings whatever he feels like and dubs it the "bass line" at church. He only does it at vespers and matins, when there's hardly anyone there and he's got a greater chance of screwing everyone up. During liturgy, when it could be covered by a whole choir, he doesn't sing at all.

 

[stillerfan]

Thank you! I'm going to show this to my husband, who thinks I'm making stuff up when I tell him that it sounds awful when he sings whatever he feels like and dubs it the "bass line" at church. He only does it at vespers and matins, when there's hardly anyone there and he's got a greater chance of screwing everyone up. During liturgy, when it could be covered by a whole choir, he doesn't sing at all.

it is interesting that you say that.... you would think that it would be the other way around...

 

[Matrona]

I foundthe Orthodox church choir it harder because I'm a first soprano and I had to sing an octave lower than I'm used to. It started effecting my voice to where it hurt to sing, so I had to drop out.

A-ha! Finally, someone who knows my pain!

 

[stillerfan]

A-ha! Finally, someone who knows my pain!

pain?? hardly... it's more of a challenge for me...

 

[choirfiend]

You have to learn how to use your voice appropriately. The ranges of most "soprano" parts in harmonized chant settings is focused around and below where many women have a "break" or passagio in their voice. If you know how to sing healthfully, you can sing many things, low or high.

I'm a soprano one who sings high c's like it's nobody's business. In church, I sing tenor.

 

[repentant]

They have a computer program that you can buy that helps you with singing and your voice. You sing into a mic and the voice pattern comes out on the screen and it analyzes it and the pitch and stuff. Then you can train your voice to hit certain pitches by the computer showing you the pitch and you matching it. I am not really sure how it works, but I saw it on TV once. I guess it's a singing teacher computer program, lol.

 

[Emmanuel-A]

Thank you! I'm going to show this to my husband, who thinks I'm making stuff up when I tell him that it sounds awful when he sings whatever he feels like and dubs it the "bass line" at church. He only does it at vespers and matins, when there's hardly anyone there and he's got a greater chance of screwing everyone up. During liturgy, when it could be covered by a whole choir, he doesn't sing at all.

That's the way I did it in the begining .
But after a while, my fellow basses hit me with their elbows when I was too "creative" because I was annoying them.
So now I take singing lessons and learn to take proper intervals (octaves, thirds, etc). Very useful.

 

[Dewi Sant]

you'll do fine......

does your church sing in slavnoic too????

My church is Greek Orthodox and follows the Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom in English.

Occasionaly a Kyrie Eleison is used instead of "Lord have Mercy" but I haven't heard that sung in the time I've been there.


I am studying Music A level at school and when I go to university I will study Theology with Music Studies.

 

[Dewi Sant]

I'm going to have to be at church on time this Sunday because I have the choir music and I think it is the only copy.

 

[Matrona]

Thank you! I'm going to show this to my husband, who thinks I'm making stuff up when I tell him that it sounds awful when he sings whatever he feels like and dubs it the "bass line" at church.

We have someone who thinks she's a female tenor at my church.

I don't know much about music, but if what she sings is a tenor line, Bortniansky and Kazan must be absolute hacks.

 

[Mary of Bethany]

Congratulations, ramesses! It's a great way to learn the church services. I'm an alto, and I love singing in choir.

I was allowed to join the choir when I first became a serious Inquirer. Our priest now (a different one) allows only Chrismated members to join. We have 7-8 regulars in our choir, and it's a nice sound (though we could use another bass). We're OCA, so we use the Russian tradition as opposed to the Byzantine.

Mary

 

[rainbowbright]

A-ha! Finally, someone who knows my pain!

Yay! Atleast I'm not the only one.

 

[Dewi Sant]

It went good today.

I had to sightread a lot because I learnt the Divine Liturgy of St Chrysostom and we used St Basil's.


Next week the Tenor and the Bass will be away which means that there is a lot of pressure on me, as a bass I will be holding the choir together also the tenor is the conductor of the choir, he keeps the time and pitches the note, he won't be there.




In my opinions the role of the choir sections are as follows:

Soprano: usually has the melody, the most decorative section of the choir.
Alto: adds warmth and depth to the melody, harmony and works great as a sandwich section filling in simple harmonies with decorated melodies.
Tenor: wannabe basses(....only joking). A great warm sound, probably the most expressive of all parts. Again a great sandwich section.
Bass: Usually takes pedal notes (single repeated notes). Adds foundation to the harmony and though it may not be complex it adds so much to the choir. The bass usually sing the root of the chord which means that the rest of the choir can pitch from them (if they need to)

 

[theoforos]

I used to dream of singing in an Orthodox choir, actually I always thought that if I ever was to join a choir it'd be an Orthodox choir, even long time before I eventually decided to become Orthodox. I guess I kind of wanted to legimimize attending Orthodox church services? However, I gradually arrived at the conclusion that for the first I like it a lot better if I'm just part of the crowd on the church floor rather than part of the choir and for the second that I don't have any theoretical knowledge about music and absolutely no experience of singing in harmony. So I don't think I'll ever join a choir.

But I still would like to learn the male tones (don't even know if tenor or bass would fit me better...) because some parts of the services are often sung by everyone, not just the choir, and the basic melody seems to be way too high for my voice (I guess it's 'soprano' isn't it?), so I just simply tend to sing the same pattern but slightly lower. I don't know what it sounds like in educated ears, but that's the only thing I'm able to do.

 

[Annoula]

congrats ramesses!!

keep up the good work!

 

[Ioan cel Nou]

I just started singing in our choir on Sunday too. Actually, the local Antiochian church had a pan-Orthodox Vespers service on Saturday night which I went to and afterwards I was ganged up on by both our priest and deacon and that was that. I'm actually quite happy to do it even though I'm finding it difficult, partly because it's in Romanian (which is a second language), partly because the guy who normally keeps everyone together (and is a fantastic singer) was ill and partly because, whilst I can read western notation, the Byzantine stuff might as well be Arabic. Some of our music has both notations but some only has the Byzantine. Does anyone know where I can find information on Byzantine musical notation? That would help immensely. Thanks.

James

 

[choirfiend]

I would send her an email and see if she can't point you to some resources to help you out--she's a lovely woman!

http://www2.potsdam.edu/suchyjr/jsphp.html