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can a pagan be a choral conductor?Date: February 11, 2010 by Amy Saari
 I have loved and participated in choral music since I was a little Catholic schoolgirl; I went to college and graduate school to groom myself as a career church director who would have exciting composition projects on the side.
But then the one thing I never expected to happen happened....I converted spiritually. I left Christianity and re-discovered myself as a pagan occultist.
It was the best experience I've ever had in my life, but I feel torn as a person trained in choral conducting, a tradition that is staunchly Christian, no matter how PC or multicultural people try to make it--there are no SATB choirs anywhere in the world outside of the Christian tradition that created it.
I'm not a person who regrets the Western choral tradition--if I were a public school teacher you bet I would have sacred Christmas music on the program every year, because the SATB tradition grew up side-by-side with the Christian ritual tradition that dominates our culture.
I conduct a community choir that does a lot of church gigs and has a great presence in our small community; we've been praised warmly for our sacred music as well as our show tunes. (I don't pick the music we sing--there's a committee that does that, and that's the way it was always done, before I came along.) The singers love me; I've made the group sound better than they have in 20 years, some say; only a couple know my true faith and have no problem with it.
But am I being a fraud by sticking to this profession? I strongly believe that you should keep work issues at work and personal issues at home, and I've done that rather well; however, my experience with this group is growing less satisfying all the time because my faith practice is incompatible with the spiritual tradition I'm working in. Even though it's not a church choir, we might as well be, given all the church appearances we make and all the sacred music we sing.
Am I just being selfish and need to just suck it up and be glad that I have any kind of conducting gig at all? Or how big an issue is it to be a pagan or other non-Christian in this kind of arena? Replies (30): Threaded | Chronological
Cecil Rigby on February 10, 2010 9:00pm
Hi Amy-
If your singers and audience are satisfied, then what concrete difference does it make? If I were in your shoes and had no agenda but making fine music then I wouldn't give it a second thought. My advice would be to carry on and be proud of your work and its results, no matter what your spiritual leanings may be. Many peope probably lay aside something in order to be effective in their jobs, whether it's their politics, religion or just a desire to only perform music from a certain period.
But if you think your beliefs are getting in the way of doing the best possible job then look for a group with more compatible leanings.
Some may say I can't teach a love song unless I've been in love, and in the same vein, they may believe the most satisfying performance of a sacred piece comes from those who have the beliefs it wants to convey. For what's it's worth, I think that line is very thin and not noticed by very many at all. And if the audience has no idea that I have a particular belief system how are they going to know to ask themselves whether someone else would've done a better job except based on purely musical standards?
-Cecil Rigby
Liberty, SC
on February 10, 2010 11:41pm
I'm a non-believer but both sing, conduct and not the least WRITE a lot of religious music - don't think it's an issue at all if you do it wholeheartedly and with passion for your work.
Go ahead with your work and enjoy :)
Hildigunnur Rúnarsdóttir
Reykjavík, Iceland
on February 11, 2010 2:28am
I am not a Jew but I perform Jewish music. I am not a Wiccan but I have sung the Rite of Yule based on Wiccan Texts. I am not a girl but I conducted women's music written for women. I am not Gay but I am certain that I have conducted music by Gay composers. These people could, in turn, certainly perform all sorts of music. Our common language and persuasion is M-U-S-I-C writ large.
I belive that we must believe that the composer believed and then wemust be faithful not to the message but the composer's message.
I have a much bigger problem with you having no say in choosing the music you prepare and perform. That should be a musical choice not based on a committee decision. Your function, training and taste has been usurpted. That may be blamed for your decreased satisfaction.
Are you, then, a fraud? Only if you are not true to the composer's intentions and music representing that composer.
Good Luck in this crisis. I wish you peace.
S
on February 11, 2010 5:00pm
Something worthy of pointing out in your post:
"Are you then a fraud? Only if you are not true to the composer's intentions and music representing that composer."
In other words, you are only being true to yourself if you are being true to something outside yourself? I'm sorry, but performers are not cattle. We have intentions of our own too.
Amy
on February 11, 2010 2:33am
I was raised a nonbeliever and had to "learn" Christianity almost like you'd learn a second language. I help select music for an early music ensemble, in which the vast majority of the music is Christian and liturgical. Performing music that I don't "believe in" isn't an issue for me.
As a pagan, you're probably familiar with different "traditions" among different covens, etc. There are also a substantial number of places where Christianity and Neopaganism blur, such as Birgid/St. Brigit, for example. Does it help for you to think of the Christian music as simply someone's spiritual expression who happens to have come from a different tradition? Don't forget that many Christians don't literally "believe" in what their texts say; they understand them as stories and metaphor, and you do no disrespect to their tradition to do the same.
You can probably find a way to understand the original spirituality within your own personal spiritual experiences. For example, I find singing the Biebl "Ave Maria" a moving experience even though I don't "believe" what the text says. From your perspective, could you interpret the Ave Maria text as a manifestation of the Goddess?
I've been told that it's easier for me to accept Christian texts than it would be for someone who left Christianity, especially if you did so with any sense of disillusionment or of being rejected. If that's true for you, and you can't find a way to come to terms with the Christian dogma, then maybe you should consider finding a different gig (but in this economy, wait until you've found one to leave this one!). However, I think you may find it ultimately a very healing thing to find a way to "forgive" the Christian music for its limitations. What does your pagan tradition tell you about conflict resolution? Talk with the people who are following your pagan path and see whether your circle has any good advice.
You may also find it's less burdensome if you had more input into the music and venue selection. You might ask to have more say on the selection committee. That's hardly out of line for a director.
Good luck! I hope you find a way to work it out.
on February 11, 2010 2:47am
Amy, since the singers love you, and because you enjoy choral conducting, your spirituality need not be a factor. Many organists and choral directors advance through the years as their skills improve, and often their current positions bear little or no relationship to their core values and beliefs. So, I suggest that you suck it up, move ahead with your conducting skills. and enjoy your musical journey.
Clif Jacobs
Organist/Choir Director
First Baptist Church
Mount Carroll, IL
on February 11, 2010 7:22am
There are indeed SATB choirs out there that are currently outside the Chirstian tradition - Jewish choirs, pagan choirs, secular choirs, etc. Not very many, but they exist. And if you're looking to find that kind of spiritual fulfillment in your work, you might want to consider creating one of your own.
I am a non-believer myself and I long ago decided I would not be able to conduct a choir in a Christian church, because I was too uncomfortable being part of the services every week. I currently conduct a UU church choir, though, and am perfectly comfortable with that. We sing some Christian music and some non-Christian music (as do my academic choirs) and I am able to find the beauty in all of it. Christian music can be meaningful to me because of the story in it and the intent behind it, not because I share the particular faith. I wouldn't tell you to ignore the text and just focus on the music, but I would say that there may be something in each piece, textually and musically, that you can connect to. If there isn't such a connection for you, and you are feeling a strong conflict between who you are and the work you do, it may be that you should look for a position where you have more creative control.
Best of luck to you,
Sarah
Denver, CO
on February 11, 2010 7:40am
Amy - There is a lot of wisdom here, well worth listening to. I thank God that what I do as a choral conductor is consistent with my personal beliefs; but I have nothing but the utmost respect and admiration for people who are travelling a journey of faith as pilgrims in search of their own "Jerusalem" - but have yet to reach it. One should take the opportunity to appreciate and enjoy and contemplate the various aspects of the journey, even when strange and not-at-all-familiar - or, perhaps in your case, TOO familiar but not understood or enjoyed at the first seeing. Perhaps the tendency of all of us to want to make our lives perfectly consonant doesn't allow us (especially in the Western tradition) the opportunity to embrace paradox - seems to me the Eastern tradition is far more comfortable with that. You're living a paradox in the most fundamental aspect of your life, which deals with your beliefs - don't seek to make it a seamless whole, but rather embrace the aspects that seem so jarringly at odds with each other - and discover in wonder.
I'll agree with the other commentators, though, that the issue of music choice (especially since this is a COMMUNITY chorus) is very disconcerting (no pun intended!). I suppose that part of it is avoiding having the choir become the director's choir (I saw one choir go through a very ugly period when the Board thought that the director, himself a director of a church choir, was turning their choir from a community choir to a sacred music choir - the bust up was really heartbreaking for all members involved). I suppose it's like a railroad: yes, the engineer's in charge of the train but he doesn't get to choose where to go. And yet, and yet, this is perhaps where the real crux of the issue lies for you - that you have no say whatsoever in the choice. Even if your choices were not approved (and that can be very difficult to deal with of itself) you would at least have the sense that your approach to certain matters has at least had an airing. If, though, you find you cannot resolve certain issues, when the first responsible opportunity comes to move in a different direction, take it - so long as you're able to embrace the paradox that'll inevitably arise at that point.
Ron Duquette
Catholic Choir Director
Ft. Belvoir, VA
on February 11, 2010 8:56am
Another agreement here. I tell my community choruses that when we sing as Mass, we temporarily "become" Roman Catholics. When we sing Jewish music we must think of ourselves as being Jewish. Same with Sprirtuals or Protestant hymns or any other music of faith, and all this regardless of my beliefs or those of the singers. Good actors - especially method actors - do it all the time and I think we fall into a similar category. We must temporarily "believe" what we sing or it will come across as just notes with no conviction, passion, or sincerity. A forte would just be loud with no reason behind it. You must meet the composer on the page and on his/her terms. Then, when the piece is done, we can leave it at the choir loft or auditorium door. I guess I'm a "method" conductor, but for me it makes all the difference in performance, whether it's a Haydn Mass or Carmina Burana.
DR
on February 11, 2010 11:23am
Dean, I'm also one who applies Method acting principles to choral music. While I suggest singers have different options when dealing with a text outside of their own spiritual beliefs, I appreciate the quickest and most direct route -- "Think the thoughts of a believer while you're singing the song, then lay those thoughts aside when you're done." I also reinforce this point by mentioning that actors do this all the time. "Think about it -- how many people who played Jesus in Godspell or Jesus Christ Superstar were actually (wait for it...) Jewish?" Cheers! ~Tom
on February 11, 2010 2:21pm
Hi Amy,
I think the love of music transcends all religious beliefs. I am a Baha'i and I sing music from all religions. For me, the message is all the same: love your neighbour, perform praiseworthy deeds and have an upright character. What I love is the unity of all religions, that their underlying message is all the same. So for me, it's actually a spiritual experience of connection to the other religions when I sing Jewish, Christian, Muslim or Native American songs, etc.
I like the analogy of the family: we are all different people, the father, the mother, the daughter and the son, yet we are all united. We don't think "oh I, the daughter can't talk to you the mother, because you do not have the same function as me". Instead, we focus on what unifies us. Likewise, I think you can focus on what unifies your beliefs with the other religious texts, instead of focusing on what is different, and then you might be elated and even improve your interpretation of the music, as you add you very own interpretation of it, coming from your own religious experience.
Personally, I love diversity. In nature, professional landscapers never focus on uniformity. They plant flowers of different colours next to one another, bushes of different sizes and shapes. And we all marvel at the beauty of nature's diversity. I think we need to learn to do the same thing with our fellow human beings, enjoy unity in diversity and see how beautifully we can all blend together. Here is a quote from the Baha'i Faith that is especially relevant: "The diversity in the human family should be the cause of love and harmony as it is in music where many different notes blend together in the making of a perfect chord."
I am starting up a children's choir and the focus of the repertoire is music from diverse religions. I am looking to include as much diversity as possible, I want to sing songs from Buddhist and HIndu cultures, Muslim chants, of course Christian, and in as many languages as possible too, so that the concerts will be thriving on diversity and help us realize our fundamental unity.
Good luck!
Lorraine
Park Ridge, IL.
p.s. Meanwhile, I agree with Stephen Stomps that not having a role in selecting your own repertoire could be a huge source of dissatisfaction.
on February 11, 2010 2:25pm
As an active Reform Jew who regularly conducts a Lutheran church choir, I absolutely agree with the previous posts. It is possible to study, to conduct and to be moved by music where the text professes a belief that isn't necessarily congruent with our own. In fact, you might be surprised how many of the church members don't wholeheartedly subscribe to every single concept portrayed in every single line of text.
I think it's great that the organist and choir director at my temple are both Christian, that I have half-a-foot (so to speak) in the Lutheran Church, and that a pagan is conducting a sacred-esque community choir. More of this cross-pollination can only cause good in the world as we come to appreciate each other. Viva la difference!
MA
on February 11, 2010 4:55pm
Wow, I'm actually amazed at the range of responses I've gotten, both here and also privately. I've seen and taken a lot of value from this. I wasn't aware that so many non-Christian people have been able to live "out of the broom closet" as a conductor.
I think the biggest thing that's driving the dissatisfaction is the whole "business model" the choir operates from, a part of which is the fact that a committee picks the music and I don't--I have veto power, but the singers like what they like and if they want to end with Hallelujah Chorus every Christmas and Battle Hymn of the Republic every spring, then so be it. But my issue is not with the music per se--I would give my right arm to conduct the Faure Requiem on the 10th anniversary of 9/11--my issue is with the artistic limits that come with the gig I currently have.
There's a lot of value to the "method acting" argument that has been shared above, but who would enjoy playing the same character over and over, year after year? The only sacred music we do is Christian--the few Jewish pieces they have in the library are kind of patronizing and belittling--and THEY WON'T SING IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE. So forget multiculturalism of ANY sort.
Amy
on February 15, 2010 10:26pm
Amy:
Are you familiar with the Colorado group "Sound Circle" or the Cincinnati Women's Chorus "MUSE"? You may find some of their pieces (in English) to be a way to sneak in some highly spiritual but nonreligious music that might resonate well with you. If you're not familiar with them, you might want to check out Near's "The Sun Won't Stop," Lister's "Stone Circles," Weber's "Mother Moon," Barnwell's "Wanting Memories," Moore's "Music in My Mother's House," and Brown's "Sky Dances."
on February 11, 2010 9:23pm
Amy, maybe more to the point is the question of whether you think you can/should conduct this music, in this group, at this time? ("Should" is probably the operative word, since obviously from your post you can and have been for awhile...) It sounds like something inside you is beginning to question whether you can give authentic performances of music from this particular faith tradition which you do not share, and whether what you are able to give to this music honors both the music and the gift within you.
And while, yeah, if you've got a choral conducting job, especially a choir that loves you and whose members you yourself also love, be glad about it--but it's still a question only you can answer: "would I be happier not conducting at all than I would be continuing to conduct this group?" The day the answer is a fairly definite "yes"(well, maybe you should wait a few weeks to make sure it's not a momentary thing) is the day you might consider it to be time to Get Figuratively Out Of Dodge. (Of course, if you find another job somewhere else in the meantime, that certainly would make the transition easier...)
I personally don't know how well I would deal with any job in which I had absolutely no say in choosing the music I would conduct--that's like signing an apartment lease with someone else choosing your roomates. Might that be at all negotiable? Would that help your own feelings about what you do?
Anyway, I wish you well--clearly the folks on this list so far don't see any issues with the externals of "non-Christian performing Art Form Of Christian Origin" and neither do I--but if that feeling of dissatisfaction grows, your gut might be trying to tell you something, and if you don't pay attention to it it could make you soul-sick, which is never good for art. Keeping work and home distinct is healthy; fracturing your spirit in order to continue doing one particular job is not. And again, since it's your spirit and all, you're the only one who can really diagnose what's going on in there. Hang in, and trust yourself!
--Jennifer
p.s. whenever I start feeling crabby about my chosen profession, I pull out James Jordan or Robert Shaw and read for a while...it often helps! Sometimes the dissatisfaction turns out to not be about what I thought it was to begin with...but sometimes it is. Geez, I'm no help at all, am I?
on February 12, 2010 2:45pm
This is America and business is business, a gig a gig.
Good.
Seriously- the Europe that created the great Christian sacred music and culture we now know imploded through fascism/communism & rejected it 75 years ago; forced out were many[the lucky] Jewish musicians/musicologists who helped recreate that culture here.
Also in that pre-war generation of composers/scholars studying ie. with Boulanger included Lehmann Engel, Harold Brown, or his student Noah Greenberg,who often were the conduits to our current early Music performing culture. There were often conflicts in family of these political/religio anomalies. You can see expression of this in Dr. Laurie Sucher-Gaster's memoir at the <www.renaissancechorus.org> website.
Was it not important that human creativity and scholarship outlast hatreds & World Wars?
Add to it with your own spiritual insights.
SIR
on February 12, 2010 3:45pm
Amy,
I think that many church members, myself included, as well as clergy of many different faiths respect and encourage the profession of beliefs contrary to their own. Fear of or arrogance toward those who are different from ourselves can be a painfully destructive force. I hope that you are able to use your perspective to help cultivate understanding of diverse points of view, religious beliefs and cultural and ethnic backgrounds.
on February 13, 2010 1:33am
Dear Amy,
I'm a pagan myself, but I never wondered if this matched with christian music at all. Whatever you belief, keep your aim at your mind, and just hold on it : the aim of this kind of music is to lead people together, to make feel people as good as they can, to get them waved on the harmony, and nothing else. I absolutely don't believe in God or anything esle (I just try and belief in me, and that's for now not so easy every day), but I wouldn't miss any rehearsal at all, cause I feel really good with other singers, whatever they do or do not belief (in God or in everything you want !). Only the love of music is important, everything else doesn't really count. So be cool, and stop wondering about it...
on February 13, 2010 7:28am
Dear Amy, dear all,
My wife Coomi Wadia has been with the Paranjoti Academy Chorus (or its previous names) for nearly 60 years.
She has been the conductor since Paranjoti's death in 1967 for - count 'em - 43 years.
The Paranjoti Chorus is arguably the finest choir in India.
She is a DEVOUT Zoroastrian (Zarathustrian).
So, the answer is a resounding YES!
...and yes, we do perform in churches of all denominations too, although we are primarily a secular community choir.
Nariman H. Wadia,
Chairman,
The Paranjoti Academy Chorus of Bombay, India.
on February 18, 2010 9:22am
I disagree with the above posters. I will reply to your statement: "my experience with this group is growing less satisfying all the time because my faith practice is incompatible with the spiritual tradition I'm working in"
I think this is key. If your faith practise is anything more than nominal or trivial, integrity demands that your behavior and practise support it. I quit the best singing gig in town years ago because I finally faced up to the fact that I was compromising my beliefs (I'm a follower of Jesus)in a number of ways. This was after years and years of singing what I knew to be dicey (for me) lyrics: Ave Marias, Cattulli Carmina, etc., and I understand why singers do it--we want to sing great music, and when one joins a group, you go along with what's chosen. I knew something would come up at some point that I just coudn't swallow, and made the decision to leave. (R. Murray Schafer's Magic Songs was programmed soon thereafter, confirming my decision.) I pursued conducting, which allowed me to choose the music.
Either music is just nice noise that is meaningless, or singing "Jesu, meine Freude" means what it says. Are we saying what we sing? I think so. Who of us would sing a lyric that included "my mother is a whore"?
on February 18, 2010 8:16pm
Marjorie and friends,
This is certainly one way to approach music. But it is not the only way. It is a matter of projecting yourself into the music--or more accurately the text--and then testing that projection to judge whether YOU believe everything the text says and everything about they way it is said and feel that you HAVE to believe it in order to sing it. Perfeclty valid, and I have no argument with it.
But it's also possible to think of yourself as an actor, a storyteller, a skilled interpreter of texts of all kinds, whether they happen to reflect your personal beliefs or not. Actors are carefully trained to do exatly that, to REPRESENT their characters in a realistic manner, without necessarily BECOMING their characters. And I would submit that this is an important skill that any professional performer MUST have, and MUST understand, and MUST accept as part of professionalism.
Our obvious problem is that we have to deal with texts. David J initiated a very important discussion of this a while ago, relating to his feelings about Bach's (or anyone's) St. John Passion, and the assmptions and prejudices embedded in both the original texts and their many translations. Instrumentalists do not share this particular hangup. Actors do not share it. It seems to be exclusive to singers (and by extention to conductors, which is what started this discussion). Does this mean that singers are unprofessional in their approach to texts? Well, yes, I suppose it does. At least it does by the standards more common to actors or instrumentalists. Or dancers, now that I come to think of it. We all know that a certain percentage of male dancers are gay. And we all know that a given choreography may require them to portray seducing or making love to a female dancer. Should they refuse to dance that choreography because it isn't something they would do in their private life? I leave the answer to your personal examination.
So if you truly feel that you CANNOT express in music any thought with which you do not completely agree, that's fine. If you're Protestant, sing only Protestant music with acceptable Protestant texts. Same thing if you're Evangelical, or Catholic, or Jewish, or pagan, or a non-believer. it's your choice. But it also, inevitably, limits your own choices, and you also have to be comfortable with THAT.
All the best,
John
on February 19, 2010 11:51am
John's powerful message leads me to a very simple
observation: there is more than one kind of human being. I myself
am an actor, or a natural characterizer, if you will ; (and not
that weird Method stuff); I can, in a couple of seconds, transform
myself into, and out of, whatever part I am playing. When I sing
'Jolene' in a karaoke bar I can rivet the audience; but I have
never been in Jolene's situation. (I also don't have Dolly Parton's
awful wobble....). When I have totally silenced audiences in Tokyo
with the final whisper of the Irish song "She moved through the
Fair" -- "It will not be long, love, till our wedding day" -- I
have never known what it is to die oif consumption and come back
toi warn my lover that he will shortly be joining me because he has
it, too. Ths is characterization, and I can guarantee that it is
very powerful. I have no idea how it is done; I am simply one of
those people who have the natural ability to do it (and I found it
out at the age of about ten -- and the boy I played opposite, in a
slum Nottingham schoolroom, went on to have a very successful stage
career, in London, and beyond. Remember John Turner, the majordomo
in "Cinderella"? I was his first leading lady.
But -- and it is a very important 'but' -- I am always myself. My own sense of identity is undiminished. I can instantly put on many other personae -- but they in n way affect who I myslf am. But there are other people who cannot separate themselves from what they are, and what they are presenting. They are in no way inferior; they are, simply, different. If you are on of these people, and find that you cannot enter into a world of discourse that does not represent your own deepheld beliefs, the I agree that you need to distance yourself -- at least for a time till you have sorted yourself out. For you in your own situation, the answer may be "Get out -- this is not you!" in which case I am sure that many of us wish you well. But you have to be the judge. With concerns and best wishes, Doreen the Anglican yamabushi
on February 21, 2010 12:28am
John makes a great point about gay male dancers, which leads (perhaps) to an even more blatant point -- think of all the gay choral singers who are singing texts of romantic love to and/or about someone of the opposite sex. Same thing with gay directors when the piece concerns specifically heterosexual love. And then there are all the songs that are arranged such that ALL the women are singing "as" a man, and of a man's romantic love for a woman, and ALL the men are singing "as" a WOMAN who has romantic love for a man. Those songs require and expect each singer to "become" or "represent" the opposite sex!
RE Doreen's point, she and I have a different experience. I would suggest that specific skills are available which empower ALL singers to "transform" themselves into a character without losing their identity, but not everyone may be willing to apply those skills -- or have the opportunity to learn about them. And ironically, for those without Doreen's innate talent, it's actually Method acting in its purest form which paves the way for this. Method acting (as Stanislavski taught it) is just the application of actual human behavior to a hypothetical situation ("How would I act/think IF I were the character in the character's circumstances?").
Doreen, I don't know your experience, but -- when you call Method acting "weird," I'm guessing that you might be referring to this mythology propogated by certain (mostly American) actors: Someone using "The Method" has to actually EXPERIENCE what their character is going through in order to authentically "present" or "live" the character's emotional experience. And once they're in it, it's tough getting out.
Three things make that "mythology" and not actual fact: 1) According to Stanislavski, actual experience has nothing to do with it , 2) A true Method actor cares not a whit about the character's emotions. Real people don't go around trying to be sad, joyous, vengeful, angry, tickled ... and therefore, neither does a bonafide Method actor. 3) A singer or director using Method acting will be able to shift from character to character, song to song, without getting stuck.
All my best,
Tom
on February 21, 2010 1:46am
Thank you, Tom. I see that Stanislavski has been greatly
misrepresented -- even by some of his most devoted and vocal
admirers. I've always said that what he seemed to be teaching was
what any natural actor figures out instinctively.
Though, in a recent Drew Barrymore interview I saw on satellite TV (I live in Tokyo), there was some really old archival stuff on two of the great acting families -- and it was embarrassing to watch -- the acting really creaked! I think that for me the turning point came in one of the earliest 'disaster' films when all the characters seemed to be real people except one -- an older woman who clearly knew every trick of the trade, but who made them so obvious. When the titles rolled, I was devastated to see she was one of my childhood heroines, Olivia de Havilland. For me, that's where the generation gap yawned wide. But we are straying from the question of singing a part. I recently had to re-audition for my main choir (as did everyone, and some heads have already rolled). For the solo I chose the 'there were shepherds' recitatives from "Messiah", figuring that if I couldn't cut it with something I had been singing from age 12, it was time to throw in my hand. The first was a disaster -- an injudicious lunch item had made my voice husky. "Shall we go on?" asked the accompanist. I had nothing to lose; I nodded. The angel accompaniment came in, and I became the narrator telling the magical story. And it happened all over again. The voice came back. True, I didn't quite get the final G "praising God -- AND saying" -- it wasn't quite like the Scottish lady in that TV talent show, but at least I am still in the main choir. FWIW, Doreen
on February 19, 2010 4:38am
I'm a bit simplistic, but I think our job as conductors is to express what the composer intended, regardless of what we believe. We are the composer's advocate, for expression and meaning, just as we are for musical details like dynamics, articulation, etc. If we can't do that , advocate completely and fully for the composer's music, because something in the text goes against what we believe too strongly, we should choose another piece.
I'm an atheist Jew who spent 15 years conducting a Presbyterian church choir (after signing in church choirs for 10 years), and I think I do a pretty darned good St. Matthew Passion. No conflict. When I conduct that piece, I try to be Bach (only with fewer kids).
David
on February 20, 2010 6:25pm
I have run the gamut of religious traditions, having been reared a devout Methodist, and served as music director in that denomination as well as Presbyterian, Lutheran (ELCA), Episcopal, United Church of Christ, Christian (Disciples of Christ, and Unitarian-Universalist. I've also taught voice and choral music in private, church-affiliated colleges and at state universities. I consider myself at the Unitarian and beyond end of the spectrum, but have most recently conducted and composed both sacred and secular music from a variety of traditions, including the very Christian and the not-so-very anything. It is musical fancy that intrigues me first, always. Right now I'm conducting Mozart & Brahms secular works, but that may change next semester. The joy of the vocal and choral art is that there is room for all.
Donald Callen Freed
on February 25, 2010 10:45am
Hello, Amy,
It seems to me that perspective, belief and dogma are definitions that divide. What is it to be 'pagan' really? What is it to be Christian really? What is it to be Jewish really? What has any of these definitions to do with anything really? I encourage you to come to as clear and deep understanding of who you are in your spiritual journey upon this plane - at this time. Be content with whatever that is and then get on with the gloriously rich challenge of musicmaking. I would welcome the opportunity to hear from you at any time. Blessings, Louise
on April 3, 2010 5:28am
I was raised Catholic and spent 12 years in Catholic schools before college but, at the age of 19, I very intentionally walked away Christianity and have seen no reason in the subsequent years to trun around.
I am very active in choral singing, including serving as a "ringer" in my wife's Catholic chruch adult choir and I have never seen or felt a conflict singing in the Christian tradition. I look at it this way: it is not the job of a performing artist to project his philosophical convictions while performing. The performing artist's job is to portray whatever the composer wrote to the best of his ability. I see no reason why that should be any less true for a conductor than a singer.
Granted, it can be a bit uncomfortable at times when people assume that you are singing your own convictions and wish to elaborate on them, but I see that as an indication that you did your job well.
on April 4, 2010 8:45am
The wonderful thing about music, especially choral music
which, because there is generally a text, can take us to places
where we have never beem and to which we might not otherwise go. A
chorale of Bach surely trancends the meager frame of his Luteran
tradition. Surely It moved, and still moves, his listeners - and
him! - well beyond the text, beyond the notes, to a universal realm
to which we can all relate. How limiting it would be if we all
sang, and wrote, only music that expressed only our present
'condition'.
on April 30, 2010 12:31pm
Same way an aethiest does!
And I have a distinct love for Latin Liturgical music and 4 part christmas carols. I mean, isn't Jesus more fun when you're not worried about him looking over your shoulder? (I know I know...someone's not going to appreciate the humor....)
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