Sunday Sermonette: Sing Out!

[bill_sheehan]

Four years ago, the music director at my church thought of a way to use her talents to make art, make community, and make money for social needs. Sing for Good! gathered together choristers from other churches to perform, and the hat was passed. Last year, choristers from Falmouth to Provincetown filled half the pews in the Brewster meetinghouse,

Comments

[fairy69]

I wonder if we could include the Baptist churches there. The gospel choirs in the US? Many are downright amazing and I have heard some amateur ones give me chills. I love listening to choirs myself and I was in a choir until 8th grade (studied guitar shortly after that and then went into the visual arts) and my sister is a music teacher in the Catholic Church system. She would agree with you about the budget cuts and children, nowadays either don't care or want to be on The Voice before even being able to sing properly. This frustrates my sister to no end.

[bill_sheehan]

You could certainly include some Baptist churches in there, but the trend away from choir singing towards fewer, more contemporary (miked and amplified) musicians is easy to see there as well.

As always, there are outliers. There’s a strong Gospel choral tradition in some of the black churches like African Methodist Episcopal, for example.

Leading a choir is hard and poorly-paid work. The director of music at my church also leads a college choir and two large community choruses, but also teaches at a Boston college. (I sing under her baton in one of those choruses and am joining the other tonight just because I really want to sing Fauré.)