Opinions requested!

[foxe]

A question for all the musos on my f-list: how do you go about programming repertoire for your choir (or other ensemble) and/or how do you think repertoire should be chosen? (Please indicate also whether you are answering from the perspective of a conductor/musical director, committee member, chorister/player or any combination thereof. Oh, and

Comments

[bar_barra]

Easy enough for me: I have 2 regular smallish ensembles at present at which I wave my arms and our repertoire is hey does this work for you? Roughly half is my idea, the other half belongs to the choir. If I like it and and they don't, it gets dropped. If they like it and I don't, we do it anyway but that's rare. Basically we collect ideas but the final decision seems to be mine. As soon as people start looking at me in that It's Time For You To be Decisive way, I make up my mind and that's what happens.

[foxe]

Ah -- that's more or less how I programme music for the Burlington Singers. Although it's less a matter of "does this work for you" and more a matter of everyone turns up to the first rehearsal and says "where's our music and what are we singing"! Over the past year or so, other members have become more active in suggesting repertoire, and actually the theme for our latest concert and some of the music in it were suggested by another singer, I came up with additional works to fill out the programme and then two other singers suggested two other complementary pieces. That works well for me, I'm trying to get us to the "anarcho-syndicalist collective" stage in any case -- but I do still get the "It's Time For You To Be Decisive" looks more often than not!

[asmodel]

The only experience I've had with assisting choosing music was when I was on MUCS committee. The first time was during a big fall out between committee and Foetus. You were on the c'tee that year too so you may remember. Some people were unhappy with the concerts chosen for the previous year. At the end of that year, the c'tee discussed the general direction we wanted the choir to go in, and from this, generically what sort of concerts we should have as the year progressed. We decided on May - big blockbuster, orchestra and venue; August - organ accompaniment, shorter, moderately well known pieces; December - with a smaller expected membership at the end of the year, a cappella

[foxe]

Yes, I do remember indeed! It wasn't just about powerplay (although that definitely came into it) but also the fact that the then-committee included several people with a fair bit of musical knowledge and experience who had their own ideas about how this should be applied towards achieving their vision for MUCS -- just as I described what I currently do for CAOS above. The point is, though, that you can't always count on having that kind of expertise on committee, and when people have less experience/awareness or are less interested in programme selection, it does then become more of a rubber-stamping thing -- which is also fine, as long as the conductor provides guidance to be rubber-stamped

[asmodel]

You're right, I'm sure Foetus would have a strategic plan of a description. In general, I would prefer a conductor to be open with the general direction s/he wants to go with. In the lead up to the blow out that I mentioned, this was not the case with Foetus, and many began to resent him for this. We felt that Foetus' choices were based on what looked good on his resume, whether this was the case or not. Had he been upfront about his reasons for choosing, I may not have felt this way. The second c'tee I was on didn't have a lot of expertise in choosing repertoire, but in retrospect, I would have preferred to give some general ideas before Foetus came up with a selection. I like the process Philip describes below

[phi1ip]

Hi Sarah!

Given I've now been conducting ROCS for about the same amount of time as you did before me... Sandra and I usually have an ongoing conversation at the pub about the generic type of concerts ROCS should be doing over the course of the current or the next year - variety is good afterall - and once that’s more or less settled, I go away and either try to think of an overall theme, or group of repertoire pieces that will work together (sort of a top-down approach), or to start building up a programme from individual pieces, hoping that the musical connections between those pieces will allow a complete programme to crystallise around them (more a bottom-up approach

[phi1ip]

One or two further comments from me, but not related to ROCS.

A lot of smaller ensembles often have one dedicated conductor or music director, rather than a staff of principal/guest conductors coming and going. I think it's arguable (on grounds that two heads are better than one) that its desirable to have more than one individual deciding the musical direction, as there is always going to be contention between conductor(s), musical director(s), committee, and members of the ensemble as to what music they want to perform.

A committee imposing repertoire on a conductor may have the prospect of the ensemble having a rapid turnover of unhappy conductors; asmodel upthread has described the reverse case of the dictates of a conductor sometimes resulting in an unhappy committee or choir (a generalisation: some members of the ensemble may be quite happy to work under a dictator, benevolent or otherwise!)

[foxe]

Your general approach to programming (either top-down or bottom-up) seems to be pretty much in accord with mine, in that either I come up with a piece/pieces that I think we should do (for whatever reasons) and build the programme around those, or a theme that works (for whatever reasons) and pieces to fill it -- or more often, it's a combination of the two and things just seem to come together. Sort of like solving a cryptic crossword, if you know what I mean

[tigerdenbodu]

Ha! I think you actually had far more choral experience than me :P
ROCS seemed to just organically come up with repertoire. Obviously I put the first concert together, then it just seemed to go with what seemed like fun at the time - depending on who we were collaborating with, or who had a particular idea.

[japr]

Because an ensemble is a group of people it will always be a level of politics and therefore you have to work out how to keep people satisfied

[foxe]

Yes, I agree -- I am always happy to get suggestions from other people, for many reasons: it means they are taking more of an active interest in the choir than just passive participation, it sometimes introduces me to new and interesting music, and as Philip says two heads are better than one. So far with CAOS we have done quite a few works (mostly short) suggested by members; the two I haven't done were the Barber Agnus Dei, which at that stage I thought was simply beyond the choir's abilities, and a Schubert piece for which we couldn't get hold of the music in an appropriate arrangement.

I will post my thoughts on how I go about suggesting programmes shortly...

[pezzae]

For Woody's eight-person small group, anyone who has some music they want to sing brings it along and we have a go and decide if we like it. One of these days, we may actually sing some of the music we've learnt :o)
MUCS, SCUNA and MonUCS all seem/ed to be much more conductor-driven, which is unsurprising given that conductors tend to know lots more about potential music and what might go together than most university choristers (and even a lot of committee members, who love their choir but don't really consider themselves 'musos').

[foxe]

Yep -- that sounds like Burli Singers in the first case (although I still tend to bring most of the music) and CAOS for the second, which I think is appropriate. What you mention about conductors tending to know (lots) more about potential music is also generally true; I think it is the case for me and the CAOS committee, wasn't the case for me and ROCS way back when I started conducting them in 2000, and perhaps wasn't entirely the case for MUCS in the circumstances that Pennie mentions (I'm sure Foetus did know more than us, but there was a fair bit of experience and musical know-how on the committee and that meant that people started to have their own ideas about what they wanted to do and where the choir should go, rather than just leaving it to the conductor).

I think ultimately 'vision', and who has it, is pretty important in how you select repertoire. More on this later...