Copyright: © 1997 Paul F. Bosch.
This document may be freely reproduced for non-commercial purposes with credit to the author and mention of the Lift Up Your Hearts web site http://www.worship.ca/ as the source. This essay first appeared in the October 1997 issue of Organ Canada, the national journal of the Royal Canadian College of Organists. Posted to the World-Wide Web by permission.

"Of course, the days of the choir are over," the speaker was saying. The time was the early 'Seventies, in those exciting and heady days of the first reforms of the liturgy from the Second Vatican Council; the speaker was my colleague and co-worker, the Roman Catholic Chaplain at the university we both served.

Shocked at his statement, I pressed him; he went on to elaborate--and temper!--his argument. For four hundred years, he explained, a semi-professional choir, in his tradition, had been doing all the peoples' work, at Mass. Today, he said, following the reforms of Vatican II, the people were re-claiming their rightful role in worship, and the days when the choir usurped the peoples' role were coming to a close.

Now, understanding the context out of which he spoke, I found myself no longer shocked, but nodding in agreement at his words.

Of course, in my own tradition--perhaps in yours!--the situation was somewhat different. Our choirs, in "Protestant" worship, had never really usurped the peoples' role. But I had to admit, to myself if not to my Roman Catholic friend, that in much of "Protestant" worship, the choir--most often amateur--served a largely decorative function, unrelated to the dynamics and needs of worship. The choir, too much of the time, prepared and presented an anthem, perhaps every Sunday, to be sure. But the Psalm, in our "Protestant" worship, was as often as not spoken, rather than sung.

And the congregational singing of liturgy and hymns, unembellished and sometimes altogether unaided by the choir, was often listless, un-inspired, and un-inspiring!

Henry Horn, one of my mentors, has suggested a prescription for the proper role of a choir in Christian worship. First and foremost, he maintains, the choir exists to aid and enable and embellish the congregation's own praise. The liturgy itself, and the congregation's hymns and psalms: these should be the primary focus of a choir's time and energy. And an anthem? Only if there's time and energy left over! The anthem is decoration; the peoples' praise is what's essential!

Hymn-singing, in Christian churches, ought to be thrilling, full-throated, inspiring! The chief Hymn of the Day, perhaps, could be treated in the kind of alternatim familiar to European church-goers, with choir or organ or other instruments embellishing the people's voices with descants on one or more stanzas. The Psalm each week should be one of the musical highlights of the Day: never spoken; always sung, by people and choir in any of several responsorial methods, with (again!) organ or instrumental ornamentation that sends worshipers' hearts soaring.

Any anthem is strictly secondary to these supreme moments of congregational praise. The anthem should of course relate to moods and themes for the Day. But a choir's major time and energies--and the choir's major fun!--belong with the liturgy itself, and with congregational hymns and psalms. An anthem might be nice, but it's never essential!

The liturgy itself, and congregational hymns and psalms: that's first. Perhaps an anthem or motet, to enlarge and comment on the congregation's praise: that's second. And third: concerts and recitals of sacred music, perhaps apart from Sunday's worship, to enlarge and instruct a community's corporate soul. That kind of priority, in a choir's job-description, makes sense to me!