Why do I sing in a church choir ? I don't really know, to be honest. I am not very religious, I have lived outside the Catholic church for longer than I have been in. But I love to sing and I like a lot of sacred music. I am also fascinated by the sound of harmony in voices, and I like the comfort of singing in a group. When I realized that the St Mary of the Snow choir did not require auditions, all are welcome, I decided to chance it and see if I could survive there.
That was close to 10 years ago.
The first year was frightening. I was promptly put into the alto-soprano section and handed tons of new music. When you are an alto you rarely sing the melody line, so even if I knew a song, I had to relearn it. I can read music, but sight-singing on the fly is a whole other thing ! I would just sit in the group of altos and try to listen to the others and follow along, singing very quietly if at all. The first few years were very stressful to my voice, I had bouts of laryngitis, especially in the winter months. My voice has never been a big powerful one, so the 1 1/2 to 2+ hour practices (depending on the time of the year) were a challenge.
I stuck with it. I started making friends with many of the people there, and my voice definitely improved, though still firmly in average territory. There was a sense of accomplishment in learning a new part, and there is a thrill in hearing voices vibrate in harmony, that magic moment when all that hard work comes together.
When I say hard work, I am not joking. We practice every week for at least 1 1/2 hrs, often longer if near Christmas or Easter. Our choir director has heavy Napoleonic tendencies so you sing as you are instructed, this is no democracy... He moves quickly, hears every wrong note, and makes you practice until you get it right or a least reach a level of sound that'
he can tolerate. He throws new music at you constantly, you will always be challenged in some way. We like to complain about it, but I think the challenge is why we keep coming back.
Through all of this, we have somehow become a family, a dysfunctional one as we like to joke, but a family none-the-less. We range in age from college students to grandparents. Some are extremely devout, others not so much. Some I count as close friends, some I don't really know well at all. We are as diverse as any family, but when push comes to shove, we are there for each other. We gather together for seasonal parties and laugh and drink just like a real family. Our summer dinner/cabaret dinner is lots of hard work, but fun in that it gives us a chance to do some secular music and have fun with it. Some sing and act, some cook and serve, but we all come together and make it work.
So why am I in this choir ? When you combine the joy of making music with a sense of community, service and friendship, the lure is irresistible.
