Village Baptist Church Choir Newsletter February 2016

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Part 5 – Feeling or Technique?

While driving my car the other day I got to wondering, which is more important, my brakes or my powertrain? Which do I really want to do work VERY well? If it was a ‘show car’ it wouldn’t matter. (I saw ’61 Chevy that had 93 original miles for sale! It was beautiful, but it hadn’t been anywhere and they got like $70 thousand for it.) Some folks spend thousands on a car just to have it, not to drive it—but if it’s a ‘driver’ both going and stopping are very important occasionally one is more important, but I’d hate to have to establish before the fact which I’d like to have working today. Bottom line; give me a driver with drive train and braking system in top order. That’s also the way it is with feeling and technique in musical endeavor, a brilliant technical performance with no emotional energy is sterile and disconnected, but all the emotional energy in the world is unsatisfactory if the technique is lacking. Balance is essential—the choir faces several of these ‘balance’ issues. Is choral music simply to convey ‘a message’, since our text is usually on the screen, isn’t that enough? As long as the text is biblical and well written, why does it have to be sung at all? Is the music simply a means to display choral artistry and provide a pleasing production of a text—a performance of talent from disciplined musicians is fine but without emotion and feeling it has little value, especially in a worship context! In rehearsal we spend time learning, notes, rhythm, dynamics, diction, blend, balance, vocal production, and drill at the craft of making it all happen at once!! All of those aspects must happen in balance—including the obvious balance of the four or more parts—each section making just the right amount of sound! Of all the challenges, balance may be the most difficult to achieve. These are mostly technical aspects of choir, and perhaps require a disproportionate amount of our time. We all have lots of balancing to do in life; we should be good at it by now, but alas, it continues to plague us as things spin out of control.

Think about it, both our musical and spiritual lives crave balance. Balance of rest with

Essential Re-choirments – Gordon Borror

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Village Baptist Church Choir Newsletter February 2016

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activity, social contact with alone time to think, pray and rest mentally. Balance of family life with career and recreation, of professional interaction with introspection, and of personal quiet time. Church life, worship, service, and committee responsibilities, with marriage, children, and sports—can it all happen for the glory of God and our good? Many of us are in a catch as catch can position on these important issues, always trying to ‘catch-up’! This is where we need the ever available ministry of the Holy Spirit Who can guide our decision-making processes, because life-balance requires God’s direct empowerment as we commit to carry out His will in the daily round of activities demanding both technical and emotional involvement.

Music and cars have a lot in common; both are vehicles that take us on journeys or just around town, so they are functional as well as enjoyable! Both require maintenance and attention to details, and if one part is broken all the other parts are affected and perhaps ‘out of service’. The genius of a choir is that it has almost as many parts as a car—if one little screw is missing, the whole thing can fail. You may be the engine or a nut which holds the muffler on—but YOU are important, and without YOU there could be a giant failure and we couldn’t arrive at the destination!! Thanks for always trying to improve your technical abilities as a musician, but don’t forget your heart and the feelings/emotions that help it connect with eternal truth spiritually—individually and in community!

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Village Baptist Church Choir Newsletter February 2016

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Before we can determine what key a piece of music is in, we must understand intervals. This was touched on last time, so let’s continue on that topic.

If you hear Gordon say, “ that next note is only a step up”, what does he mean? Here’s one way to understand steps:

So a step generally means a wholestep, like C to D, or F to G. Just focus on the white keys for now. If you start on a C, then the next step is D. We assign a number to intervals as well. If you start on C, call that “1”. The next step up is D or “2”. If you then go on to E, that is another step to “3”. These numbers are the basis for Gordon using the phrases, “The note is a 3rd above”, “Go down a 4th”. If we start on a C, here are the possible intervals:

Here are those same notes on a keyboard.

Intervals are all relative…

Foundations Of Faith

O Worship the King

The author of this hymn, Sir Robert Grant, was a British lawyer and politician. He remained in Parliament for many years. Like his father, he was deeply concerned with social issues. Through his persistent efforts, a bill was eventually passed which emancipated England's Jews. He fought for other minority groups, too. In the meantime, he was a strong supporter of world missions and influential among evangelicals in the Church of England.

This hymn is considered one of the greatest in the English language. Reading William Kethe's translation of Psalm 104 in a 1561 psalm book prompted Robert to write his own version of the psalm, familiar to millions of church-goers.

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Village Baptist Church Choir Newsletter February 2016

Main Adult Choir Website: http://tiny.cc/t0si2x

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The more important intervals are 3rd and 5th, because they help to set the key the music was written in. Sometimes a note that is a 5th is not there, but the music composer almost always uses a 3rd.

Of course, if you go up a 5th, you can also go down a 5th, as in this example. So, if you are on a C and Gordon says, “Go up a 5th”, you would sing a G. If you are on a G and Gordon says, “Go down a 5th”, you would then sing a C.

Now that you know there are intervals between notes, we must understand the very slight difference when the notes are played sequentially verses at the same time. When notes are played one after the other, the intervals are called Melodic Intervals. They follow a melody! If

the notes are played at the same time (like in hymns), the intervals are called Harmonic Intervals. Harmonic Intervals are important when all the voices are singing. It helps to establish the key the music is written in. What’s important is that an interval of a 3rd or a 5th never changes, just when the interval is sung. When Ester plays a chord on the piano, this is exclusive use of Harmonic Intervals. A C-chord uses the notes C, E, and G. If we assign a 1 to C, then E is a 3, and G is a 5.

Here’s an example of the differences.

When Gordon has us sing the Harmonic Intervals during warmups, he has us go up, or down, in half steps. But we always maintain the intervals between the voices. This is how we know we are in tune. When Gordon makes those icky faces, it means not all of us maintained the proper intervals. To say this in musical terms, “Our melodic interval was off, causing wrong harmonic intervals”. So if the

tenors don’t maintain that 5th interval relative to the Sopranos, we also throw off the intervals with the Altos and Basses. See, we really do need each other!

As you look at our current music, try to determine the intervals your part sings, then determine the intervals when all the voices are singing. Every director, Gordon included, will talk about intervals, but they alternate between the intervals your group is singing, with maintaining the intervals when all voices are singing.

Understanding melodic intervals with help your sight-reading skills, and hearing the harmonic intervals will help you hear your parts when you listed to the full choir recordings.

The family that sings together…. well, has more fun!

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Village Baptist Church Choir Newsletter February 2016

Shelley Plaep

Shelley has been our choir librarian for 5 years, since Gordon arrived. She has helped in other areas over the years. She sings 1st alto, or 2nd soprano. Having sung in choirs during school/college, she joined the Worship team when she first came to Village about 26 years ago. She would join the choir for Easter and Christmas. She went full-time choir sometime in the 90s. Her favorite hymn is “Be Thou My Vision”. Right now, she’s leaning on Proverbs 3:5-6.

Max Brown

Max is our versatile tenor. He sings first tenor, but can also sing second when needed. Max has been singing all his life, much to Carol’s delight! Max and Carol have been at Village over 15 years. High on Max’s list of favorite hymns is “Great Is They Faithfulness”. Among his favorite verses is Psalm 116:1-2 "I love the Lord, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy. Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live."

Choir Member Spotlight

Feb 4-Bill Phillips, 7-Joe Adams, 11-Sok Tu Kim, 13-Yan Jiang, 26-Ning Hallen