Music and Worship: Choirs

The two Anglican churches in Chandler’s Ford, St Boniface and St Martin in the Wood, are fortunate to have had flourishing church choirs for many years. But what are choirs for and why do we need them? (Things have changed since ancient times: the Greek word choros from which our word choir comes, could refer to a group of dancers!)

Present-day church choirs are there to help lead their fellow-worshippers in hymns and songs and in some spoken parts of the service. I do mean ‘lead’ rather than dominate or monopolise, because today everyone expects wide congregational participation in parish worship. Of course this doesn’t mean that the choir can never perform music that a congregation wouldn’t be able to sing. Choirs enjoy singing anthems, for example, and the few minutes that an anthem takes can give everyone else valuable space for thought and reflection.

In the 1970s and 80s choirs were often among the most diverse organisations within the church. By this time women and girls usually had a place alongside men and boys, and it was often genuinely ‘all-age worship’ with singers from eight to over 80. Today few boys belong to church choirs except where a strong cathedral-style choral tradition exists. And also there are relatively few young girl singers. Both St Boniface and St Martin’s would welcome more junior singers.

Choirs also need a sizeable number of young and youngish adults to avoid even the most vigorous group becoming tired, less able to hit the high notes, resistant to change, etc. So could you perhaps help (in Chandler’s Ford if you live there, or elsewhere if you don’t)? What is required?

You must be able to sing in tune, but you needn’t have passed any exams or have had singing lessons. You needn’t read music, but especially if you’re an alto, tenor or bass, you’ll find it helps if you can. Reading music is probably no harder (it may even be easier) than GCSE Maths or driving a car.

You need to make a commitment of time. The hard-line days of ‘twice every Sunday and every choir practice without fail’ have gone – but one service every now and then is not an option.

You must like music and be open to what’s new to you (whether that’s a song from Mission Praise, an unfamiliar anthem, or a traditional piece from Hymns Ancient and Modern Revised).

What will you gain? Perhaps the hymn writer Fred Pratt Green has an answer:

When, in our music, God is glorified,
and adoration leaves no room for pride,
it is as though the whole creation cried:
Alleluia!

How often, making music, we have found
a new dimension in the world of sound,
as worship moved us to a more profound
Alleluia!

Fred Pratt Green (1903–2000)
Included in H. Benham, Music and Worship (Chandler’s Ford, 2007), where it was reproduced from Partners in Creation by permission of Stainer & Bell Ltd,
London, England.