Religious Concert at a Public School

A large majority of choral music is religious in nature, so it can be hard for choral teachers to choose works that are "good music" and secular at the same time. If the words really bother you, try to focus on the actual music instead. Even if you're not religious at all, you can at least believe that other people believe stories about Abraham, Jesus, and Muhammed are true. Try to sing the words as if you were telling a story, instead of proclaiming "The Word of God". And if you really have strong objections to the repertoire, ask your teacher if you could sit the song out.

...but it CAN be if there is a clear prevalence in the teacher's choices that favor one particular religion over the course of the year. Despite being an atheist, I am a big fan of christian choral music. Its beautiful and culturally significant. But contrary to popular belief, there is a LOT of non-christian and non-religious choral music out there, too, and public schools have an obligation not to show favor when it comes to religiously themed materials. If the teacher consistently picks a predominance of pieces that are christian-themed, her choices are probably unlawful. It is not unlawful, however, to include those pieces in a diverse program that recognizes the work for its artistry, rather than its religious content.

TTFN,
Blackout

-------------------------

Yes, I've changed my username from "percivale" to "Blackout." Go here if you want to know why.

I figured that as someone with quite a bit of choir experience, I might just add my two cents. Or cent, at least (why two?).

After typing this, I realize I might be a little long-winded here. But I hope I made my point. You know I'm not insulting you or disagreeing, but just offering some things that you probably wouldn't know, since you're not in the choir and don't have quite as much choral experience as I've had over the course of my life, so far.

Anyway, choral music is generally a tricky proposition. The problem is, Ms. T's working with a very large singing group, so most college-style pop song arrangements would just sound clunky (even with Chambers, "Africa" and "Accidentally in Love" were pushing it). And outside the pop songs, within secular music, you have a very limited range of musical options for groups of such a large size. You could dig out some folk song arrangements, but choral versions of folk songs are generally few and far between, and are usually arranged for a men's or women's chorus; not combined. The single folk song arrangement for full chorus that Ms. T employed this year is evidence of the lack of such arrangements: The Salley Gardens displeased her because it changed the words, but she wasn't able to find another version, it seems.

The other exceptions in secular music would be madrigals, which are good for a Chambers-sized group. And as proof of my point that size is a factor, you'll notice that Chambers performed an Italian madrigal about hunting, an english madrigal about rampant sex, and two pop songs. Not a single religious song, and that was probably because we were taking advantage of the opportunity that a smaller group presented.
Generally, beyond a group of that size, most of the music is religious, because historically, the only groups of such a large size are groups singing in religious situations. And the Christian church, of all religious groups, has the most specifically-choral traditions, so there are generally more Christian songs for such large groups than there are for other types.

Another thing to note is that generally, I commend Ms. T. for finding music of very diverse styles to use in our concert, despite its somewhat-uniform textual nature. Between the Renaissance "O Domine" and the extremely-modern "Fire in the Furnace," I honestly think that it was very difficult to say that the concert had any musical monotony to it.

To be honest, those of differing religions in our choruses appreciated the challenges that Ms. Tornillo faced in finding as much diversity as she did. In fact, several Jewish men's ensemble members absolutely loved "Fire in the Furnace."

The problem is that going outside a certain stylistic range represents a challenge for the students, also. Bolder programming choices, such as post-modern atonal music or Middle-Eastern music (some of which even uses a different scale than ours) would be lost on the listeners, as well as many of those who are trying to perform it.

Generally, the problem is also many times greater for a chorus than for an orchestral group, since the words are another issue.

Frankly, I would wait until college to decide that Christian or religious music overwhelms the subject matter of most concerts, because you will find that with the smaller men's or women's college groups, more secular music is possible. With large groups, a lot of that stuff just sounds muddy, as you no doubt observed with "I Dreamed a Dream," an arrangement really meant for a chorus of no more than twenty, rather than a thundering herd of two hundred or more.

As far as the comment about Ms. T. telling people to look reverent, I'd just say this: The style of music that requires an appreciation for what it's supposed to sound like. As anything else in the music business is, this is performance art. You're going to have to sing words you don't believe and music you don't like, and that's what you agree to do when you sign up for chorus. I would certainly not be coddled for refusing to say the lines given me, were they to defy my religious beliefs, in a musical or play. The same goes for chorus: The experience is more in the music than in the words, and all of the choral students who haven't left the chorus respect that.

Culturally, she kept a fairly high level of diversity, despite the religious monotony you pointed out. She used a processional, a Renaissance piece, a Classical piece, a Spiritual, some modern, more-liberal takes on religion (Sing Me To Heaven), a jazz/rock piece, a piece based on Swahili language and music of African roots, and a Gospel-style piece. Ultimately, there was no real repetition in the program, if you ask me.

Overall, I'd have to say that the concert was as diverse as it could be when all factors are accounted for, and I think the teacher does a very good job of keeping up as much diversity as possible with the constraints.

I am planning on forming a small a cappella group out of some Chambers people next year, though, so maybe you'll see enough diversity to satisfy you. I'll see what I can do to find some stylistically and religiously diverse material over the summer, since a smaller group could much more easily do such songs. Heck, if I have a group of 4 men and 4 women, we can even split up and do 4-part women's/men's songs. Much more range that way.

-Ben