Mutiny in the Choir Loft

Mutiny in the Choir Loft

For as churning the milk produces butter,

and as twisting the nose produces blood,

so stirring up anger produces strife.

Proverbs 30:33

One fall day, I went to the choral music store to see if I could dig up anything new and exciting for the coming Advent season.  The four weeks of Advent can become same-old, same-old, year after year, and that can be as tiring for the director as it is for the choir.  The saleslady brought out a set of four advent “meditations,” only 2-3 pages each, with beautiful poetry and meaningful messages.  The only drawback was that the music was not lushly romantic or serenely melodic.  It was a bit atonal (ignoring conventional harmonies).  It was nothing, however, that the excellent musicians in my choir could not conquer.

I remember how excited I was when we pulled out these pieces to begin rehearsing.  I also clearly remember how the emotional temperature steadily dropped in the choir room as we progressed through the set, until it was near freezing at the end.  I naively assumed that this was just a new experience for them and that additional rehearsals would quickly turn things around.  I was incorrect, to put it mildly.

The "churning butter" of telephone calls lit up back and forth, evening to morning and on throughout the next day.  By the weekend, a message was sent to me down through the pipeline:  drop the hated Advent meditations, or the choir would “walk.”  When my stunned self did not immediately reply, a second message was delivered:  some of the choir members were jumping ship, “no matter what you do.”  And they did.

We ended up singing two of the four pieces for Advent that year.  Although I thought they turned out well, my sadder but wiser self learned a valuable lesson that had nothing to do with atonality.  It doesn’t take a mob to start an avalanche.  One or two angry individuals can "twist enough noses" to cause people to make decisions that might permanently alter the work of your group.  We all needed to ask ourselves the question:  Why do we sing in the church choir?   Hopefully the answer to that was and is, “To praise and glorify God.”

I love You, Lord, and I lift my voice

To worship You, O my soul, rejoice.

Take joy, my King, in what you hear.

May it be a sweet, sweet sound in your ear.

The Faith We Sing, No. 2068