Tedd A Jander wrote:

>But I am greatly involved with choral music.  A lot of mixed feelings
>exist about whether choirs should totally memorize their music or not
>within the choral area.

Tedd went on to add many more comments.

My main musical endeavor is in choral music and I am firmly and adamantly
opposed to memorizing choral music except in the rare instance of an encore
or theme song etc.  Here's why:

1.  If you are in a professional choir situation, you will probably
have three to four rehearsals to learn your concert.  Memorization in
this setting is silly and impossible.  Further, most of the professional
choristers in a given area are in several different groups and are often
rehearsing more than one program at once.  It is simply unreasonable to
ask them to memorize music.

2.  At the collegiate level, students should be learning as much repertoire
as possible.  Spending hours of rehearsal time trying to memorize a program
drastically cuts into time that could be spent learning other repertoire.
I realize that some very fine choirs whose conductors I respect greatly
(Anton Armstrong at St.  Olaf's comes to mind) often perform from memory.
As fine as they are, I don't see what is so impressive about singing from
memory.

3.  As for the looking up, heads out of folders etc.  argument, I would
have to following to say:  It takes about a room temperature IQ to figure
out how to hold a folder and look at the conductor.  If the conductor
can't teach his or her choir how to do this effectively, then they should
dismount the podium for heaven's sake and sell shoes.  If no one at your
school has taught the younger singers how to balance looking at music and
conductor simultaneously, there are some real deficiencies in the choral
program that need attention fast!

>My last example is from a concert I went to at the Sheldon Concert Hall in
>St. Louis, Missouri.  The concert was from April 5, 1998 and the ensemble
>was Theatre of Voices.

Paul Hillier's Theatre of Voices is one of the finest choral ensembles
in the world.  I for one love to use music stands in choral performances
as it frees my hands and allows me to stand in a much more natural position
to sing.  Holding one's arms in front of one with 5-6 pounds of music in it
is more like unto an endurance test than a way to sing.  If the choir was
unexpressive, it it the fault of the singers not the stands.  Do you feel
like great violinists are unexpressive behind their stands? I hope not.
Not to bash Tedd, who has some valid points and certainly knows better than
I how he was personally effected by his experiences, I am afraid that I
can't take his side on the memory issue.  After nearly 25 years of choral
experience I am convinced that the score is a good thing.

Kevin Sutton