Green Sundays in the Summer

An astute reader asked me for more details about what I do to keep music alive during the summer when the choir is on break.

I have a different singer or instrumentalist come every Sunday - that's the goal, at least. I do this for a few reasons:

• I get tired of picking repertoire to learn and play.
• It creates a slightly more relaxed atmosphere for the summer.
• I think people get tired of hearing me play organ and piano all the time.
• It involves people in worship leadership roles.
• It might get a few people into church to support the soloist (especially grandparents).
• It is a great, low-pressure time for amateur musicians to grow by doing a solo.
• It reminds everyone that I'm not just twiddling my thumbs all summer without a choir to rehearse.

Getting people to commit to a particular Sunday is a challenge - often folks don't know exactly when in August they're going on vacation when I ask them in May. So I tend to be able only to schedule people about 4 weeks out. Which is why it's great to have one person who is willing to be a "floater" - ready to step in at the last minute, but also happy to wait until the last Sunday of the summer.

There are three logical places to perform a solo in the Episcopal Eucharistic liturgy: prelude, offering, and communion. Placement of a given soloist depends on several variables. Is it perky? Not communion, then. Is it really quiet? Not prelude. Is it a young person who will be especially nervous? Probably not offering when there is nothing else going on to take the pressure off (such as quiet talking during prelude and communion). Singers never get put on for prelude, although it would be interesting to try. One important thing to note: I hate the term "Special Music" because it implies that the rest of the music in a service is not special. Music in liturgy always serves a purpose. So I opt to title it "Music at the offering".

Whether my guest musician is a recorder player, a singer, or a cellist, I always try to have him or her do something liturgical as well. This hopefully takes away the performance mentality and pushes the performer (it's hard to avoid that word...) toward a liturgical role. For singers, the easiest thing is to have him or her sing the Psalm in a congregational refrain/cantored verses style. Chanting other service music or the first verse of a hymn could work as well. Instrumentalists can do everything from play the melody on a few verses of a hymn, to a Taizé obbligato, to improvising their own part on a hymn, to playing the introduction to service music and/or hymns. After many years of swearing at Finale, I've become pretty adept at quickly creating instrumental parts for hymnody for those who need them.

One more note regarding singers: I don't worry too much about matching song texts to the lessons for the day. If they can complement each other in some way, I'm thrilled. But as long as it is a)sacred, b)not a Christmas carol, and c)of an appropriate style, I'm basically ok.