Why don't they write more two or three-part octavos/anthems? (stuff for my choir to sing without the congregation.)
I mean, it seems to me that the majority of church choirs are stumbling along with "sopranos, altos, and a few good men." (I actually have a book called that.)
I wonder if for every one church that has a strong 4-part choir, there are 3 churches that don't. But maybe not. Thinking of my city, there are 4 churches that probably have choirs like that, and mine is the one limping along in three parts.
But in other cities, (like I'm thinking of metro Detroit,) there seems to be a lot more smaller churches.
Those big ol' publishing companies could make a lot of money off this market!
It's especially frustrating to me to think of all the repertoire, mostly classical, that my choir would probably never be able to sing. And so I spend hours looking for easier pieces, requiring less singers, but that are still high-quality!
(I hope I haven't blogged about this before. Sorry, if so.)
1 comment:
I saw you have a lot of SJMP stuff when I subbed. That's all good, although the lack of diversity in form (verse 1 women, verse 2 men, verse 3 2 parts, verse 4 unison and descant) tends to annoy me. Maybe try some of these bicinium here: http://ceciliaschola.org/scores/lasso_duets.pdf I would also recommend lots of chants and chant hymns using alternatim.
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