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Our Ward Chorister's Dilemma



This drives me nuts. Despite possessing the talent to lead the congregation in singing hymns, our LDS ward chorister has given up on us and simply follows the piano's lead. The only two congregationalists watching her held out their notes to the very end of the phrase, but those were the only voices for that final 4/4 count. Even though it was correct, it sounded pretty weird. Why would she choose to submit like that?

I can come up with three possible motivations for why this might be:


  1. She is, in fact, leading the congregation and the pianist is perfectly following her. She hasn't given up on the congregation at all; although we haven't not followed her lead properly in over 15 months, she remains continually hopeful that we will, one day, hold out the last note of the phrase to the very end.
  2. If I were her, I would have given in as a result of months of frustration, and contented myself on synchronizing my conducting with the piano; at least then, I would feel like one person was following me.
  3. She might not feel like she has any other option. Why fight against a tidal force of lazy singers?

If you were conducting in her place, would you cut off congregational singers when they end by themselves or obstinately hold out with the piano?

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Listening to: Modest Mouse - Float On

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Comments

  1. Julie TWed May 27, 10:48:00 AM MDT

    I would cut them off so that everyone feels successful (including the audience at the end)
    but only after telling them that that was case so they could hold it out maybe a second longer and feel like it was a compromise.

    ReplyDelete

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