"Melanin Messiah Notes: Three-Year Confessions of a Rogue Basso Continuo Player"
Three years ago I got a call to play a “Messiah gig”, which
for most string players is a common holiday season musical experience. (For most orchestral players, if you're not playing Messiah, then you're playing Nutcracker!! Either oratorio or ballet!!) These
gigs usually involve one two-hour rehearsal and the performance—also of about
two hours’ duration. A violinist once
told me that she played sixteen different performances of the oratorio Messiah of George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) in one holiday season...done by that many respective
choral groups!! While I have been hearing the music of this work as long as I
can remember, my first-hand performing experience of this work began during my
graduate school years three decades ago, and they continue today!!
In the "orchestra"--I played as cellist of a string quartet, along with a
pianist (a rehearsal necessity for most choral ensembles) and an
organist. (Organists have a traditional “odd instrument out” position in such productions, depending on the availability and capability of an instrument. Most organs are electric and/or electronic for performances and
tend to be played…TOO loudly.) The choir
was a “community” ensemble, directed by an elderly woman whose conducting “technique”
left me with more than a few surprises, which I discovered with surprising
astonishment and sometimes even fearful trepidation!! The choir sings for the love
of the music and the cooperative experience of singing together. While its
membership is racially integrated, it should be mentioned with emphasis that
the majority of the ensemble is comprised of African Americans. This matter will receive additional comment later.
The rehearsal began with the gradual arrival and participation among all performing forces (minus the organist). The choir was of “late middling age” (they're mostly senior citizens--I just don't think that they have all moved to those communities of downsized apartments). I doubt very
seriously that there were any members who were above 85 years of age (but there may be!!). I only recall noticing one or two members who
appeared to be less than forty. All of the soloists were drawn from the choir, and
sang with moderate vocal distinction. While the work opens with an instrumental
Overture, the rehearsal began instead with the opening recitative and aria for tenor, “Comfort
Ye”. Such is not a problem generally--in fact, it’s a rather “user-friendly
beginning”--except for the tenor soloist. It was at this point that I began to
discover exactly HOW the choral director communicated her musical intentions
and directives to the choir and instrumentalists. She did not “conduct” in the
way expected by most musicians; she used a choral-piano score sitting
on a music stand RAISED HIGH, but kept her hands close to the stand--making it
very difficult for me to see and follow her conducted gestures. Now “those
gestures”--didn’t always pertain to the rhythms, meter, tempo, mood and
character of the music…OR even the tone of the text!! This made for a “guessing game”
that I had never encountered before!! When I tried to ask a few questions about her conducted
intentions, I failed to get helpful information nor any clearer indications
upon repeated rehearsal.
The largest ensemble issue I encountered was the matter of
tempo establishment and maintenance—which is not unusual, given the demands of
Handel’s imitative writing in so many of the commonly-sung choruses. The conductor “conducted”—not
to the instrumentalists but to the choir…even to the extent that she would even stop
conducting during the orchestral postlude to seat the choir--following the
choir’s “exit”--but before the music of the chorus had finished singing. While
such a motion didn’t disrupt the performance, it wasn’t entirely necessary; it didn’t
save very much time in performance, and might be viewed as a “LESS than GOOD directorial habit”. ALL…and I do mean ALL of her conducted cues
required the strangest measure of “visual guesswork” on the part of the
instrumentalists—because she kept her hands so low and the music stand so
high!! She gave little to no clear preparatory beats, which serve to indicate
the conductor’s intended tempo. Since the choir never sang in the first measure
of any chorus, the job of “catching the tempo”…fell to the instrumentalists.
Therefore, the practice of this “community” choir pretty much excused any
excesses of tempo (often due to the technical limitations of the pianist, upon
whom the choir is HIGHLY dependent!!). The instrumentalists are brought in ONLY
for the rehearsal the day before the performance--which is but a run-through, NOT a rehearsal.
In fact, MOST rehearsals involving orchestral musicians are really
run-throughs, which is both a reflection of good choral and conductor
preparation, but not always a guarantee of the most effective degree of musical
learning.
Needless to say, that first year was a doozy!! I learned how
difficult the conductor was to follow, but in the second year I learned…how to
solve a few musical problems without frustrating the limited abilities of the
conductor!! At this point I must pause and describe the design of the
performance space, a church sanctuary. The pulpit and choir loft occupied the majority of a triangle-shaped area. The choir occupied three rows of the loft, but sat nearly ten feet behind the strings, who were all but trapped between the immovable pulpit lectern, the conductor, and the large pulpit "thrones" against a low wall that separated the main pulpit from the front section of the choir loft, which was humanly unoccupied but taken up instead by a trap drum set and other unused electrical instruments of “praise-band worship”. The piano and organ were situated at the opposite “points of this triangle”, which made visual and acoustic coordination difficult. At the “rehearsal-through” (which the organist did not attend, it wasn’t necessary for me to stay seated next to the organ where I had been the previous year...'remember my previous
comment about rehearsals?), I took the proactive “liberty” of moving away from
the traditional seating of the string quartet to sit next to the pianist. Once I got seated next to the pianist, I assured her that I would try to match her left hand on every beat. Once that happened, the sense of rhythmic stability and coordination for everyone...solidified almost immediately. The
adjusted seating choice of mine had a mixed advantage: I was able to match the
attack of the piano sound with immediate consistency, but I ended up with a rather
uncomfortable sitting position...on the steps leading up into and from the choir loft
itself.
The one issue that didn’t get
solved was the sight problem between the first violinist of the string quartet:
while the conductor was hard enough to watch and follow (or not!!), the first
violin had to play with her back to the pianist and me. The only way avert such a
blind playing situation would’ve been to use an organ
loft mirror!! Fortunately there was only one bad moment of coordination, and hopefully there were ten great ensemble moments to
offset that one!! Even though I was able to play right with the pianist (who wore bangles on her right arm that jingled as she played!!), the challenge of “maintaining ensemble” between the choir (who were seated some ten feet behind the instrumentalists), the conductor (who maintained her hand and stand positions) fell to the “New Rhythm Section--#CelloArtBlakey and #Ms88Keys”!! The challenge of the second year’s performance--watching, anticipating, coordinating, adjusting…and when necessary “usurping the choreographed attack”—made that performance both memorable and even downright “insurrective”!!
The next “lesson” I learned from that Year Two experience involved navigating the tricky matters of vocal phrasing during the recitatives
and arias: some recitatives contained completely unforeseen moments of
flexibility, sometimes connected to a key word, a pitch or place in the vocal ranges of each soloist. The “rehearsal-through” was the only time and place to hear,
learn and “catch” these idiosyncrasies..quickly!! The soloists have practiced these
nuances all throughout the year “beyond the point of habit”, but the expectation of instrumentalists is that all these nuances resonate as clear as day because
this work is so…“familiar”. So the demand of correct and “sensitive”
accompaniment and ensemble amid this MOST unique coincidence of performance
circumstances fell to me. (It’s the strange, hidden curse of
bass players; somehow, singers in bands are known to complain the most...'about
the bass player!!).
Year Three’s performance turned out to be the “victim” of
two strangely fortunate events: the original performance date was
postponed due to a water leak that caused flooding in the sanctuary.
A substitute venue was located, but a recent "winter storm" caused all events in the area to be cancelled. The relocated and rescheduled event
took place three weeks later. The secondary venue sanctuary was a larger and
more resonant having more open and flexible space. Sight lines between
instrumentalists were all more direct, and all were able to be seated more
closely together. The conductor’s technique hadn’t changed ('neither better nor worse), the choir sang like they knew how ('they've found a tempo that
they could maintain and stuck with it!!), and the instrumentalists, on predictable
occasions, had to: a) watch for what we may see and be expected to play with; b) anticipate that which will be expected but not necessarily conducted; c) coordinate that which may be helpful to all involved; d) adjust to the need
of the vocalists, from the recitatives and arias to the full choruses; e) and when
absolutely necessary, “usurp” the choreographed “attack”, in the defiant
interest of forcing clarity in moments that can’t be redone.
The Unexpectable…and Ineffable...
The effect of the music upon
the audience, regardless of the “rehearsal-through challenges”: I’ve often
remarked to my students and colleagues that “the music is most often the result
of gracious adjustment IN THE MOMENT, and not always a repetition of details
gained only through practice, repetition and rehearsal.” (Translation: we can practice and
rehearse until we are blue in the face, but the most important use of that time
is gaining an acquisition of ultimate intimacy so that WHATEVER HAPPENS, the integrity of
the learning process remains constant, sometimes leading to a higher and deeper
level of musical expression...that would’ve been impossible to attain otherwise.) The audience was profoundly moved by the performance of all
involved. The host pastor of the church spoke of his desire to sing in the
chorus himself—a GREAT indicator of moving interest in future activity!! I
believe that the venue made the greatest difference in the quality of
interaction between all performers, all previous challenges strangely
notwithstanding!!
NOW to the Lesson: What Have I Learned In And Through All This??
1. “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts”.
The message of the music—the story of Messiah and His glory--is greater than
the musical score itself. In the formalist arm and aim of the Euro-American classical music tradition
(where “access to and the wield of information somehow inbreeds privilege”), this second
message gets lost amid our desire to excel and be appreciated.
2. Stability and Consistency are greater than “Perfection”.
When musicians can get to a place of stability and consistency in rhythm,
ensemble coordination and expression, all other matters shrink in importance.
(They don’t disappear altogether; they just shrink.)
3. Even the technical limitations of the conductor,
and the "habitual" singing of the chorus…can help make us better musicians. When
those choral tempi sag to painful slowness, there is still an
opportunity to play with great musicality.
4. Usurping the downbeat…or the tempo should happen
“as a last resort” in the defense of ensemble stability.
5. Knowing the score, and knowing your part…makes a
HUGE difference. But “knowing the score…ISN'T KNOWING IT ALL”…
(Gracious scholarship instead of knowledgeable egotism and vanity). Be Great to Work With, instead of just Being a Great Player…
The Larger Matter--Considering the Importance and Meaning of Maintaining This Tradition
In The African American Community: It goes without saying that the present time
is quite unique in American history; it isn’t new, and yet much of the
cognitive dissonance which has plagued American history appears to have a strange
newness to it. Our African American cultural traditions are also in unique
flux as well; even the function and flow of previous traditions have changed.
As the traditions change, so the functional relevance and meaning of those
traditions also undergo both resistance and change. In another blog project in progress, I'll discuss the challenge of uncovering the history of the earliest documented performance traditions of Messiah by African American
communities in the United States. Documented evidence of such performances among white American denominations can be found, but such traditions among African American
denominations are less numerous, and not given copious or even historical coverage.
Parting Words: “
I’m Sure Going To Miss You”… At the end of the
performance it was announced that the conductor had given her final performance
of Messiah. She was warmly applauded for four decades of directorate leadership
of the community choir. As I was making my way out of the sanctuary, I paused
to shake her hand and said (with less than veiled sarcasm), “
I’m sure going to miss
you”. She simply replied…”
Thank You for all your help”, expressed with the same warmth and gratitude to me as in both previous years. The simplest and most sincere response for
a job well-done is and always should be a word of gratitude, which also
includes the expression “
You’re welcome”. Whatever changes await us ALL as change ensues, the one fact of which I am convinced is that my
short-order assistance, even in the throes of the “rehearsal-through” are
greatly and deeply appreciated. The only other and larger challenge that
remains is that of helping to bring a generation who sang this music in church
or in school…
back to it, regardless of how much or little technology help to
make it “functionally relevant”.
In the meantime...may the Prince of Peace...be with us all!!
