[HANASHIR:3971] Re: Catching My Breath

[Andy Curry <acurry...>]

Dear Adrian,

I too am catching my breath, after 3 full days of serving as chazzan for a
mid-size congregation.

The Yamim Noraim have some of the greatest and most-moving music of the
year, and yet the services themselves are, to me, with the possible
exception of Yizkor, the worst of the year.

One reason is that much of the congregation present have little affinity
for worship and are checking their watches after about 90 minutes.  I don't
know that there is a direct remedy for this.

One reason is that some rabbis, congregational leadership, and ritual
committees, knowing they will have full houses, pile on a whole bunch of
talking which, to me, impedes the dynamics of worship.  It's all
well-intentioned.  When people ask how long a service will last, I say
something like "If we simply do the service, an hour and a half.  But, if
the rabbi starts telling us what the prayers mean, all bets are off."  We
Jews showed the world how to pray, and we gave the world most of its
liturgy.  Can we not let at least some of it stand on its own?

As to choosing selections:  My "regular" shul (large and Conservative) has
a small amateur choir whose average age is around 70.  They have been
singing, with 1 or 2 exceptions, the same stuff for at least 30 years,
without accompaniment.  You should hear "Hayom T'amtzenu" - it's a train
wreck every time, and THAT IS the minhag!  But:  It generally follows the
appropriate nusach.  Of course, you know that there is not one HH nusach,
but several.

My Reform synagogue goes for the professional choir with organ/piano and is
very performance-oriented.

As for my "guest shot" this year, I wasn't engaged until mid-July, so I had
exactly one opportunity to practice with their small choir.  They had some
set pieces like "Ki Anu Amecha" and "El Nora Alila", so I left those
unchanged; however, on the responses like Bar'chu and "baruch Hu uvaruch
Shmo", they only knew the one (most famous) nusach.  I already had a fair
selection of sheet music - some of it dating to around the turn of the
century - as well as a complete, home-made transcription of shacharit
according to its nusach.  What I ended up doing for a good portion of the
liturgy was to chant it experimentally at home and transcribe loosely what
worked in terms of nusach, phrasing, and drama.  Although it is a lot of
work, it's an incredibly educational and rewarding way to learn and create.
 And, if I had the time to arrange for choir, it would have been even better. 

And, even when the choir answered my shacharit Bar'chu with the ma'ariv
response, it was okay because "performance" was not expected.  The
important thing was not perfection but intention, and the congregation,
from the comments I heard, liked the music.

My suggestion about which Shma to use is that if the congregation never
hears the "special" versions, they never WILL know it.  Let's take every
opportunity to assume the best of the congregation and trust that they are
ready, willing, and able.

Moadim l'simcha,
Andy

At 12:15 PM 9/21/99 -0500, you wrote:
>Well, the Yamim Noraim are over, finally. I'm happy to report that my 25
>member volunteer choir (plus 4 ringers) did quite well, and lived up to my
>expectation-which is to enhance the worship experience of those present.
>(Unfortunately, my rabbi is more interested in a good "performance." Sigh.)
>
>Aside from the usual assortment of Lewandowski, Sulzer, Richards, Sargon,
>Shur, Binder, Adler, Kingsley, Fromm, et al I managed to interpolate a few
>new songs, including Dropkin's "Pitchu Li", Leon Sher's "Ad-nai,
>Ad-nai",Julie Silver's "Sim Shalom" and Karen Daniel's "Adon Olam." Slowly
>but surely.
>
>HH Nusach is not terribly important to this congregation (or at least this
>rabbi) so I am curious to ask the list about what their congregations do as
>far as choosing music that is HH Nusach. While we do use a HHD Barechu and
>Mi Chamocha, we use "regular" Sh'ma (which drives me crazy. The rabbi argues
>that no one in the congregation will know the HH version.) We don't switch
>nusach modes with the start of Elul. We simply omit the "great Aleinu"
>(which I find really strange, since it is the origin of the Aleinu prayer,
>i.e., it's original usage...correct me if I'm wrong on that.)
>
>In any case, I'd love to hear about the minhag elsewhere, because the minhag
>here is sure different than I'm used to.
>
>Adrian
>
>---------------------------------------------------------
>Adrian A. Durlester  -  durleste (at) home(dot)com
>http://members.home.net/durleste/
>Student, Vanderbilt University Divinity School
>http://divinity.lib.vanderbilt.edu/vds/vds-home.htm
>Music Director, Congregation Micah, Nashville, TN
>http://www.micahnash.org/
>Home phone (615) 646-9788
>Nextel cel-phone (615) 207-2661
>You can page me from http://www.nextel.com
>List-Owner for hanashir (at) shamash(dot)org; Co-Owner for L-Torah (at) 
>shamash(dot)org
>http://uahc.org/hanashir
>Editor, Bim Bam (for Torah Aura Productions)
>http://www.torahaura.com/
>Alternate Email: aad (at) iname(dot)com  adriand (at) aol(dot)com
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
Andy Curry
6016 Holmes St
Kansas City MO 64110-3034

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