When The Storms of Life Are Raging Rehearsal Strategies for Text and Meaning

There are also singers for whom UCC is their first ever choral experience, which can mean that some parts of the tradition are not immediately accessible due to the preponderance of Christian sacred texts, unfamiliar musical idioms, musical complexity, or other factors. Devising this narration was both a fruitful rehearsal exercise and poignant unfolding of our concert program, and took very little labor or rehearsal time to carry out.

While I do not think it is unique to have this diversity of singing experiences in a community choir like UCC, I do think that this particular mix of humans is both a fruitful challenge and an important opportunity. The challenge is to not take for granted that singers will be able to create their own meaningful experiences from the music we curate to present to them, or that they will even immediately like a piece of music. Likewise, the opportunity is to allow a piece of music to grow roots in the ensemble and develop its own life nurtured by the particular singers to create their own emotional connection to this piece, and to create a sense of community in the ensemble. At the concert debrief, many singers reported that this simple, brief exercise was the most meaningful part of the rehearsal cycle for them.

With younger ensembles, warmups can create a contained and structured moment to invite singers to bring their emotional lives into the rehearsal space. Singers can be invited to devise texts to simple vocalises based on emotive prompts, such as “what is something that brought you joy today/this week/since the last rehearsal?” or “what is something challenging going on that you could use support with?” Asking students to reflect on and (consensually; always with explicit permission to opt out without consequence or judgment) communicate about their emotional lives is developmentally important, and can be connected to compositional skills such as text stress and phrasing. Other time-constrained ways to engage with texts and activate emotional connection include prompting contributions of each individual singer. This article suggests some strategies for facilitating textawareness and emotional connection for choral singers. These emotive connections- shown to be developmentally important especially for younger singers- can be transformative for both individuals and for ensemble communities.

In addition to this performed meditation on Come Unto Me, we also performed Moses Hogan’s arrangement of Charles Tindley’s hymn Stand By Me. Tindley’s hymn opens with a supplication, “When the storms of life are raging, stand by me.” The following verses are similar requests for help and comfort: “in the midst of faults and failures…” and “in the midst of persecution…” Several weeks into the rehearsal process, singers were given small pieces of paper and asked to write down a “storm” – some challenging circumstance or event – in their life. On their way to rehearsal break, they left their “storm” in a basket in the center of the room, and on their way back in they picked up someone else’s. Singers were given the opportunity to opt out. This was a simple way to invite singers to share their favorite line of text from a piece, with the option to briefly justify their choice. For pieces in unfamiliar languages, singers can be invited to paraphrase the translation in their own words. Additionally, over a period of multiple rehearsals, singers can be asked to share a memory or experience from their life that connects to or exemplifies a theme in the text of a piece.

In the week following our exercise with Stand By Me, a singer raised their hand in the beginning of the rehearsal to say, “I was thinking about the storm I picked up all week, because someone wrote down the exact same thing as me.” I was struck by what an unlikely miracle it is to sing in a choir - choral music is a perfect convergence of both skill and a sincere commitment to make something wondrous in community with others. In the scramble of rehearsals and the reality that rehearsal time is always stretched thin, it can be challenging to acknowledge the humanity in our singers and in ourselves. Nonetheless, time spent with text and in meaning-making is fruitful and can be transformative for singers of all ages and skill levels.

When The Storms of Life Are Raging Rehearsal Strategies for Text and Meaning

Nicky Manlove (they/them pronouns) is the Community Engagement Director for the Tucson Girls Chorus, where they also serve as associate conductor and accompanist. Nicky is also the founding director of THEM Youth Ensemble an LGBTQ+ and allied performing arts program, and teaches on the choral conducting faculty at the University of Arizona Fred Fox School of Music, where the conduct the University Community Chorus.

Nicky is a committed advocate of equitycentered and liberatory choral practice, and supports a number of justice-focused choral initiatives nationally. They are on the leadership team of The Choral Commons, a media platform that provides a space for singing communities to realize the liberatory potential of the ensemble as a site of radical imagining. Nicky’s research on gender diversity has been featured on The Choral Commons podcasts, as well as at choral and music education conferences around the country. Nicky is the chair of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for the Arizona Chapter of ACDA, has served on the ACDA National Diversity Initiative Committee's Task Force for Transgender Justice.

Nicky holds a B.A in Interdisciplinary Arts with an emphasis in Music from Seattle University, and a Master of Music in Choral Conducting from the University of Arizona.