Every January when I was in high school, I joined hundreds of other students to perform for an annual choral directors’ conference. We’d had a few practices regionally, but mostly we were expected to show up that weekend with our parts memorized. Before performing at the end of the second day, we spent the whole time practicing, occasionally stopping for meals but listening to our pieces while we ate.
One year, one of our pieces was Sicut Cervus by Giovanni Palestrina, a setting of “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God” (Psalm 42:1 NIV). The song is as close to perfect as any sacred choral piece can be.
For whatever reason, we weren’t getting it. Some of the other pieces we were performing were far more difficult, and we nailed those with no problem. Sicut Cervus was an entirely different story. It took hours of rehearsal before everyone started singing the correct notes, and even then there was no depth to our performance, no emotion. Our interpretation of the song was completely awful.
Finally our director threw up her hands and said, “Okay. Everyone stand up and form a circle. Don’t stand next to anyone singing the same part as you, and alternate boys and girls.” We slowly wandered around, eventually forming an amoeba-like shape around the perimeter of the large conference room where we were practicing. Our director made her way to the center of the room, saying, “I’m going to give you your starting note on a pitch pipe and count to four. Then I want you to sing the whole piece without stopping. No matter what wrong notes happen, just keep singing.”
Then she left the circle and turned out the lights.
Read the rest at The Glorious Table!