The Praise Choir

A few years ago I attended a worship service in a large, growing African Methodist Episcopal church in North Carolina. The congregation had a long and glorious history dating back to the earliest days of 1865 following the American Civil War. The modern sanctuary had everything you might expect of such a congregation: large seating capacity, well-appointed chancel, large grand piano, pipe organ, Hammond organ, space for contemporary worship musicians, 80-voice choir loft, two large screens, microphones all over the place, and a state-of-the-art sound system. There were two hymnals in the pews — the denominational hymnal and Songs of Zion. On Sunday mornings the sanctuary is filled with worshipers and the circular balcony contains hundreds of youth and young people. It is lively worship.

This congregation has made a great effort to preserve a tradition that dates back to the Civil War — the Hymn Choir. The Hymn Choir was an important part of many African American churches' worship for many years, especially in the south, but it has almost disappeared. As African American congregations formed, grew, and found their styles of worship, many of them imitated some of the trappings of white, Euro-American churches, blended in with their own history and traditions. The choirs in many African American churches came to imitate those in white churches. They saw themselves as a special group called out of the congregation, placed in front to lead the congregation, but also to sing for or on behalf of the congregation. Through practicing their musical skills and learning music that was more complex than congregational music, they more and more became a performing entity in worship, not so much leading the congregation in its song as singing for and to the congregation.

In this modern church in North Carolina, the Hymn Choir actively preserves a different tradition. The Hymn Choir sits in the center section of the two or three front pews, surrounded on three sides by congregation. They only sing hymns and congregational songs, usually beginning as a solo taken up by one of the singers, gradually adding other voices and parts, always improvised without printed music. The initial solo voice may begin with a brief prayer or word of testimony, or a short recounting of something that occurred during the past week. The soloist's spoken word gives way to a kind of melodic declamation that blurs the lines between song and speech. The Hymn Choir actively participates with its own interjections of Amen, Yes, and Thank You, Lord. As the soloist's story begins to be transformed into a song or hymn, so do the Hymn Choir's interjections become choral harmony. The soloist at some point stands and becomes a kind of director, complete with body movements, facial expressions, and hand gestures. The choir may or may not stand as they sing. The singing is entirely a capella, with the exception of a hand drum, tambourine, or other percussion instrument. At some point the congregation joins the singing, having already been actively engaged in its own spoken words of interjection. The singing becomes emotional and expressive, often building to a climax of sound and intensity, gradually waning to its conclusion. The process may take anywhere from five to fifteen or more minutes for each song, and the Hymn Choir may continue its singing for an hour or more before the worship service proceeds. The sequence appears the same for each song: soloist speaks, soloist sings, choir interjects, choir sings, people interject, people sing, emotional climax, music wanes to conclusion. The songs are always known to the people and they always join.

This is a quite different model for the church choir than in most modern churches, where the choir is separated out and given its own rehearsal room, a portion of the church budget, paid professional leadership, special liturgical uniforms (robes), its own prominently placed location in the sanctuary, time during the week for rehearsal of music the people never see or sing, and time during the worship service when pastors, leaders, and congregation sit and listen.

It's interesting that one of the trends of contemporary and contemporary praise and worship styles was the elimination of the traditional choir in favor of the praise team. Over the past couple of decades many have realized that the praise team didn't really change much from the traditional choir — it still sang music for and to the congregation, often music that was too difficult for the people to sing themselves. But there is a growing move today to bring back two things that contemporary worship abandoned: the choir and traditional hymns and songs.

The choir is coming back in many contemporary worship congregations, less focused on its special role as a performing group and more focused on the task of leading and enabling the congregation to sing its hymns and songs. They spend less time on inspiring and moving the people through choral singing, and more time on techniques to help the people sing hymns — rehearsing all the stanzas of all the hymns, paying attention to rhythmic and melodic oddities, and getting the right tempo and volume, unification of pronunciation, and the like. The choir also becomes a vehicle for enlivening congregational singing, leading the congregation in varying its singing style, and making changes in volume and tempo, emotional expression, use of instruments, and integration of the singing into the web of liturgy and worship that surrounds it.

It appears to me that these are the kinds of things the African American Hymn Choir has done for nearly one hundred and fifty years, and which were nearly lost over those years. We've rediscovered them recently and they are growing in importance once again. Perhaps what we will see in many churches is the choir-blending aspects of these two choral models. Perhaps the praise team will survive as part of the process, perhaps not. It most certainly means a change in how the choir director and accompanists perform their roles. Instead of workshops on choral techniques and literature, Baroque performance practice, and diction, we might need to think about classes in hymnody, gospel songs, global music, keyboard improvisation and harmony, and music as congregational worship rather than choral performance. I think it is a healthy trend that can only strengthen congregational singing and worship.