(1) FILM is a festival and not absolutely a competition. The countenance on the faces of many of the choirs were that of timidity borne out of their subconscious knowledge that FILM was all a competition. That factor marred some performances on the actual days of presentation. Interestingly some performed better at the command performance than on the actual day of presentation.
(2) Some music scores that were submitted were not tidy enough. Some may have only quickly woven the songs together in a week and submitted but hey! you had two years cook your bean! an untidy score which is not professional at all. Make sure your solfah impositions are well aligned with your Sibelius software. If you don not know how to make a fine print, you may contact us for it an it will be done professionally.
(3) Some choir focused on their appearance while their vocal output suffered. FILM is not just about impressing us with your outfits but also about what proceeds from your mouth. Rephrasing the words of the scriptures a choir shall not live by the appearance alone but by every sound that proceeds from the mouth of the singers. I must say, you all looked gorgeous! and I know may came you hear you not necessarily see you. Some choirs do not really bother about their costumes but rather do more work on the voices and you hear good vocalization from their mouth but same costumes at every edition.
(4) Some composers do not understand what kind of music is referred to as liturgical music. You were asked to submit entries of liturgical music but you brought art music or a kind of music that can be a case study for a doctoral research. The crux of the matter here is that whatever is "being created for the celebration of divine worship" and presented at FILM must be "endowed with a certain holy sincerity of form", and it must be congregational friendly. The natural duty of the choir or Schola Cantorum is to lead the entire congregation in the worship of YHWH. If you are to lead then, you have followers. You must lead well and properly. Do not expect that old unmusical woman in your parish to sing those high octaves in the manner you have written your songs. The teachings of the Church on the role of music in the Church is very clear on this matter.
(5) If you are to compose in a language other than that spoken in your catchment area, make sure it is scrutinized by an authority in that language. This is to avoid a situation where by the meaning, lexis and structure of that language is not devalued. I am sure many composers may not want to easily do this because they want to preserve the virginity of their work. Well, you have the facts now.
(6) In the singing of Latin Chants, vibratos are not necessary. Most singers rush into shaking their voices, or even their lips and jaws just to impose the vibrato technique and most embarrassingly, it takes them off the pitch, off-key, and ultimately mares their presentations. Again, Latin chants are to be delivered smoothly like a ball floating on the sea. But unfortunately, some came with a staccato/staccatisimo effect making the entire music nothing but incantation. Consider this, if our friends in Islam, where the role music is debated, can sing their call to prayer "Allahu akbarr, Allahu akbarr" in a legato manner, why then should we do worse?
To Be Continued...
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