A JOYFUL NOISE

By Christine Burton

Great accompanists deserve to have more recognition

As a singer, I am aware of how hard I work in living my pastoral ministry — from advance review of scores, through rehearsals and finally at mass and other occasions. I am also aware of my director’s work, the same pre-rehearsal score review, rehearsals and delivery plus program selection, choir management, additional rehearsals with cantors, soloists and those who have missed rehearsals.

In all this, the work of the accompanist can become invisible, even though they have all the same obligations as a chorister. And on top of that, they bear the “blame” if something comes off the rails. The common wisdom is that it’s the job of the accompanist to go wherever the soloist goes, and to figure out a way to bring it back on track or make it sound like it’s going exactly where it is supposed to, regardless of the reality. In other words, the mark of a truly good accompanist is when she intuits the mistakes the soloist is going to make before she makes them, and plays along seamlessly, as though that’s the way the music was written. No one is the wiser, sometimes not even the soloist!

As one who has a tendency to “freelance compose,” and who counts on her accompanist to make it all sound “right,” I am always grateful for their ability to roll with whatever punches come their way. That said, I am reasonably good and try to be prepared, so the punches are hopefully not too hard, and often predictable (there are a couple of psalms that I have done many times and yet still make the same mistakes to the point where we might as well not call it freelance composing but practically write down what I do and call it “cmb’s variation” . . .).

I recently had occasion to fully appreciate the incredible challenges an accompanist can face, and the support they provide — all done so smoothly that the rest of the community had no idea it happened.

I was asked to sing at a funeral for someone I knew. I was to be one of two soloists, along with a cousin of the deceased. I arranged for an accompanist as requested. She’s a close acquaintance who has worked at my current parish on and off for several years. Not quite a week before the funeral, I called the funeral home to confirm access to the facility early for rehearsal purposes and, in the course of the conversation, asked about their piano. No piano was the reply. What funeral home doesn’t have a piano?! This one. Thirty years they’d managed without. Well, it wasn’t going to work for me, so I started scrambling, trying to figure out where to rent and how to transport a piano.

I called my accompanist in a complete panic to alert her to this twist. She told me she had an electric piano, an amplifier, cords, a microphone, everything. Relieved, I said I didn’t think we needed the mike, and that I’d pick her up early on Saturday so we could get things set up. Fortunately, as things worked out, she brought everything, including the mike, with her.

On arrival at the funeral home we met the other soloist, the cousin, for the first time. She had indicated she planned to do Ave Maria. You may be aware that there are two versions of Ave Maria, one by Schubert and one by Bach-Gounod. She didn’t specify. But she was there waiting.

Waiting without any music. She couldn’t find her copy, surely the accompanist would have a copy? Well, she did. Not in the singer’s preferred key, so she got to do some “freelance composing” of her own to change certain parts to accommodate the other singer’s range.

Then, with only 30 minutes to the funeral, the father of the deceased showed up with the nine-year-old nephew of the deceased. He wanted to sing a song too, not previously planned or mentioned, but surely she could accompany him? So she managed that as well — and just as well that she had brought the mike, because without it he wouldn’t have been heard at all.

And, amazingly, all of it accomplished without the assembly having any idea of what was going on. Just as happens every Sunday at mass, where the accompaniment is simply “there,” supporting the priest, the choir and the assembly without being noticed.

Accompanists deserve more recognition for the difficult job they have. (M. Weber photo)

As a singer and pastoral musician I am newly grateful for the incredible support lent to our ministry by our oft-unsung (no pun intended) accompanists. There is a commonly referenced image that seems appropriate to this case: that of ducks appearing serene on the surface and paddling like heck underneath. And so, the next time you listen to beautiful music at mass or in another liturgy, I would invite you to give a thought and give thanks for the accompanist who contributes so much to our musical engagement with the Creator while making it look and sound effortless.

A Saskatchewan soprano, Burton has sung praises to the Lord in Regina, Saskatoon, Winnipeg and now at St. Joe’s in Ottawa, where she is a chorister and cantor at two masses.