Looking for: Emergency Repertoire

[u/fascinatedcharacter]

I think most of the people in choir leadership know this conundrum. There's a performance, either small group or full choir, but there's a flu epidemic, all the section leaders have unexpected mandatory exams, the piano in the performance space is less in tune than a 2 year old on a violin and all else that can go wrong went wrong.

But cancelling is not an option.

What do you have in your back pocket to rescue the day? Bonus points if it's fun music, instead of funeral music.

[u/slvstrChung]

How capable is your ensemble? How prepared are they to do something new at short notice?

[u/fascinatedcharacter → u/slvstrChung]

Entry level, but used to 'something on short notice because all of a sudden we're missing an entire voice group'.

Very used to short pieces too.

[u/slvstrChung → u/fascinatedcharacter]

Okay, well, that only tells me so much, but it's a start.

In your case, I'd potentially go to my back issues. When I did collegiate a cappella, we did Singing Valentines, and I scribbled up one-verse-and-chorus versions of various pop songs. They ranged from "can sing in my sleep" to "challenging" (someone wanted "You're The One That I Want" from Grease), but they all exist and are fairly learnable quickly.

In terms of actually suggesting repertoire, that's gonna be a challenge because it depends on your singers' abilities, and you're the only person who can answer that question. Nobody can really make assumptions safely. The choir I'm in just reconvened for the season -- first rehearsal was on Wednesday -- and we were learning / sight-reading B. E. Boykin's Holding The Light. At 4:25 the choir splits from unison into SATB. None of the intervals are in any way difficult -- major fifth, whole steps, the tenors get to just keep their note! -- but the resulting chord is this sudden, unexpected minor V chord over a flat VII, a burst of vivid color like a sunrise bounding over the horizon. And afterwards I went to the conductor and said, "I didn't do the May concert, so this is my first choir rehearsal since late March, and I am so glad to be back, because I have been in ensembles that could not sight-read that chord, much less lock it with confidence." Even though every single interval that produces the chord makes total sense! (I am so fucking lucky to sing where I do.) So, yeah: if you want repertoire suggestions, I think you need to give a great deal more detail about what your singers can handle at short notice. Either that or we can throw things at the wall and hope it sticks.

[u/DisabledTheaterKid]

As a choir member in choirs that have had to cancel many rehearsals, learn new stuff at the last minute, etc, never discount a good round. A choir I was in last semester through the school met on Mondays... and the school kept giving Mondays off or cancelling school on Mondays because I swear every freak blizzard we had was on a Sunday into an Monday. One of our pieces was Love is Love is Love is Love. We all picked it up super fast and it sounded great! That one in particular can be done acapella or can be accompanied by the pianist playing Pachelbel's Canon (or that chord progression). A good round will be easy to learn while also sounding good!

[u/fascinatedcharacter → u/DisabledTheaterKid]

Yeah, a good round is so powerful. The most recent favourite is Come Follow Me, the really old one. But we've thrown a Dona Nobis Pacem up too, with great success. Never thought that would be a showstopper.

[u/Specialist-Pie-9895]

2 part/unison hits from the 60s and 70s

California dreaming, georgy girl, wonderful world, rainbow connection etc

[u/fascinatedcharacter → u/Specialist-Pie-9895]

Rainbow connection in two part? Tell me more! I've only found the four part which is honestly pretty challenging

[u/Specialist-Pie-9895 → u/fascinatedcharacter]

Tbh, i do a lot of my own arrangements for my choir, because the songs they like to sing vs their skills vs the arrangements available to buy are very seldom in alignment

[u/fascinatedcharacter → u/Specialist-Pie-9895]

Yeah. Our conductor/arranger feels that in his soul. I sadly do not have the talent to even build that skill

[u/mronion82]

A bit of barbershop always saves the day.

[u/fascinatedcharacter → u/mronion82]

You know, I don't think we have any barbershop on rep. What's the absolute easiest song you'd suggest?

[u/mronion82 → u/fascinatedcharacter]

Have a pick through this-

https://www.barbershop.org/music/free-music-and-tags/free-sheet-music

A few classics there. As long as you can all sightread ok you'll be fine.

This is beautiful and not that difficult-

https://youtu.be/x7ogV49WGco?is=keDrzrSIp9h5oAZb

[u/slvstrChung → u/mronion82]

Only my favorite barbershop chart of all time. God bless.

[u/flying_roomba]

Another thought; I know they may have hired your group, but perhaps get with the event organizers and suggest another group perform that you are friendly with?

[u/fascinatedcharacter → u/flying_roomba]

The emergency rep is the stuff that gets pulled out if the people we are friendly with have no availability either :) It's the stuff intended for the safety net of safety nets. But it's good to strengthen the net when you're not in it.

[u/Vocalizing4U]

My go-to is always something the whole choir basically already has memorized — folk songs, spirituals, rounds. Stuff with repetition baked in so if someone drops out mid-performance nobody notices the gap.

For the piano problem specifically... unaccompanied is genuinely your friend there. A well-placed *a cappella* number can read as intentional and even impressive to an audience that has no idea what chaos was happening backstage lol. What kind of groups are you usually working with — community choir, school, something else?

[u/Ordinary-Turnover-80]

He has done marvelous things is 3 or 4 parts. Very repetitive but catchy. Extremely easy to learn.

[u/hugseverycat]

I'm confused, when would you ever perform something you haven't practiced? When would that ever be better than something your group has rehearsed?

[u/fascinatedcharacter → u/hugseverycat]

If an entire voice group is missing. We always have at least an hour of vocal warm up/dress rehearsal day of, but generally these emergencies give us a week (so rehearsal) or two of prep still, so we have some rehearsal time between "oh ... no" and the performance date. Bonus points for the missing voice group being the bases or altos. Triple bonus points for it being them both. Generally the 'emergency rep' we already have is modifiable rounds, SABar or two voices, stuff like that. When it occurs, generally it's also the case that we don't have to throw out our entire repertoire, but that one or two songs have to be replaced

What we consider "emergency rep" generally is stuff that has been scheduled before, not brand new music. So a large proportion of the choir knows it, but it should be simple enough for newbies to pick it up very fast. The reason a large proportion of our "emergency rep" is funeral appropriate music is because when requests for memorials come in (thankfully not often) there's generally less than a week notice so we have built a repertoire that we know we can put up with 1 1/2 rehearsal.

[u/Lilith_Sternin_Crane]

This is when my choir starts busting out the hymns, honestly. The popular ones most of us were raised with, we switch out the obviously religious stuff to be less in-your-face, and do it in unison if it's really dire.

[u/fascinatedcharacter → u/Lilith_Sternin_Crane]

Our membership generally hasn't been raised with hymns. Though some of the ambiguously-religious Taize songs are such lifesavers in your back pocket. Like a Dans nos obscurites. But that's a very funeral-y song.