Abide with Me at Ward Conference

Last week we sang David Naylor’s arrangement of Abide with Me at our Ward Conference. The a’capella verse (second) has some nice harmonies that are a little adventurous without pushing the boundaries. We had a great turnout for the performance and I was quite pleased with how it sounded. If we could just get that many people coming every week to rehearsal! We rehearsed briefly before our 9:00 Sacrament Meeting at 8:30 AM, and the calls one of our choir stalwarts made the night before paid off; we had about 20 singers.

It does make me wonder though if it is frustrating to the choir members who attend rehearsals faithfully. I think in some ways they are glad to get the extra voices along side them, although even with the boost they do carry the weight with their familiarity with the music. Sometimes I wonder if instituting a “no performing unless you attend rehearsal at least one or two weeks ahead” might boost rehearsal attendance. However, I haven’t been willing to risk the other possibility: that our choir ends up being more like a quintet at the performance.

Does requiring a level of attendance at rehearsals help? For some people (the ringers) I know they can come in and perform last minute, but I wonder if this actually contributes to non-attendance at rehearsals.