Choir stalls
In the back of the nave at Saint Philip’s, you may have noticed that some of the choir seating faces inward while others face forwards. This week, while workmen were installing new wiring for the sound system, there was an opportunity to rotate all of the choir stalls. This means that the choirs will sit entirely in a “collegiate” fashion. This type of seating is quite common in many kinds of Anglican and Episcopal churches, whether parishes, collegiate chapels, or cathedrals.
The “choir” is, in fact, an architectural feature found in medieval cathedrals throughout Europe. It delineates the space between the crossing (that point where the arms or “transepts” meet the central volume or nave of the church) and the high altar, which is typically located near the apse (that polygonal recess at the east end of the nave) a great distance off.
In England, one of the distinctive features of this cathedral architecture is the “rood screen.” It divides the high altar from the rest of the church space. Here, at the meeting of volumes, and often behind a rood screen, clergy—and later professional singers—would sit in seats fixed to the walls of the choir. These seats have much in common with the stalls used in monastic churches where a monk would be
"installed” quite literally by being given a seat. It is this architectural feature that gives the group of singers its name: the choir.
Clearly, there is no architectural choir at Saint Philip’s. But there is a long tradition of arranging musicians in various ways at the back of the nave. One of the primary methods has been one which harkens to the Gothic choir space.
As an aside, this is also where the name “lay clerk,” along with similar derivatives, originates. Professional adult singers and boys traditionally came to replace cannons in the singing of the liturgy in English cathedrals, and these singers were understood to have an important function: that of singing pro clericis (if I may improvise a phrase), in place of the clergy as laymen, in the choir.
This understanding of liturgical function persists to present day, regardless of architecture. Saint Philip’s choir members are responsible to lead the sung portions of the liturgy by means of a special charism. They have a role related to that of the clergy, while also representing and supporting the gathered congregation.
So, why would we be interested in rotating the choir stalls to this position? I would suggest a few reasons:
This seating arrangement connects us to our most significant church and cultural tradition, which is essentially English. Our liturgies are from the Book of Common Prayer, our hymns from the Episcopal Hymnal 1982, and we sing a great deal of choral music by English composers from Thomas Tallis to Herbert Howells to John Rutter. During monthly Evensong services, we gravitate toward collegiate seating, and our youth choristers always work and sing in that formation.
Collegial seating helps musicians to remember and embrace our spiritual and liturgical vocation: that of leading music in the liturgy. Very often that vocation is signaled with particular seating and vestments. Sitting in this fashion can help the choir members to remember that our means of participation is through this special charism of choral singing, which, far more than a nice hobby, blesses the entire church.
Singing towards each other also helps the choir work as a single ensemble. When we sit in the same formation, we can sing together more readily, and there is an acoustic advantage to singing towards each other.
It’s also worth pointing out that the single-volume, colonnaded design of Saint Philip’s nave, plus the open chancel design, means that the church, for better or worse, is a challenging place for a choir to sing. There is no room for a choir in the chancel, and the nave is a small volume in which to fit a sizable choir or instruments. Any arrangement, therefore, will push the boundaries of what is possible. The current collegial setup is by no means permanent, but it does signal our ongoing search for good solutions for singing and playing instruments from the back of the nave.
I would also add that our new choir microphones have been installed this week and will point exactly toward the choir stall formations. We are excited to have a newly improved system for streaming and recording music in the church!
—Justin Appel, Director of Music