Do we have enough Brahms Requiems and Orff Carminas?

This year, I found myself in the unusual situation of shopping around for ensembles to sing with in DC.  I've been lucky over the last 30 years as I've had the opportunity to perform a lot of wonderful music with professional choirs and volunteer ensembles.  A year ago, I left a church position I'd held for a number of years and was unsuccessful in finding a new position.  Around the same time, I was let go from a professional position with another chorus, so I was without a singing position for only the second time in 20 years (Fortunately, I got a position this year with an professional octet singing Sunday services, with some pretty good singers--I like being the sucky singer in a group).  It was rather painful because, as any artist knows, part of one's identity is wrapped up in pursuit of one's art and, without it,  I was bereft of part of my identity.  I am rational and logical enough to know that eventually nobody would think I'm worth being paid to sing, that my voice would have lost its qualities, that my time making music would indeed be finite.  But I wasn't ready for pasture yet.

DC has a large assortment of volunteer choruses of varying abilities.  Many would say it has many more singers than people interested in hearing them sing.  But I wanted to keep my voice in shape, so last year, to do some music and keep my voice working, I joined the City Choir of Washington.  The group was performing several pieces with which I was totally unfamiliar.  As I started singing regularly 30 years ago, even spending a few years studying music, it's always a welcome treat to learn music that is totally new to me.  So the music for the year was really cool:  Britten's Cantata Misericordium, Haydn's Maria Theresa Mass, Bach's O Jesu Christ, meins Lebens Licht, and Tavener's Requiem Fragments (an American premiere).  Though I was unpaid, it was exciting to learn new music to me.  A bonus was singing with Robert Shafer who I sang for 30 years ago with the Oratorio Society of Washington, the ensemble that dumped him in 2007.

UPDATE a year later:  I sang a concert with the Capital City Symphony which included the Sunrise Mass by Norweigian composer Ola Gjeilo.  It was stunning.  Again, I volunteered, but it was worth every movement to sing a piece that I didn't know that was so beautiful.

After an interesting season last year, the CCW was doing more familiar works this year, so I decided not to sing with them again this year.  So I looked around to see what other groups were performing.  I expected to see the greatest choral hits spread around town through the year.  I was sort of surprised to see some repetition among pieces being performed by the groups:  Brahms' German Requiem three times in one year, two performances only a week apart.   Orff's Carmina Burana twice in one year, a few months apart.

Yes, folk like hearing the same pieces over and over.  I admit I like hearing some symphonies every chance I can (no, not Beethoven, but familiar works nevertheless by Mahler, Bruckner, Shostakovich) Folk like singing the greatest hits as well, and, with volunteer singers, it helps to choose pieces many may be familiar with.  And yes, performances of some pieces of music have become traditions, like Handel's Messiah at Christmas, one of the short requiems by Durufle and Faure around All Souls Day, one of the Bach Passions on Palm Sunday.  But for crying out loud, do people read the same novels every four years?  Do movie theaters show the same movies every three or four years (well, with all the sequels produced now, that's a tricky question).  Do theaters produce the same plays every couple years--ok, apart from Christmas Carol and some favorites by Tennessee Williams, Shakespeare, and the team of Rodgers and Hammerstein?  

There is plenty of good choral music out there.   There are modern pieces that are very interesting to listeners that do not require drinking the "interested in advancing new music" kool-aid (many pieces are performed once, get polite applause, and are swiftly and deservedly forgotten).  The Haydn mass I sang with the City Choir last year was as exciting as Mozart's Requiem, and Haydn's other masses are every bit as good.  Perhaps ensembles should communicate with each other on their programs so the potential audience has some choices.  Perhaps put the names of the greatest hits in a hat and each group has 3 or 4 picks for the year.

As I found a Sunday singing job and started singing with a small men's ensemble which sings mostly renaissance polyphony, I'm not out to pasture yet.  There are some pieces I love that I realize I may never sing:  Bach's St Matthew Passion and Mass in B minor as well as Monteverdi's 1610 Vespers.  But I'm still pretty lucky.  There will, no doubt, come a time when my luck will run out, and I suppose I too will sing the Brahms Requiem every 2 or 3 years.  Mozart Requiem every 2 or 3 years.  Orff Carmina Burana every 3 or 4 years, but at home, singing along with the stereo.