During the rest of the two-hour rehearsal, the melodious trip through time continues. The singers’ repertoire ranges from a Latin motet by Renaissance composer Orlande de Lassus to a classical piece by George Frideric Handel to the work of 20th century composer Philip Dietterich. They sing every piece with clear, bell-like tones evocative of ancient monasteries and vaulted European cathedrals.

The choir rehearses amid filing cabinets in a cramped choir room that doubles as a church office. It’s a far more humble space than the vast, stained-glass-lined sanctuary that their voices fill on Sunday.

“As the cathedral church, we are the flagship of the diocese,” says Phil Bordelau, the director of music at St. Andrew.

“People enter our doors with the expectation that they will experience the liturgy at its highest form. Thus we look at the highest art forms, and the most enduring of music.”

For the Cathedral Choir, that means performing centuries-old masterworks by the likes of Handel, Bach and Mozart. But at churches across the state, people sing praises to the Lord in just about every musical style imaginable. On any given Sunday, praise bands roar, handbell choirs peal and gospel choirs bring worshippers to their feet.

St. Andrews A Cappella Performance #1

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St. Andrews A Cappella Performance #2

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In Arkansas, houses of worship far outnumber any other performance venues. So it’s not surprising that the state’s churches provide entertainment as well as inspiration. Their music programs have served as a vital training ground for some of the state’s most famous talents, including the late Johnny Cash, Al Green and opera star Beth Clayton.

THE VALUE OF TEAMWORK

David Glaze, minister of music at Trinity United Methodist Church in Little Rock, taught voice lessons to Clayton when she was a teenager in Camden.

He says churches teach musicians “team work and how to stay grounded.”

Glaze has certainly seen the power of teamwork as founder and director of the River City Men’s Chorus. The 60-member group performs programs ranging from opera to doo-wop, and its shows routinely fill the pews in Trinity UMC’s sanctuary.

“The men love the camaraderie,” says Glaze. “It’s unbelievable how these boys like to get together to practice. I’ll run into their wives at the grocery store and they’ll say, ‘My husband just lives for Sunday evenings to go to rehearsal.’”

The Cathedral Choir has fun at its rehearsals as well, but many choir members also feel a sense of sacred duty as they practice. The choir’s membership is by audition only, and many of the participants are music teachers or directors at other Catholic churches in the area. To add to the mix, Bordelau also recruits students from area colleges as well as from Catholic High School for Boys, where he directs schola cantorum.

Jennifer Hui wasn’t even Catholic when she auditioned for the choir on the recommendation of her voice teacher at Hendrix College. She has since converted to Catholicism and is now a music teacher at St. Joseph Catholic School in Conway.

She says her experience at St. Andrew has helped prepare her to work with her own students.
“With the choirs I have, I can always say, ‘You know, my choir director said this,’” she says. “That way I can encourage them to try something new.”

SWINGING HYMNS

These days, most church choir members, regardless of profession, can read music. But some gospel choirs still maintain the old tradition of learning songs by call and response.

Clinician Gladys Gill Facen teaches dozens of singers at a summertime choral workshop to jazz up a familiar hymn without the benefit of sheet music. Union African Methodist Episcopal Church in Little Rock sponsored the event for singers from churches across the city.

Inside the church’s small fellowship hall on a sweltering June evening, Facen stands at the piano and plays a syncopated variation of the chorus to “Great is Thy Faithfulness.”

She has the sopranos repeat the new melody, then does the same with the altos’ harmony, the tenors’ slightly dissonant counter melody and finally the growling bass line. The vocal parts gradually build on each other. As the singers master their parts, their expressions transform from stern concentration to smiles.

Soon, the women and men are swaying and blending their voices together in an energized version of the 1923 hymn that would sound at home on a contemporary gospel radio station.

Facen, who grew up at Union and now lives in the Dallas area, tells the singers she wants them to be more than just a choir that sings loud. She wants them to be a music ministry that clearly articulates the lyrics’ message.

“You’ve made it through the survival mode,” she says. “Now you’re in a revival mode.”

Three days later after hours of rehearsal, Facen leads the chorus in a performance that has the audience on their feet and clapping along by the second song.

The choir has learned most of the pieces from sheet music. But Facen still leaves room for moments of improvisation not found on the page, including instrumental solos. She directs the group to repeat chorus and verses as she feels the Holy Spirit move her. Lloyd Sain, a member of St. Luke’s Missionary Baptist Church in Rixie, sings the solo on the upbeat anthem “Ready, Willing & Able.” He sees the concert as a chance to renew his music ministry.

“Remember that gospel music has been the cornerstone and the backbone for the experience of African Americans,” he says. “Gospel music conveys not just the gospel of Jesus Christ. It also allows us to express day-to-day life experiences in song — the struggles, the victories, the burdens.”

JINGLING BELLS

Such troubles seem a world, or at least a season, away inside the bell choir room across town at Little Rock’s Second Presbyterian Church.

The 15-member handbell choir peals the sprightly notes of the Christmas carol “Sleigh Ride” from five octaves of bells. The festive mood seems to elicit just as many peals of laughter from the group whenever they pause during practice.

Bell Choir, Sleigh Ride

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Mary Ibis, the church’s associate director of music, keeps a steady beat and slowly but surely, the ringers play the arrangement’s tricky syncopated rhythm with fewer splats and clangs.

Lizbeth Huggins, a member of Faith Lutheran Church who plays with the Second Presbyterian choir, sees handbells as more accessible than other types of music ministries.

“It allows for people with a wide range of abilities to play,” she said. “It’s more inclusive than a choir because not everybody can sing, or an orchestra because not everybody can play. All you need to be able to do is count.”

But in some ways, handbell choirs are more demanding than their vocal counterparts. A ringer’s absence can leave an audible hole in the music as his bells go unplayed. For that reason, Ibis has substitute ringers on call in case a bell choir member can’t make rehearsal.

Ibis sees this aspect of handbells as an apt metaphor for the work of the church.

“We talk about that the body of Christ needs the hands and the feet,” she says. “In a bell ensemble, every single part is important. Every single person is critical to that ensemble. … Just as in the church, we need people to pray, we need people to teach, we need people to preach. And if we don’t have one of those areas in the church, there’s an obvious hole.”

ON THE CUTTING EDGE

Handbell choirs first became widespread in the United States about 50 years ago, making such ensembles a relatively recent development in American church music.

But in an effort to reach religious seekers more familiar with the Beatles than Bach and more comfortable with grunge than gospel tunes, many evangelical churches have replaced traditional choirs with praise bands.

One such congregation is The Grove Church, a nondenominational congregation in Fayetteville that caters to recent university graduates and young families.

The church worships in a former car-rental store that has been renovated to resemble a black-box theater. At the front of the space on this Sunday, stand two guitarists, a bass player, drummer and female vocalist who lead most of the service. The church has a rotation of about 25 professional musicians who play in different combinations each week.

Grove Church, “Give Us Pure Hearts”

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As the service begins, the lights dim and the Sunday morning service immediately has the atmosphere of a rock concert.

The lyrics flash on screens that border the stage so worshippers can sing along. The music has a beat that people can pray to.

“I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene,” the congregation sings. “How marvelous, how wonderful is my Savior’s love for me.”

Jason Miller, one of the congregation’s worship leaders, says he and other church musicians take inspiration from secular bands such as Radiohead, Coldplay and U2. But the message is entirely sacred.

Grove Church, “We Bow Our Hearts”

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Brett Harkey, the church’s founder and main music director, said the church’s style of worship helps it remain relevant to today’s churchgoers. But he stresses that the rock music “isn’t the thing that drives us.”

“Being a biblical, Jesus-centered church is what drives us,” he says.

“That’s our heartbeat. … These are just forms, and 100 years from now worship probably won’t look anything like this. But it will be about teaching the same types of things.”