Der Chor Concepts

In this post Corey asked some fundamental questions. (Great questions, Corey. Thanks for the springboard!) Here are the answers I've been contemplating, as a place to begin discussion:

What sort of music would Der Chor sing? Would it be standard fair or high church?

You can get a feel for the kind of repertoire I like by looking at what I selected for the church service last October 25. Those pages are still online here and here.

What sort of denominations of churches, if any, are in mind?

Well, it's not the denomination that's as interesting as the motivated singers. Given the people involved in this discussion today, we'd be focused on Sabbath morning SDA services. As our core choir began to have members from other denominations, if their home churches wanted the music we offered, we should be willing to sing for them.

What would the frequency of guest spots be for Der Chor?

I'm picturing a core Chor of perhaps 32 people, with hopes that about half of those people would be able to show up for any given gig. Suppose we had a chance to sing at Triadelphia. We would arrange to rehearse with interested singers at their church once or twice before that Sabbath. Because we would already know our music cold, those rehearsals would be very beneficial as we could interleave the local "guests" into our own ranks. The purpose of this choir is not to build a reputation as a solo ensemble, (oxymoron?) but to provide the foundation, the core, so that every constituent church could feel as if it had its own church choir.

What would a typical service look like that included Der Chor?

A typical service would look like any other service with a standard, in-house choir. I'd expect us to sing an introit, prayer responses, anthem and benediction, or something like that.

Would there be a collection of appropriate responses?

The SDA hymnal has a surprisingly useful collection of responses. However, additonal response collections are available on the market.

Would this be purely vocal or a musical combo?

I'm picturing this as a vocal core ensemble, actually incomplete (too small) without local singers. It might help to have a couple of organists on staff, for rehearsals and in case the local church organist was not available.