I will be one of the preachers for an upcoming convention for the American Guild of Organists in Boston and am wondering what to wear. Of course I’ll simply check in with my colleagues and go whatever route they’re going, but it causes me to ask: what do your church musicians (professional musicians/organists/choir directors) wear on Sundays? How about your choirs? Is their attire part of denominational tradition, local tradition, or a combination of the two?
I love the look of choir robes, but also think they would look wrong in our particular congregation. But I’ve wondered if the choir might like to wear simple stoles or something like that. I feel so strongly that they and our Music Director are central to the ministry of worship, it might be neat if there was a visual element to communicate that — and a way to coordinate my stoles with theirs at high points during the liturgical year.
I’ll have to ask them what they think… or if it would just seem too fancy and ecclesiastical for them.
How about you? How does it work?
My experience as a chorister has been that it depends on the culture of the choir (and the church – if the congregation dresses nicely, the choir will tend to dress up a bit more). Robes are very nice because they hide most sins, and choirs sometimes don’t stick around much, so choristers will wear whatever is comfortable under the robes: jeans, t-shirts, etc are quite common.
Our choir wears whatever they want, with varying degrees of style (or lack thereof). I happen to think that UU choirs somehow just don’t look right in choir robes. However, I do like the look of coordinated colors; for example, everyone in a white shirt and black bottoms (skirts or trousers).
Our choir director (male) wears a suit and tie on Sundays.
Our traditional choir wears black and white. Our folk group doesn’t do anything coordinated, and there have occasionally been complaints that their dress has been inappropriately informal. When we combine the groups for special events, we don’t do anything coordinated, and the choir director now describes what we are to wear as “Sunday best” rather than “street clothes”, which used to be the term used over against “black and white”, in an attempt to keep us appropriately formal.
As a choir member, I like the black and white because I don’t have to think about what to wear.
I would very much dislike robes as it would (in my opinion) give the choir too much prominence for my tradition. I might like stoles (if I weren’t in a denomination that gets all hissy-fitty about laypeople usurping priestly symbols), but only if they absolutely matched the liturgical colors. And you know, on second thought I’m not sure a stole on a man wearing a suit looks quite the same as a stole on a woman wearing a white blouse.
I think what I’d like best would be a matched set of good-sized crosses, matched in style to the most significant cross in the church, on cords like the ones the altar servers use to tie their albs — reasonably good-sized so they can be seen, and color-coordinated to the liturgical season.
I’ve been in a number of Episcopal church choirs that tend to do the ‘choir vestments’ of cassock and surplice. But that was in the US.
Where I now worship, it is purple cassock, surplice, academic hood (if one is entitled), stiff white stand-up collar for some. And it is all men and boys, no women/girls. But that is pretty much the norm in the great historic cathedrals.
United Methodist in the U.S. here.
I’ve been director/minister of music in three different denominations of mainline Protestantism over the past 30 years, and all six of those churches have had a tradition of robes with overlay stoles (various shapes, colors — one with liturgical colored stole sets). Among churches in those denominations who fit into a traditional worship style, I’d say it’s most common to find a robed choir.
Personally, I think I’d prefer simple albs/cinctures. But I’m so immersed in Mainline-land that it’s difficult to get a gist of what might work in other settings. In general, I think that what the pastor(s) wear(s) might be a good starting point from which to talk about what a choir could wear. I do really like the idea of some sense of uniformity in dress for the choir, even if it’s street clothes. From a singer’s point of view, however, I’d prefer a robe simply because it would be a downer for me to have to wear the same thing to church every week. Maybe that’s just me.
As far as stoles over street clothes, that would seem quite odd to me. Not wrong for you, of course, but frankly, I’ve never seen it done.
We do tend to be rather isolated within our own traditions when we work in the church, don’t we? 🙂 “Don’t get out much…”
In my tradition choirs don´t wear anything “special” on a Sunday. Usually “Sunday best” or sometimes “black only”.
But I must admit that I do quite like the idea of “choir vestments” as it is a visible sign that the choir is part of the worship, that singing in the choir is a ministry of its own.
I sometimes get the feeling that some choirs in Germany stick to the “performing” tradition which is not quite what I think a choir ministry on sundays.
If I were to choose a choir vestment I´d defenitely go for albs (no stoles) as a sign for the priesthood of all believers. Lutherans… 😉
At my old UU church, the choir wore plain off-white linen-looking robes with stoles. The stole color was fairly random and not liturgical; often the first choir member in on Sunday morning chose the color. Occasionally, if the theme of the service related to Welcoming Congregation, we’d wear all the color stoles sort of like a rainbow flag.
The robes were great because the choir sat on risers behind the pulpit in plain view for the entire service. Our hall was too small for them to sit anywhere else. That meant that the congregation could be easily distracted by 30 bodies behind the speaker(s). We learned to not fidget for the most part, and the long robes let us gals cross and uncross our legs without ever worrying about being too “flashy.”
Guest musicians usually wore dressy clothes, but rarely as formal as a suit. We hired local musicians from other faiths and backgrounds, so we saw a real variety of looks, often quite beautiful! When member(s) of the choir provided guest music (during offertory, etc.) they often did not wear their robe that week. They would usually sit in the congregation, joining the choir, robeless, at the right moment.
I loved wearing my robe on Sunday mornings. Putting it on was part of preparing to be in worship for me. Afterward, during coffee hour, I kept it on and approached visitors. I felt like an ambassador. It helped visitors, too, as choir members were easy to identify and “Gee, I really loved that song” makes a great ice breaker.
The local Unitarian chapel with a choir uses red and black for the members. It looks very effective – no one goes in much for vestments round here, just ministers in preaching robes (and ministers are rare).
I loved the idea in Louise’s church. I also attend a UU congregation and am in the choir. I am surprised at what some of the folks end up wearing. A few times, like for Yule services, we have been asked to wear certain colors or styles. Certain members always take it upon themselves to “creatively” interpret the instructions. Like when we were to wear jewel toned tops and dark bottoms, one woman ALWAYS wore a flowered skirt—but it had a dark background! It really stood out. Another wore a black top. Yes, onyx is a “jewel.” Others have claimed to own NO solid colored tops. I tend to offer to head to Goodwill and get them something. We did actually pull off white tops and black bottoms for a recent formal presentation…except a couple of guys in the back wore pale yellow. Sigh. UUs.
Our choir wears albs and cinctures and the choir director/organist wears an alb with a Episcopal-style deacon’s sash (although she is not a deacon).
To me this is a simpler, less formal look than choir robes and coordinates in our case with the ministers and acolytes, who wear alb and stole or chasuble or dalmatic. I don’t know if it would work in a UU congregation, but it is a neat and coordinated style.
Slightly related–my recent houseguest actually SANG ALONG (audibly, not an ‘under the breath) with the choir at Canterbury Cathedral during Sunday eucharist (during the anthem, not congregational singing) until I poked him in the ribs and told him you just DON’T do that….especially when we were seated right next to this professional choir.
He’s Roman Catholic, and didn’t ‘get’ that other denominations aren’t just ‘do whatever you please’ (believe me, Sunday communion at the Mother Church is not informal worship!). I told him that if I were in a Roman Catholic church, and was an ordained woman, it would be inappropriate for me to say the words of the Mass along with the priest, even if I knew them and felt moved to do so.
Same here.
I like Robes. The choir does not. We are in Fort Lauderdale, and it would be hot for us. I like the idea of leaving my Sunday best in the closet and covering all with a robe. The congregation has in past (who knows what they’d say now) said that they don’t want the minister in robes so that rules in out for the choir, even if there wasn’t the issue of expense and unwillingness on the choirs part to dress up. Our classical pianist and her substitute, wear, sort of nice stuff to play. I wonder what they’d do if there were options.
an old but interesting thread. As an Episcopalian, our choir does black cassock/white surplice (as does the organist/music director). We do lead worship, process, and look the part. And (except for the funeral when a chorister wanted to wear a Bright Turquoise skull cap), it does help smooth out individuality. No stoles; hoods for the academics if we do evensong. Beyond that: ribbons/small medals for Royal School of Church Music “Voice for Life” levels, for those who take that (informal but useful) training.
ps (the skull cap wearer went uncovered to the funeral)