Choir Dress Yet Again
  • mjballoumjballou
    Posts: 993
    This question went around here in 2008 and again in 2019. Now we're on the other side of COVID and living with reduced church incomes. Has that changed things? I'm familiar with the surplice/cassock arguments, so we don't need to run those. I'm working on an article for Sacred Music journal about this and would love some comments (anonymous, of course) from the trenches. 1. If you're looking to purchase choir vesture (a word I hate), how will you pay for it. 2. Do choirs behave better in robes? 3. How do your singers feel about robes? 4. Does an unseen (i.e., in the loft) choir need these? 5. What about everyone just wearing black? 6. If your choir also performs concerts outside the liturgy, do they wear something different?

    Any and all responses will be gratefully received. And no, you don't have to have an answer for every question.
    Mary Jane
  • Chaswjd
    Posts: 257
    I have sung in both robed and non-robed choirs. I have come to actually prefer the robes. It means that I don't have to really concern myself about what I am wearing and seen in at Mass. It also means that the choir looks uniform what they are wearing. It also means that I don't have to go out and purchase clothing just for choir on Sunday.

    For a number of years, I sang with a choir in a church with a loft in the South. During summer, while the parishioners dressed for mass, I would show up in shorts and sandals. The robe would cover me to my feet. No one would see my feet due to the loft. I looked ok because of the robe and was as comfortable as I could be for the rest of the day.

  • mmeladirectress
    Posts: 1,076
    3. How do your singers feel about robes?
    I like the idea of schola in cassock and surplice, but they are pretty much uninterested, and the rest of the choir ditto in robes overall (heat in the loft is certainly a factor).

    4. Does an unseen (i.e., in the loft) choir need these?
    We are unseen while singing in the loft, but more than half of our small choir comes down to receive Communion right after the servers. Has been so for decades, so the people are used to them coming to the rail first.

    One of the altos said, Choir robes? I'll take chenille.
  • Liam
    Posts: 4,952
    For folks who have to carefully watch their feet navigating steps, robes can be a factor in eliminating those folks from joining the choir.
  • TCJ
    Posts: 970
    I'm not in favor of choir robes. They always looked ridiculous to me. That said, I think if they are to be used, people should also dress well underneath because how a person dresses affects the mindset.
  • trentonjconn
    Posts: 546
    4. If you have a mixed choir in the loft, I think that civvies are more than appropriate. This sidesteps the awkwardness of women in cassock and surplice. A male schola in the loft which sings the propers could maybe vest. A choir which is in stalls or pews in the chancel ought to be vested.

    For the love of all that is good, don't make your people vest in those hideous Protestant choir gowns. Anything is better than those.
    Thanked by 6tomjaw mmeladirectress sdtalley3 bhcordova emac3183 hilluminar
  • smt
    Posts: 34
    For the love of all that is good, don't make your people vest in those hideous Protestant choir gowns.


    Hahaha, yes you're right. Although - I used to sing in an academic context where all Schola members were asked to wear their college gowns as a sign of respect. I liked that very much as we were somehow uniform but not completely. I thought about getting gowns for the choir I have now but I guess people's association would be more a gospel choir, a choir of elderly protestant ladies or Harry Potter than a traditional British University.
    Thanked by 1tomjaw
  • MichaelRaney
    Posts: 28
    We wear choir robes and we like them.
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