on church choirs

The musical demands of the Mass are heavy. If the average church choir relies on pounding keys on the piano to get the choristers to learn new music, then with the limited rehearsal time, such a choir can't go beyond the usual five hymns (and recycling them!), and the occasional change in musical setting of the simple stuff, like the Alleluia. I have seen it first hand for myself. Choirs end up singing the same ordinaries year after year, regardless of the season or the occasion.

So the solution is to ask the choristers to develop some music-reading ability. I don't think this is an unreasonable demand - the altar servers train hard to learn the proper postures and procedures, the lectors ensure they read well, placing the proper stresses on the words, and know what they are reading about, so the musicians should be able to read music. A reasonable level is to be able to handle music with one modulation ie. change in key.

Of course we will not expect everyone to be able to read fluently - but those who are better than others will pull up the standard of the reading, and save the time previously used for pounding keys. The time can then be better used for more challenging music, and time can be reserved for sung prayer too - which will then contribute to the growth, both musically and spiritually, of the choir.