Their own understanding, often expressed in nontechnical language, gives them an ability to effect sensitive changes in dynamics and to create tone colors in their singing to express this text in a way that technical instruction alone just could not achieve. Such an experiment places the choir at the side of historical musicologists who study the effects of early tuning systems on the compositional process. In today's equal-tempered tuning system, all intervals, such as thirds or fifths, are tuned on a piano so that they sound the same no matter where they occur on the keyboard. The Gonzaga University Choir has recorded two CDs of sacred music from the Baroque to the contemporary periods, and a Christmas music CD is in the works. This exploration of text for its emotional content and its relationship to a musical setting also provides some significant nonmusical benefits.
Students start discovering the literary as well as the spiritual qualities of texts.
For many students, thinking deeply about these texts serves as a catalyst that encourages them to think about other aspects of their lives as deeply. Just as rewarding as a concert performance is having a student tell me that she's taking instruction in the faith because of something she sang in the choir, or another to say that he's considering a religious vocation because of something he experienced in the choir. Choir rehearsals are not catechism classes, but they do provide students with an environment in which they can explore aspects of their faith while engaging in an academic and artistic endeavor. This, it seems to me, is the goal that the Catholic and Jesuit nature of Gonzaga infuses in our teaching, that of enabling students to find their faith in whatever they do. An enjoyable aspect of Gonzaga's choral program is the opportunity it gives us to embrace a tradition of fabulous music.