We’ve talked a lot about starting – only natural as we consider this book and its many ideas at the beginning of a school and concert year. And yet, closings are important, too. I’m thinking about ends of rehearsals, about ends of concerts, and about ends of years (ends of conferences, too!). We face the problem that there is “a widespread tendency to close without closing.” (246) I think we choral professionals are guilty of this problem: “More often than not at our gatherings, hosts passively allow their events to flicker out instead of claiming a specific concluding moment–a real send-off. Too many of our gatherings don’t end. They simply stop.” (248)
A choral rehearsal stops because the clock hits 9:00.
A concert stops because we’ve come to the end of the program. (Or, even more jarringly, because we bring the houselights up as a signal.) (Parker’s story of the gathering without an ending, where the facilitator had to finally say “We’re done here! It’s over!” reminded me of concerts I’ve attended – and ones I’ve conducted.)
A choir year stops because it’s the last day of school, or the last concert is over.
A retreat stops be cause parents have arrived at the camp to pick up their kids.
That’s how they stop. How could we bring them to a proper ending? Because “how you end things, like how you begin them, shapes people’s experience, sense of meaning, and memory.” (248) To not plan and guide the ending is a failure…a missed opportunity.
We can admit that we don’t want things to end. If we’ve gathered well as a choir for an entire year, it’s hard to face the end. We can be like the Zen students who beg for one extra session…maybe if we deny the end, it won’t happen. But Parker urges us to understand, “It is your job as a gather to create and intentional closing that helps people face, rather than avoid, the end.” (254)
With that, let’s talk about the four gatherings above, and think about specific ways to properly end them.
Choral Rehearsal
A rehearsal ending should be brief – we still want the majority of the time to be devoted to the gathering/rehearsing. With that in mind, brief endings could include:
- “One word checkout” – “Asking each person to say just one word about how they were feeling.” (258)
- “Good things”/”Put-Ups” – This might be a portion of the group, depending on size and time.
- Circle Back/Circle Forward – “Here’s what we did today…here’s what we will do next week, and what to prepare in between.”
- “Dear People” – I like Robert Shaw’s way of putting off the ending – he would save the ending for the letter he wrote after rehearsal. On the other hand, this is a very one-directional ending.
- “Rose and Thorn” – Share the best and worst parts of their rehearsal. (260)
Concert
A concert ending should acknowledge the alternate world we’ve created, performers along with audience, and give everyone the chance to process and transition back into the normal world. Effective endings might include:
- A traditional song – many choirs end every concert with a short anthem that lets everyone know the ending is here.
- A group sing – if we’ve welcomed our audience into the world, the ending might be the perfect time to welcome them to sing with us, in a beloved folk or popular song.
- A transitional space – lobby meetups, ice cream socials, and post-show cast parties are all great transitional spaces between the concert world and the real world.
Choir Year
A choir year, for most of us, ends because the semester ends. Finals…and…done. But we can be more intentional in acknowledging the pain and joy of ending, and ushering ourselves out of the year.
For me, this one is about preparation. Parker’s story about the Zen Center’s training includes a monk saying, “What do you need to do in the next four months in these relationships. What are your patterns of leaving? What are your habits?” (253) The monks repeatedly remind their participants that their gathering will end, as all things end. This is exactly the approach we need to take in choirs. I never let a first rehearsal go by without saying that “It will be June TOMORROW.” Or it will feel that way, anyway. And I try to do monthly checkins, borrowed from Steve Zegree: “This is our last chance to make music together in November, 2021…” This repeated acknowledgment that our gathering is temporary makes it easier to end strong.
Similar to the end of the year is the end of the school musical. When Parker describes the multi-day ending of the Seeds of Peace camp, she says describes the last night of camp:
“Second year campers, having gone through the reentry process before, guide the discussion in small groups, helping Seeds reflect on questions like these:
What does it mean to go home?
How are you feeling?
What is making you anxious?
What are you excited about?
What are some of the issues you think you might face?
There are big feelings connected to the end of the musical, to the end of a choir year or a choir trip. Using singers who’ve been through it before to help guide the singers who have never experienced it could be a great tool in helping everyone transition more comfortably.
Choir Retreat
We can afford to be a little more expansive in a retreat than we can in a day-to-day rehearsal. Here are some ideas we can take to making the gathering’s ending more meaningful:
- Making a pledge – I talked about a pledge as part of the opening, but perhaps it’s better to craft a pledge during the retreat, drawing on the threads of the gathering, and issue it at the ending. (“You should help them answer these questions: We’ve collectively experienced something here together, so how do we want to behave outside of this context? […] What are our agreements about what and how we’ll talk about what occurred here? What of this experience do I want to bring with me?” (267)
- Letter to a future self – I videoed Scouts at the end of summer camp this summer, because I knew that when they were considering camp the next year, they wouldn’t remember what they felt like when they were there. In the same way, I can imagine a video from the ending of a retreat – a video postcard to a future self who needs a reminder of the way they felt.
- A physical symbol – a sticker, a memento, a patch…trinkets that we can carry out into the world could be a great way to put a cap on the experience and make sure everyone literally carries it with them.
Masterful closings end with this series of moments: “The last call, the logistics, and the dramatic close.” (272) Start with a cue that we’ve nearly come to the end. Communicate any last minute information (thank you’s, planning ahead, etc.). Finally, close masterfully.
In my rehearsal closings, I almost always end with logistics – I rehearse right up until 8:58, and then wrap with logistics. My endings will be more effective if I move this back and save something more dramatic or purposeful for the close.
Most concerts generally do a good job of this effective closing. How many times have you heard, “We’ve got one more song for you, but before we do…a few thank you’s and announcements.”
Many of the retreats I attend and lead end with a short “informance.” These are like a gathering as a closing–a dramatic and musical closing to the retreat.
At the close, “it is time to draw another line, the line of exit, and help them cross this, too. The last moments of a well-run gathering are, subtly or explicitly, a crossing of that line, a signal that it is over. The closing’s closing, so to seek, should represent a marking and an emotional release. (278)
This all can feel like a performance, and there is a performative aspect to it. I started my career by mimicking effective public speakers from my past, until I settled into my own persona; in the same way, it will require a bit of acting and preparation to more effectively close rehearsals. Eventually it will feel like second nature, and when it does, the closings will be better. Parker describes a few of the masterful closers in various professions, including “teachers who end class on a story versus those who end with an assignment.” (280)
My high school Biology and AP BIology teacher, Karl Geisler, made a show of his teaching, always. Whether throwing chalk at the board to “place organelles” in a drawing of a cell or using a taxidermied rat as a pointer, his class was memorable, every day – and I remember a lot of biology because of it. I also remember he made a show of counting heads when he said the word “tomorrow” in class – he counted how many of us turned to check the clock at that priming word. He understood that we expected the closing when he said “tomorrow” but wanted us to engage in his last moments of teaching, rather than tuning out and collecting our books. By naming it, he made this part of his closing, and kept us engaged right to the threshold of the class. Even with a bell to end the class period, he was in charge of the closing, not the clock. That’s the kind of closing I aspire to create.
May we all start, gather, and close well this year.