What then happens, biologically and scientifically is this: We listen for a cue from the room. There IS no conductor, so we have to rely on sound. We hear someone else sing, that triggers our brain to begin, we search for the correct word, and then we make our sound. The whole process takes a fraction of a second, but those fractions add up, and there becomes a delay in the beat which becomes a slowed down tempo.
Add to that the fact that Sound moves slower than light. Which means even if I WAS conducting, you would hear the other congregants sing a quarter second after you would have SEEN me give the cue.
I encounter this phenomenon in all of my choir groups. The acoustical illusion is amplified when you're in an acoustically live space. The Silver Chords sing at St. Andrew's Lutheran Church in Smithtown, which has a high vaulted ceiling. This makes us sound AMAZING, but it means that for the singers who aren't watching, they're hearing a bigger delay, and then singing a half second after that, which really throws off the tempo, and the rhythm of some pieces.
Now what's supposed to happen, is the musicians are supposed to know the piece so well, and keep the tempo in their heads so that they can confidently enter on the beat, along with everyone else that is also confidently entering on the correct pulse. AND you should be watching a conductor whose main job during a performance is to show the beat with their hands for the group to follow.
That's what's supposed to happen.
But often we arrive at the performance not as prepared as we should. And we are not as secure that we know our parts as well as we actually do. Our insecurity causes us to rely on somebody else to do it first. When we hear the others singing as well, we know we're on the correct part, and only then can we sing confidently. In the eighth of a second it takes for that to happen, our tempo is significantly slower, and it FEELS like it drags on. That's when I get feedback from folks, "I didn't like that hymn, it's too depressing." No, it isn't; we just sang it that way.
With all my choirs, I try to make the singers less reliant on each other and more secure in their part. For example, I often warm up with canons, usually in 4 parts. But sometimes, I try it in 8 parts, or with each individual singer starting on their own. I sometimes scatter the seating arrangement so that singers are surrounded by other parts, and they need to know their own part and sing confidently. This isn't a punishment, it's to build independence in each individual singer, which translates to more secure tempi in performance.
Long story short, last Sunday the tempo slowed to a dirge, so I began conducting, and singing more assertively to try and guide our congregation towards the more upbeat tempo. And that's when I start thinking:
How often in our lives does the same thing happen? God is our "conductor," attempting to lead us through our lives at a brisk, happy, peaceful tempo. He's laid out our instructions, and taught us what our part is in the grand scheme of things. All we have to do is confidently follow His lead and do our part; but we're so unsure of ourselves that we wait to hear or see someone else do it first, and only then to we actually perform. The result, is we move along in a more downbeat, sluggish tone. And we go along thinking it's life that is dull and downbeat and sluggish, when it's really our insecurity that brings the tempo down for us, and for others.
There's a joke: "How many Choir conductors does it take to screw in a lightbulb? No one knows. No one ever looks at the conductor." How much better would life seem if instead of looking to each other for cues about what to do; we instead looked to our conductor for HIS cues.
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