We're working on a capella! The new choirmaster is trying to wean the choir from having to be supported by the organ. The problem is, while he is seriously beefing up the choir with good musicians and singers, a lot of the long-time choir members got pretty lazy under the former director. They have never learned to read music and have never worked on their singing. I came to this church from an ECUSA church that supported its music program in a big way - I was a little shocked not so much that choir members couldn't read music, but that they made little or no effort to remedy that situation. . . just show up on Sunday and make a stab at it.
There are several chants that we do regularly (Lord's Prayer, Ave Maria) that we do a capella. And once in awhile the director will just give us the pitch and stand up from the organ bench . . . doesn't give folks time to get scared.
As the choir gets better and we get more members who are good musicians, there's going to be more and more a capella.
Our interim choir director is really into a capella which makes me a little nervous. The organ can cover up a host of sins but there is no hiding mistakes with a capella. This past Sunday we sang Tchaikovsky's "Crown of Roses." I found it to be quite difficult and downright scary without the organ backing us up. We did OK but it could have been better.