Choirs of the kind the Pope's brother teaches are very demanding and perhaps unfamiliar to those outside of Europe. Practice lasts often as much as 6 hours a day, and the highest standards of persona comportment and virtuosity are enforced. The boys work hard because they look forward to the choir trips where they are stay with guest families to far away places. It is a scene of comradery, discipline and great fun.
Severe -- Sometimes very Severe
"Like a grandfather to his grandchildren, he blessed us with the wondrous world of musical life, and most of us understood, that we had one of the best teachers anyone could want."
[Kreuz.net] On March 9th, the Bavarian musician and publicist Tobias Weber (43) on his Blog 'Musica in tempore' told of his experiences at the Regensberg Cathedral Choir under Prelate George Ratzinger.
Weber is a former member of the Cathedral School and current director of the 'Tobias Weber Musk & Buch Verlages' in Hofkirchen. He has been closely connected to the Cathedral School for 33 years.
A Commander's Address
"Sometimes under the Cathedral Choir Master things were very strict -- sometimes even very strict.
Weber reports that his first choir practice at the Cathedral School in January 198. The Kappelmeistr began with a "Commander's Address":
"For a choir which wants to have and hold a certain acme, there is only a on conceivable system of government: the unrestricted dictatorship of the choir leaders" - the Prelate explained.
Weber comments: "The authority of the "chief" in musical interests was inviolable for us, everyone subordinated himself to his wishes."
But Prelate Ratzinger never had to maintain authority by doubtful means:
"However, some schoolmates had their confrontations with him, which was also not discrete: mostly such, which discipline was not indiscernable from his view of the good of the choir."
If the reliabillity of the character of a singer was not certinly free of doubs with Prelate Ratzinger, even good singers were not permitted on concert journeys:
"He did not like exposing his singers in concerts or guest families because they lacked character or decorum," he says.
Beloved -- nearly like a Grandpa
But outside of the concert hall or musical obligations there was still another Prelate Ratzinger:
"And we - at least most of us - have this 'sense' that we loved him nearly like a Grandpa".
Before practie small groups of singers pushed themselves before the conductor's stand, to snatch up a gumdrop or a cookie, always available and generously distributed.
He always attached importance to respectful address, "schoolboy insolences like, 'Hey chief', "were heard sometimes, but surreptitiously." -Weber writes.
Prelate Ratzinger had an unpretentious friendliness and had an ear for each request.
"If the singers, voiced by either boy or adult, during or after practice he was ever ready, despite his stressed authority, to establish guidelines to deal with constructive proposals."
Weber betrays the secret of the success of the clergyman: "without the mutual cordial affection between us singers and our Cathedral Kapellmeister, the great expeiriences of these years woud not have been possible."
And: "Like a grandfather, he bequethed to us grandchildren a miracle of words of the musical life, and it was clear to most of us that we had one of the best teachers, whom anyone could imagine."
For one respected - for the other one loved.
Weber reflects on the Prelate since early childhood also personaly:
"And brilliantly he told humourous anecdotes from the treasurehouse of his imagination, and the deep love of music and of "his" Cathedral Choir always came through, which in turn shaped its life."
However, he admitted once that one year as a director of such a boys choir's training counts at least as three years with its physical and mental demand as three normal years of life.
Weber's time with the Cathdral Choir was summed up by severity and discipline in the Choir and simultaneously of the great humanity and warmheartedness of the Chathedral Kappelmeister:
"For the one we obeyed and respected, while the other we loved - and the majority of his former students respect and love him even still today."
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