Posted on 04/05/2007 12:54:38 PM PDT by Pyro7480
We did the Durufle and the Byrd last night too, but we threw in the Palestrina Sicut Cervus just for fun. Ten we did the Pangue Lingua in ENGLISH, but afterward the congregation started singing it in Latin. I had a sense they were sending us a message.
ours started with Adoro te Devote last night. Doesn't get any better than that.
I have to say that it's probably the 2nd or 3rd most conservative parish in town (behind the Latin Mass parish).
Actually there’s a lady with Down’s in my parents (Episcopal) choir. She vests and processes and everything, but she isn’t very loud so it’s o.k. and really not a problem at all. (I sing in their choir when we’re down there.)
We’re going to use the “Sicut Cervus” for “filler” if communion runs long . . . (isn’t it awful to use that term to refer to such a beautiful work?) . . . we sang it on Gaudete Sunday (along with the Purcell “Bell Anthem” - “Rejoice in the Lord alway.”)
Our standbys are the Purcell collection and the "Sixteenth Century Anthem" anthology . . . both small size paperbound volumes.
While I certainly do not mind listening to How Great Thou Art and Amazing Grace as sung by Elvis or other great gospel singers, I do not find that these songs have a place in the Catholic liturgy and intentionally do not sing them when played there.
Our rector is pretty serious about playing it 100 percent orthodox, we even use a missalette that isn't from OCP. Liturgical Press "Celebrating the Eucharist", with illustrations from the St. John's Bible (which is spectacular btw).
It's actually quite nice, good hymns in the back (largely German and older Anglican, with the usual older Catholic standbys (like "O Sacrament Most Holy"), and a few of the Eagles Wings/Gather Us In ones . . . but we just ignore those.)
Lol. Yeah, we did one out of that book a couple of weeks ago and it had all these accidentals and syncopation... definitely not easy. But that’s a happy mischaracterization. Most of us like a challenge.
More trouble with the Pange Lingua at Good Friday service today. We were supposed to wait until the end of the Veneration to start it, actually we finished The Reproaches too early because we didn’t do the text verses, and someone in the Congregation started singing it, and the choir didn’t know whether to follow the upstart in the Nave or not, so many of us stood there stone faced.
It was the same person that started it in Latin last night after we finished the English version. I appreciate the enthusiasm, but it shows us up. Gonna have to proscribe that person.
My choir has more BOOKS than I’ve ever imagined. I now have a fairly large satchel stuffed with the things.
Don’t proscribe him . . . DRAFT HIM!
It had one of B. Kliban's cartoon cats singing and playing a guitar like a jazz man, and crooning, "Love to eat them mousies, mousies what I love to eat . . . bite they little heads off, nibble on they tiny feet . . . "
It finally wore out. I got a bigger bag. It promptly filled up. Oh, well.
Miami Springs has a Lutheran Church made entirely out of Coral. It was built years ago. Coral is not permitted nowadays as a building material but it is really kewl to look at both afar and up close.
All my other choirs have used sheet music. The last one nearly snowed me under because they would hand out all the music for the year at once and we filed them in these huge binders. I suppose being in smaller choirs it’s a better deal to invest in books that we can use over and over for years, whereas in big choirs it’s simply prohibitive.
My big one has all the chant filed in order by title under one tab, and all the anthems filed in order by title under another tab, and a third tab for odds & ends like Latin pronunciation guides, warmups, etc.
My little one has one tab for Sunday's music, one tab for order of service, and one tab with all the Mass settings.
It works well unless I leave my binder on the piano . . .
Happy Easter! Christ is Risen!
Father forgot to proclaim “Alleluia! Christ Is Risen!” Me and one other guy in the choir, (a paid singer but he’s ok, and a liturgical purist) noticed. Then he started tbe homily with the proclamation... I don’t know if that was planned as the first line, or if he was making up for missing it, but me and the other guy sang out “The Lord Is Risen Indeed!” and then everybody in the choir turned and looked at us. We were proud of ourselves and quietly high fived after the attention passed.
Liturgically this Triduum has been the biggest train wreck I’ve ever seen, but I don’t really mind. Staff meeting this week should be really long, and really painful. But it’s a complicated liturgy, we have a new Parish Administrator, and the church is only about twenty years old. I think we were under-rehearsed for the Anglican Chants, and we had like four or five canticles tonight plus three anthems and about five hymns.
But again, I really don’t mind. This isn’t the kind of thing I’d leave a church for — this is the kind of thing where I want to be there and be part of the solution. As my new buddy noted, it’s got problems, but it’s the best liturgy in town.
As our choirmaster says, as long as nobody dies, we're ahead.
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