Colloquium Chamber Choir

well, I'm finally getting around to listening to some of the sound files from Colloquium.
wow. they are pretty sweet.
I'm currently listening to Os Justi, sung by the whole conference, and omg, the acoustics are amazing, and you can HEAR the sound of the (whats that thing called? I should know this. the incenser!) it just kinda makes you feel like you're there, during Mass.
And first I listened to the Chamber Choir (which I was in) singing O Nata Lux. incredible. and I have to say...I've sung under a lot of amazing and crazy conducters...and, well, Scott Turkingham is the craziest. In a good way, I suppose, I mean, he's a great conductor, and a nice guy, but while performing under him...don't even think of taking your eyes away from him. I never did, but I watched as he burned people with his glare who didn't watch him. and he was sooooo incredibly animated. fascinating to sing under. I'm just so awed by the experience that I can't stop talking about it. meh.
http://www.musicasacra.com/2007/06/25/more-sound-files-from-the-colloquium/

thoughts

ugh. the decisions!~
where to even begin? yesterday I sat down with my priest and had a big de-briefing session about the Colloquium particularly, and in general what direction we are going to go in. We need to get new hymnals, and we can't wait two or three years for a new translation of the Mass. Guess who that job is going to fall to? St. Michael's is a big possiblity, but kind of expensive. Adoremus is accused of not having much variety. What about a yearly paperback thing for a couple years? anything has to be better than Ritual Song... if you have EVER read this blog before, then you know my rants about the Communion options....
...but then, as my discussion with my boss continued, one thing that I really took away from the conference was an encouragement to begin using the propers. but HOW? I don't even know where to begin! The Communion will be easy to slip in in any form, everyone likes listenign to pretty music, and the Offertory won't be so hard either. Getting rid of the opening hymn will be the work of a couple years at least. and then the difficulty of getting translations into the hands of the people...and that's where a good misallette will come in handy. Doing the actual Gregorian chant (from the Gregorian Missal or wherever that is from originally) is the ideal I'm shooting for. and for something like the Offertory and Communion, I don't htink the people will care much, like I just mentinoed they like to listen to pretty music. Apparently they loved it when I (and the choir at that Mass) sang Vidi Aquam all Easter. But where on earth am I going to get a schola that can do this every week (ok, I have no idea why this is suddenly typing bold, that is not intentional. I'm trying to type really fast.) I have a couple ideas of girls who could sing with me, but I doubt any of them would be willing to learn the propers and sing them with me at just one Mass a weekend-even if I rotated the actual girls! One thing that was discussed at the Colloquium which I thought was quite cool that kind of answered the question of mine, "what about solo singing? I mean, I can learn the propers all by myself pretty easily, and just sing them, and people will like them?" well, it was discussed about how stuff like that is even MORE appreciated by the difficulty of it not just being sung, but being sung in perfect unison, without mistakes. like, any musician can just sing a pretty melody line, but to sing it together with someone else, with all of the same nuances etc, is just heavenly! so there's a bunch of the random big decisions I've got overwhelming and gushing around in my head.,..

oh...where to begin, where to begin...

update

Colloquium was great. Very interesting to talk to people who are in similar situations as myself. Very interesting to meet people whose blogs I've been reading, haha!
It makes one quite happy to just know that there are people out there who are going through the same struggles and questions I am (such as, how to introduce translations and antiphons without ridiculous amounts of paper in the pew...) and the (power) struggles musicians have with their priests (but not me! yay!) and such, but then also kind of frustrating to realize that no one else has answers to these questions, either! argh!
some of my highlights involved things like how great it is to be able to sit down with 140 other people and sightread beautiful Catholic music, singing the Mass exactly as the Church desires it to be celebrated, and one of my favorites was the night we had the coffeehouse. ohhh...musicians sitting around, drinking wine, making musical jokes, and perfoming is just wonderful.

sigh. I get so few visitors to this blog, it's depressing. but, really Mara, you get what you put into it. when you have an absence of several weeks, well, that's what happens!
they aren't going to just flock here simply based on your incredible wittiness or wisdom! hahaha...

yay!
I'm going to DC for this sacred music conference in 3 days!!
I've never done anything like this before, especially completely by myself!
I hope there's people my age there who want to have a good time (what the heck are we supposed to do after 8pm every night when the conference is over?!) and it's not just a bunch of old people...

story for the Catholics:
so I just played for a wedding tonight, and the photographer was kind of obnoxious, as in disrespectful to what was going on during the Mass. (well, I always think the photographers are obnoxious, but looking back, this one was particularly so...) so anyhow, of course, she appears to be completely oblivious to what is going on at the altar, so during the consecration, she is up front off to the side and snapping pictures of the bride and groom. after he consecrated the host, I realized Fr. wasn't saying anything, so I looked up and he was staring right at her! and she was still totally oblivious! It took a few more seconds but then the bride and groom realized what was happening and then they turned and gave her a kind of dirty look, and then she kind of realized how obnoxious she looked, and picked up her camera and ran to the back of the church. it was sooo wonderfully awful! I mean, awful that she was sooo clueless and disrespectful (I mean, not that I expect her to understand what's going on at the altar, especially if she's not Catholic, but good grief-everyone is kneeling down and being quiet and looking at the altar, and there she was, up in front of everyone snapping pictures!) but it was wonderful (I thought at least) how Fr. handled it. He easily could have ignored it, but, well, sometimes photographers cross the line and need to be put in their place. ha.

oh, yes.

and did I mention how much I hate the "four hymn sandwich?"

I'm back.

(isn't that always the beginning of the last post of a blog before it officially dies?)
anyhow, I hate choosing the music for ordinary time. I mean, sometimes I feel like there's too many choices, and other times I feel like there are no songs. It's all fine and dandy to just choose normal "praise" hymns for most of Mass, but what about Communion? as I've ranted about before, my hymnal has NO communion songs. and with the choir officially not rehearsing during the summer...there won't be any refreshment with them. like, during Easter for example, we can do Easter songs during Communion. But really, now, I can only do "At that First Eucharist" so many times.

my boss told me he thinks it's fine to use "Tantum Ergo" and "O Salutaris" during Mass, b/c, really, isn't Mass like the ultimate act of adoration? however, a friend of mine who is a professor at a nearby seminary, told me he didn't think so. any thoughts?


I can't help reposting this joke:
What is a progressive's favorite Latin hymn?
Tantrum Ego!

Corpus Christi

yay! favorite feast!

Crown Him With Many Crowns (DIADEMATA)
Let All Mortal Flesh
choir: Ave Verum (chant)
Come Adore/Tantum Ergo (ST. THOMAS)-I checked with my boss on the appropriateness of using this during Mass, as I've only ever heard it during adoration, and he was fine with it, like, isn't that exactly what Mass is about? (any other thoughts?)
Adoro Te Devote (Humbly We Adore Thee)
To Jesus Christ Our Sovereign King (ICH GLAUB AN GOTT)

note: the last Mass will close with a Corpus Christi procession, and therefore we will sing O Salutaris followed by O Lord I am not Worthy)