...and this post IS about Christmas

or, at least, it should be.
I keep on feeling like I need to write something for all of my faithful readers, a de-briefing on the music in particular at Christmas.
Well, it happened. It's over.
There was only a minor amount of drama the day before Christmas Eve and right before Christmas Midnight Mass.
I had a lovely harp player at the Vigil, who accompanied the children's choir. No one else sang, of course they didn't want to "drown out" the choir/harp, of course they wanted to listen! Is that good or bad? Good, I suppose, Catholic's aren't supposed to sing-they're supposed to listen to the choir! (of course, that is just in the ideal situation. The situation with just a cantor singing hymns is a completely different story!)
I had 3 high schoolers play their instruments at Christmas Midnight, they weren't perfectly in tune, and since it was a lot of work and stress for me, I would be curious hearing from those who were there what their perception of it was. Was it enjoyable, and worth it, particularly since the high schoolers actually are interested in coming back? They were timid, at the very least. So I'm sure in that regard, they would get better over time.
And also at Midnight Mass, the choir sang the "Born Today" that I wrote about previously, I believe it went well, and may be paving the way for such things more normally. In fact, this weekend at the last Mass, and the Vigil for MMOG, I plan on having a friend join me in singing the Introit, Offertory, and Communion. I really don't think people care about Latin and such as long as they get some sort of translation (which I will provide by singing the English on a simple tone immediately prior,) or as long as they don't have to sing it themselves! I'm sure I've written about all of this before. As a matter of fact, I believe that it is the explanation that confuses them more. As you know from my previous post about this "Born Today" thing, there was a question of whether or not to write a bulletin article. I did, although I'm not sure how many people read it because of a certain snow storm that weekend. However, right before Mass began, Father gave a brief explanation about why the people wouldn't be singing the "opening hymn," and in fact, when he said stuff like, "Instead, the choir will be singing the introit," a few of my choir members looked at me like, "huh?" They hadn't found it odd at all that they were just gonna sing this thing instead of opening with a carol! So, educating the masses that don't really care to be educated will be a question for another post...
So that was Christmas, I need to try to remember next September or October to bring up the issue with Father that we really both agree that we don't need to have a "Mass at Dawn," as we have these past two years...that practically no one came to, and that caused the number of sleep for at least a couple of people to decrease by 2.5 hours, thus, for me at least, causing me to be in a zone all afternoon!
And now I need to start thinking about Lent and Easter, my favorite season! There is soooo much good music for it out there...My only regret is that the Good Friday service is only so long, and I have sooo much music... (all of my favorite songs are total Holy Week songs...)