as my extremely busy August continues, I leave early tomorrow morning to drive five hours and go to a conference for laity on the Extraordinary Form. It should prove to be quite interesting.
And will be quite a contrast to this past week.
I have a future blog post brewing in my mind entitled, "My Double Life."
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Byzantine Catholics
I had the extremely interesting opportunity to go to a Byzantine Catholic service on the Vigil of the Assumption (Dormition.) It included both a vespers service and then Mass. I was quite fascinated by everything, ranging from receiving Communion on a spoon, to the beautiful prayers we said before Communion. (Instead of just, "Lord I am not worthy...") Pretty much the whole thing was sung. The Deacon really was in charge. The vespers service included the congregation processing around, as well as paying homage to Mary. I would be interested to study the chants that they used. It was mostly somewhat similar, somewhat rhythmic, with clear longs and shorts, with no instruments. I wish I knew more about modality to know how to describe it. It was all in English. The altar and edifice in front of it were just gorgeous. Oh yes, and we all got anointed with rose chrism! how wonderful!
Sunday, August 03, 2008
singing high
occasionally I get a comment like, "you sing everything so high..." or "your voice is so high..."
I never take the time to explain either how
-I am singing the soprano line of these 4-part hymns, and ideally we all should just be singing our own individual voice part,
-even with that, I often bring hymns which are in the key of D down to C (because most untrained females are not sopranos, and most untrained men are not sopranos one octave down,)
-and I don't bother to point out that if they're men, they're supposed to actually be singing an octave lower than me! ;-)
(and to those who are going to dispute this even though that wasn't what my post was originally about, I am quite certain that for an untrained congregation, a high D, is quite too high. And I am not going to take the time or energy-as if they would let me-to teach them how to sing correctly so they can reach it!)
I never take the time to explain either how
-I am singing the soprano line of these 4-part hymns, and ideally we all should just be singing our own individual voice part,
-even with that, I often bring hymns which are in the key of D down to C (because most untrained females are not sopranos, and most untrained men are not sopranos one octave down,)
-and I don't bother to point out that if they're men, they're supposed to actually be singing an octave lower than me! ;-)
(and to those who are going to dispute this even though that wasn't what my post was originally about, I am quite certain that for an untrained congregation, a high D, is quite too high. And I am not going to take the time or energy-as if they would let me-to teach them how to sing correctly so they can reach it!)
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