priests

Dear blog readers,

If you appreciate/love a priest, send his bishop a letter/note to let him know why. It really does make a difference.

my recital!

my masters organ recital did actually get recorded, and here are the links to it for those who would like to download:

Praeambulum, E Major, Vincent Lubeck.wma

Postlude for the Office of Compline, Jehan Alain.wma

Sonata VI, Felix Mendelssohn.wma

Fantasia in C minor, Johann Sebastian Bach.wma

Suite Medievale, Jean Langlais.wma

hope you enjoy!

missal translation

I know there has been a lot of discussion on the new translation that we are supposed to have beginning in November, and about how people will receive it, and how angry they will be, or if they will love it, and perhaps whether some people will refuse to say it... but as I think about human nature, and my experiences of it, I believe that people generally don't like change, and complain about it for a brief period of time...but then soon after? they don't even remember what it was like before.

This is MY prediction: (well, it is only my prediction if the scenario occurs as I describe)
I think that if there was just a little bit of explanation, "so we'll be using a new translation soon, that will be more accurate to the original..." and then hand them a copy-but not too far in advance! and then say, "ok, read this during Mass." they might complain a bit, but you know what? I betcha that (especially if whoever presents the material doesn't present it in a negative light,) I betcha that 4 months later people won't even remember that they were ever saying anything differently.

new look!

wow, thank you AF... I haven't made any changes to my blog since, like, uh, 2006? wow I'm old...
anyhow, that was all for the purpose of allowing YOU to easily become my "follower." ooooo....how stalkerish is *that*?! (It didn't seem like I could add the "gadget" with my old template, at least not easily.)

soo...feel free to click on that, you know, little thing over on the right side. It seems to be the cool thing to do.

Unfortunately, in the changes, I seem to have lost my list of links, (which doesn't really matter anyhow, b/c it's not like I ever looked at more than a couple of them regularly!) So, apologies if your blog isn't linked to anymore, let me know if it should be, or if you know of any others that are interesting. But, that has the added plus that I now don't have links to any abandoned blogs, and that I've even added some new ones! yay!

worst sound EVER...

a church full of old and middle-aged women belting their heart out on the refrains of "Be not afraid" and "Here I am Lord."
Even if I didn't dislike those songs in particular, the sound of 100+ old ladies singing as loud as they can is pretty awful...

(It's funny how the sound is imprinted in my memory. Even at this moment I can recall in detail how it sounded. I literally cringed at the swell of singing that occured at the onset of those refrains. Maybe it was just one person who was singing loudly in particularly, but still...*shudder.* It was like...yelling. or croaking.)

songs and text

so, what do you do when there is a song with perfect *text* that matches the proper antiphon...but it sounds like either something right off Broadway, or else a schmaltzy love song? I've looking at "Lord When You Came to the Seashore" as a substitute for the antiphons for this upcoming Sunday having to do with "Follow me, I will make you fishers of men." ok, well, looking at it again I guess the text doesn't match as well as I thought it did...but still, there's other times that this occurs! So where's the line? Should all songs that are musically inappropriate be excluded from the liturgy, even if they could substitute for a proper antiphon where nothing else can?

this is REALLY funny...

ok, I admit, I didn't even read it (I don't think I need to...)

but it was even funnier before they modified the note at the end, which now says:

Editor's Note: When this column was first posted, NCR incorrectly reported that this homily was given at St. Patrick Church in Ann Arbor, Mich. We are waiting to hear back from Bishop Gumbleton about where he celebrated Mass last weekend. In the meantime we apologize for the error.

http://ncronline.org/blogs/peace-pulpit/all-races-sexual-orientations-welcome-christs-table

Confession time...

ok, I admit it.

I actually sort of like the song "On Eagle's Wings."

(sorry, I feel like I may have blogged about this before....apologies if so!)

It's a bit of nostalgia-- when I was a bit younger, I remember sitting down at the piano and playing the melody line, while my mom (who is an excellent pianist,) embellished the chords and made a beautiful accompaniment. I thought it was just lovely.

And, I still think that it's quite a nice song, just not appropriate for Mass.

I'm thinking...musical theater? Yes, that would be perfect! Or the soundtrack to a movie. Something like that.

;-)

a year seems so long...

It's funny how a year seems so long...

one year ago, when I was wondering what to play as a postlude for Gaudete Sunday, someone suggested a piece (I forget the composer) based on "O Come Divine Messiah." I discovered it too late, yet realized how cool it was, and thought "oh, I guess I could play it next year...but next year is so far away! The world will probably like have come to an end by then!"

and here we are.

It's "next year."

And I can play "Venez, Divin Messie" as a perfect postlude!

the 7th year...

I'm not honestly sure exactly what a "sabbatical" is. I have some ideas (like, my professor took one during the semester of my undergrad organ recital!)

I suspect it has something to do with the biblical command of giving the laborer the 7th year off? Or I am confusing that with the whole "jubilee year" thing that was like every 70 (or 49?) years. I'm feeling too lazy right now to go look it up.

Anyhow, I had a realization that on this upcoming Easter Sunday, I will have been a semi-full-time church musician for SIX SOLID years! That's six solid years of three Masses every weekend, one choir rehearsal every week, every single Christmas filled with 3-4 rigorous Masses, and every single Holy Week containing 8 rigorous liturgies!

And I kind of realized as I was sitting there during Mass this past weekend... I'm kind of a little bit...tired? I mean, I LOVE my job! I could barely ask for a more perfect one! But, oh, how I long for a period of time where I don't have to BE anywhere...a time where I could go to Mass wherever I wanted! A time where I'm not in CHARGE. How I would love to just sing beautiful music in a schola once a weekend and be done, or play just one Mass at someone *else's* church occasionally, and then be done for the weekend!

To be re-inspired. Refreshed.

hmmm...this whole sabbatical thing... I think they're on to something.

All Saints TLM...and difficult music

Last night I had a wonderful opportunity to go to a TLM in a certain city, (and don't even try to guess where, cuz it is not anywhere near where I live!)
and, well I know there has been a rather heated discussion about this on the MS forum, I did get a chance to witness a very small choir with a couple of talented people and a couple of less-so singing a VERY HARD polyphonic Renaissance Mass setting!
I'm not quite sure how to describe it... I mean, it was very nice that they attempted it, and I quite admire them for it, but there was quite a few places where someone was out of tune, or I was trying to tell if they were just going along trying to get back in place...
I mean, I'm singing in an "Early Music" choir this semester, and here you have a roomful of music school students who can barely get through these pieces with 5-parts that are completely independent. It is HARD!
Of course, I don't know the choir at this church at all, or how much they worked on this Mass setting or anything else, but it does make me wonder if it would have been better to have found a simpler setting. (a 3-part Mass? or even one that was more chordal/homophonic?)
Perhaps part of the problem is that there are SO MANY Renaissance Masses written in the former style, and relatively few in a more simple style.

Anyhow, it was a lovely experience. However, I find that whenever I attend a TLM Mass, I am SO focused on "figuring out what's going on," that I can barely pay attention. In my case, I'm trying to know what's going on precisely because I have to understand it enough to be able to play organ for it! So, yesterday was a perfect experience to refresh my memory on all the things that I will need to prep for next weekend. (oh yes, let's figure out a 9-fold Kyrie. maybe a slightly fancier Agnus Dei then we do regularly? and I'll have to teach that priest AND choir the Ite Missa!)

let's just say...a low liturgical point...

so low, in fact, that I just have to laugh.

A friend and I were visiting a touristy-island recently, (yes, I'm being vague deliberately...) and since it was off-season, there weren't very many people there.

We decided to go to Mass, and as it neared the time Mass was supposed to start, there was no priest in sight, candles lit, other Mass-goers, etc. We sat in a pew and waited. A couple minutes before Mass was supposed to start, the priest shuffles in.

My friend and I agree that most likely the priest is not thrilled to see *any*one at Mass, since now he actually has to go through with it, but precisely for that reason we are going to make him say Mass. tee hee. (sure enough, he checks with us that we're going to participate.)

He seems to be over-all a pretty decent priest; he says some good stuff about how God is the only thing that matters, and doesn't change too many words. (except replacing "Him" with "God," and adding a whole bunch of chatty-pray-y type stuff,)

UNTIL...he is saying the prayers at the offertory and his phone goes off! (which is, btw, right under his chasuble, as there is no alb or stole or anything else as far as I can tell covering his street clothes...sigh.)

AND he says to us something about expecting an important call, and ANSWERS IT!!! No one seems to respond on the other end, so he hangs up and continues with the prayers.

good grief. It was just so ridiculously horrible that all my friend and I could do was look at each other and try not to laugh.

oh dear God, have mercy on us, and the state of Roman Catholic liturgy...