How many planners?

[Nick Baty]

No, not possible – because it's not fair to the assembly.

Looking at an aerial shot of the plan, it should be possible to see the shape of the year, with changing settings of Acclamations etc, differing moods to the songs, as the seasons progress.

You'd then see new items as and when they appear, each being used for two or three occasions, then brought back a couple of weeks later and then, perhaps a week or two after that until they become part of the assembly's repertoire.

I colour code my planner: New or unfamiliar items are in red, then blue, then green. When I start compiling lists of suitable songs for any particular Sunday, these are also colour coded according to how well-known they are. That means that, as I start weaving them in, I can see at a glance how much I am expecting of the assembly. After all, they are there to worship rather than simply expand their repertoire.

I could work with a planning group as long as they understood the process and that it can take two or three hours just to plan the service music and psalms for the next year or so.

By all means accept suggestions from other people. But show them the plan. Ask them which Sunday they're thinking of them for – and it's probably going to be at least two months hence as the next month or so is already woven together based on the planning you did a couple of months ago. Your "vocal member" should be aware that it will take the parish singers/instrumentalists two or three rehearsals to get things up to speed. And, given that the MD is likely to have to arrange various things, add another couple of weeks to that timescale.

Over the next 18 months or so, you'll need to bed in four or five sets of acclamations, how can your "very vocal member" possibly ask for anything other new items over the next year.

[docmattc]

.... but in reality its easy "my favourite hymns" to be picked. It also runs the risk of what a former PP called 'keyword triggers': ending up with five different settings of psalm 23 in a Mass because the first reading makes a passing reference to sheep, even though psalm 23 has nothing to do with the scriptures of the day.

I don’t see how planning by committee makes this more likely.

If your committee, like your MD, is
liturgically aware
sympathetic to the community they are serving
prepared to include a broad range, not just cater to their own tastes

then it isn't likely. But if by committee we really mean opening the doors to anyone with an axe to grind and no interest in learning about liturgy, then quality is going to suffer and planning becomes a nightmare.

[JW]

I have to say it works quite well in our parish. Those who provide the music do the planning for the 3 Masses where we have music.

For the Mass I play at, I email 2 members of the choir when I've done the planning and they will sometimes make a comment (e.g. I've been asked to replace "Awake, Awake, Fling Off the Night" as Entry Song for next Sunday.).

I think a couple of members of our guitar group get together to plan their Masses, and the lady who plays the organ for the 3rd Mass (no choir) does her own planning.

Our congregations are quite amenable and encouraging: on the odd occasion something gets raised an explanation of how the particular piece of music fits in liturgically is usually helpful. Obviously we get criticism at times - but not often and it tends to be constructive. We have an open liturgy committee meeting about once a quarter which is a useful forum for discussion, explanation, formation, and safety valve - about 20 to 30 attend each time.

[Nick Baty]

Do the three groups swap notes to ensure common repertoire?

[JW]

Do the three groups swap notes to ensure common repertoire?

No, the folk group is mostly folk who have been playing for that Mass for the past 40+ years and has a limited repertoire (I hope they would not consider that statement insulting, it isn't meant to be). We have 2 churches, the guitar group plays at the other. I don't think that a common repertoire is necessarily essential - settings that I use, such as Margaret Rizza's Mass of the Bread of Life are a bit complex for the others. We sometimes come together, e.g. the Day of Bl. John Newman's beatification. People like the variety in provision and attend the church where they prefer the ambience; for example at our other church, the Our Father is always sung and the children come on to the sanctuary for the Lord's Prayer; in our church we never sing the Our Father and have a Children's Liturgy of the Word.

All this may change if a proposal to close our second church goes ahead.

[Nick Baty]

I don't think that a common repertoire is necessarily essential

I think it's vital.
What do you do at Christmas, or at the Triduum when the people come together?

[TimSharrock]

We are another "separate planning" parish. Of the five Sunday Masses in the church itself two are normally sung.

The 10am Mass has a children's music group two Sundays each month, for which my wife and I choose the music - typically just a week in advance. It would be could if we could plan a bit further ahead, and for Lent and Advent we do. We email our priests and other group members with the plan, and occasionally revise it (for example if the presider want a particular piece to tie in with the homily). Just occasionally we get "requests" which we try to fit in to a suitable slot. We have limited rehearsal time, so at the moment our "new material" capacity is taken up with a Psallite psalm once per month. We do not change acclamations etc enough (well very often at all, really).

On the "other" Sundays at the 10am Mass the organist chooses the music, I believe. I am usually there and singling from the loft, so know what is sung, though I do not keep records. We do sometimes get "multiple repeats" that way, but as some parishoners, I think, feel that we sing too much unfamiliar music, I don't think that is a big problem.

The other sung Mass, is "Organ and Choir", and is planned separately - I don't know how far ahead, and this choir handles most of the Triduum.

There is a liturgy group that meets every couple of months, but this is concerned mostly with the "overview" rather than the choices for each service.

[Nick Baty]

The other sung Mass, is "Organ and Choir", and is planned separately - I don't know how far ahead, and this choir handles most of the Triduum.

This is a good example of why joint planning is needed. The folk who attend the Triduum will be lost if the organ and choir strike up with, for example, a Holy which they are not used to singing. For acclamations, at least, the various ensembles should have a common repertoire. It's not difficult to find music which can be accompanied on a single guitar or by organ, choir and 4-part brass!

[TimSharrock]

... The folk who attend the Triduum will be lost if the organ and choir strike up with, for example, a Holy which they are not used to singing. For acclamations, at least, the various ensembles should have a common repertoire.

In practice it does not seem to cause us a problem - probably because the acclamations at a given feast are usually the same as the previous year. For Christmas and Easter the congregation does not all come together - there is not room, and the congregations split semi-predictably: regular 10am participants (with or tolerant of small children) will tend to be an the 10am Mass (or the early evening Mass on Christmas eve) while the midnights will tend to have more of the 11:15 congregation with a mix of the more musically active others.

[Nick Baty]

the acclamations at a given feast are usually the same as the previous year

But no longer!

[TimSharrock]

the acclamations at a given feast are usually the same as the previous year

But no longer!

yes - and given that we will probably give it some thought together at the liturgy meeting

[VML]

Continuity is important, and at least it was decided at the meeting for January that we would use the New People's Mass for the month.
I was asked to put guitar chords on it for use on my week off, so I did. And they used the Clapping Gloria....

[Nick Baty]

Might it be easier if you scrapped the monthly week off? I know it would drive me mad!

[VML]

While our eight were growing up, we didn't take Sundays off for many years, but now some have children too, and some live at other ends of the country, needs must! I wouldn't stop music in August, but I'm in a minority of one on that one, and I value my marriage!

[Nick Baty]

Ah! Therein lies the problem. Marriage really does get in the way!