Music Animator required

[John Ainslie]

Holy Ghost Roman Catholic Parish – Balham, London (SW12 8QJ) seeks to appoint, from September 2015, a practising Catholic as Music Animator for its very lively 9.30am Sunday Family Mass.

The successful candidate will ideally be a guitar player, with an understanding of the Mass, and able to confidently lead the children and family singing. The usual safeguarding requirements will apply. Salary negotiable.

For further information please contact the Parish Office on 020 8355 0211 or email office@hgbalham.com. (Closing date for applications – Wednesday 15 July 2015.)

[VML]

What a lovely request. I wish I lived nearer.

[oopsorganist]

I wish I lived nearer so that I could attend that Mass! I'd like to be more animated!

[High Peak]

Maybe I'll show this to my PP! It would be nice to even have expenses covered!!

[Hare]

Hmm. Not wishing to be negative, but I would like to think that the clentele at this mass got a more varied diet than can be provided by a guitar-playing animator.....

[oopsorganist]

The guitar is a very versatile instrument. As can be the pipe organ, although it is harder to move it around; something an animator might need to do.

However, it might be tricky to do the animator bits whilst actually playing the guitar. It seems to me this might be two jobs?

[High Peak]

However, it might be tricky to do the animator bits whilst actually playing the guitar. It seems to me this might be two jobs?

Oh, I don't know. Although the ideal would be to have two people, I think that one reasonably skilled guitarist with an expressive face and standing in a conspicuous position could manage it quite adequately.

[alan29]

What do they actually do?
The only ones I have seen are in France. There they seem to run the Liturgy of the Word from a mike up front, and wave an arm around in a fairly meaningless way while people are trying to ignore them and get on with the singing. In some parishes the priest seems to be sidelined until the homily.
Is that it?

[gwyn]

I came across an animator once in Blackpool, it seems to be a fairly pointless, purposeless activity.

[MaryR]

Hare wrote

Hmm. Not wishing to be negative, but I would like to think that the clentele at this mass got a more varied diet than can be provided by a guitar-playing animator.....

The animator with guitar skills is being sought for the 9.30 family Mass. This parish also has a choir, directed by Darquise Bilodeau (longtime member of the SSG), which sings at the 11 am Mass. I understand they sing a varied repertoire including Gregorian plainsong and choral motets.

I think it's refreshing that a Catholic church is prepared to pay its musicians. By doing so, it can be discerning about who it appoints.

We have a guitar-playing animator at our parish. His name is Paul Wellicome. He's a composer and plays numerous instruments. He leads very effectively, playing the guitar and animating when appropriate (not usually at the same time). A good animator can guide the assembly through a new song, doesn't wave his/her arms aimlessly, and reduces animation as the assembly begin to get it. We are blessed to have Paul in our parish. If you want to see a good animator in action, come and visit us at Our Lady, Lillington, Leamington Spa.

[VML]

Absolutely Mary. Well said. There is sometimes a dismissive attitude to guitars at Mass, but there are guitars and guitars, and very different styles.
A good animator is as you have described.

[Hare]

I was not being dismissive of guitars at mass, as a re-reading of my comment should reveal.

[alan29]

Some of us have neither an organ, nor a place to put one. Guitars, instruments and keyboard are the order of the day.

[mcb]

What do they actually do?
The only ones I have seen are in France. There they seem to run the Liturgy of the Word from a mike up front, and wave an arm around in a fairly meaningless way while people are trying to ignore them and get on with the singing.
Is that it?

I'd like to think of myself as part conductor, part animator. A willing assembly sings very much better when people know when and what to sing. Maybe there are three ways to achieve this: (a) just ramp up the organ any time it's the people's turn to sing; (b) only ever sing old favourites that everyone knows; and (c) position the musical director so that as well as conducting the choir (s)he can give helpful signals to the assembly as to when to come in, and perhaps how an unfamiliar tune goes. Or, if the musical director isn't normally in view of the assembly, appoint someone else to take on the latter role. (a) and (b) are to my mind musically suffocating compared with the opportunities afforded by (c). Don't knock it till you've tried it!

[Hare]

What do they actually do?
The only ones I have seen are in France. There they seem to run the Liturgy of the Word from a mike up front, and wave an arm around in a fairly meaningless way while people are trying to ignore them and get on with the singing.
Is that it?

I'd like to think of myself as part conductor, part animator. A willing assembly sings very much better when people know when and what to sing. Maybe there are three ways to achieve this: (a) just ramp up the organ any time it's the people's turn to sing; (b) only ever sing old favourites that everyone knows; and (c) position the musical director so that as well as conducting the choir (s)he can give helpful signals to the assembly as to when to come in, and perhaps how an unfamiliar tune goes. Or, if the musical director isn't normally in view of the assembly, appoint someone else to take on the latter role. (a) and (b) are to my mind musically suffocating compared with the opportunities afforded by (c). Don't knock it till you've tried it!

I think that b) is pretty essential anyway to keep things together - especially with a large assembly and/or a big acoustic. Of course, what works in one place won't work in another. at my own church, the choir and organ are in the "west" gallery, but psalms and Gospel acclamations are "cantored" from the Ambo. The cantors "look" at the congregation when it's their turn. People are used to it and it works (apart from the people who start singing with the cantor!) The cantor at the early mass on Sundays always used to "animate" but was asked to cease doing so by the then PP who didn't like the idea of a lay person giving any sort of direction in anything!