Terrors of the Triduum

[oopsorganist]

If you do resign Hare.. you could come and help me for I am badly in need of it.

Our Vigil service was a mess. I knew the Psalms would hang loosely because I have spent what little practice time I have on teaching the Latin Gloria and Exsultet to two young people.
I had no singers for the Vigil, one having been adopted into the readers and one failed to turn up (only 14 years old and maybe she was right to ditch it). So ended up singing two of the psalms and most of the hymns with the aid of an elderly brother.... why on earth can't people sing Now the Green Blade Riseth? Everyone had the words for everything, this being the first year we have had the CFE for 99% of the repertoire.... Christ be Our Light Easter Version was littered around 100 copies but only 60 people there.... if I don't spoon feed them the whole service on a sheet no one responds and I feel most disheartened... all the word sheets and everything for the week have been done at my expense and time with my home in rack and ruin...... I am in the church up to an hour before each service listening to what PP wants and setting up everything. I was happy that at least we had the Responses sung by everybody with gusto and was prepared to forgive the lack of hymn singing.... when my partner on guitars laid into me for being disorganised, .................she having arrived at 6.29 for a service which started at 6.30. I am tired of singing alone.

I did not resign though I thought about staying in bed this morning. Luckily I went and was amazed to find standing room only in our church, a full house and over, not that they sang anything except the Responses and the Clapping Gloria. We had Travellers and people in African dress. Toddlers and wheelchairs, people I have met and strangers at the door, and I right good spirit if not a right good sing.

PP fell over and took a bench with him.

I wish I had a choir. Or a cantor. Or even one other person with some music training. Or a midi system although I am not sure what that is. The size of this parish and the increasing numbers really need more musicians than just myself hacking away at it. I wish I could be absolved my input and could creep quietly away to another, perfect parish (for me,) one where I could trust the music director paid or unpaid, to be interesting and challenging and I could contribute my service in any form but not have to always lead. Intelligent companions would be nice too.
Never mind.

I think God must want us to lose the hymns. And the Psalms. That seems to be the message.

When our PP falls, which he does quite often, he hates any kind of fuss and just gets up and carries on as if nothing happened. That is what we should all do. Get up and carry on with what we are doing.

[gwyn]

That is what we should all do. Get up and carry on with what we are doing.

Amen to that Sister.

[Nick Baty]

As Auntie Ena used to say: "Pull up your knickers and box on".
They have a certain way with words up here!

[Nick Baty]

Responses sung by everybody with gusto and was prepared to forgive the lack of hymn singing....

So they sang the integral bits and didn't sing the bits that don't fit into our liturgy. Dearest Oops, you are streets ahead of so many parishes where the converse is true.

And later I read:

"I went and was amazed to find standing room only in our church...not that they sang anything except the Responses

I detect a pattern.

I think God must want us to lose the hymns.

Funny you should should mention this – I've been asking him to push this agenda for some time. Perhaps now the Vatican's banned Yahweh I know you are near he's less interested in this musical form.

And the Psalms.

No, he rather likes those and, apparently finds midi accompaniment as acceptable as David's harp. Anyway, if your lovely people are enjoying singing them....

For my recent MMus, I surveyed the music in parishes in the region. Believe me, Oops, few even knew what a response was, let along that it could be sung. Kum Ba Ya was never far away and the Israeli Mass hovered forever, like a particularly bad dose of syphilis in the background.

Keep going – you're heading in the right direction.

[oopsorganist]

It was my target to get Responses sung, and the Gloria, more than one, we now have two.. Clapping and Latin. Dear me.

But they will sing The Servant Song, One Bread One Body, Shine Jesus Shine, Bind Us Together, shall I stop there....... if you play Where is Love and Loving Kindness, or even, Come Down Oh Love Divine.. they look blank, or at the ceiling ......... For anything of this ilk, it'll be me, my Brother and a lovely lady in a hat that sings flat, we''ll be singing on our own..... they could not even remember how to sing "O Come and Mourn" on Good Friday!!!!

.. so onto Psalms ... well they really hate any kind of sung Psalm, but like them read... so that is out the window.....unless, hmmm .. I have an idea, a nice CD of quality Psalms for pre Mass in the coming ordinary seasons.... any suggestions? I have a plan, a cunning plan..................

[Nick Baty]

they will sing The Servant Song, One Bread One Body, Shine Jesus Shine, Bind Us Together

It was rather like that when I came to present parish five years ago but bit-by-bit I've talked them into more contemporary stuff and they love it. Start where they are and move forward. I usually plan music in detail 8–10 weeks ahead (although I'm more than a tad behind at the moment), roughly a year ahead, and for service music I used a three-year plan. It's a bit like planning your finances – it's tough this month but you can see the end of the overdraft by next January.

they could not even remember how to sing "O Come and Mourn" on Good Friday!!!!

Tempted to post "Praise the Lord!" but was interested by your use of the word "even". However, that would be same over here – it simply wouldn't be known in North Liverpool. God is good.

well they really hate any kind of sung Psalm

What sort of responses are you asking them to sing? There's some terrible dross out there. Shop around, find settings where the response reflects the stuff they like to sing. Use more common psalms (and that can be broader than those suggested in the Lectionary).

PM me an email address and I'll sending you a features on using planning to increase repertoire.

[musicus]

Folks, just in case you missed my rubric on the previous page of this topic, I have moved Hare's most recent post and the replies to it from the much-missed ASB's topic of last January (which I have now locked) to this topic here.

[musicus]

So what did I get wrong at the Vigil? Let me count the ways...

1. I had four (!) copies of Music for the Mass spread out across the organ for the Coventry Gloria, all open at the correct pages; but copies 2 and 3 were the wrong way round Did the people notice? Probably not, because I (almost) know it from memory. Next year I will use the photocopier and lots of sellotape.
2. I tried to play Saints of God in glory from a single copy and, instead of turning back and forth all the time, I played the refrain from memory.
Did the people notice? Probably not, because, even when I got it wrong, my harmony and counterpoint is good enough for me not to play nonsense. Next year I will use the photocopier etc ...
3. The hymn at the preparation of the gifts - Thine be the glory - caught me napping, so, I set off in E major, not Eb. Did the people notice? Possibly, because it was a weeny bit higher than usual, and I am better in C minor than in C# minor (in the middle).

But what went well? Well, the people sang everything (including the hymns) better than I have ever heard them, especially Thine be the glory. Our music leader sang the Exsultet (Roman Missal in English with very discreet organ underpinning from me) superbly. People came up afterwards to thank us for the music. The PP was visibly moved by the liturgy, and said so at the end (a real first!).

Frankly, the Vigil is too much and too complex for just two musicians, but we gave it our best shot, and most of it was very good. Slips and mistakes are probably inevitable - but they just spur me on to get it right next time. The PP had to make four attempts at the start of the Eucharistic Prayer, but no-one minded, and he certainly isn't resigning!

Let's share our mistakes in witness to our imperfect humanity; to encourage each other to improve and to strive to give of our best!

[presbyter]

So what did I get wrong at the Vigil? Let me count the ways...

Let's share our mistakes in witness to our imperfect humanity; to encourage each other to improve and to strive to give of our best!

1. Well i forgot to renew my supply of B-B-Q fire lighters with the result that the "new fire" was more smoke than flame and the white/gold chasuble now needs a dry clean. I looked as if I might have been clothed in a deceased Dalmatian (dog, that is).

2. In a former year, the Paschal Candle guttered in the breeze - a flaming torch shooting wax all over the vestments. By the time I came to sit down for the first reading, the wax had solidified and everyone could hear the vestment crackle. More dry cleaning.

3. Having successfully encouraged the faithful to gather as close as possible to the baptistery for the font blessing, we forgot to bring the Paschal Candle in the procession and had to retrieve it.

4. I nearly sang an incorrect prayer at the font ...... pause while I found the correct one. (Try looking at the Altar Missal layout - it's easy to have a "senior moment" - presbyter expresses prayer that the new Missal will be better laid out)

5. After an exuberant sprinkling, the partially soaked Dalmatian chasuble takes on the look of a zebra skin - how much is dry cleaning these days?

6. Concelebrating colleague got confused in EP1 - but we finally got the Easter insert

7. The minister dispatched to the Altar of Repose had a real struggle opening the tabernacle and had to be helped.

etc...........

Laugh at your mistakes ...... don't resign! They are ephemeral.

[Hare]

Laugh at your mistakes ...... don't resign! They are ephemeral.

Hmmm - what should one do / how should one feel when the Assembly laugh at them?

And when someone comes up to you on Easter Sunday morning, following the disastrous Vigil, and says "A word to the wise - might be a bit fairer to your cantors if you practiced with them..." We have used that setting of the Exultet for 10 years now, and the cantors run through it at their rehearsals all through Lent. [I now know what happened; the word "heavenly" appears in the first phrase - "Rejoice heavenly powers...." and also later - "Therefore heavenly Father" and in the Foster setting has to be fitted to the same psalm tone in a different way each time. The cantor was thinking of how to fit it in the 2nd time when he came to it the first time, with disastrous consequences.]

[Nick Baty]

And when someone comes up to you on Easter Sunday morning, following the disastrous Vigil, and says "A word to the wise - might be a bit fairer to your cantors if you practiced with them..."

One simply invites them to become cantors and invites them to rehearsals!

[presbyter]

Hmmm - what should one do / how should one feel when the Assembly laugh at them?

Don't be hurt by it ......... try to I've just got back from a packed cathedral where I was cantor/animator(Easter Monday you ask? Well yes! 9.00 am Mass - always packed - but no choir today). Organist plays chord - I breathe in to intone Agnus Dei............ Archbishop grabs me "Peace be with you...." Agnus doesn't happen, though Dei did - I followed the organist, who had carried on.

We all have had moments when we wanted the ground to open up and swallow us .... but it never does. Persevere

[John Ainslie]

In Barnet we have an ecumenical New Fire at the Anglican church right in the middle of town, so we lengthen the rite a little by a few apposite Scriptural verses about light before dispersing to our several churches to light our several Paschal candles. The firelighter got the fire lit brilliantly right on cue, but it was short-lived and by the time we'd said the verses and I had struck up 'The Light of Christ has come into the world', the said light was dying rapidly. Never mind, at that precise moment a passing police car on emergency both drowned out the song and provided two flashing blue lights instead...

[presbyter]

ecumenical New Fire at the Anglican church ................before dispersing to our several churches to light our several Paschal candles.

But from what do you light your Paschal Candle?

[Nick Baty]

Organist plays chord - I breathe in to intone Agnus Dei............ Archbishop grabs me "Peace be with you...."

Appears not to be your error, Dear Presbyter – sounds as though the organist began the Agnus far too early. You are absolved.