Summer Break

[Nick Baty]

It's good to get away.

Yes, envy you that! And the superb stuff you do when you're there!

[HallamPhil]

At Hallam I won't be rehearsing the choir until September but members will still meet on Sunday to keep the Sung morning prayer and 1030 mass going with appropriate music. I choose the programme of music for the holiday period but congregational repertoire is established so it really just requires folk to lead it. From those who are available I arrange a schedule of who is the lead singer and this is good as it gives responsibility to others than myself over the period. I may drop in for a couple of Sundays when I'm definitely in town but the organist is available for most Sunday mornings. This leaves me to cover the evening Mass from the piano with the Music Group which rehearses for an hour and a half before the Mass. This is not so onerous and is a more casual affair. When I can't make it I draw in a pianist to play and direct.

Holidays are so important and they often reveal talents among the congregation. At our place the numbers attending the cathedral do not drop off and people strangely seem to find Sheffield an attractive place for foreign holidays so we get plenty of visitors and so it would not be ideal to fall back to hymn sandwiches 9which has never been the experience here for 15 years).

I was in Croatia last week where the choir at Vrboska turned up minutes after the bell rang to start Mass. The music was selected at whim and distributed with a ruffling of pages moments before each song started. The organist had asked me to play a final piece on their fine baroque organ but the choir director said no ... she wanted to hold a 2 minute choir practice which she started before the priest had left the altar! It was all rather ghastly ... and none of the choir went to communion because they were singing throughout. I kind of wished they had taken a holiday!

Wishing all musicians of good will and furrowed brow, a well deserved reduction in responsibility.

[Nick Baty]

I'm planning to use those evenings when we would have been rehearsing to plan the music for December to February. It will certainly take the pressure off in September. And the Virgo in me throroughly enjoys all those charts and spreadsheets. It's the nearest I get to Sudoku!

[HallamPhil]

I sympathise Nick. Before my sister died she sent out a letter about Sudoko Overload Syndrome (SOS) in which she advised family to remain faithful to cryptic crosswords and not to cross over to Sudoko. I'm afraid I forgot this warning and am now seeking counselling for my addiction.

[Gabriel]

I have never really understood stopping the music in August or after Christmas and Easter. Now I guess this may be easier when you have a small group to start with - or any need to take holidays when the schools are off.
My view is that you should have a basic repertoire that works with basic resources. As I understand that not only is music is integral to the liturgy but it is one of the key ways in through which the assembly participates I think you send a contradictory message.

On a related matter how are those who are sustaining something planning for the 4 weeks of John 6. I think it is one of more difficult mini seasons in ordinary time to prepare music for: an embarrassment of riches for Communion and what else do you do?

[PaulW]

I have never really understood stopping the music in August...

Where I am, we do stop. Many people are away and it gives the choir a break from me! If the people wanted music, then it would happen, but it doesn't and I suspect that this is a salutary reminder to me that many people, whilst they appraciate being led and having the musical mass, do not want to sing, or even do not feel empowered to sing or to start singing, if the choir is not there (and some, even if the choir is there).

When I took on the job of leading the music, I had small children and I insisted on one week off per month, so that we could visit parents and relatives, so one sunday a month, there is no music. Now that they are older, there is often still no music (though the school does, from time to time, take the opportunity to fill this slot). Personally, it feels strange not to sing, but I also appreciate being able to be away without disrupting what is now an established pattern.

On a related matter how are those who are sustaining something planning for the 4 weeks of John 6. I think it is one of more difficult mini seasons in ordinary time to prepare music for: an embarrassment of riches for Communion and what else do you do?

According to the Liturgy Office:
Gospel Acclamation, Eucharistic Prayer;
Opening Procession, Gloria, Psalm, Communion (procession or thanksgiving);
and the rest could be left, if you cannot think what to do

The Opening Procession and Communion Procession could both pick up the Johannine themes. It wouldn't be overload to weave the thread through both. Nor, in my opinion, to use the same musical material across more than one week, such as Peter's assertion, "You are the Christ". There: planning for a season and not for single weeks... though, if I recall correctly, the five weeks of John (Sundays 17-21) are interrupted by the Assumption of BVM, meaning that the bit we get on the final week ("This teaching is most difficult") doesn't ever get told to us... unless it refers to the Assumption, of course

[mcb]

I have never really understood stopping the music in August or after Christmas and Easter.

Have a heart, Gabriel! Those breaks are not for liturgical reasons, but, as PaulW suggests, because it's human beings giving up their time and energy to serve the community. Those who are most committed, or most responsible, would never get a break if they weren't built in to the yearly schedule.

[Nick Baty]

so one sunday a month, there is no music

Doesn't this make planning difficult? If you're assimilating a new piece, the assembly has three goes at it and then there's a gap. If they're more or less getting to grips with it and then we come to, for example, John 6 which is coming up, and you wish to introduce a Communion song like Taize's Taste and See you could end up playing a very complicated game of leap frog. I panic if I'm missing a couple of good cantors, but no music at all would lead to a planning nightmare.

[PaulW]

Doesn't this make planning difficult? If you're assimilating a new piece, the assembly has three goes at it and then there's a gap

You mean like the one that pushing the Assumption of the BVM into the middle of the five sections from John 6 makes on Sunday 20, such that, on Sunday 21, the apostles complain about how difficultthe teaching is and we mentally think back a week to recall excatly what teaching is hard and end up not with Jesus saying that he gives his flesh for us to eat and his blood for us to drink, but instead with the Church's doctrine of the Assumption of BVM?

The liturgical cycle is full of these holes, Nick, and with the changes moving even more things onto Sundays, increasingly so. When we're doing a new piece, we try it for more than one week, where we can. It isn't always possible. As for planning, it's no more difficult or easy by missing out weeks; don't panic: you just have to remember your towel, if you get my drift

[Nick Baty]

Yes, Paul, I know what you mean.

I'm in the fortunate position of not having kids so I don't ever have to be off on Sundays.

Also, much of this depends on your resources. We're a very small parish with a Mass attendance of 80-100 and a Singing Group of just 16 singers and me - it looks like we just won't rehearse at all during August this year. At the moment we only have two people willing and able to sing the psalm and, because of undertsandable family commitments, they're both missing on the same Sunday in August. So this will have to be catered for.

Also, our PP will be away two consecutive Sundays in September, so we have to plan around that too.

It's complicated enough with the "holes" you mention but if started missing Sundays too the paperwork would be even more tricky and, doubtless, lead to sleepless nights.

[Peter]

My congregation and choir are even smaller than Nick's and the instrumental resources vary from time to time anyway. So each week I have to take resources into account when planning the music. If it happens there are no musicians then hymns and parts of the Mass are sung unaccompanied and if there is no-one available to sing the Psalm it is spoken. That could apply at any time of the year, so summer is not a special case and we don't have a "summer break" as far as the main liturgical characteristics are concerned. However, the children's liturgy does take a summer break because their resources are even more limited than the musical ones!

[Nick Baty]

But remember, you can keep going if you are the only musical resource!
You only need a cantor and an assembly – all else is optional.
And an unaccompanied psalm can be superb.

[Southern Comfort]

More than a few churches have the custom that the choir not only has the whole of August off but also the Sunday after Christmas and the Sunday after Easter (as a recompense for all their extra work at Christmas and during Holy Week). However, many of those churches also maintain at least cantor and organ (or piano/guitar) during those Sundays.

Just imagine if you're on holiday during August, and you turn up to Mass in a church where there's no music. Disappointment would be the order of the day. In my opinion we need to keep something going, even if it's not the choir, so that all those who come as tourists to our churches during holiday times are not let down.

[Hare]

My "10.30" choir take the Sundays of August off. We have sufficient congregational (cantor-less) settings of the Ordinary for everything except still to be sung. The Psalm, however, is read, but the PP is happy to lead a plainsong Alleluia, as are some of the readers.

My "8.30" cantor, as he puts it "comes out in sympathy", but there again we can sing congregational settings, minus the psalm.

We don't have a cantor or choir at the Vigil Mass, but always sing a congregational ordinary, with a read psalm and reader or priest-led sung Alleluia.

I ensure a deputy organist is available for all masses when I am away.

[Nick Baty]

Totally agree with SC.

Most of us on here would argue that there shouldn't be a Mass with no music because there are some items which, of their nature, will always be sung.

And if we've been doing our job properly, the bulk of what we produce is music for the assembly anyway. So even if you do give your singers a day off on 2nd Sunday of Easter and Holy Family then all the important things will still happen.

Since my initial posting I've twiddled my music list and I think we're sorted for August. I've removed cantor-people items (apart from the psalm, obviously) so it's now all assembly music with optional harmonies, depending on who's around. Fingers crossed, noone will notice the difference.

Sounds like Hare has been doing a superb job!