How many cantors do we have on the forum?

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In_Hoc_Signo312

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I cantor at my Parish, which is a lot fun. How many of you cantor? What voice parts do you sing? Do you have any favorite hymns?
 
In_Hoc_Signo312 said:
I cantor at my Parish, which is a lot fun. How many of you cantor? What voice parts do you sing? Do you have any favorite hymns?
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I answered you in the other section. 🙂

I used to be a Cantor and a Psalmist.

Unfortunately, I have too many health issues now where I am not able to do it, but I did it for several years and I did have a lot of fun doing it, too, so I am glad that you are also having fun! 🙂

I am an alto, so I sang the alto parts. I was also an adult choir member, and also helped out with the youth choir, too.

As for favorite hymns, too many to list, really! 😉
 
I sing in my parish choir, too. I’m a tenor. I last cantored at the All Saints Day Mass, so I got to sing “For All the Saints” and “Ye Watchers and Ye Holy Ones,” which are my favorite Hymns that I’ve cantored so far. If I cantor on Christmas or Easter, I would imagine that some more Hymns would be added.

All Creatures of Our God and King
Christ the Lord is Risen Today
Here I Am, Lord
I am the Bread of Life
Jesus Christ is Risen Today
Let All Things Now Living
Lift High the Cross
Make of our Hands a Throne
O God, Beyond All Praising
Rejoice, the Lord is King
Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God
Sing With All the Saints in Glory
Take And Eat
Take and Eat This Bread
This is the Feast of Victory
To Jesus Christ Our Sovereign King
 
I’m not a cantor but I watched the Holy Father’s visit to New York and there was a Jewish cantor at the interfaith gathering at Ground Zero and…WOW…I literally wept and was surprised at the emotion he invoked in me. Didn’t need to understand the words, the emotion filled voice conveyed the meaning. :bighanky::amen::bighanky:

I’m teary now just thinking about it. His name is Azi Shwartz. See it in the link below.

youtube.com/watch?v=EQ6QItyQnGY
 
I am a cantor at my home parish and I sing in a choir and a schola here at the seminary. There are so many hymns to choose from; it’s hard to pick a favorite! As far as parts, I usually sing bass, although I can sing tenor in a pinch. Three that come to mind: O Come O Come Emmanuel, Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence, and O Holy Night. I must be in Advent/Christmas mode at the moment. Can’t figure out why. 😉

Right now, I am working on the Christmas Proclamation for my parish, since I will be home this Christmas. It is one of my favorite pieces, even though it is simple.
 
In_Hoc_Signo312 said:
I sing in my parish choir, too. I’m a tenor. I last cantored at the All Saints Day Mass, so I got to sing “For All the Saints” and “Ye Watchers and Ye Holy Ones,” which are my favorite Hymns that I’ve cantored so far. If I cantor on Christmas or Easter, I would imagine that some more Hymns would be added.

All Creatures of Our God and King
Christ the Lord is Risen Today
Here I Am, Lord
I am the Bread of Life
Jesus Christ is Risen Today
Let All Things Now Living
Lift High the Cross
Make of our Hands a Throne
O God, Beyond All Praising
Rejoice, the Lord is King
Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God
Sing With All the Saints in Glory
Take And Eat
Take and Eat This Bread
This is the Feast of Victory
To Jesus Christ Our Sovereign King
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You listed some of my favorite hymns as well. Brings back some great memories for me! 🙂
 
pax85 said:
I am a cantor at my home parish and I sing in a choir and a schola here at the seminary. There are so many hymns to choose from; it’s hard to pick a favorite! As far as parts, I usually sing bass, although I can sing tenor in a pinch. Three that come to mind: O Come O Come Emmanuel, Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence, and O Holy Night. I must be in Advent/Christmas mode at the moment. Can’t figure out why. 😉

Right now, I am working on the Christmas Proclamation for my parish, since I will be home this Christmas. It is one of my favorite pieces, even though it is simple.
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I used to love to sing during Advent, Christmas and Lent and Easter. We learned some beautiful pieces of music then. Since I also sang the Psalms, it was also a special time for me, too. 🙂
 
Sometimes cantor, sometimes psalmist - depends on the mass as I’m also a member of the adult choir in my church.

I sing high soprano, melody, or alto, whichever part my choir director needs. I usually sit with the high sopranos during the year but sing alto at Christmas and Easter masses.

Favorite songs (for liturgy) - gosh…

We Are Called
Ave Maria (Schubert’s, Gregorian chant, and Norbet’s)
Taste and See (Moore)
All in All
You Are Mine
Panis Angelicus
Dominican Magnificat
Holy God, We Praise Thy Name
Holy, Holy, Holy
Eat This Bread
How Can I Keep From Singing
I Will Praise Your Name (Haas)
Let All Things Now Living
Lord of All Hopefulness
The Lord is My Light (Haas)
Worthy Is the Lamb
Christ in Me Arise
Endless Is Your Love
O God, You Search Me
These Alone Are Enough
 
I was a cantor in my college chapel. I recently joined a choir in a larger parish, and I hope to cantor when I get a little more familiar with the whole shabang 🙂 We’ve mostly been singing early church music and 17th century pieces. Interestingly, I never had any music education and so I can’t sight-read music very well… I really need to hear a song first before I can sing it with confidence, especially with more difficult melodies. This makes me always feel a little behind the curve in practice! Does anyone have any tips for improving sight-reading? I’m open to practicing with a keyboard if I need to.

Oh, and I think my favorite song is “The King of Love my Shepherd Is”. So lovely.
 
It’s my turn to cantor again this Sunday. I’m kind of excited to be cantoring at an Advent Mass. What hymnals do your parishes use?
 
I cantor an extraordinary form mass intermittently due to some health issues. Also sing ordinary form masses/help out when I can with parish choir, friend’s funeral/wedding masses etc. I sing bass. Some hymns are not too friendly to us down here in the nether regions. 🙂
 
victrolatim said:
I cantor an extraordinary form mass intermittently due to some health issues. Also sing ordinary form masses/help out when I can with parish choir, friend’s funeral/wedding masses etc. I sing bass. Some hymns are not too friendly to us down here in the nether regions. 🙂
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Tell me about! But without the Bass, there would be no foundation! 😉
 
It’s my turn to cantor again this Sunday. Rejoice, the Lord is King, People, Look East, O Come O Come, Emmanuel, and O Come, Divine Messiah. 🙂
 
I’m a new cantor. I really like being a cantor and trying to provide an uplifting experience for those at Mass. I was so nervous on my first day, but I have also been a reader for five years, so I have experience with talking in front of people; now, I just have to sing!

It’s hard to think of favorite hymns to sing. I love many different hymns. There are too many to name!

What is/are the biggest challenge(s) to you guys when you cantor? I would say my biggest challenge has to be my volume level. We have a very temperamental sound system at my church, and I’m always worried I’m too soft or too loud. Being too soft can be annoying because people can’t hear what I’m saying, and being too loud is obnoxious and distracting. That has to be my biggest challenge.
 
As a convert, I have a few questions for cantors. I understand that cantors are needed for the verses of the responsorial psalms, but why are cantors seen as necessary for the congregational hymns? I never saw that before I became Catholic. I think it prevents the parishioners from singing, because they think it’s a solo.

The most people I ever hear singing is when we do the chant responses, (like when the priest chants “the Lord be with you”, and the congregation responds).

So, can someone explain why a cantor is viewed as necessary / desirable for the hymns? 🙂
 
In_Hoc_Signo312 said:
Has anyone here cantored at a Christmas Mass?
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I have. We only have choirs for so many masses and we use cantors at the other masses to lead the singing.
27lw said:
As a convert, I have a few questions for cantors. I understand that cantors are needed for the verses of the responsorial psalms, but why are cantors seen as necessary for the congregational hymns? I never saw that before I became Catholic. I think it prevents the parishioners from singing, because they think it’s a solo.

The most people I ever hear singing is when we do the chant responses, (like when the priest chants “the Lord be with you”, and the congregation responds).

So, can someone explain why a cantor is viewed as necessary / desirable for the hymns? 🙂
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A cantor leads the congregation in sung prayer - someone has to do it, otherwise it’ll just be an instrumental. Without a song-leader folks won’t know when to come in - what exactly is the introduction and the vamps between verses? - the cantor will know this and the congregation will follow the cantor. We have good congregational participation at the masses I cantor. Yes, with new hymns it’s a solo for the first verse or two but I encourage the congregation to join in and they do. Not everyone, of course, but I hear them singing with me,.

When a mass has the luxury of having a choir, the choir leads the song. When there’s no choir, the cantor leads the song.
 
And in this day and age, when few people at Mass actually sing the hymns anyway, I now feel as though the cantor is now there for practical reasons, too. If they aren’t singing, or there aren’t enough people there that the people can hear them singing, the cantor is there for them. It’s sad, but it is what it is.
 
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