G
Gertabelle
Guest
I just get giddy every year about this time of Lent – Holy Week is just around the corner and Easter is coming! :bounce:
But this is also when musicians start to experience the pressure of time. Our little choir only meets once a week for an hour and a half. The choir I played with at another parish for years had their regular 90-minute rehearsals on Wednesdays, AND they added extra 2-hour long Saturday rehearsals for a month before Easter! But then, they had to be prepared for the Good Friday, Easter Vigil, and Easter Sunday. And both the choir director and the choir members insisted on getting things right because of the importance of Easter – the holiest day of the Church year!
My little choir is soooo young – it’s all girls and women, ages 11 - 22, plus two of us who are “a little older”
We are learning two 3-part choral pieces for Easter Sunday mass: “Vidi Aquam” (for the sprinkling rite) and part one of Vivaldi’s “Gloria” (for a postlude). I wanted to add a 3-part Regina Caeli for after communion (we usually sing a Marian antiphon), but I decided that might cause my choir members’ heads to spin right off their shoulders. 
We regularly include a polyphonic piece at communion, so this is not too uncommon for us, but we want special pieces for Easter!
Then there’s the Victimae Paschali Laudes, which our younger singers have not sung at mass before. And my son and another girl are adding chimes to several parts of the mass. I can’t imagine what we would’ve done if we’d been responsible for part of the Triduum as well!
For full disclosure, this young group sings at the mass attended by our confirmation students. The expectation of our parish priests is that this mass will include more Latin, traditional hymns, chant, and polyphony based on chants. The two other English masses are completely different in style from ours. I sometimes play piano/organ for them as well.
So how about you? Do you have extra rehearsals for Easter? Are you responsible for the Triduum? Part of the Triduum? Are you doing any special music?
*** This is NOT a thread about what music you prefer at mass! Please keep those thoughts to yourself and/or start your own thread if you feel you need to go that direction! ***
But this is also when musicians start to experience the pressure of time. Our little choir only meets once a week for an hour and a half. The choir I played with at another parish for years had their regular 90-minute rehearsals on Wednesdays, AND they added extra 2-hour long Saturday rehearsals for a month before Easter! But then, they had to be prepared for the Good Friday, Easter Vigil, and Easter Sunday. And both the choir director and the choir members insisted on getting things right because of the importance of Easter – the holiest day of the Church year!
My little choir is soooo young – it’s all girls and women, ages 11 - 22, plus two of us who are “a little older”
We are learning two 3-part choral pieces for Easter Sunday mass: “Vidi Aquam” (for the sprinkling rite) and part one of Vivaldi’s “Gloria” (for a postlude). I wanted to add a 3-part Regina Caeli for after communion (we usually sing a Marian antiphon), but I decided that might cause my choir members’ heads to spin right off their shoulders. We regularly include a polyphonic piece at communion, so this is not too uncommon for us, but we want special pieces for Easter!Then there’s the Victimae Paschali Laudes, which our younger singers have not sung at mass before. And my son and another girl are adding chimes to several parts of the mass. I can’t imagine what we would’ve done if we’d been responsible for part of the Triduum as well!
For full disclosure, this young group sings at the mass attended by our confirmation students. The expectation of our parish priests is that this mass will include more Latin, traditional hymns, chant, and polyphony based on chants. The two other English masses are completely different in style from ours. I sometimes play piano/organ for them as well.
So how about you? Do you have extra rehearsals for Easter? Are you responsible for the Triduum? Part of the Triduum? Are you doing any special music?
*** This is NOT a thread about what music you prefer at mass! Please keep those thoughts to yourself and/or start your own thread if you feel you need to go that direction! ***