New Music Director- Help with Song Suggestions?

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aggiecatholic85

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My husband and I recently moved to a tiny rural Texas community. We attend a mission church and I have been asked to help with the music. They have no musicians or choir. The cantor is extremely unreliable and oftentimes doesn’t show up for months at a time. Unfortunately, she has most of the music too…so I’m kind of winging it on my own. I play the piano, but cannot sing and play at the same time. I also have to teach the small congregation the new Mass parts. Needless to say, it’s rather overwhelming and I have taken to just singing acapella for the hymns.

I’m looking for suggestions on Advent hymns as well as ideas on how to incorporate and teach the congregation the new Mass hymns. I thought I’d start slow, just singing the “Sanctus,” “Memorial Acclamation,” “Amen,” and “Agnus Dei.” The Gloria is much more difficult but I would like to have it ready for Easter.

Oh, did I mention that I’m the only one leading all 4 mission churches for Holy Week?

Help?
 
I love the humn that has the chorus line of Evermore and Evermore which is I think Adventish. It my favourite hymn of all Err the world begotten Son I think it starts… however one spells err? I will look it up tomorrow morning as in the choir tomorrow.

Ask the priest if he could ask the congregation to let you know their favourites as a good starting point. Get them to write them down to give to you and you could select a few from that list. Music - ask the priest for help there too 🙂

good luck
xxx
 
aggiecatholic85 said:
I’m looking for suggestions on Advent hymns as well as ideas on how to incorporate and teach the congregation the new Mass hymns. I thought I’d start slow, just singing the “Sanctus,” “Memorial Acclamation,” “Amen,” and “Agnus Dei.” The Gloria is much more difficult but I would like to have it ready for Easter.

Oh, did I mention that I’m the only one leading all 4 mission churches for Holy Week?

Help?
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Good luck - I am sure you will be fine.

Advent hymns are wonderful and here are some great ones:

Come thou long expected Jesus
The Advent of our God
On Jordon’s Bank
O come, o come Emmanuael
Lo, He comes with clouds descending
Wake O Wake with Tidings thrilling
Hark the Glad sound

I think the one Englishrerose mentioned above is Of the Fathers heart begotten but we normally sing it at midnight mass.
 
There’s a useful resource here:

smallchurchmusic1.com/index.php

There are lots of freely available mp3’s of hymns and worship songs played on organ, piano or small band. I’ve listened to quite a few and the quality seems very good. This would allow you to sing instead of having to play the piano. Liturgyluver has listed some fine traditional hymns suitable for the season. You might want to add a Marian hymn for the 4th Sunday in Advent. (I like ‘Hail O Star that pointest’…an Anglican translation).

There are suggestions for Catholic liturgical planning and music including hymn recommendations here:

canticanova.com/pln_main.htm

If you have a few good singers in the congregation, it might be an idea to work with them initially when learning the new settings of the Ordinary of the Mass. They can help lead when working with the congregation as a whole. I think your idea of building up gradually is sensible rather than overwhelming everyone with too much new material at once. If you are using a midi enabled piano/keyboard, perhaps you could record the settings of the Ordinary of the Mass via midi so you don’t have to sing and play at the same time.

Good luck.
 
Buy a few copies of the Graduale Romanum or the Lumen Christi Missal/Simple English Propers and you can have a fully sung Mass in Latin or English, respectively, with one text.
 
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