Problems with Cantor?

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I am wondering if anyone has ever experienced any issues with their parish cantor and, if so, how these issues were resolved.

Our parish recently “promoted” a member of the choir to cantor. For some masses she goes it alone. For others, she leads the choir.

She is a good and dedicated member of the parish. However, she can not sing and it is extremely difficult to focus during Mass due to this.

My wife and I are torn here. On the one hand you do not want to ‘judge’ during Mass and you certainly don’t want to ‘complain’ or ‘parish shop’. On the other hand, we have been having difficulty concentrating on the Mass itself. I am sure we are not alone here.

Has anyone experienced this before?

Any good coping mechanisms?
 
Before we moved to another city, we had the same problem. He’s still there, he even sang at my mother’s funeral. My sister and I cringed, especially when he sang “Ave Maria”, it was so awful.

I would recommend that if you cannot go to Mass at another time, offer it up. Things like this won’t last forever, though it seems like it. 🙂
 
yikes.

As a cantor at a small parish, this is certainly a fear of mine! I am sure someone out there thinks I can’t sing…LOL

Anyway, do you sing? Or your wife? If your parish is anything like mine, they are PRAYING for more help with cantors. It’s a VERY hard, and VERY critisized job because it’s so public. Maybe your wife or you rcould volunteer to help out? With enough people she may phase out, or maybe just leave, since maybe she didn’t want to do it in the first place.

There is a cantor at my parish that has annoying vocal habits that distract me during mass as well. I mean, she can sing, but her stylistic approach are all things I was taught in voice training and choir to NEVER do under pain of DEATH. So, I do find myself distracted. However, I have to remind myself that she is helping out, taking a bold step in her ministry, and that I’m not there to be entertained by excellent vocal techniques. 🙂

If it really is so annoying for you that you cannot focus at all and are even considering leaving, maybe you could attend other services where she is not singing? Maybe you could sing louder in the pews so you don’t hear her? If you find your self distracted by the singing, maybe you could also use the time to pray? ALso, are you sure there are others with the same feelings? Is it a stylistic characteristic of her voice you don’t like?

I’m afraid I don’t have any real good advice except for maybe your wife or you to volunteer to cantor as well. All I know is that you probably don’t want to leave your parish over this, and if you went to her or the leadership (and it got back to her) it would really be embarassing for her.
 
that person is serving the Lord no matter how bad it sounds. If you can’t beat them, join them. Or, do what I did and go to the 5:30 pm Mass that has a younger crowd and plays some cool, up to date music. You should hear me sing – makes your ears bleed. Take care.
 
jjdrury81 said:
Our parish recently “promoted” a member of the choir to cantor. For some masses she goes it alone. For others, she leads the choir.
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In the case of a new cantor I have to say give it some more time. Singing as a cantor is not like singing in the choir because you can’t hide the occasional wrong note, skip a line because you didn’t breath correctly, or take your timing cues from those around you. Some singers are excellent choir members but they don’t do as well when they extremely nervous when not surrounded by others. Time can take care of some of the fear-based singing problems.

By “leads the choir” do you mean that there is both a choir and a cantor? Or does this woman directs the choir? Or does she both cantor and direct?

If she simply is not a competent singer (or if she develops a long term physical problem such as nodules on the larynx) then the music director or pastor really needs to handle this.
 
your parish is no doubt full of people with a good singing voice, and a good understanding of liturgical music, but they have as not yet volunteered. Hopefully after a few weeks of this they will be motivated to offer their time and talent. If the person whom the Holy Spirit has called to this ministry does not respond, however, you will have to simply offer it up.
 
Many excellent pieces of advice so far.

I’ll add my advice: Be very grateful that you are not the accompanist for the “not-so-skilled” cantor!

It’s hard to play for a cantor who isn’t a gifted singer. All the responsibility is on the instrumentalist instead of the cantor, and that’s not really the way it should be in a Mass or anytime. But what am I going to do?! 🤷

I would personally rather have a not-so-good cantor than no cantor at all! (shudder) That’s the pits for a piano player. It might not be so bad for an organist, who, if he/she is experienced, can play a perfectly fine Mass and lead the people in the various hymns and responses. But it’s very hard for a pianist to do this because our instrument doesn’t sustain notes like the organ does. Whenever I have to play for a Mass when the cantor doesn’t show up, I just want to crawl under the piano and hide!
 
I’ve found myself having to cantor for the Psalm a couple of times. It’s not something I look forward to but the odd time I’ve done it I’ve asked to do it a capela and the choir leader knows that for me that’s best. I’m not the greatest of singers and I’ve only done it when there was absolutely nobody else.
 
We have problems with a Cantor at our church as well. I hate to judge, but she can’t sing. What really bothers me is we have a good amount of cantors, but she always has to be cantoring. They never get anyone else. My organist thinks the world of her. Okay, first of all, SHE CAN’T SING! Second of all, she needs to quit hogging every Sunday Mass. Let someone else cantor. However, we had a Parish Mission last week and it ran from Sunday-Wednesday and she was supposed to Cantor those days, but she didn’t do it because she didn’t like the priest who was doing the mission. Also, she really doesn’t like our pastor and our organist was saying that she’s going to different churches. I heard she’s probably not going to Cantor anymore.

All I have to say is, that’s good she’s not doing it anymore. Hearing her week after week gets really annoying.
 
Everytime I see a thread like this, I check to see if the OP is in St. Louis!

I’m a cantor at our church, and I’m hyper-criticial of myself. When I don’t cantor for a while, people stop after Mass and ask when I’m going to sing again, but I’m terrified to do it. I’m afraid I’ll embarass myself with my voice cracking, or running out of breath. I worry I won’t read the words correctly because it’s kind of dark and I’m kind of old. My knees actually shake.

I would stop doing it completely, if someone else would show up once in a while. Last week 3 people showed up for choir practice, and two were “only-cantor” people. Neither of them could sing at any Mass last weekend, and the other “choir-cantor” person could only do 9am, so I did 11am. Last night 2 people showed up…me and a choir-only person, with her Baptist friend who sang the alto part along with me. I’m an alto, which is another reason I don’t want to cantor. The stuff is at the top of my range. 30 years ago I didn’t have the breath, the range or the vision issues, but I’m 59 years old now.

I don’t think of being the cantor as a “promotion”. For several years, I was the substitute only. But our choir director was let go last spring, because they said the parish couldn’t afford to have him anymore. We had substitute organists all summer, and now one of them has been hired as the new choir director. I’m trying to keep an open mind, thinking “things changed” since June, but I’m concerned there are some bad feelings about it. Anyway, for now at least, there’s me. I’m not trying to hog the mike; I don’t want it at all. I just want to sing the alto part, but that doesn’t sound good when I’m the only person singing.
 
I have a strong voice and good pitch and technique. I have extensive choir experience. I still blow it sometimes.

Because I really appreciate having the Psalm chanted, and it is hard for me as lector to “just” read it, I occasionally will chant it when it is a familiar tune. During weekday Masses, everything is a cappella. The first time I tried it, it was great and a fun surprise and everyone loved it.

The second time, I sucked so badly I wanted to crawl under a pew and die. It was utterly mortifying, and from the looks on faces, people were quite surprised that it was so awful. I could hear the dear deacon behind me singing slowly and steadily, probably trying to support me, and I was still a horrible mess.

I am torn between providing the dignity of the chant, and not distracting people while I’m learning not to get nervous. I’m used to the accoustics, because I sing during Adoration all the time, but only when I’m alone. I would be mortified if someone complained about me even gently, but at the same time, I’m well aware of how bad I was and I won’t be subjecting anyone to that again anytime soon 😉 And personally, I would welcome an offer of someone to work as a pair or even a small group.

So here’s hoping that your cantor is actually a decent singer under the right circumstances, and that she will soon adjust and be able to do a decent job.
 
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