Robes for the choir at Mass

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I’ve been talking to my boyfriend, who’s Presbyterian…I’m reading a history of his particular church…and I will be lending him the history of my parish when I’m done writing this essay, and a curious question came up 🙂

At your parish, or at any Catholic service you’ve ever been to, has the choir been robed? I’ve never seen a robed choir in any Catholic Mass I’ve attended, though I can imagine that being the case for some special Masses.

His church history said that there was a mild controversy over whether the choir should be robed, because “it was thought [it] seemed to hark back to the Roman Catholic Church!” (exclamation theirs), and he said they don’t always keep the choir robed not because they’re afraid of being Catholic, but because of the drycleaning bills.

That’s when I mentioned that I’d never seen a robed choir, and he said “that’s interesting!”. (I’m actually surprised he was surprised at the fact) So, now we’re both curious 🙂 Thanks!
 
holly_potter said:
At your parish, or at any Catholic service you’ve ever been to, has the choir been robed? I’ve never seen a robed choir in any Catholic Mass I’ve attended, though I can imagine that being the case for some special Masses.
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The choir at the church where I attend Mass is always robed.
 
I’m a Catholic musician working at a Presbyterian church as a choir member, accompanist, director, handbells, praise team, etc. We wear robes in the Chancel Choir. It was odd for me at first to wear a robe since I had never worn one or seen one used in our Catholic churches here. Initially, they felt too showy. However, it now feels strange to not wear them, as happens during the summer months. They do tend to get warm if they are of good quality. I like how some robes have colored cloth pieces that can be added to fit the liturgical season colors. While I can find legitimate reasons for using a common vestment for choir members, I can also see that it would appear to distinguish choir members as separate from the assembly which, after all, we are a part of.
 
Firsthand, the only choir robes I’ve seen are used in the Mass from Notre Dame University that I watch on TV. It seems that all lay people wear robes, if they have any role in the Mass.

And, of course, on EWTN the choir is always robed. I saw the camera picked up somebody’s Nikes one day, I think that scarves, loud shoes, and the like negate the idea of the uniformity of people wearing robes. I look at it as a disruptive mockery of wearing robes – but that’s just me.

A lot of choirs on the EWTN music programs wear robes, in smart first class style, in the various countries from which those programs originate. Frumpy robes are just that. Hair needs to be tamed, too.

Mormon Tabernacle Choir usually has very conservative clothing, but I seem to remember them in robes, on occasion, too. Correct me here, of course.

I was reading the Psalms in the RSV-CE and I came across a verse (which I can’t locate right now) about wearing “holy clothes” or something like that in the congregation. It’s beginning to wear away my position about wearing jeans to Mass. At the penitential service at the Vatican on Wednesday of Holy Week (2008) there was a gal in jeans who read one of the scripture readings and lit one of the oil lamps. She was a spectacle compared to the showy conservative dress that the people in the front rows normally wear. Lay men at the Vatican who have some role like moving a chair or such often wear tuxedos.

The Vatican men’s and boy’s choirs are in robes, but outdoors I thought the men and women’s choir was in darks suits . I would say they are the best guide to modern liturgical fashion.

I would be remiss to overlook that some of the liturgical vestments that I see in Rome (on TV) are sometimes very bold and even wild. “Understatement” is not a liturgical norm, evidently.

The priestly robes in Exodus are “regalia” i.e. regal or kingly, to reflect the Kingship of Jesus Christ. The High Priest’s robes are emblazoned with jewels and gold. That’s why a priest’s plain colored or white chasauble looks too plain. I think that at least they need a lot of gold embroidery to set the mood.
 
holly_potter said:
I’ve been talking to my boyfriend, who’s Presbyterian…I’m reading a history of his particular church…and I will be lending him the history of my parish when I’m done writing this essay, and a curious question came up 🙂

At your parish, or at any Catholic service you’ve ever been to, has the choir been robed? I’ve never seen a robed choir in any Catholic Mass I’ve attended, though I can imagine that being the case for some special Masses.

His church history said that there was a mild controversy over whether the choir should be robed, because “it was thought [it] seemed to hark back to the Roman Catholic Church!” (exclamation theirs), and he said they don’t always keep the choir robed not because they’re afraid of being Catholic, but because of the drycleaning bills.

That’s when I mentioned that I’d never seen a robed choir, and he said “that’s interesting!”. (I’m actually surprised he was surprised at the fact) So, now we’re both curious 🙂 Thanks!
Click to expand...
It depends on the parish. The choir my parish isn’t robed, but the choir at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart at Notre Dame is robed.
 
The only robed choirs round here that I know of are non-Catholic, with the exception of the Cathedral and one nearby parish that I know robed their choir 10 years ago but don’t know whether they still do.

In my parish there would be discomfort about robing a choir. They feel the music ministry is one led from “within” the congregation and therefore as far as possible the music ministers are part of the congregation rather than a tertium quid i.e. priest + assistants in the sanctuary, congregation, then choir as a third entity.

Of course, musicians and choristers are differentiated by virtue of the fact that they do what they do and the rest of the congregation doesn’t, but adopting a deliberate and non-essential mark of differentiation such as a robe wouldn’t sit well here.

I’m not saying that I think it is wrong for choirs to robe, not at all, I’m just explaining why they don’t in my parish.
 
At my former parish, where we were all on one level and in the round, the choir was robed per tradition in the parish that I simply continued.

At my current parish we sing in the loft, so there wouldn’t be much point to it. Cantors, however, are robed.
 
In my old parish, which had multiple Masses, the “main” Mass at 9:30 had a large choir and they wore robes, processed in, etc.

At the other Masses there was either just a small group singing or the cantor alone and they did not wear robes.

I have traveled extensively in the US for both work and pleasure and I would say that the ratio of *not robed *to *robed *is about 95% to 5% based on my observations.
 
Our previous parish was robed, and our current parish is not. 🤷

~Liza
 
My cathedral choir wears uncinqtured white albs - they used to have hoods at one time but they took them off (why? I don’t know). Many, many years ago we had green choral robes. The choir is part of the liturgy and should be robed in my opinion.
 
Our parish church choir has robes, and uses them probably 80% of the time. They are white, and they have stoles in the different liturgical colors. During the warmer months, they skip the robes (those things are hot!), so everyone wears a white top and black pants/skirt instead. The cathedral choir downtown always wears robes, but I don’t think any of the other parish churches in this area use them. In my parish church where I used to live, we had robes but we only wore them for special occasions such as Midnight Mass and Easter. We were in the organ loft and Communion was brought upstairs to us, so nobody saw us anyway.

OTOH, as a convert, I can tell you that every choir I ever encountered in the Protestant churches wore robes. Some were quite nice, and others were awful – scratchy polyester in awful 1970’s colors. :eek:
 
we don’t have robes BUT when our children’s choir sings the choir director asks that they all dress in black and white so that they look uniform. I suspect the next step will be robes. I like the robe idea for one main reason in our parish. The neighborhoods that our parish draw from range from near poverty (housing projects) and also upper middle class, so the robes actually help the kids just be themselves rather than worrying about what they’re wearing.

BTW our first communion kids wear robes. 🙂 I can tell you that that goes over like a lead balloon every year when Mommy Megabucks is outraged that Susie’s $500 communion dress is going to be covered up. The girls also all wear the same hair piece and that also goes over really well…😉 lol
but it helps the kids who’s dress and slacks and shirt came from the salvation army. 🙂
 
Psalm 29:2 (Revised Standard Edition - Catholic Edition, Ignatius)

“…worship the LORD in holy attire.”
 
*1 Timothy 2:9
  • 9 In like manner women also in decent apparel: adorning themselves with modesty and sobriety, not with plaited hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly attire,
 
Back to OP, I we in Michigan and we (the choir) were robed. Of course, it was a…more well-fiancially-endowes parish.

But if anyone here is interested in choir robes, I have a contact I an PM to you who do runs a company. Her skills run the gamut for Catholic to Baptist. I would love to share if anyone cares to know.

~Mis
 
I used to be in the choir but it wasn’t our Parish but we had to wear robes at Easter Vilgil Mass and the Men had to wear grey with red stripes and the Women had to wear red robes with white stripes. We only wear them twice a year: Easter Vilgil and Christmas Eve.🙂
 
My current parish choir wears robes paid for by an anonymous donor. (Standard white robes with interchangeable collars in liturgical colors.) My former parish choir wore robes, too. Both are working-class, suburban parishes.

Choir robes are the “great equalizer,” in my opinion. We have one choir member who never dresses appropriately, and she’s been counseled by the music director and the pastor. (She doesn’t wear proper undergarments, her skirts are too short, dresses too tight, etc.) Another member is a professional model on whom even the most modest of clothing can be a distraction. Choir robes solve both problematic cases (and everyone in between!).

'thann
 
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