Vatican midnight mass

[roanoker]

Did anyone else find the choir performance during this year’s midnight mass from St. Peter’s to be somewhat less than real good? They weren’t together, some weren’t singing, some were talking, one was picking his nose during a piece!! And this was throughout the whole mass! I thought Pope Benedict was going to improve the choir. Hasn’t happened so far. I was very dissappointed.

 

[06convert]

haha. You know what they say about Catholics and singing right?

I would imagine it’s very difficult to sing in there. The acoustics have to be insane to deal with. The time it takes for the sound to reverb back to you has to make pitch and timing a nightmare.

Until they get some major audio equipment in there, and give each choir member a headset to cancel out the noise, the performances will be unpredictable at best.

 

[liberalcatholic]

I watched a mass that had a highschool choir on Christmas Eve night on EWTN, are you sure it was not that? I am sure angels make up for what we lack in singing, as long as we try our best. Just like one day when we get new bodies, we will get better voices too! Keep running the good race.

 

[bpbasilphx]

The choir sounded good and together for the Vespers of 1 January.

Could it have been just the placement of the mikes or other technical glitch?

 

[JMJ_coder]

Did anyone else find the choir performance during this year’s midnight mass from St. Peter’s to be somewhat less than real good? They weren’t together, some weren’t singing, some were talking, one was picking his nose during a piece!! And this was throughout the whole mass! I thought Pope Benedict was going to improve the choir. Hasn’t happened so far. I was very dissappointed.

Who could hear anything over the drone of the commentator?

 

[RosalieM]

There is a particular sound with the large number of boy sopranos. Besides not being professional singers, the timbre of their voices is quite unique. It’s something one needs to get accustomed to hearing. Also, as kids, they must have been really past their bed times at midnight mass. I know I am.
On the other hand, it would be heavenly to hear accomplished singers on the level of Pavarroti (whom Pope Benedict XVI really liked) during Vatican masses. :harp:
The Pope himself is an accomplished musician, along with his brother. I’m sure he hears everything.
The Vatican masses are awesome. The Vatican midnight mass was on in the afternoon, my time.
The Vatican mass for Mary, Mother of God was on at 1 a.m., my time. I got hungry at Communion time, absolutely famished, and went to microwave some little pancakes. It was about 2:30 a.m. my time. It was a perfect way to start the new year. God bless EWTN for allowing so many of us to attend Papal masses and broadcasts through television. As viewers, we receive the Papal blessings.

 

[roanoker]

I don’t think it was entirely acoustics. The various choir members, especially the adults, just didn’t seem interested. Way too casual for a midnight mass, I thought. I think the church could do a lot better. There must be some great catholic choir leaders out there they could hire.

 

[benedictgal]

I don’t think that the choir sounded particularly bad during Midnight Mass nor the Mass for the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God. Of course, the hand issues with the kids would probably be chalked up to little boys being little boys. Unfortunately, I have seen altar servers serving with the bishop doing the same thing.

You also have to bear in mind that it is not entirely the fault of the Cappella Sistena Choir. There are supporting singers thrown into the mix as well. I don’t know if you caught the nun directing another choir, but there were guest singers there. This usually happens at a papal Mass. Although I have not been to one, I have seen enough broadcasts of the Benedictine Masses to know and recognize the guest choirs.

I do agree that we really couldn’t hear much of the choir during the Midnight Mass broadcast because Cardinal Foley was commenting during every free moment. I llke Cardinal Foley, but, I enjoy Chris Alteri’s commentary when he is assigned to broadcast a papal Mass. He lets us enjoy the Mass with little commentary, except when he’s recapping the homily during Holy Communion.

 

[JMJ_coder]

I do agree that we really couldn’t hear much of the choir during the Midnight Mass broadcast because Cardinal Foley was commenting during every free moment. I llke Cardinal Foley, but, I enjoy Chris Alteri’s commentary when he is assigned to broadcast a papal Mass. He lets us enjoy the Mass with little commentary, except when he’s recapping the homily during Holy Communion.

I really wish that they made the commentary optional. Especially with the new digital signals being made mandatory, they should probably be able to piggy back multiple signals on the same carrier wave to allow the receiver to optionally decode only those elements that they want.

And don’t you dare steal my ideas – patent office take note that I came up with this first! This is the one that will land me my first million.

 

[Angeluzza]

I don’t know, you may be right. I just get so happy to watch the Vatican and the Pope on TV that I don’t notice much else That place is my favorite place in the world!! I would like so much to be there in person for midnight mass some day.