Songs for Saturday, December 28, 2013

Note: not posted or emailed out until after the fact due to an Internet outage at my house.

This final Saturday of the year is the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.

I hope everyone had a chance to enjoy the holiday!

Thank you all for a great Christmas Eve mass on Tuesday, and for all your hard work in putting it together! Things seemed to go very smoothly despite all our concerns with the tight schedule. As some of you know, Karina and I worked the 4 PM Children's mass as well, which ended up being pretty crazy (the Church was well over capacity), but lots of fun.

Songs for Saturday, December 21, 2013

This Saturday is the Fourth (and final) Sunday of Advent.

Since we weren't at mass, I really don't have much in the way of updates, just a few event reminders.

The folks from the 11:00 mass are covering the Community Penance Service this Tuesday, 12/17, at 7 PM. Several of their core group members are out, so feel free to join them in singing.

In addition, the Christmas Tree Decorating Party (also coordinated by the 11:00 group) is being held this Saturday (12/21) at 10 AM. This is a very informal event in which we play/sing Christmas music while the kids decorate the tree. Karina and I are planning to be there, so feel free join in the fun as well.

Songs for Saturday, December 14, 2013

This Saturday is the Third Sunday of Advent.

Nice job at mass last week -- 'Comfort, Comfort' seemed to go fairly well, as did our Communion medley. We once again forgot to sort out the Alleluia and 'Bring Forth' before mass, so we ended up scrambling to figure that out last-minute. With that being said, who would be interested in covering the Alleluia this week and the 'Bring Forth' cantor parts? Michaela has the Psalm covered.

We discussed a few changes to our Christmas Eve mass plans, as per Father's memo from a few weeks ago. Basically, the goal is to keep mass under an hour and only play enough music to 'cover the action'. Of note, we're dropping one of our preludes -- we'll be retaining 'O Holy Night', while getting rid of 'Angles We Have Heard on High'. There will be no Psalm, but we'll be keeping our two planned Communion hymns (on the assumption that there will be wall-to-wall people). Finally, the distribution of oplatki has been moved from Christmas Eve to the Forth Sunday of Advent to save time. Regardless of how we approach this, it's gonna be (very) tight, but we'll give it a shot and hope for the best.

We also reviewed 'O Come, Divine Messiah', our opening on the 22nd that will be sung in parts. We worked on Jim's version of 'Go Tell it on the Mountain' and learned parts for 'Silent Night', both of which are Communion songs for Christmas Eve.

Songs for Saturday, December 7, 2013

This Saturday is the Second Sunday of Advent.

The Church was rearranged last week so that the Choir section is now facing the congregation at a 45-degree angle, eliminating our space issue. Also, the section immediately adjacent to us (on the right side) was merged with our sections, whilst the section to the left of the Sanctuary was also angled outward. The Sanctuary itself was reconfigured with the Alter now in the center and the presider and deacon choirs on the left side, angled towards the center of the room.

Songs for Saturday, November 30, 2013

This Saturday is the 1st Sunday of Advent, and the beginning of a new Church liturgical year.

We were not at mass last week, but I do have a few updates (OK...more than just a few...).

Jonathan will be late (5:30-ish), so we're going to attempt to pull together the Communion Meditation (an arrangement of 'Each Winter as the Year Grows Older') before mass on our own (it looks like I'll be heading that). It's somewhat faster and features dedicated sax, flute, and piano (Jonathan) parts. I'd at least like to give this a shot, but if we find that it's not working, we can drop it entirely.

Songs for Saturday, November 23, 2013

This Saturday is the Feast of Christ the King.

At practice last week, we went over several songs for Advent. First, we took a quick peek at Jonathan's new arrangement of 'Each Winter as the Year Grows Older'. It's now a slow-building piece with dedicated sax, flute, and piano parts.

Songs for Saturday, November 16, 2013

This Saturday is the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time.

We had a visiting priest last Saturday in Father Charlie's absence -- he requested we play a patriotic song due to Veteran's Day, so we created a sped-up arrangement of 'America the Beautiful' as our warm-up song.

Additionally, Father Charlie unexpectedly switched us from using Eucharistic Acclamation 'When We Eat This Bread' to 'Save Us, Savior of the World'. We'll be using 'Save Us' for the remainder of Ordinary Time (this week and next) before switching to Mass of Joy & Peace in December.

Songs for Saturday, November 9, 2013

This Saturday is the 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Last week, we practiced after mass to review the music for November. We also crashed through Mass of Joy & Peace to re-familiarize ourselves, since we'll be using that setting throughout Advent and Christmas.

Starting this week, we're back to having regular, weekly practices, although the dinner situation is still up-in-the-air (Jim has it covered this week, though). Please stick around if you can (we've been averaging an 8:30 finish time). We'll focus on our Advent/Christmas music and Mass of Joy & Peace for the remainder of this year, before resuming several uncompleted projects in January.

Songs for Saturday, November 2, 2013

This Saturday is the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time.

We should be at full staff this week with Barry, Jonathan, and Karina all being back.

We decided to push back our usual end-of-month practice to this week -- please stick around after mass if you can. Jonathan will be bringing dinner this time, but it would be good to discuss how we want to handle future practices and meals going into winter.

Songs for Saturday, October 26, 2013

This coming Saturday is the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Karina should be back this week. On the other hand, Jonathan won't be available until next Saturday, 11/2. Barry is also out this week.

The music for November has been sent out. Please take a look and let me know if you have any issues or objections. If everyone's up to it, I'd like to practice after mass this week to review those tunes (please let me know if you can stay).

Songs for Saturday, October 19, 2013

This Saturday is the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Both Jonathan and Karina are out again this week, but should be back next week (10/26). Also, Ginny may or may not make it due to a party; if she does, it won't be until right before mass.

This week, I'm working on putting together our music for November. I should have it ready shortly so you guys will have a chance to look it over before the end of the month.

Songs for Saturday, October 12, 2013

This Saturday is the 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Karina is out this week and next (10/12 & 10/19) due to other commitments. Jonathan is also out the next two weeks in a brief extension of his summer music tour. They should both be back on the 26th.

Songs for Saturday, October 5, 2013

This Saturday is the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Ginny, Jim, Emily, Lisa K., and I practiced the music for October after mass last week. It's essentially the music we did three years ago with a few minor tweaks. Changes had to be made to this week's music since it's a Baptism, and several Psalms were switched for the rest of the month. I'll plan to cover music selection for November.

Songs for Saturday, September 28, 2013

This Saturday is the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Karina and I, as well as quite a few others, were not at mass last week. Sources tell me that Jonathan found some rather creative solutions for the lack of instruments, and huge thanks to Paul once more for filling in.

Also last Saturday, I got a message from Chip (I didn't see it in time due to the party we were hosting) saying that he and Kay wouldn't be attending because Kay fell and hurt her foot to the point of not being able to walk. Please keep Kay in your prayers this week.

Songs for Saturday, September 21, 2013

This Saturday is the 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Karina and I will not be at mass this week (due to Karina's birthday party) and Barry is also out. Additionally, Karina is out the following Saturday, 9/28, due to a BEAHS event.

Jim has volunteered to cover music selection for the month of October, so we should be good-to-go there. I'd like to tentatively plan to rehearse music for October after mass on the 28th.

Speaking of that, at some point, would we like to resume weekly or bi-weekly practices now that summer is coming to a close? I think we could all benefit from the extra practice time so we're not constantly scrambling to pull things together before mass. Thoughts?

Songs for Saturday, Sept. 14, 2013

This Saturday is the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

It was really nice to finally be at full strength last week with both Jim and Barry back! Barry won't be with us this week, though.

Just another reminder that Karina and I won't be at mass next Saturday, Sept. 21st, due to Karina's birthday party (Yup, you heard right, Barry). Karina will also be out the following week, 9/28, due to a BEAHS event.

For anyone who missed the email, Lisa L. let us know that she won't be able to play an active role in the Choir for the next few months due to other commitments. She may be available, though, to fill-in if needed. Lisa also sends her compliments on mass last week -- nice work, all!

Also, do we have any volunteers to cover music selection for October? We're only a month out at this point, and to my knowledge, nothing's been picked yet...

Songs for Saturday, September 7, 2013

This coming Saturday is the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Jim was out last week, but should be back this week. Jonathan and Paul were present to cover, though (Barry, do you know when you're planning to be back?).

Once again, I don't have much in the way of news this week. First, we begin Barry's music selections for September (anyone know who's planning to pick for October?). Second, don't forget to review the harmony for verse 4 of 'Behold the Cross', which we learned from Jonathan two weeks ago (verse 3 also has harmony if anyone feels energetic :-). Third, the Psalm we're doing as a group, something we haven't done in quite a while.

Songs for Saturday, August 31, 2013

This week is the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time.

For those of you who are unaware (I was asked to keep this need-to-know last week), Jonathan is back in town and joined us for the first time since the beginning of Summer. His schedule is in flux for the next month, though, so we'll play it by ear.

Jim was also back this week, but will be out next week. After that, he should be with us regularly for the remainder of the year. Barry should also be back starting in September.

We also rehearsed after mass to go over Barry's music for September -- I know it's a week early, but I wanted to do this while Jim and Jonathan were available. We learned written harmonies for several pieces (the recordings I sent out yesterday). We also have cantors for both the Psalms and Alleluias assigned through the end of September.

Songs for Saturday, August 24, 2013

Note: starting this week, I'll be sending these blog posts out via email as well as putting them up on the website. This way, we can reduce the number of 'update' emails that go out during the week.

This Saturday is the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Michaela's piano-playing on the Alleluia went very smoothly last Saturday, a big improvement over the previous week -- keep up the good work! Also, Luke L. sends his compliments on an exceptionally good mass overall :-)

Thanks to Ginny and Lisa K. for joining us at the ground-breaking vespers service Sunday. Considering the three choirs rarely come together as one, I think we sounded quite good, and I enjoyed the opportunity to cantor for so many people (there are plenty of photos up on Facebook if you missed the event). A new chapter begins in the history of the Parish, and I'm happy we were able to be part of it. Also check out the article in today's CDT.

Songs for Saturday, August 17, 2013

This Saturday is the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Last Saturday, Zach showed up unexpectedly and we found out it was his last night playing with us before heading off to college. Since we didn't have time to plan anything (we had talked about throwing a party or something), I ended up just saying a few words at the end of mass. Huge thanks to Zach for all his contributions to the group over the past several years, and we wish him well in his future endeavors. It's been fun and a pleasure working with him, and Zach's bass guitar playing has added a truly unique flare to our music.

Also last Saturday, Michaela played piano for us for the first time on the Alleluia. It ended up being a bit rocky, but considering it was her first time playing 'with people', it was a good start. Nice work, Michaela!