Choir Retreat 2010: Back to Basics, and an awful lot of pictures of Mary

We began 5:00 PM Saturday evening with pizza and schedules and filling out forms.   Hours of rehearsal, one Evening Prayer service, two Masses, and a digital picture liturgy/art/architecture scavenger hunt later, we finally went home exhausted, but happy.

Special thanks to Tyler who stayed overnight with us and apparently managed to get the guys to sleep before 3:00 AM, which is a new thing.  More thanks are due to Brenda Patterson who cleaned, staged, moved, and provided needed ice-cream support to the choir for the whole retreat!  I would also like to thank Liz Gill for coming and helping us with lunch on Saturday and for making such neat and wonderful sandwiches.  Fr. Lincoln Dall was gracious enough to skip a major fun time on the party boat to say Evening Prayer with us, and for that, I want to thank him from my heart.  Our evening prayer with him was beautiful in front of the stations of the cross, and I really appreciated his leadership and quiet ways.  It takes a LOT of people to make a choir retreat happen, and I just really appreciated the help this year.  WE DID IT!!!

All that work allowed me to focus on music and we managed to get through ALL of the anthems, hard and easy alike at least once, which is a huge step forward when the kids go to work on their CD's.

Friday night, on a break, we took some time to meet Cynthia and her sister on vimeo.  We yet again discussed the circle diagram that starts with "Deus" and moves through "exitus, creatio, and reditus."  We learned about the Barque of Peter, and why modesty matters.  We talked about European churches and why there are dress codes and what it means to be in a Holy place and why we are called to act and dress differently when we are worshiping God than at other occasions.  












At breakfast on Saturday, we rolled out of sleeping bags and airbeds at the unholy hour of 6:15 AM and ate breakfast in pajamas so we could have it all finished by 7:00 AM, one full hour before the beginning of Mass!

We rehearsed/sang at Mass/Evening Prayer a total of 12 hours out of 24.

That is an awful lot of music and work.  They are to be commended on their dedication and energy.  Frankly, I started vocal leading late Friday evening and had almost completely lost my voice by Saturday night.  This makes them SMARTER than me, because I noticed no one else lost their voice (this makes me happy, it means they were singing correctly and no one screamed and played too late Friday night).

Along the way, we had a scavenger hunt of a different kind.  I sent them looking with their eyes, and cameras.  Each team had a digital camera and a list.  On the list were terms like "sacrarium" and "vestibule" and "nave" and "sanctuary" and "ambo" and "sacristy".  There were many other items, including three categories where each team was to take "as many pictures of.... _____________" as possible.  The categories were "Mary," "Crucifixes," and "Baptismal symbols".  I was delighted to see the cameras nearing capacity when the teams returned.  They even managed to be reverent while in the sanctuary.   On a related topic:

NOTE TO SELF:  When constructing a Rubric for teenagers, pay attention to details like asking for "images of Mary."  In context, it seems obvious what I intended, yet, one of the groups in all its glory, smart-alek'ed me with this "picture of Mary."  *sigh*





At Mass, Fr. Lincoln did a commissioning for the choir.  This was especially poignant this year as we prepare for Rome.  I met several parishioners after Mass who said it moved them to tears.  I couldn't help but reflect on how we have struggled to arrive here, back before the altar of God, working to improve our music and our service, singing from our very souls, waiting with hope until we make our pilgrimage and come home again to sing anew...

This will be a very exciting year.

Things Heard Around the Copier

I spent some time this week doing menial tasks for the choir and chanced upon a few pleasant conversations around the copier upstairs at St. Richards.   If you spend long enough up there the ga-shoon-ga, ga-shoon-ga of the machine gets into your ear and you start humming various things you've heard recently or music you happen to be copying, but all hummed to the relentless rhythm of the machine.

The Banana Melon is a Happy Thing

Among the topics that fluttered in and out of the ga-shoon-ga's, these were the ones that stuck with me:  why no one wants to do fund raising, why it doesn't work, the cost of providing vibrant, interesting programs is exorbitant, many people can't afford to participate in them, the church bus causes as many problems as it solves, Fr. Mike is uncomfortable with all the selling of this and that and the other which is going on around here (me too, and I was doing a lot of it last year), and there are these weird melons growing in our Liturgy Director's neighbor's yard that are the best tasting canteloupe-like things anyone's ever eaten.

The banana melon was the best part of the experience.

So, the new thing this year for the Youth Choir itself will be that when we work, we just work.  No money will change hands.  We will serve the parish without asking for anything in return except prayers.

I knew going into last year that things would get hairy.   So, I have an announcement:  the very last of the Rome-related fundraising activities is for the JUNIOR Youth Choir members and  has intrinsic value to anyone who appreciates fine art.   We will provide the parish dinner which is the setting for their raffle, and we will pray earnestly that it is successful.

Then we will hang up our towels, and work on our singing.  If we bake this fall, it will be for service only.  A Christmas present to the Parish who has loved enough to bear with us through this long long long process.  We are VERY grateful to the people of St. Richard's.  We will share our journey with you, and we will be proud to have you along on our adventures this year.

There will be Newbies and First Years' and Tweeners and Seniors.  There will be All-State auditions and Treble Song and a trip to Rome.  There will be prayer and fellowship, and the beautiful music of the Church, but most of all, there will be the sacrifice at the center of it all, the reason for every thing we do collectively and individually, the source of our inspiration, the challenge which leads us forward:  there will be Him.  Deo Gratias.  Cantate Domino.  Deo Gratias.

Looking Ahead to the 2010-2011 Choir Season

...and on a brighter note, I think we'll have the zombie-free year, if you don't mind.  We can accomplish this by agreeing to some very basic rights and responsibilities of choir director/choir member/congregation relationship building.  These R & R's as I'll call them are:

FIRST AND FOREMOST:
THE RIGHTS OF THE CONGREGATION:

The congregation has the right to expect that music will happen at Mass without incident.  This means we must be prepared at all times.  If we are to be the unnoticed, non-distracting, prayerful voices that accompany the prayers of the faithful, it is extremely important that we conduct ourselves at all times reverently and with good preparation of musical offerings.  We cannot distract from the Mass.  We are NOT the show.  We are there to be the sound track no one consciously notices which accompanies the memories and experiences of the profoundly beautiful sacrifice Jesus made which we participate in at the altar of God.  When we do our job in rehearsal--- when we come dressed modestly, neatly and nicely, wear vestments and sing as one voice, then God will bless us and we'll get to do it again (in about two weeks or a month).  

The R & R's of the choir:

• The start time is the start time.  Period.  No negotiations, no excuses.  
• The end time is the end time.  Period.  No negotiations, no excuses.  There might be the occasional "we gotten everything done and you can see if you can find someone to come get you early, or we'll play cards until the end time (this is rare, so don't bring cards to every choir event).
• You WILL use your rehearsal CD and music to keep up and learn your parts.
• You WILL bring your practice binder to EVERY rehearsal unless otherwise notified.
• The Mass & Music list for the year can be found in the tabs above by scrolling down after you click "Mass Schedule".  This means NO ONE can say they didn't know when we are singing or WHAT we are singing.
• The CALENDAR can be found on the right sidebar of this blog.  It's called "Youth Choir Calendar," ironically enough, and it's a handy way to never be surprised again.
• I'm pretty much done with fund raising (after we raffle the statues); it's a horrible, horrible thing to be burdened with doing.  This does NOT mean we will quit earning our keep in the parish.  There will still be the yearly event, and the fall baking and selling of brownie pops.  We will STILL work the odd banquet here and there.  We will still work for the Junior Youth Choir whenever possible.

The R & R's of the choir director are as follows: 

• I have the right to expect that you will be on time to ALL rehearsals, performances, and service projects.
  
• If you, for some serious reason, cannot attend said rehearsals, performances, or service projects, I have the right to expect that you will notify me IMMEDIATELY when you discover your dilemma.
• I will give adequate warning of any schedule changes
• I will be flexible about sports (within reason), and extracurricular activity conflicts (again, within reason)
• I will be on time, start on time, and end on time.  
• I will provide you with a rehearsal CD and the music for the entire year at the retreat.

Other things you will need to know about next year: 

• Pueri Cantores is back on our schedule for Spring (I'm thinking Houston, because that's easy).   I'll have dates and repertoire available as soon as possible. 
• I will add a permanent page for the honor choir information soon.  This will have audition dates, recording sessions for the recorded auditions, and the dates of the actual honor choirs so you can plan

So, tell your friends, neighbors, and anyone that you know that the St. Richard Youth Choir is accepting new members.  God Bless the people of St. Richard, all our benefactors, and through the intercessions of St. Cecilia and St. Gregory, may we have a good year of hard work and service.  Amen.

*and no zombies, please*  :)

The Cow, the Choir, the Day in the Sun: Highlights from Cow Chip Bingo

Filing Day at the Old Salt Mines

Remember last year when Katie and Emily braved floodwaters to help me file the years' accumulated stacks of music?  Well, this year we had MORE HELP!!!!! Yay for the Youth Choir who really came through for St. Richard's yesterday.  Kolbe, Claire, James, Katie, Emily, Kathleen, Mollie, Chantele, Trey, Catherine, and Ms. C braved the eight feet of music to get it sorted, folder'ed, and FILED.

We also ate pizza, sang songs, and laughed at the various odd things that can happen when you are trying to get music sorted.

James and Claire found a sign...and though it is a wicked generation that looks for a sign, this one had a powerful message of hope and joy

I have no explanation why there was a plastic-sheathed printed "DONE" in the pile of Adult Easter Music, but never a prettier sight has this choir director seen than that orange crate all full and neat and finished and all the other piles of neat and finished music in the various rooms we sorted it in, so I'm gonna just breathe a sigh of relief, and start loading the binders for next year.  Circle of life, you know?