Just to cover all my bases, I'm posting here as well as sending out an email to all the parents. Due to the MEA break schedule, it seems that there are choristers unable to attend rehearsal this Wednesday. Since there was a third of the choir able to attend on Tuesday, Nicole will be holding an additional rehearsal on Tuesday the 16th from 3:45-4:45 in the choir loft. This is not a mandatory rehearsal, but it's possible, all are encouraged to come!

We will also have rehearsal as usual on Wednesday the 17th from 3:45-4:45 for everyone else.

(Also, I finally have all the "official" binders compiled with enough for everyone!)

I finally was able to record/make videos of the music for our first Mass that I couldn't find online, so ALL of the music for October 28th is posted in the Practice Resources section. As a disclaimer, the pieces I recorded are for teaching/educational purposes--I certainly am not a perfect singer--but I hope they will be helpful to hear a clearer melody. All of the text is also posted in the videos I created.

The pieces we will be singing for October 28 are as follows:
(Red = Mass Part; Blue = Motet; Green = Proper)

Introit
(Opening Hymn)
Kyrie: Missa de Angelis
Gloria: Missa De Angelis
Responsorial Psalm
Alleluia: Mass of St. Cecilia
(Offertory Hymn)
Sanctus: Missa de Angelis
Mysterium Fidei: Mass of St. Cecilia
Amen: Mass of St. Cecilia
Agnus Dei: Missa de Angelis
Communio
If Ye Love Me: Tallis
(Closing Hymn)

I know it might look like a LOT of music, but as you can tell, most of it is the Ordinary of the Mass, the Mass parts, which will be consistent throughout all of our Masses. However, the Missa de Angelis is new for our choir, and the Mass of St. Cecilia will likely be new to children who just joined choir this year.... Once we get those Mass parts under our belt, it will free up a lot of rehearsal time!

Thanks, and happy practicing!

Mass Propers are posted on the Practice Resource page for our first Mass on October 28th. Happy practicing!

Well, we were really encouraged with how our first rehearsal went today (with 22 choristers!). The amount of beautiful sound we were getting was GREAT. I hope the kids had fun and are enjoying the music as much as we are! Just to remind you again, the more time the kids can spend listening to and singing with the materials on the Practice Resource page, the more quickly we can learn things and then grow in our ability to sing even more amazing music! Ask them to show you the links to hear the wonderful music they are learning :)

Assuming that everyone who came is committed, we can start to really move forward to plan for the year and I just wanted to put some questions out there for parents. I think the easiest way we can all present our ideas to everyone else at once is via an online forum. Please take some time to sign in and let your opinions be heard!

The topics of discussion are: the choir name, uniforms, singing on the altar.

Also, I heard from some of the choristers today that there have been problems accessing the website? While it may be futile to post this information on the website in question, you can always email me at [email protected] or Mary Beth at [email protected]

Tallis motet is now posted under the Practice Resources page.

We are really excited at how the camp went today. Incorporating music/holding binders will definitely be a bit of an initial challenge, but we'll keep at it! It was exciting to see some new faces at choir, and (when they want to!) those children can definitely create some beautiful sounds! Now we just need to find the trick to get that to happen all of the time.... :) We hope you love the music as much as we do, and we're looking forward to adding to more of the Church's musical heritage to our repertoire.

We also want to specifically thank the parents for helping us muddle through this transition. While your children have to want to sing, it is your support that holds the figurative and literal keys to getting them to our rehearsals and performances. While we are very passionate about our music ministry to the children, we want to let you know how much we value the fact that you're making their sacred music education a priority as well. We hope to continue to build our relationship with you parents with more easily accessible communication.

Looking ahead to our first rehearsal on this coming Wednesday, October 3 from 3:45-4:45, we need to ask again for your assistance in helping us network to get our numbers up to a committed 20 for the year. That way, we can begin working from a sound foundation of volume of voices where it's not as intimidating for the children to sing out.

What we're doing:

• posting fliers around church for the Sunday 9am Mass on 9/31
• sending out information/reminders to some of the email groups (potluck, home school)
• *NEW* facebook page! The facebook page will hopefully share these blog posts automatically and will also serve to share more of the social side of things at choir, while this website will remain more for informational resources.

How can you help?
The best advantage that you parents have is that you are all "linked in" to the parent network at Holy Family much more than my Mom and I. If you're excited about the new direction we're taking the choir, please share this with other parents! Word of mouth referrals always seem to carry weight with things that matter most. You can "like" our new facebook page, as well as share this new website with people you know as well.

As always, we are very open to hearing suggestions if we've forgotten about anything--networking through email lists and technology is a whole new animal from simple announcements and bulletins at church! If there is an email list that I didn't refer to or any other way you think would be helpful for us to reach out, please speak up!

Thanks, and see you Wednesday!

With much anticipated, we eagerly decided to begin our choir year with lots of time on our hands to explore our new ideas: We are excited to include more of the traditions of our Catholic heritage this year by including chant and more sacred motets in our repertoire, as well providing children with the challenge (and the resulting benefits) of singing from music for the first time, instead of just memorizing by rote. Singing in two or three parts is also a goal of ours, but depends on the children and how capable they are of holding their own musical line--however, this is a learnable skill, so even if we can't do it initially, it's not to say that it will never happen!

We had initially planned for a Day Camp of 4 hours, including a light snack, on the morning of Saturday, September 29 from 9:00am-1:00pm. However, we were recently made aware that there is a conflicting homeschool event that same morning, and we don't want to exclude homeschoolers if we can help it! We are exploring the idea of postponing the start of choir until the next week: Saturday, October 6. This would also grant us more flexibility with time...we could do either 9:00am-1:00pm again, OR, pending approval from Holy Family, the camp could go from 1:00pm-4:30, and we could sing some of our new pieces at the 5pm Mass. (In this case, we would make sure that snack would fall well before Mass to not interfere with the Eucharistic Fast)

What's your preference:

1. September 29, 9:00am-1:00pm
2. October 6, 9:00am-1:00pm
3. October 6, 1:00pm-4:30pm with a possible 5pm Mass
   

As before, if you could leave your family name, number of children, and your day/time preference in the comments, we would appreciate it. Thanks!