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cahnI spent 11.5 hours at the Catholic Church this week, despite not being Catholic. That's right. And yeah, I blew off both of the churches I actually belong to for Easter Sunday. I'm not in choir at the Lutheran one, and the Mormon choir did one song (this ward doesn't seem to really get into Easter, although my last one did much more), whereas Catholic choir was doing one Bach bit, a Pergolesi, a de Victoria, the Hallelujah Chorus, plus the entire Gabrielli Missa Brevis minus the Credo. So I felt like they needed me more.
Random thoughts:
-Father A. is a small guy, and generally walks quite quickly, and when he does his -- cope? vestments? robes? need to learn the lingo -- billow out behind him like he's a superhero, and I kind of want a shiny cream-colored robe like that. Though I don't want to be a priest. And even if I did, I'm the wrong gender and married-state anyway. But still!
-Being Catholic is no joke. Just the amount of standing Holy Week on those hard wooden floors... I salute you. Well, I did it too, but I was getting paid, so it doesn't count :)
-We sang at the front of the church except for Easter Sunday itself (where we were in the choir loft). On Holy Saturday they turned all the lights off for the first half of the service. This... posed a problem. (The choir loft would have had its own lighting, but ah well.) We ended up lighting our music with cell phones. It was a bit ridiculous.
-The pastor kind of weirds me out with his super-insistence that services be as short as possible, to the extent that they didn't say the Credo one Sunday to keep the time down (come on, are you guys Catholic or Protestant? :) ), but I must confess I did rather appreciate not having to do the baptisms and Litany of Saints on Saturday, which cut the service from 3 hours to 2 hours. (I think the Litany of Saints is really cool -- don't know anything like it in any other church I've ever been to -- but man, a three-hour service starting at 8pm is reeeeally long.)
-I'm really, really angry that I screwed up the trio in the Benedictus and it is still making me angry even though no one cares except for me (see Hallelujah chorus and aftermath, below). It wasn't even a bad mistake; I came in correctly, Director was beating it wrong, but then I failed to realize when the soprano soloist recorrected to be in time with Director -- it's just that I Am Better Than That Darn It.
-I think it's weird that they don't say "Christ is risen." "He is risen indeed! Alleluia!" -- I got used to the Catholic liturgy being basically identical to the Lutheran one at D's church, and they do it there. I don't know if it's Catholics or a recent Vatican thing (which I know changed some of the other wording they use) or just the ruling of this particular pastor. (I forget what they did last year -- although the fact that I don't remember freaking out about it last year makes me think that maybe they did do it last year?)
-Singing the Hallelujah Chorus just... never gets old. It's just the most awesome thing ever, especially with timpani and brass like we had it. MOST AWESOME THING EVER.
-No, not the most awesome thing. The very VERY best part was right after we sang it, when people clapped -- well, they generally do a polite one-second clap after we sing at services -- but then they kept on clapping. And kept clapping. It's been kind of hard for the choir lately -- due to the pastor's decisions lately, we've been a bit depressed and feeling like the church doesn't really appreciate us or the music we do -- and to have this validation otherwise was sort of staggering. I think all of us might have teared up a little. I sure did.
-I should mention here that at the end of the Holy Saturday service, the pastor singled out the choir and Choir Director for kudos from the congregation and specifically mentioned patience for putting up with him during the first part of his tenure. So I'm hoping that things are looking up in that direction? If only for Choir Director's sake. He's been having a really rough couple of months of it.
Random thoughts:
-Father A. is a small guy, and generally walks quite quickly, and when he does his -- cope? vestments? robes? need to learn the lingo -- billow out behind him like he's a superhero, and I kind of want a shiny cream-colored robe like that. Though I don't want to be a priest. And even if I did, I'm the wrong gender and married-state anyway. But still!
-Being Catholic is no joke. Just the amount of standing Holy Week on those hard wooden floors... I salute you. Well, I did it too, but I was getting paid, so it doesn't count :)
-We sang at the front of the church except for Easter Sunday itself (where we were in the choir loft). On Holy Saturday they turned all the lights off for the first half of the service. This... posed a problem. (The choir loft would have had its own lighting, but ah well.) We ended up lighting our music with cell phones. It was a bit ridiculous.
-The pastor kind of weirds me out with his super-insistence that services be as short as possible, to the extent that they didn't say the Credo one Sunday to keep the time down (come on, are you guys Catholic or Protestant? :) ), but I must confess I did rather appreciate not having to do the baptisms and Litany of Saints on Saturday, which cut the service from 3 hours to 2 hours. (I think the Litany of Saints is really cool -- don't know anything like it in any other church I've ever been to -- but man, a three-hour service starting at 8pm is reeeeally long.)
-I'm really, really angry that I screwed up the trio in the Benedictus and it is still making me angry even though no one cares except for me (see Hallelujah chorus and aftermath, below). It wasn't even a bad mistake; I came in correctly, Director was beating it wrong, but then I failed to realize when the soprano soloist recorrected to be in time with Director -- it's just that I Am Better Than That Darn It.
-I think it's weird that they don't say "Christ is risen." "He is risen indeed! Alleluia!" -- I got used to the Catholic liturgy being basically identical to the Lutheran one at D's church, and they do it there. I don't know if it's Catholics or a recent Vatican thing (which I know changed some of the other wording they use) or just the ruling of this particular pastor. (I forget what they did last year -- although the fact that I don't remember freaking out about it last year makes me think that maybe they did do it last year?)
-Singing the Hallelujah Chorus just... never gets old. It's just the most awesome thing ever, especially with timpani and brass like we had it. MOST AWESOME THING EVER.
-No, not the most awesome thing. The very VERY best part was right after we sang it, when people clapped -- well, they generally do a polite one-second clap after we sing at services -- but then they kept on clapping. And kept clapping. It's been kind of hard for the choir lately -- due to the pastor's decisions lately, we've been a bit depressed and feeling like the church doesn't really appreciate us or the music we do -- and to have this validation otherwise was sort of staggering. I think all of us might have teared up a little. I sure did.
-I should mention here that at the end of the Holy Saturday service, the pastor singled out the choir and Choir Director for kudos from the congregation and specifically mentioned patience for putting up with him during the first part of his tenure. So I'm hoping that things are looking up in that direction? If only for Choir Director's sake. He's been having a really rough couple of months of it.
no subject
Date: 2013-04-01 08:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-04-01 03:15 pm (UTC)