I learned from this past Holy Week that you can almost not have too many rehearsals, nor start too early. I would probably start next years Holy Week rehearsals at the beginning of Lent, but that's me, at my parish.

The boss can speak to this better than I can, perhaps, but I will note some strategy:
1. You should be preparing for Holy Week all year around. Look for pieces during the year that you can get double duty on, and use for Holy Week. (actually, this applies to the whole calendar)
2. We typically do 2 motets and a polyphonic Agnus (and sometimes a Kyrie) in a normal service, so there's a fair bit of non-participatory music. The bulk of the congregational music has been responsorial psalms (esp. last night)
3. Typically we do Stations with Schola on Friday night, alternating unison verses of the Stabat Mater with whatever short motets we have in repertory. This time out, we were a bit Lutheran, as we did 2 separate verses of 2 Bach chorales as 4 of these interpolations.
4. Have a fallback plan (and another and another) in case of the unforeseen. This year we had a parish mission which concluded on choir night, and we ended up not having that rehearsal. One motet was a casualty, replaced by chant.
5. Find ways to economize on effort. The things you put the most work into will not necessarily be the things the congregation or even the choristers find most memorable. If you find yourself too often invoking the Name of God (either in prayer or in vain), chances are you're over stressing yourself... and in over stressing yourself, then over stressing your people.

I hesitate to make any recommendations given that you don't know the size of your schola, the skill level, the number of times you'll sing, etc. Each schola I've been in has been quite different.

It's a good idea to practice 3-4 times as much as you might for a regular Mass. Since you don't want to burn people out, practicing during all of Lent isn't a bad idea.

We make a complete schedule for the season in August and refer to it throughout the year. We begin rehearsing Triduum music at the beginning of Lent, and have two extra rehearsals during Holy Week, Monday and Tuesday 7-10pm (although I usually let them out early). It is sufficient for what we do!

No.... 6:30-7:30 schola, 7:30-9 whole choir

I see I'm going to have to feel my way to a considerable extent, which is perfectly normal. I've been teaching for many years and understand that one. I've also got lacunae in my education that I need to fill, and in my experience. But once I get started, the obvious answer is preparation, preparation, preparation. Knowing the music that we're approaching backwards and forwards is an obvious precondition to teaching and conducting even to a group of four. Aside from chant, which I know well and ever more deeply, as the Popes like to say about everything, this will mean baby steps.

But also planning schedule-wise. Not makes the most sense to pick pieces we can do at other times and have Holy Week really be a compilation of our greatest hits, so a level of anxiety is removed. So I start this week planning.

Thanks to all. Kenneth

I have rehearsal every week on Thursday nights, 6:15 - 8:00.

While I have been in a position of re-building my choir, much of our standard repertoire has been in place for at least 40 years, and it has mainly been a matter of polishing things, and adding the propers and new anthems.

I try to vary Christmas considerably each year (since there is soooooo much wonderful Christmas music and we have an half-hour prelude/concert before Midnight Mass.)

On the other hand, the majority of the Triduum music sets proper texts, and so there isn't as much room for variation, and I do try to keep the same 'big anthem' for Easter a couple years in a row so we're not spending hours learning a 3 minute piece that we'll never do again.

I try to have a new Anthem for major feasts/Sundays : Gaudete, Laetare, Pentecost, Trinity, Corpus Christi, Patronal Feast (Odpust), Assumption, St. Cecilia's Day; and if not a new Anthem a new Hymn (Adam Wood's Ascension Day text (set to Thaxted) was a BIG hit last year, as was Charles Giffen's "Let thy Blood" (Rasmus) on Lent II).

Also, as far as planning: I like to have my Christmas rep more or less in place by the end of September, though I will tweak things until about a fortnight before. The Easter rep I like to have in place by Candelmas, since there is less variation at.

Thanks for singing my hymn! That really means a lot to me.

Yeah, that's great. I suggested my bright young MD write something for us.

Thanks, Matthewj. That is going to be way beyond anything I attempt. I have just gotten to the point of being able to memorize a chant line with a few sing-throughs, so I think the heavy emphasis in my putative volunteer schola with 4-8 members is going to be chant, about which I know a lot and am now getting quite skilled at doing. By the end of this summer, I should be able to sight-sing it following St. Gall with confidence.

For the rest, building by getting everyone to sing the harmonies for the hymns, singing simple motets, building slowly.

Of course, it all depends on who responds to the ads. I'm going to keep control of the chant by writing out square notes and St. Gall from memory as I explain what we are doing--preventative defense against imperious singers who sense weakness--but on the choral stuff, I am probably going to do what one friend did in a similar case: got the organist to play all the parts for a year until everyone got used to the sound, then started teaching it. So long range.

My skills at chant took a leap forward when I did what I always thought would work. My mother was a great painter, and I inherited her eyes, although, alas, not her manual dexterity. I am very visual. So I wrote out Iudica Me in square note and St. Gall until I cried. I just did the Introit for the Third Sunday in an hour or so, maybe a little more. I mean, memorize. That's just going to get easier, so I will emphasize that. And use what I learned from. Fr. Kelly about conducting.

And, as I said, prepare, prepare, prepare. Even for my last Protestant praise band--now a more than a decade ago--we really just did hymns and songs. One service, the second Sunday of Easter, I think, really took off, and my best friend asked how I did it. I said, "14 hours of preparation." Before rehearsal. And after. I would sit in a Pizzeria Uno the night before and sing silently through the entire service--maybe twice, I don't recall, but I was quite persnickety. So I know that is in my future. Good thing I love it.

Kenneth

Matthew, thanks for the description in Phoenix. By the way, was that arrangement started prior to Adam, with Adam, or with you? It's an interesting and innovative one. Most pro to 50% pro choirs don't have any chant (at least in the way we would think of it) to work with, so I'm always intrigued how other places deal with this. We have 5 section leaders out of a choir of 25; I'd say about 50% of the volunteers are good, with another 25% trying to get used to the methods of production (vocally speaking) that I prefer, with the remaining there as "feel good". It works, but not perfectly. There's a large burden on volunteers in this case, but they don't mind until we get to a busy time of the year. Also, it requires 5 section leaders that have a very precise skill set, which is a big challenge.

Matthew,

I should clarify: I was referring specifically to the proportion of paid/volunteer, and also to the rehearsal time arrangements.