A few years ago, I had the organ tuned a week before Christmas since I wanted it in perfect tune for Midnight Mass. Christmas Eve, the temperature dropped 30+ degrees and the whole instrument was out of tune. Since then, I have just accepted the fact that something will go wrong. If I don't make an error, someone else will. So yesterday morning, I gave God thanks for the things that did go well, and also thanks for the things that could have been much worse.

I have two stories.

Back in my misspent youth while in conservatory I was the organist for the local Methodist church that owned a beautiful little Brombaugh tracker. On the night before Christmas Eve I went into the church to practice to discover that the furnace had gone haywire and it was over 95 degrees in the church. After several panicked phone calls (one to the pastor who knew nothing about music and organs and thought I was weird) the furnace was brought under control. But the damage was done, and on the morning of Christmas Eve I went in to check and make sure the organ was OK, which of course it wasn't. The high temp and dryness had caused one of the pallets on the Great wind chest to warp, so that the trumpet stop would cypher if it was drawn. After more phone calls to the local organ builder/technician, and a day's worth of work, the organ was up and playable for Christmas Eve. *Whew!*

My other story is much more of a horror story, and a Catholic church was involved. The parents of two little home-school girls asked if they could play violin during the Midnight Mass. I agreed and arranged some music for them to play with the choir. They came to the big rehearsal the night before and did a splendid job. The parents were pleased. The choir was pleased. On Christmas Eve the girls showed up in their fancy dresses, violins at the ready. We were just touching on pieces during warm-ups, not actually running all the way through anything. I was moving pretty fast and one of the girls apparently got a little nervous and after I let them go back to their parents until Mass was to begin, apparently one of them started to cry. I dropped everything and went back to the little girl to assure her. She was obviously just very nervous, excited, and needless to say "geeked up" on sugar and the anticipation of presents the next day. The father was ready to flay, draw and quarter me at first, but within a minute realized that I hadn't done anything and wasn't an ogre. MEANWHILE . . . one of my tenors was supposed to sing as part of a quartet in one of the pieces (a really nice setting of "Gaudete" by Bob Hurd, believe it or don't). The night before, he was struggling with his part and said, "If tomorrow night during warm-ups you don't think I'm ready, just say so and I know you can sing the part." Fair enough. During warm-ups, he flubbed the part so badly that the other members of the quartet got lost. I turned to him and said, "I think maybe I better sing this tonight." As he walked past me to return to his spot in the choir he muttered, "That was awkward."

After Mass (where the music went very well) I returned to the choir room and found a note on my desk, written in black marker. It read:

Your a jerk. Only jerks make little girls cry. I quit. Signed, (the tenor who muffed the solo)

I was crushed. I later sent him a note explaining what had happened with the girl, and he sent me a note back saying, "All you ever do is apologise. I've been in HR for a number of years, and I think you're too psychologically unstable to work with people. I think you should get help before you continue being a music director."

And people wonder why church musicians are neurotic, prone to burn out, alcoholism and other forms of overindulgence and often seem aloof and withdrawn.

On a much happier note, despite being very sick with a bronchial infection all during the week, the music went very well, and people seemed pleased.

Merry Christmas all!

I've mentioned this before, but imagine Mara's story happening inside my apartment. And replace the organ with my meager entertainment center, games, and movies. It was a depressing Christmas Eve, but eventually the roof froze again, and I put on the Bach Christmas Oratorio, which was an instant cure.

Or there was last year, where my girlfriend and I caught my kitchen on fire making Christmas dinner between Masses.

I must to some extent agree with Charles. We have a great privilege in celebrating the Nativity (and Resurrection, and sending of the Holy Spirit, and Ascension, etc) how we do. There's no other way to do it, and the only way I'll not spend another feast day in a loft is if I'm in a hospital bed. And they'll have to keep me strapped down.

Bad things happen. That's what happens when sinners gather to give glory to a perfect God. To expect Christmas or even Ordinary Time 17 to go flawlessly is arrogance and pride. I wager that I've screwed up Masses, in music and planning, far worse than anyone here. And you know what? It's in the past. There's no way that I can change the fact that I forgot to play the Gloria on a Solemnity, or that I was flat in the Christmas Proclamation, or that my choir flubbed the Pentecost sequence horribly. So I try to give it all the thought, attention, and care that it needs to make a difference: none. I always tell myself, when an accident happens, "Ok, I screwed up X. What do I do next?" Often this is just an entry mantra while I seethe with anger, but it does help to remember that what counts is the present, not the past.

And yet David's second story fills me with the despair engendered by the oxymoronic "Christmas Horror". I've had nearly the exact same thing happen, on many occasions. It has informed my view of ministry, that I have to work as a team leader, not a dictator or a pushover. And yet I'm reminded of a Christmas some years ago. I had programmed different music each Mass, carols for Mass appropriate to the Mass offered as well as after and before Mass carols complimentary to the season. My boss at the time looked over the program and said "we have a huge problem. You need to have Joy to the World at the vigil Mass. People will not be happy about that not being there." I said, "but we have it for the Mass of Christmas Morning. If people want to hear it, tell them to go there." He said, "yes, that's well and good, but they'll complain."

And then I gave (imho) the best comeback ever: "If someone complains, I WILL tell them that if they want to come to me on the feast of Goodwilll to Men and complain because their personal preferences weren't catered to at church, they should first schedule a proctologist appointment to have my organ shoes removed from their posterior." We had a good laugh on that, and went about our business. Don't think I wouldn't respond like that, either. Anyway, after Mass of Christmas Morning, we were chatting and he commented to me how much everyone at all Masses enjoyed everything, and said he got a single complaint: after that Mass a woman came up to him and said "this is the WORST CHRISTMAS EVER! I don't know any of these songs, why do I have to sing in Latin, and your organist is playing some stupid crap upstairs!" He told me that he simply responded as I did: "Madam, if you're going to spend Christmas being angry, I have nothing to say to you."

That, to me, is the point of the season: negativity has no place with us. If David's tenor wanted to be an immature jerk, let that be his response to our Savior's nativity. If someone else wants to do something to hurt us, that is how they welcome the Christ. Rather, let our response be joy.

The one saving grace is that the choir director finally had the good sense to ditch Mary, Did You Know. However, the settings for the Children's choir were dreadful. Natrually, they came from OCP. The Agnus Dei they used wasn't even a close proximity to the prayer. it was horrid. To make matters worse, our pastor was singing along. I elected to quietly pray the invocations in Latin.

Of course, the homily for the vigil was not very good. We heard about how dysfunctional Jesus' family tree was and how Solomon was able to comply with his duties to 700 wives and 30 concubines without the use of a male-only prescription drug. I love my pastor and realize that he means well, but, I think he could have used a different approach.

I could also do without hearing "Child of the Poor". Why can we not have traditional Christmas carols that speak to the joy of the season?

I had feared the worst for Christmas Eve at the church where I'm the part-time organist. I was convinced that we would run over on the pre-Mass programming. Wrong, we came out right on the money. That was good. "Mary, Did You Know" was not a success. The choir never got the rhythm at rehearsal and no miracles had occurred to make it work on Christmas Eve. They would get ahead of my piano accompaniment; then they would get behind. Because of moving the piano to find a place for the double bass, I could see neither the director nor the choir. Well, at least the pain didn't last too long.

We added strings plus trumpet and tympani for the Mozart Sparrow Mass. This church has done an orchestral Mass on big occasions for decades. Unfortunately, 35 years on, there are still some of the original voices. But we soldiered on. However, the singers missed their cue (the tweeting of the "sparrow") on the tempo change after the opening of the Sanctus. At one point, I think the organ and strings, choir, and director were in three different places. However, somehow we landed on the last note together.

I'm an inveterate lark, so these midnight services are highly disorienting for me. I'm pretty good for most of the music until suddenly I can't remember the key signature of the piece I'm in the middle of. It passes in a moment. This time it was the Mozart Ave Verum during one of those little organ bits. And if that's the worst thing that I ever do, I shall count myself lucky.

I don't MJ had the opportunity to choose the music... more's the pity.

What's the problem with "Mary did you know"?

MaryMezzo:

Thank you for expressing your thoughts about the text. I have the exact same issues with some contemporary texts that skew or distort Catholic theology and am sensitive more to the texts than to the music at times.

et al:

For further information about the greatness of Mary and her place, please read this writing by St. Louis de Montfort. It is so we all better understand how wonderful and great she truly is and how texts like this (Mary Did You Know) demean her greatness. We should never talk down to her or question her sentiments! She understood more about the salvific plan of God more than all humanity ever will in their sinful livetimes.

http://www.ewtn.com/library/montfort/truedevo.htm

Michael - thanks for your report on the Cathedral-Basilica. Shannon asked last evening at schola rehearsal if I'd heard from you. She'd be happy to crank up the volume on the Casavant. And I'm glad you knew what to ignore - a critical skill in contemporary liturgical practice.

Query for Mr. O'Connor:

What exactly are the proper responses for a bishop? when do they differ from those we give a priest celebrant?

This is a bit tangential via Mark P.'s post above, but...
Has anyone else noticed that attendance at Christ Mass during the day has dramatically decreased over the last few years? We all know (and our pastors increase the numbers of) vigil Masses that draw "watch out for the fire marshall" numbers. But the need to maintain a "Sunday Schedule" at our parish (6000+ families) seems no longer necessary.
One happy by-product of this year's schedule (7am, 9am English, 11am Spanish) is that provided me with the opportunity to both give my schola and ensemble members the morning off, but to also create a "Music Leadership Choir." Our directors, organists, cantors, etc., were invited to form the ersatz ensemble and it was a no-pressure, pleasant and successful exercize. That also provided a subtle platform for little demonstrations of performance practice for some of our fellowes that was by model/example, not by memo.

"Has anyone else noticed that attendance at Christ Mass during the day has dramatically decreased over the last few years?"

Which is precisely why we advertised a big orchestral Mass. Sometimes attendance at Noon exceeded Midnight.

"Has anyone else noticed that attendance at Christ Mass during the day has dramatically decreased over the last few years? "

Charles, I have noticed the same thing. Attendance is heavy at the 6:00 pm vigil and at the Midnight Mass. It falls off considerably on Christmas Day. I don't know why, other than mass attendance is supposedly lower everywhere than was the case years ago. At least, that's what I read.

I inherited a choir a year ago in September; as usual, in October we began rehearsing Christmas concert music. There was significant turnover in membership, and we had only one returning soprano, who was joined by 6 young, eager, and un-schooled apprentices.

Just after Thanksgiving (this is last year), our new pastor came by and told me that we were expected to provide 30 minutes of music for the pre-Midnight Mass concert. I told him as nicely as possible that that request would simply not be fulfilled; that he would get, perhaps, 20 minutes of music (liberally stuffed with schola chanting and organ voluntaries.) He was very displeased, and insisted that he must have 30 minutes' music. Eventually I became more emphatic, to say the least, and he wandered off.

Fast forward. This year, with the same group of singers (and a foundation of music from LAST year), the choir was able to prepare 30 minutes' worth of sung music--all 4-part, well-learned. And, as you might have already guessed, the pastor emailed at 1:00 PM on Christmas Eve to advise that he would be initiating a procession after we'd sung TWENTY minutes' worth of music, and that he expected to hear a particular piece of music (I confess--I never heard of his request before.)

OK. We cut some materials (too bad they spent all that time learning...) and at exactly the appointed time, awaited his procession-beginning into the Church.

And we waited for FIVE FULL MINUTES before he began...

Despite it all, the choir was wonderful. They did their part with joy (and sang all the right notes at the right time, with the right phrasing and vocal production.)

As of tomorrow, however, the parish will be looking for a new choir director/schola director.

Charles, you've started your New Year's celebrations a bit early? Put the bottle down now... Seriously I do appreciate the vote of confidence, but I'd never work for a cathedral that would hire me! LOL I don't play organ and I'm not a trained choirmaster. Don't even think about putting me in front of a children's choir! As much as I would love to do something like that, I know my limits and would redirect any bishop's attentions to some well-deserving folks right here on this forum. Sure, I can cobble together a little schola and direct my early music singers (all upperclassmen who cannot be harmed by "leadership") but I'd be over my head in a cathedral situation. I'm quite happy to write my articles and torture students 3 times a week in music history class.

A happy new year to you all!

Mike

Happy NY to you, too, Mike! I was just being nice is all; isn't that what the American Catholic Church is really all about, anyway, being NICE?!?
Good Twain reference. Or was it Will Rogers? Or Groucho?
W and I don't imbibe from 750's anymore; just boxes with spigots from Tarzhjay. Has a kind of "Lebowski" ethos about it. Besides, we didn't get our Shiraz on last night as we were "doing" on call grandparent babysitting. And I'm trying to lose some bronchitis before embarking for SD.
Speaking of which, I'm bringing bow ties, extras even, all kinds.
I did make a pit stop at World Market for MaryAnn and AOZ.
Anyhoo, I still think you'd make a fine cathedral director, especially in FLA.! You have to remember that we Caliphs get itchy and edgy about all things FLA. I mean, didn't some parish in Naples have that blonde, curly haired Rick Wakeman as their DM for a long time? Right next to Ave Maria U, imagine that?
Besides, having a fine tuned schola AND a civil war re-enactors' Euphonium Consort at your disposal, and being a rock bassist seem to be fine street/cathedral cred to me. Heck, they paid me for four years at our cathedral!!! twenty one years ago!
M'best to you, MOC, you still da Man, tho' I'll never say "yes" to you ever saying "You wanna walk to lunch?" should we meet in this life or the next. Rorate caeli, indeed.
Abiding out here in Tule Fog, I remain yours truly,
CDC
(which faithful viewers of NatGeo/MSNBC will also recognize as "California Dept. of Corrections."

Don't you think Texas is more centrally located? That's my vote (heh).

Charles, it's my opinion that the new Administration is attempting to install their own spirituality--sorta like the Opus Dei, or Schoenstatt thing, except it's ICK. No big deal, except I'm a little old to turn French overnight...and after about 35 years of both Old Rite and New Rite choral conducting, endless reading in liturgical texts, and a bunch of education in organ, singing, Chant, and conducting, it's sorta hard to have someone start critiqueing 'tempo' and asking for Sunday Mass programming in advance.

Silly me. I always thought that the Roman Rite was Roman, not nationality-based.

Re-signature sent, done. Have one more obligation there. Gave the Administering Father some free advice (old Church proverb): "You can pay them peanuts, but you dare not treat them like monkeys."

Institute of Christ the King.

I don't know. They order is French-origin and they have oratories (and/or parishes) all over the place. You can find them on the 'net, no problem.

But they were not the ones who proclaimed "Cristo Rey" before getting shot in Mexico...

The ICK is a community founded in 1990 with the charism of observing the older liturgical forms:
http://www.institute-christ-king.org/institute/who-we-are/

http://www.institute-christ-king.org/institute/who-we-are/

The schola director from their Italian seminary is doing a workshop in Chicago this week.

(Save the Liturgy, Save the World)

Could you explain what this means "--compared to Opus Dei, which I understood to be a jab at the Institute"?

ghmus, that reminds me of a time at my last church where the pastor was away, and had a good (although hard to understand) elderly Indian priest sub for him. Early morning Mass, the priest didn't show up. I left and came back a half hour before the late Mass to warm up the cantor, and saw him in the church. Turns out he had got in a car accident, his car flipped and he had to dig himself out of a destroyed car. He recognized me, and came up to me, greeted me, and then said "I'm sorry I missed the early Mass. Do you have a comb? My hair is somewhat messy."

They don't make priests like that anymore!