A most wonderful experience to in my final month of university be able to end my university experience with this. I had never dreamed there would ever be a Latin mass on campus and we still have some way to go with that but this was close enough to campus to count.
I was very moved by the turn out of people and really amazed at how my little choir pulled through. We started with 6, then became 5 due to an ill member and then 4 because of a double booking for one of the singers and by the end of mass only 3 were singing the final hymn whilst I played organ. Most wonderfully I loved how calm this mass was. It wasn't about making sure the priests were happy or about following rules the previous organist set, or about controlling an unruly choir of singers who couldn't be stuffed with Catholicism. It was purely, let's make music and sing to God. I loved every moment as my friends surrounded me with their love.
At this mass I was able to successfully for the first time try out "free organum" with a live group of singers in Australia. I do not know any other group in Australia who has been willing to try this stuff so that felt pretty scary. I did not know how it would go down but my singers responded with "we want more."
We sang my poor man's arrangement of O sanctissima and a wonderful setting of Sub Tuum Praesidium by Charpentier. And my mass setting "Missa Sancta Maria Goretti."
I was pretty moved to see a Catholic society plug this event in social media and see the invite list grow from 1 to 100's of people. Never in my earlier days as a student could I imagine this occurring.
Wow! I too loved the sound of the women! I'm forwarding this to my women's schola director. She has a similar sized choir. And wonderful organ playing too! Congratulations!
To participate in the discussions on Catholic church music, sign in or register as a forum member, The forum is a project of the Church Music Association of America.