Chances are, it won't work.

There was a kind of 'prayer service'/prelude before the installation Mass for my diocese's new bishop a couple of years ago, I was 'lucky' enough to be in attendance at that Mass.

Everyone was talking; a half-hour before the Mass a cantor is alb gets up to the microphone and says that we should all be quiet because a service is starting. Everyone stopped talking, he said "let us all stand and sing [the hymn in your programs]", the organ started, and so did all the talking. After the hymn, the cantor lead a prayer, and the choir sang Purcell's "Rejoice in the Lord, Always", and the people continued talking -- through the anthem AND the prayer. All through this little service/prelude, there was incessant talking: you couldn't hear the prayers, and I think myself and an organist-friend sitting directly behind me were the only people in the nave singing any of the hymns; occasionally you could hear some bits of the anthems. On the whole it was pretty pathetic. And the worst thing is that this Mass was not 'open to the public': everyone there was 'invited': the KofC, the Knights of Malta, the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, city, state and federal officials, the representatives of religious orders from inside and outside the diocese, and each parish was given only THREE tickets for three representatives from each parish -- and you would think that this kind of group would know how to behave in a church, or at least, at a solemn public function.

It makes me glad that all of the important and solemn public occasions happened over fifty years ago -- imagine if the 'selfie generation' had been around for the Coronation of Elizabeth, II?

Help or detract ...
welcome wagon crews at the entrances?
subdued lighting?

"We speak, SILENTLY, to God before the service.
God speaks to us during the service.
We speak to each other after the service."

Also the narthex...

Pax,

I was (to my shame) 10 minutes late to a meeting recently. No, it wasn't Mass or anything like that, but I was astonished to discover that, being ten minutes late, I was the first person to arrive. Sometimes an announced time isn't an announced time?

Um, ten minutes???

Yes, C.T. (cum tempus) means a 15 minute delay in the actual start, while S.T. (sine tempus) means promptly at the stated time.

Shortly after I arrived in Heidelberg, I showed up at 4pm for a lecture, and there wasn't a soul in the lecture hall or even milling around outside, until about 4:10, when I asked if the lecture was going to be held. That is when I became enlightened to the meaning of C.T. and S.T.

Jackson,

as little brevity as possible

Such a small quantity of brevity could scarcely endure until the end has not arrived?

I find a piece of Renaissance polyphony usually works. We have many large diocesan events relating to RCIA and whatnot during Advent and Lent when organ preludes aren't allowed (see MS) - so I usually schedule a piece of polyphony as prelude. We begin the piece barely able to hear ourselves over the sound of 1000+ people talking and generally making human noises downstairs - and then usually before singing for one minute silence has come over the place. I'm not sure how it works (is someone downstairs doing the horrible SHHing noise and I can't tell?), but it has worked every time.

Upon arriving at our parish our priest had a volunteer lead the rosary prior to every Mass. It stopped the chatter almost immediately and we were not a quiet congregation.

"Much as I dislike chatter before Mass, I find it easier to say prayers to dispose myself against a background of chatter which I can ignore."

Precisely. It's white noise.

The worst instance I remember was the year I was doing the Sacred Heart novena, and I also went to Mass for the solemnity itself at a nearby parish I don't normally attend, to offer prayers for the devotion, only to be distracted by a very loud recitation of the Rosary for the 15 minutes before Mass began (I came earlier, but hadn't planned on that kind of disruption).

(This was compounded by the priest coming out in green vestments and doing what would otherwise have been the ferial propers, and the lectors following suit. It was bizarre. Since my very first Mass of the novena had commenced a few months earlier at the same church (because I suddenly discovered my territorial parish was doing a funeral instead of daily Mass that day) with my slipping and falling on a sea of white ice - that I mistakenly thought was snow - in a church parking lot, I figured this was God's way of continuing a message about my participation in the devotion was going to be about perseverence than personal satisfaction.)

I understand your point of view on the rosary prior to Mass. I had my doubts when we began. But the rosary has fostered a routine of quiet. Now our parish is almost always quiet before Mass, rosary or not.

But it's not a loud cacophony of people greeting one another, conversations and people roaming in and out of the church either. At least it is reverent.

The greatest problem with chatter is before weddings and funerals, where part of the congregation is not Catholic, and have little sense of the Lord's presence.

The problem of chatter during music, and I observe it when I play an organ prelude, is that our culture has become so used to having radio or television on all the time, that they are accustomed to talking over it. I have tried to play the organ more loudly, but you know the result: they talked more loudly.

We sing a Mass at Christmas midnight, singing a polyphonic mass, so that it lasts until 1;15 or a little later. It is usually crowded, so people come early to get a good seat, quite a few at 11:30. So I prepared a nice program of music a half hour before Mass. Next year they came at 11:00. This puts the emphasis in the wrong place. It should be on the Mass, with the polyphonic setting enhancing the solemnity of the occasion. With a program of polyphonic music before the Mass, attention flags about 12:30; so we went to organ music with a few carols before Mass. It works well. From year to year, the conversation varies; some years, it is quite noticeable, some not at all. Go figure.

tried to play the organ more loudly

You start loud (compared to what the piece would call for),
and stay loud and it does not matter.
Even if you begin playing before anyone arrives.

That is why i asked above ...
subdued lighting?

I'm surprised. In my experience the churches at which sacred silence is observed before liturgy are Catholic and Episcopal. Lutherans are apt to chatter audibly but stop when the prelude begins. Presbyterians and Methodists even moreso, and who knows about Baptists and others.

Chris is right, though: catechesis is poor. Plus, Catholic culture and Catholic mores have suffered appallingly since the recent council. Still I've not been to a Catholic church at which there was the mumble or rumble of chatter and converse before mass. Perhaps this is regional - and, if so, one would wonder at the social and cultural dynamics from region to region that makes it so. And, it may be true that, where chatter is bad Protestant visitors, not being 'at home' may behave more reverently (or fearfully) than ill-bred Catholics who are just a little bit too much 'at home'.

Hmmm... canadash has introduced an interesting factor - maybe churches that look like and feel like churches are apt not to become violated sacred space, whereas churches that look like and are arranged like theatres and arenas invite the sort of non-sacred behaviour that such buildings normally are host to. (???)

While chatter can vary enormously within any single denomination, Canadash is spot on about architecture. One of my best experiences as a sub was playing a prelude of Frescobaldi for a handful of rapt Lutherans; at the last chord the doors of the narthex were flung open and the rest of the congregation set down their coffee and lined up for the procession.