If I can't predict what the assembly's level of volume and participation will be on a song, I set the initial registration to what would be appropriate for accompanying just the choir. After hearing how loud the assembly is, I use the crescendo pedal as needed to bolster the organ's sound.

Remember that they are the obtuse ones making this awkward, not you, whatever you do.

Then, accompany your choir singers in a way that brings them to the top of their dynamic range, without overpowering them. Those who want to sing will “catch on” to the loud voices. Those who don’t will not feel that you are being pushy or drowning them out.

Strings coupled and super coupled are great for this, as are chorus reeds under expression that you can adjust to fit based on in-the-moment assessments of choir and assembly balance.

Flutes 8, 4, 2 2/3rd (a soft nazard) and a soft string or diapason 8 or 4 coupled from swell to a flute 8 on great often works for me with choir and a diminished congregation of singers. Add other stops and open expression more if singing improves.

It all depends on the style and participation of the celebrant. If he is singing vigorously and rhythmically and in tune, the congregation will follow. Of course, this begins with the greetings and responses, and a microphone does not help!

The priest can hardly concern himself with doubling as cantor while he's praying at the altar, but I do understand your point. We just had a parish mission last week. I was present all three nights but didn't play the organ at all. The priest started singing some of the old standard hymns before and after the talks and the congregation joined in enthusiastically: Immaculate Mary; Hail, Holy Queen Enthroned Above; Salve Regina; Holy God, We Praise Thy Name; Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God Almighty. I can almost guarantee that I or any other organist could have given the clearest possible introduction, but without the priest's leadership, participation would have been lacking. That's just the mentality of the people, unfortunately. I don't really understand why priests want congregational singing at Mass but aren't willing to implement it in common-sense ways. "Please open your hymnal to number ### and join in singing..." goes a long way when uttered by a priest, but when I request that, they make an announcement 20 or 30 minutes beforehand instead of when it's actually time to sing, which does no good whatsoever. Sigh.

In my experience, Catholics are used to following/joining in with other singing voices. Lutherans, on the other hand, commence loud singing immediately upon hearing 30 ranks of 60s mixtures on top of a gedeckt. Old-time Baptists hear a piano and do the same. But it seems to me that Catholics prefer to hang on to other voices, which may be why the Snow “Our Father” and the preface dialogue are often sung the loudest. Getting that initial vocal ball rolling is the challenge.

I find that most of the time I have the best success using just a few unenclosed stops (some Great 8s and 4s, to taste), and coupling in the Swell and Choir. That way I have the ability to produce all kinds of colourful and encouraging registrations no matter how strong the singing. Building a chorus in a neoclassical way (Great 8+4+2 2/3’+2+IV) gives you only 5 different sounds, of which 3 are likely to be too much for a timid group. But if you instead use the Sw and Ch, then you have a few hundred possible combination of the stops in those divisions, plus probably 32 different degrees to which the shutters can be opened/closed. So you can have very majestic, thrilling registrations (e.g. full swell to reeds and mixtures), but by keeping the swellboxes tightly shut, it still won’t be as loud as Great 8-4-2 alone.

This is de rigeur in Anglican/British choral accompaniment, but it works for hymnsinging too.

My training was to register for congregational song at about the volume that the congregant singing doesn't think he can be heard by other people. There is obviously a lot of nuance based on the instrument available, the acoustics of the room, the strength of the choir. However, the foundational principle of congregational accompaniment is that the congregant must not feel exposed when he sings.

Choral accompaniment is completely different, because in a choral dynamic you have an audience trying to hear the voice over the accompaniment. In congregational song everyone is singing and there is no audience.

In my experience, if I accompany a hymn as is it is a choral anthem, anyone singing in the pews will put up the hymnal and listen to the choir sing

There should almost always be a 4' principal or loud 4' string present in the chorus as this provides the singing tone.

Playing quieter because only a few are singing will just put you in a one way downward spiral towards no congregational singing at all.

Lutherans, on the other hand, commence loud singing immediately upon hearing 30 ranks of 60s mixtures on top of a gedeckt.

this made me chuckle.

My training was to register for congregational song at about the volume that the congregant singing doesn't think he can be heard by other people. There is obviously a lot of nuance based on the instrument available, the acoustics of the room, the strength of the choir. However, the foundational principle of congregational accompaniment is that the congregant must not feel exposed when he sings.

Liam had put it more elegantly than I, but I agree. Most people fall into one of two categories: 1—they let it rip and don’t care (could be bravado, could be they have little true sense of their own voice) or 2—surprisingly self-conscious about their singing. I suspect that many (most?) people slip into this latter category by default. People don’t like being the only one singing, and people don’t like to THINK that they are the only one singing —whether it is true or not— and that everyone can hear them, hence the organ cannot be too chintzy.

There are, of course, always exceptions to the rule. As mentioned above, Marian hymns almost always elicit bravado on the part of the congregation. (Immaculate Mary probably being the most infamous here; every single congregation I’ve ever played for will belt this out if you leas them with the organ.) And no one wants to hear much organ (if any at all) by the time you make it to Silent Night during midnight Mass. (Christmas carols, writ large, tend to excite people to sing, but that is probably because they have a whole life of their own outside of Mass, so people are more familiar with them.)

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One thing I’ve always found curious is the fact that just one or two people singing strongly in the pews can be enough to really kickstart a response by everyone around them. Granted, you can end up with that one person being obnoxious about it, singing their Wagnerian solos and fighting you for tempo dominance, but really, just a few people singing full-voice can get the rest of the church to start singing too.

This is why it's important to encourage people with good voices to sit amid the congregation, about halfway to 2/3rds of the way back into the main space, and sing from such a location, rather than poach them for the choir/schola. And, even more importantly perhaps, to encourage your choristers to do so when they are not singing in choir on a given occasion.

We tried that at my parish when I was in High School (back in the 1970s). I was one of the choristers in the pews. I really couldn't tell a difference. But, then, I was singing and not listening to the rest of the congregation.

Back to the idea of having the priest lead the hymns - Once at Mass for the recessional, the music director chose one of the classic, well-known hymns. The priest didn't think enough people were singing, stopped everything and told everyone to open their books and sing, that this was 'One of the great, moldy, oldies of the Church'!

I feel more inclined to sing when the organ is loud enough for me to feel like I’m not singing louder than the organ and I can blend with the foot pedal. I noticed more men sing when there’s a strong bass voice in the organ.

Fermatas in hymns stress me out with over analyzing the length since I don’t have a director (in which case they’re played/sung for double the note length, but the choir does have a director, s who knows how long he’ll hold it for. I don’t want a Mr. Bean moment.

You could also try doing without the cantor.

That would surely result in an organ solo! I know about French alternatim practice, but that's really not what we're going for here.

Sorry for three consecutive comments on my own post, but I keep thinking of more things! I'm certain that embarrassing people into singing isn't going to work. Crowd psychology is a thing. The more people there are, the less likely anyone is to take any personal responsibility. The bystander effect, where people witness a crime and nobody does anything to help, is an extreme but well-known example—and the larger the crowd, the less likely anyone is to intervene. A majority of the people in the pews do sing the Salve Regina at the end of the Mass in question. If, for whatever reason they come to the later Mass on a given Sunday, I imagine many of them participate in the other chants as well. But at the earlier Mass, they're waiting for somebody else in the pews to take the initiative. At a weekday Mass with 30 or 40 people, if the priest decides to intone a hymn after Communion, they sing, without the assistance of organ, choir, or cantor. I have been to Masses where it was unclear whether the congregation was supposed to be singing or not, but we have numbers posted on the hymn board and organ accompaniment that is too loud for just the unamplified cantors, who chant a cappella otherwise. For reference, here is a recording from three years ago. It's not as robust as Methodist or Lutheran singing, but there's clearly an admirable effort. How do we get back to that?

I agree that repetition is key to encouraging singing at Mass. Organists who play the same hymns at several Masses on the same weekend, may get sick of hymns quickly, but remember the congregation only sings once per weekend, typically. Good clear introductions that set the tempo and really orient the congregation to the key are also an encouragement to the congregation. Hymns with accompaniments that are fuzzy or don't support the singing are also likely to discourage congregational singing. Good composition and lyrics with good theology are recognized by the congregation, even if they may not realize the appeal of a hymn.

I am always so heartened and uplifted when I hear the congregation singing the N.O. Mass parts with (appropriate) gusto.

The congregation in question has now had fifteen consecutive Sundays with Credo I. My playing hasn't changed from the three-year old recording I shared in my previous reply. I think it's pretty unambiguous in terms of pitch and tempo, and not "fuzzy" (nor fussy!) at all, but I shared it above for your feedback and suggestions. I am not in any sense sick of or bored with the Gregorian Credo in and of itself, only the lack of participation by the faithful. I would be very happy to make it "officially schola only" if the people really just don't want to sing during the Mass and the priests are unwilling to encourage them to do so. It would be a lot more beautiful and reverent than the situation we currently have. Again, the recording is from three years ago, with a congregation that sang respectably, in my estimation. There are no recordings of what we have now, thank God.

We'll find out on Christ the King Sunday ;)

Are you sure the balance that you are hearing is the balance that the congregation is hearing? Sometimes what sounds "overbearing" at the console is the right balance out in the nave, particularly if the nave has a long axis, of if the organ speaks perpendicular to the main axis of the church towards the console.

The example of playing in 2019 is, in my opinion, too soft to promote learning a tune, especially if that is a recording from the console next to the pipes themselves. I would beef up the accompaniment a little bit. If anything more swallows your unamplified cantor, then try putting the right hand on the Great with super coupled strings, a cornet, or stops with a brighter harmonic tone and amplifying the melody.
When the congregation has sung more loudly, the registration could then be reduced.

It may muddy the waters to sing antiphonally with the choir/cantor as occurs in your recording. I, at least, find it much easier to remember tunes intact and not piecemeal.

Amplifying the bass as SponsaChristi suggests is another way to fill the room without overcrowding it

Sometimes in extended congregational chants I will intersperse harmonized lines with monophonic lines of the melody and pedal in octaves, which I find helps to keep the tempo up and emphasizes and clarifies the melody. A variation of this is to play the soprano and pedal at octaves with other voices supplying the harmony. This is anathema to good voice leading but can clarify the melody in difficult sections if you identify particular areas of difficulty Sunday to Sunday.

You may consider not varying the ordinary for other feasts of the year or changes in season until the congregation sings your chosen ordinary lustily.

Time may be your friend here. I don't think 15 Sundays is actually a reasonable time frame to expect congregational familiarity with an extended Credo. In my experience It has always taken 1-1.5 years of every Sunday repetition to get that level of familiarity.

I do not wish to be rude, but to make some suggestions that I have found effective in my own practice.

There is a fundamental misunderstanding here - the organ does not 'accompany' the congregation, but leads it. Carefully chosen registrations for each stanza and very firm and unyielding rhythmic drive, regardless of tempo, are essential. The moment one starts following the congregation is the moment of descent into chaos. That said, there just happens to be days when even the most gifted congregations will not sing at their best.

Sometimes the weather can play havoc with a congregation's inspiration - hot weather, cold weather, rain, ... (I have noticed, for instance, that people sing better when it's cold whilst hot weather can put a damper on people's zeal. These are not universal truths, but can and do at times influence people's mood for singing.)

I agree, organs can lead but they are subject to weather, as well. Mine would go sharp when it rained and then the complaints about the organ being too shrill would start. There were also days when the temperature and humidity seemed to conspire to make the instrument sound dull and flat. Voices and instruments don't operate in a vacuum where all things stay constant.

Organs...lead...accompany...follow...depending on the situation.

And on the organist.

sorry, IMO the organ should never lead chant. what is it, 3/4? 4/4? chant is unmetered, like human speech.

My concept of what an organ ought to do to chant ordinaries is this: it ought to behave as if it were several voices in a polyphonic setting, speaking its own part(s), rather than behaving as Gladys Knight and the Pips, but I haven't found any such settings (and so, I'm trying to develop them).

Although it's an unpopular opinion, I generally think that Propers should not have organs and voices together.

chant is unmetered, like human speech.

…which is precisely why many PiPs need strong cues to stay on. There is no meter, so the music itself can’t provide those cues upon which they might otherwise rely. Our congregation sings Credo III every Sunday (my own transcription into English) and they do pretty well, but they definitely sing more confidently and full voice when they have the organ to keep everyone together. I find the organ is most useful for indicating breaths between phrases and providing a strong start for each new phrase. It’s not that I’m trying to beat people over the head with the organ, but rather the organ turns into a sort of arbiter and equalizer, just like a conductor for the orchestra. The people of the orchestra are the primary concern, but someone (me/the organ) needs to make sure we all stay on the same page. There are also people who are easy to derail, and the organ helps guide them to sing more confidently. I typically use a simply registration like a smaller-scale principal for the accompaniment and a cornet for the melody. No reeds or anything particularly loud.

…which is precisely why many PiPs need strong cues to stay on.

Exactly. We have come a long way since the popular sentiment that, "man, that Gesualdo really rocks." In earlier times, chant was more the accepted norm and it was familiar. I have found it sounds a bit strange to modern ears. We are used to meter and when it isn't there, it can throw the congregation off.

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