Chant Sandwich
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,500
    At one of my parish's Masses a youth schola leads the singing. Almost everything they sing is chant-based. The Ordinary is Latin chant, the Psalms and Alleluia are chantish. Even the English hymns that we generally sing at Offertory and Communion are often modal, especially during Advent and Lent.

    Except for the introit (often a Meinrad Sacred Music Project English setting) which precedes the opening hymn, all of this chanting is done inside the crowd-pleasing opening and closing hymns. Our parishioners like to sing; today's O God Our Help in Ages Past was especially rousing.

    The hymns are the bread, the chant is the good stuff in between. A chant sandwich.

    Thoughts?
  • GavinGavin
    Posts: 2,799
    Who says bread is bad? I only use locally made artisan bread for my sandwiches. And stone-ground mustard.

    Not at all on-topic. I just thought someone needed to speak up for bread.
  • PaixGioiaAmorPaixGioiaAmor
    Posts: 1,473
    Kathy -

    I'd like to hear all the details about how you came to have a YOUTH schola that functions in this manner; The youth minister at the parish I work in swears that the kids aren't interested in this sort of thing. The thing is, she's probably right too. There aren't any high schools around here with GREAT choral programs; So the kids don't have a good appreciation of truly GOOD music. Add to that the fact that the PARENTS (aging 70's leftovers) want "upbeat" masses, so they aren'ts likely to support a youth schola like this ...

    Did you have any of these issues to deal with, and how did you overcome them?
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,500
    Finding the singers has been the easy part. I have the pastor's support with this--as usual, this is the key. So I just made an announcement at the end of Mass and invited parents and kids to sign up. Then I stood outside after Mass and recruited. The largest single group was homeschoolers, and some of them are "taking" schola for credit. Lots of kids joined up for the classes preceding Christmas, but a high drop out rate immediately after Christmas.

    Although we have a good group of middle and high schoolers, I invite kids ages 8-17, and accept kids as young as 6 1/2 provided they can read and follow directions. Having a wide age range helps take the matter off the Youth Minister's radar screen.

    The parents have sometimes expressed surprise that the kids like the chant. Why wouldn't they? It's beautiful. The moms tell me that kids sing their Kyries at home, while emptying the dishwasher, etc. Although one little girl quit because she didn't like "singing in French..." On the whole, though, I think that the best idea is to start as young as possible.
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