How to determine how many carols to schedule before Christmas Mass
  • henry
    Posts: 251
    If a carol service (assembly and choral solos) needs to fill 30 minutes before Christmas Mass during the Night, how does one determine how many to schedule?
  • tandrews
    Posts: 207
    Time how long a verse takes, multiply by number of verses. Add 30-60 seconds between carols or choral solos.

    Allow a buffer of 2 minutes before Mass for any surprises!
    Thanked by 4Chant_Supremacist Abbysmum Alli Andrew_Malton
  • irishtenoririshtenor
    Posts: 1,404
    Echoing @tandrews

    You should just play them and sing them through yourself and time them. You will take a different amount of time to perform them than anyone else, so you may as well get accurate timing by timing yourself.
  • CharlesCharles
    Posts: 12
    Let the eldest choir member start each carol you plan to sing, and make sure you do every single verse. Then, that determines the theoretical max length for all your music.


    Like tandrews said, add 2 minutes to your total just in case.
  • tomjaw
    Posts: 2,908
    Sing Matins as traditionally, and then see if there is time to sing a carol or two before Mass.
    Thanked by 4OMagnumMysterium PhilipPowell StimsonInRehab MatthewRoth
  • francis
    Posts: 11,175
    Stopwatch. Music. Sing from cover to cover. Stopwatch.
    Thanked by 1tomjaw
  • Chant_Supremacist
    Posts: 228
    I think timing a verse and multiplying by the desired number of verses, for each carol, then adding 30 seconds between each and then a couple minutes' overall buffer, is enough. It has worked well enough for me. If you haven't done it before you might find you can't fit as much into 30 minutes as you might naively expect.
    Thanked by 3Roborgelmeister Abbysmum Andrew_Malton
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,464
    I think timing a verse and multiplying by the desired number of verses, for each carol, then adding 30 seconds between each and then a couple minutes' overall buffer, is enough. It has worked well enough for me. If you haven't done it before you might find you can't fit as much into 30 minutes as you might naively expect.



    THIS
  • TCJ
    Posts: 1,034
    I time each piece, add them together, add in a bit of time between, add an extra few minutes just in case and then prepare to drop one of them if necessary.
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 3,209
    I honestly prefer the choir to start at 11:15. The buffer of 15 minutes can be adjusted as needed with other music (organ by default, an extra carol, or something like what we have done: harp, then carols) but running to 11:45 or 11:50 and then having silence or organ music gives everyone time to breath. Last year the choir ran so late that without a bell or light system I had to tell the DM that it was midnight, start the carol that we sing at the procession, I promise they are waiting for this (we can’t see them of course and they had told us to do exactly that) but it was awkward that the music ran right to midnight and they were willing to do more.
  • canadashcanadash
    Posts: 1,537
    7
    Thanked by 3davido francis Andrew_Malton
  • Charles_Weaver
    Posts: 150
    We do 7 every year and it always seems to work out. We have the rosary before so can’t start earlier.
    Thanked by 1canadash
  • iMalton
    Posts: 4
    I've always just picked a list of the most popular hymns/carols (that are in our local Canadian hymnal - the CBW) and put them in an order of the ones I most want to sing, alternating between softer and louder ones. (Though in general I feel like the Midnight Mass should have more of the softer ones, but that's just me.) We sing from 11:30 until it's about 5 minutes before Mass and then stop, and allow for prayerful silence before Mass starts. I've never actually counted the number of carols but trying to think back now, it's probably between 5-7. Really depends on how many verses you sing.
    Thanked by 1canadash
  • SponsaChristi
    Posts: 606
    Really depends on how many verses you sing.

    And how slowly you drag them out sing them. I don’t recommend Hark! the Herald Angels Sing at 60 bpm.

    I have old lists of the carols we sang before (and during) midnight Mass in the EF from a number of years ago that was handed out to the congregation and choir. (I also just noticed that it has all the Latin text and English translations on the back of it for the congregation.)

    We sang 7 carols most years, but 12 carols one year. The 12 carols year some of them were quite short (we sang maybe two verses at most), and we didn’t leave much space between them. It was literally one after the other. I also recall that many of them were added last minute by the priest who was “disappointed” we weren’t singing more “traditional carols” such as “What Child is This.” Turns out Greensleeves has a rather promiscuous background...
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 3,209
    I love King’s carols but they sing too slowly for me. And their Jesus Christ is Risen Today would never work for American Catholics where it’s often a professional hymn.
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,464
    Well, the chapel of King's College Cambridge is a special acoustic - in proportions (88m long : 12m wide : 24m tall internally; a ratio of 7.33:1:2 *), materials, and lack of intermediate vaulted modules of space. Anyone doing HTHAS at or close to 60 bpm in most American Catholic churches would be waving a red cape at a bull-like congregation, esp if he or she imagines the organ would be leading the congregation.

    * A late Gothic French/Burgundian/Rhenish ratio would tend to be less long, a bit wider, and even taller; a late Gothic; a late Gothic Iberian ratio would tend to be wider, more influenced in floor plan by the inheritance from mosque proportioning.
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