Different levels of participation in different Masses
  • AbbysmumAbbysmum
    Posts: 212
    Heya,

    I've been chewing on this and I'm not sure what to do with it. I've noticed awhile ago a fairly big discrepancy between the levels of participation between different Masses at our parish. Some Masses sing with gusto; others they just stand there and stare. Each weekend Mass has their own music ministers and "flavour", and we have no DM. Each section has it's own leader(s).

    This past weekend was really eye-opening, because I really saw first-hand how little people participate singing etc in the Mass that usually has the Schola. I'm usually in the choir loft on the organ for that, so I don't have a good sense of what's going on downstairs (and I'm not sure our choir director does either). But for reasons, I was downstairs on the piano this past week with only a few schola scragglers and was leading music myself from the piano.

    It was shocking. I mean, not even the Very Common Ordinaries That Everyone Knows were being sung by the congregation. I'm not entirely 100% of the reason. I've come up with a few possible reasons:

    1. It was weird and different, and even though I usually get a good response when I lead music from the piano (with me mic'd and singing as well), maybe because it was weird and different people didn't know what to do. In this scenario, people do usually sing and participate, I just am unaware of it because of being in the choir loft.

    2. It's the composition of the crowd, as it's probably the one with the most non-fluent English speakers and the most culturally diverse, so maybe they just don't know the music (even though I took care to select music and settings that I thought everyone would be familiar with).

    3. Something the Schola itself is doing is discouraging people from singing, so people who regularly attend that Mass aren't used to it (this is the one I worry about!). I did notice people gradually sang more as we got closer to the end.

    It's probably a bit of all three, but the more I think about it, the more I'm worried it's number 3.

    I'm wondering if it's worth mentioning something to the Schola director. While we have a good working relationship, we don't always agree on things and we're very differently tempered and come from different cultures, so usually I don't push the matters too much. I have some ideas about how to adjust things, incorporating what I think the other Masses are doing *right*, but I'm not sure how receptive he will be. Some of it would come down to repertoire issues and, frankly, how he conducts things musically, so there's sort of a personal stake for him that I don't really want to broach unless I have to.

    Or is it not worth worrying about? I'm really concerned that the Ordinaries are not even being sung (assuming what I saw on Sunday is the norm), but can the rest just be set aside?

    Has anyone dealt with a similar situation, or can offer suggestions as to navigate this? TIA
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,703
    Much could depend on the particulars.

    Could you provide more context about the place and time of day? We're still in midsummer, and I remember cantored in several old churches in a row that had no air conditioning (greater Boston area), some couldn't even open windows (though if you have wildfire smoke...that might be something of a blessing). For all but one of those places, that meant only a cantor, no schola, in the summer. And congregational participation would ebb because all sorts of locals would be away, and we'd have visitors who were unfamiliar with much of our usual repertoires for the Ordinary and for hymns.

    I would say that, in the Northeast USA, it's generally prudent to consider each Mass slot on the schedule as attracting largely separate, perhaps lightly overlapping, sub-parish communities when it comes to Mass attendance.
    Thanked by 3Paul F. Ford Abbysmum CHGiffen
  • AbbysmumAbbysmum
    Posts: 212
    @Liam

    Yes, we are basically 4 separate sub-parishes. It's specifically the 11 a.m. that I am concerned about - the 9 a.m. has good participation and our cantor took some feedback from the congregation to heart that I think actually has helped a lot there (hymnody stability, mostly), and the 7 p.m. has PHENOMENAL participation any time I've subbed there. There is also a vigil 4 p.m. Mass that I don't have a lot of information about, but is attended by a lot of Filipinos and the older hippie crowd (it's a guitar Mass), so I imagine it gets decent uptake.

    The 11 a.m. is typically our largest, best-attended Mass, and will be the one that usually get the incense (the rare time we have any) or any kind of special procession. We consistently have music ministers at all the Masses, year round. The Schola normally still sings through the summer at 11, but with no new rep between Christ the King and Labour Day (when we don't practice). But we are also a very diverse parish, attributed to the high level of immigration here in recent years. So lots of Nigerians, Eritrians, Filipinos, south Asians, and a fair amount of Ukrainians and Poles. Probably 50% of our parish is born outside of Canada. So a fairly diverse group with some vastly different cultural and musical traditions to draw on.

    Yes, heat is an issue at times, but we're getting into a cooler season and it's been comfortable in the building so far in August (after a brutally hot July). Wildfire smoke has been fairly minimal as we have been getting warm, moist air from the gulf more, so that reduces it for us when we have that type of weather pattern.

    We do get a fair amount of visitors in the summer, but a lot of them seem to come at 9 because we're a town you pass through, not necessarily your destination LOL. So people stay overnight and carry on in the morning, catching the earliest Mass and then heading out for the next leg of their journey.

    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • TCJ
    Posts: 1,070
    We have five Masses. If music is the same across all of them there are still marked variances in participation in singing. Two of the Masses have congregations that sing pretty well, although when a couple of the usual attendees are missing that week singing really drops off because they are the "big" voices. The other three congregations are more listening congregations. One is mostly old folk who were used to a Mass without music for quite awhile and another is a Mass at which we get a lot of non-parishioners. The third I think just likes to listen to the choir.
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