Christmas Chant Flash Mobs
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,515
    Wouldn't it be fun to take scholas to the mall this Christmas, and serenade the weary, broke shoppers with the greatest hits of the last 2009 years?

    -Veni, veni Emanuel
    -In dulci jubilo
    -Puer natus
    -Adeste fideles

    Toss in the Rorate Coeli, Alma Redemptoris Mater, and a Hodie or two, and that's a complete program. Subversive? Attractive?
  • tomgiuliano
    Posts: 17
    Interestingly enough I made a similar suggestion to Aristotle on his Facebook page earlier today. Coincidence? The start of a movement?
  • Carl DCarl D
    Posts: 992
    Fantastic, subversive idea, Kathy! Would I have the courage? Dunno....
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,515
    Tom, it was your idea that prompted mine.
  • GavinGavin
    Posts: 2,799
    Adeste isn't really chant, and In dulci not only isn't chant, it isn't Latin! But all the same, cool idea. I've often had the same idea about renaissance polyphony (sacred and otherwise)!
  • miacoyne
    Posts: 1,805
    Carl D, if a mall is too much, how about a nursing home visit?
  • Daniel Bennett PageDaniel Bennett Page
    Posts: 837
    How about the Archdiocese of Washington Pastoral Center and the Archdiocese of Baltimore office building? They would be more surprised than the people in the mall. And probably less likely to know what they're hearing!
  • miacoyne
    Posts: 1,805
    Daniel, that's an idea! We will be having a chapter meeting soon. Maybe we all can do something like 'A Christmas Chant Festival'?
  • tomgiuliano
    Posts: 17
    Bottom line is even though they may not be familiar with it, people love the chant when they hear it. Every time we insert some into our N.O. Masses I get nothing but positive feedback from congregants. When I play the sound files recorded at various Masses I've sung around NYC in my office, clients regularly ask me where I "'bought"' that CD so they could buy it too. When I tell them it is one or another schola I sing with they ask if I would burn a CD for them which I readily do. We need to get chant (and polyphony) in peoples faces. There is both a want and a need and the Christmas season is the perfect time to do this.
  • vincentuher
    Posts: 134
    What a great and fun idea, Kathy!

    When I read the title of this thread, I had this vision of the hustle and bustle of 30th Street Station in Philly suddenly brought to a standstill as people everywhere started singing in Latin 'Veni, Veni, Emmanuel' and then 'Adeste fideles' ... that would be brilliant !
  • francis
    Posts: 10,850
    Holy Porrectus Flexus, Daniel! That is a smashing idea. Wish I was still there to see the looks on their faces.
  • Carl DCarl D
    Posts: 992
    Actually, we did sing at a nursing home a couple of years ago, and it was a great experience. But it's not exactly a "flash mob" with the threat of the Mall Cops carting you off. :-)
  • miacoyne
    Posts: 1,805
    Francis, our schola is singing at the Basilica this Sunday. A lot of challenges! I almost gave up. Never knew it was going to be so difficult to have traditional sacred music there. My schola is hoping something good will come out after this. Please pray for us. (But I feel so blessed that our chapter members, Richard Rice Kathy, Jenny and Daniel, they are all helping in various ways.) Sorry off the track again.
  • francis
    Posts: 10,850
    miacoyne.

    i totally understand the challenge. baltimore is a strange (or should i say estranged) place when it comes to excellence in authentic sacred music.
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,515
    Mia, thanks a lot for including me in this Mass.

    At the same time you're singing, I'm going to lead my children's schola in singing chant at a gigantic youth rally, full of rock music and inflatables. So it's going to have that whole surreal flash mob street theater performance art feel to it as well.
  • Aristotle EsguerraAristotle Esguerra
    Posts: 1,186
    <voice tone="snark">How about holding signs that say, "We sing this stuff here because we're banned from singing it where it's supposed to be sung"?</voice>

    <voice class="conscience">Irony is not a virtue, irony is not a virtue…</voice>

    <action class="wrist-slap"/>
  • Marilyn Zipsie
    Posts: 19
    We are getting together some local groups to work together on this project! I might suggest everyone wear a brown sweatshirt . . . so we look more monk-like.
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,221
    Carl's thought about mall cops crossed my mind too: after all, malls are private property, and you don't want to land on the front page of the hometown paper by doing something unauthorized ("Singers Arrested in Mall Scuffle"). Or is there no such thing as bad publicity? :-) Besides, outdoor shopping streets offer a more inviting setting for Christmas caroling!
  • tomgiuliano
    Posts: 17
    doing something unauthorized ..

    so work within the system. Most major malls in the NY Metro area have pre-arranged entertainment schedules around the holidays with local school, civic and yes even Church groups filling the spots. Check with mall mgmt and they will typically be receptive
  • miacoyne
    Posts: 1,805
    Kathy, you're welcome. You are very brave. I think we can make a change, and we do have a hope in this area. I know many musicians are doing their best whatever they can here.
  • JL
    Posts: 171
    This is a fantastic idea! I would suggest that during Advent the flash mob schola limit itself to Advent music, of which there is plenty (the premature Christmas music was one of my least favorite things about my mall job years ago.) For years I have wanted to round up some Advent guerrilla types, dress up in purple, and march through major shopping areas singing "Nun komm der Heiden Heiland" or something similar and carrying a banner that reads "Celebrate Advent--buy less stuff."

    For that matter, an impromptu Dies Irae on All Souls day would be suitably surreal in the train station, and yet strangely appropriate.
  • Marilyn Zipsie
    Posts: 19
    I BOOKED A MALL!
  • don roy
    Posts: 306
    well, if you really wanna be festive, i could refound the centenary college bach chorale kazoo marching band. thats right. four music majors who needed both lives and girlfriends sang bachs glorious 4 part chorales with kazoos and marched over campus. great fun but not much of value was accomplished. many many years later i still need both a life and a girlfriend.
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,515
    Doxie,

    Awesome.
  • Marilyn Zipsie
    Posts: 19
    okay ... now I need to find all the above-listed pieces!!! SOURCES? Help?
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