Practical Approach To Introducing Mass XVII : Lent
  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    Hi All:

    Question: How would you introduce Mass XVII to a congregation and teach it to them for singing during Lent? It has three parts, Kyrie, Sanctus, Agnus Dei. Some of you may have seen the English adaptation that I made which I am considering using (also on this forum). It is easier for them to swallow a new setting of the Ordinary in English (I think), than the whole thing in Latin. I am going to point them all to Jeff O's site to listen on their own at home (haha, like they would really do this?) but ultimately going to try to teach it to them before Mass begins. (My pastor is very adament about teaching anything new before Mass. I don't particularly like to do that, I like to teach by Osmosis, ie. the schola singing it during the Mass, giving the PIPs the music on a sheet, and asking them to sing along as they are able) but I truly need to and want to support the Pastor's direction in this matter. So I came up with a few more ideas:

    Before Mass teach them sing certain parts of a single piece of the chant (ie, PIPs would sing the phrases - Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, and then the phrase - Hosanna in excelsis. The schola would sing the remainder of the Sanctus. Apply that concept to the Kyrie and Agnus.

    Another idea is to teach a new piece to the congregation every two weeks prior to Mass. The choir would of course sing all of the pieces every week, but the PIPs would only be expected to learn a new piece ever two weeks.

    Weeks 1 and 2 - Kyrie
    Weeks 3 and 4 - Sanctus
    Weeks 5 and 6 - Agnus Dei

    What are your ideas, thoughts, suggestions?
  • Carl DCarl D
    Posts: 992
    Like you, I've had better luck with having handout sheets which have the music, the words, even the translation. That lets people spend a little more time getting comfortable with it, and the people who read music will feel more courageous.

    But introducing before Mass is a good idea. I might be tempted to go quicker through the sequence, just one per week, and see if people are OK with it. If they have a piece of paper in their hand that should accelerate the learning.

    One thing to try, too, is to carefully pronounce the words WITHOUT singing them. Many people get thrown off by not knowing how to pronounce Latin, and when you sing with the melody it sounds more complex than it really is. So you might try speaking the words, even encouraging people to speak softly to themselves, before singing them.

    Let us know how it goes! I've stopped introducing things before Mass, but only because there's a million other things going on in the five minutes before Mass. And we're adapting to Father's new toy, a big projection system which lets me show both the words and the music.
  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    O NO Carl....! Not the bouncing ball!

    I will let you know how it goes. One week for each might be fine. Fortunately the choir will be singing it every time, so maybe you are right.
  • quilisma
    Posts: 136
    The Kyrie and Agnus Dei are a breeze - you can do it in one Mass without much trouble. As the 'eleison' always repeats the same melody the congregation pick it up very quickly.
    With the Agnus Dei, I started off by simply repeating the miserere nobis each time (or dona nobis pacem for the last one) and inviting the congregation to join in - which they did.
    After you've done these, you could adopt the same approach with the Sanctus and try to get them to join in with a repeated 'Hosanna in excelsis'
    Ok, not liturgically correct, but you only have to do it once or twice and then you can let it drop.
  • Carl DCarl D
    Posts: 992
    We're learning a lot about how to use the projector in a non-intrusive and prayerful way. It's quite subdued, nothing moving - no bouncing balls. So in reality it's like having the music in the book, but up on the wall instead. Some say that it's more like singing to Christ on the cross than to your navel.

    The biggest problem we have, honestly, is that all the Breaking Bread music is heavily copyrighted so we are unable to show the music along with the lyrics. Fortunately for me, all this fantastic traditional music was out of copyright many hundreds of years ago :-) so I don't have to worry about that.
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