Your church must be air-conditioned. I am a veteran of big old churches that are furnaces in the summer; after a few bouts with dehydration, I swore off singing in that environment. Nothing is worth that. Even if the Pope himself visits.

No choir in the summer. Its why I am able to post occasionally here. Seriously, I work them and me hard for nine months. They sing all the feast days, the Triduum and anything else I can think of for them to do. They need and deserve a break. My choir folk are all volunteers and they sing wonderfully. But they need a rest.

Plus, they recruit in the summer. They have calling cards and they know to listen for folk amongst the faithful.

And yes, I want the break also.

Sorry Wendy.

I do not advocate a "summer off" because I want time off myself. Quite the contrary. It's actually been more difficult for me to find cantors, rehearse them when they are available, and continue to program music that the congregation can sing with little or no direction. I am not a full-time director and I make little money, so it is quite a ministry and vocation to me. I also have continued our children's choir and give free voice and music lessons during the summer, all gratis. My desire to give the choir time off this year, and this year only, is based on their irresponsibility and lack of dedication in the last year. I asked all of them to take the summer off, pray about their individual part in this ministry and decide if they can furnish the kind of commitment necessary to be good stewards in the fall.

"What I don't get is the ATTITUDE that it doesn't matter if the music is crap because it's summertime."

I don't get that either, and I do know people who subscribe to it. Not just with music, but with liturgy, also. I know of churches (usually protestant) that actually DO remove elements of worship, major ones, just because it's summer. The sermons don't seem to get shorter, though....

Matthew, no-one on this forum said it and I don't think anyone on this forum feels that way.

The blog post is written for the general public and there are sadly DM's out there who do have this attitude. I've worked with a few. I linked to the blog here in response to something musicteacher said in another thread...although I don't know that she realized that my rant would be what it is. :)

Charles...it's actually metric. How much time do you have available? Take the sermon, double it and add thirty. :D

I don't think any of us was suggesting a complete cessation of music over the summer, or instrumental only. And, yes, I knew exactly what the "rant" would be, although I certainly don't agree. Of course, I agree that there are some DM's out there who take this as a "job", and certainly not a ministry. I am following a DM who had that attitude. She came and went as she pleased with me to pull up the slack all the time in her absence, allowing choir members to do the same. As a result, when I took over I knew it would be an uphill battle to try and change a 10-year mentality of mediocre, "whatever happens, happens" music ministry. I've struggled for a year now, and that it why I felt a need to disband for the summer (although, as stated, I continue to have cantors and children's ministry). I am also the lone musician and play 4 masses every weekend, despite my designation as a "part-time" employee.

I think it's imperative for everyone to understand that this is a public forum, and, therefore, consists of many different people with many different backgrounds, and our congregations and choirs are full of many different personalities. As DM's, we are responsible for providing the best music possible in whatever arena the Lord has assigned us. Whether that means a huge Cathedral with a huge choir, or a small, down home church with a lone musician, I doubt the Holy Spirit is going to prefer one venue over another if the hearts are right.

Please understand, too, that not everybody is able to afford the Colloquium or other resources available, either because of personal finances or church finances. That does not mean we do not care about the music nor our people. As a friend of mine just reminded me, "The Lord does not called the equipped, but rather, equips the called". And if equipping the called means having to disband a summer choir because that choir does not have the right attitude, then so be it. God bless all of you who do not have to share in my frustrations.

Wendi, I totally appreciate your rant! However, after volunteering for 25 years in RCIA, 15 years in choir, and 6 years as director, I've really come to appreciate seasons. Especially some summer downtime. That break is essential for volunteers to refresh and reinvigorate. Without that, RCIA would have burned me out in 3 years.

I view this like the wake/sleep cycle. It doesn't LOOK like anything is happening, but it is.

Our challenge is to have summer music be simpler, but just as meaningful in the liturgy. This group here totally gets the concept and has great ideas.

One thing I like to engage from the pews during the summer is purely a cappella music (for the entire Mass). For some reason, it just feels cooler to sing in this way; it has a certain spaciousness that is welcome in the heat. The ordo, the psalm and hymns (and/or propers). It also get us past the idea that a cappella music is Lenten or penitential.

Just for a totally different perspective, we sing all year round, and never break for summer. I don't think anyone has ever asked about it. Partly it is because we sing for an EF Missa Cantata every Sunday, and there is no organ. Also, singing the propers every week tends to get to be a habit. We've been doing the Gregorian Communions for 3 years and the Introits for 2, and miscellaneous Offertories for 1, so they are becoming familiar. Also, for the past year we were in a chapel right on the Pacific Ocean, so air conditioning was not so much of an issue. ;-)

I love the organ but sometimes a well place power outage is a good thing.

I'm beginning to think I wrote the blog post with the wrong emphasis...I don't have any problem with the idea of the regular choir getting a vacation, but that seems to be the major take away by people here.

I do have a problem with the attitude... "we don't have to sing the Propers all summer, the four hymn sandwich is fine, we can skip the summertime feasts, it doesn't matter because after all it's summertime."


Not that I think anyone HERE has that attitude, but there are people that do, and that attitude scandalizes me.

In New England, schools don't open until the week before or after Labor Day (used to be uniformly after, but ed reform means more diligence in not letting snow days wipe out a week of days not made up, so that's gradually forcing the starting of school the week before Labor Day in places). In my area, schools are only out this week or next.

The choir at my church does not sing as a group during the summer and I am glad for the respite. I, too, use the time for research, for seminars, for planning, and rejuvenating. And I am sure the choir members appreciate the break. They work hard through the season and a break is very welcome. Someone once said to me that they didn't see why the choir took time off - after all, Jesus didn't. To which I responded - ''that is the wrong terminology. Jesus did not 'take time off', but He did withdraw many times - to quiet places - to pray, to rejuvenate. Doing that is not 'taking off', but fulfilling a need to be able to perform ministry even more thoroughly and completely. Everyone needs that replenishment time."

"I do have a problem with the attitude... 'we don't have to sing the Propers all summer, the four hymn sandwich is fine, we can skip the summertime feasts, it doesn't matter because after all it's summertime.'"

I think that's completely OK.

I'm the MC for a Mass every Sunday at 9 AM that is usually an Organ/Cantor TLM Missa Cantata. We have an 11 AM Novus Ordo Mass that is usually Organ/Choir (with lots of propers, a Latin Ordinary, etc.). Our musicians take August off... they don't get any other vacation... we have Low Masses (both forms) with no music at all. We scale back the number of servers and

Not every Mass has to be a High Mass. The Church has Low Masses for a reason! Every couple of years, we talk about putting together a summer schola (and one year we had one). But it's the same people who put a lot of effort in the rest of the year... everyone needs a break. Heck, a lot of our congregation is out of town (lots of people leave NYC on the weekends during the summer.)

Ah, relax. Just don't forget more inner life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfEQLArOW7Y

Woodford Reserve Double Oaked :-))).

I take statements about vocations from priests and religious with a grain of salt. These are often people who don't do their own shopping, cooking, or laundry. Others care for them and handle housing, insurance and other goodies for them so they don't have to worry about any of our routine tasks. Yes, they can devote themselves full-time to things. Thanks to the efforts of the support people, they have full-time to do it.

I don't think priests are either divas or doofuses, with a few exceptions, of course. However, my own observation in dealing with them, is that they can be out of touch with the world where the rest of us live.

I didn't take anything you said personally. And I don't read the Cafe, so I wouldn't have seen your posting there.

Sure, other people are always out of touch with MY reality. It's the nature of the human journey. But I'm also intrigued by the observation that our culture has lost the sense of covenant and vocation. There's almost no sense of permanent commitment.

It saddens me.

Our full choir sings through the first Sunday of July, transferred Solemnity of the Most Precious Blood. From then until the Labor Day week-end, the full choir rests. Section leaders sing the Missa Cantata at 10:00 AM. A Festival Choir, composed of the different
choirs of the parish get together to sing a High Mass for Our Lady's Assumption. A few days before, we have a choir supper followed by a good rehearsal. On 15 August, we
gather for a warm-up an hour before the Mass. The Thursday after Labor Day, we begin full rehearsals again.

My men's schola continues through the summer. They enjoy the weekly get-together and took exception last summer when I suggested we take time off.

I can’t even remember our last rehearsal; I do remember it had to be skipped three weeks in a row, and the last communication I have from the choir is another cancellation on June 22. What a year: I miss the choir and my 5 year old misses music at mass. This is in Italy.