Do congregations prefer the contemporary slop?
  • Richard MixRichard Mix
    Posts: 2,979
    One never knows though. I filled in for our Saturday Vigil and had to make a face and cup an ear before "At the Lamb's high Feast" finally got going.
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • contemporaryworship92
    Posts: 323
    One never knows though. I filled in for our Saturday Vigil and had to make a face and cup an ear before "At the Lamb's high Feast" finally got going.


    At my previous parish I served at a university parish Catholic campus ministry. I had recurring issues with students being unfamiliar with even the most basic of hymns.

    My suburban parish growing up did not play At the Lamb's High Feast and did not play several other standards, that I had to discover on my own. And that's coming from a parish that was probably above average for its time in terms of the amount of traditional music they sung.

    At this university parish I directed a contemporary choir that sometimes also sang hymns and chants. It often took way longer than anticipated for students to learn fairly basic hymns that apparently their home parishes never sang.
  • contemporaryworship92
    Posts: 323
    At the Lamb’s High Feast really gets the congregation going.


    At my current parish, this was an unfamiliar song to a significant percentage of the congregation. I even got a complaint once for playing too much unfamiliar music at Easter, with this listed as one of the "unfamiliar songs."

    I view "At the Lamb’s High Feast" as a critically important hymn for everyone to know. I've programmed it many times and now the congregation knows it. Now they sing it very well!
    Thanked by 4CHGiffen Chant_Supremacist Charles ServiamScores
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,600
    Also program Songs of Thankfulness and Praise to SALZBURG in early January to reinforce the tune.
    Thanked by 2ServiamScores CHGiffen
  • SponsaChristi
    Posts: 729
    At my current parish, this was an unfamiliar song to a significant percentage of the congregation. I even got a complaint once for playing too much unfamiliar music at Easter, with this listed as one of the "unfamiliar songs."

    Sounds like a suggestion to sing it every Sunday of Easter in order to make it familiar. Maybe that’s why our MD has programmed JCIRT at every Easter Mass this year...or because it’s trending on social media this year.
  • contemporaryworship92
    Posts: 323
    Sounds like a suggestion to sing it every Sunday of Easter in order to make it familiar. Maybe that’s why our MD has programmed JCIRT at every Easter Mass this year...or because it’s trending on social media this year.


    I programmed At the Lamb's High Feast four Sundays in a row when I first started at my current parish when the 2nd reading was hitting the "Christ the Victim, Christ the Priest" theme hard for a month. I think that was towards the end of Ordinary Time in Cycle B.

    I realized after the fact that ... this did not mean that the congregation for Easter morning would know it.

    This year I've programmed At the Lamb's High Feast for Easter Vigil, Easter Morning, Easter 2, and Easter 3. That's probably the end of it for this Easter season although I don't have Easter 5 and Easter 6 all the way planned yet.
  • ServiamScores
    Posts: 3,260
    I've never had the cahones to do the same hymn multiple weeks in a row, although I've done a few hymns every other, or every third week for 2 or 3 cycles.
    Thanked by 1Chant_Supremacist
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 3,511
    We sing one hymn weekly. They get a second hymn at Vespers now.

    The upshot is that this will allow for rotation of every two weeks and therefore more hymns, not accounting for feasts where we do interrupt the cycle as needed.

    Except for things like LAMBILLOTTE and other unusual meters and therefore melodies or Christmas carols (sorry, I won’t reuse FOREST GREEN) I like having two texts per tune when possible.
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