[Magdalen] Psalm - Whither Goeth Thou?

[Scott Knitter]

On Fri, Mar 13, 2015 at 1:11 PM, James Oppenheimer-Crawford
<oppenheimerjw at gmail.com> wrote:
> In my parish, we have for decades had a choir which did not vest.  It was
> done with thoughtful intent, to dramatize that the choir is not some bunch
> of pretend priests and priestesses, but real people.

For some years our choir members, who sing from the west gallery so
are heard much more than seen, wore all-black street clothing. I
thought that looked fine. Then at some point they went back to vesting
in cassock and surplice, which looks OK but seems a bit unnecessary.
Actually, sometimes it looks like a whole lot of extra fabric up
there, or like an unmade bed.

High Mass in our parish in choir season has the choir singing the
Kyrie, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei from a choral Mass: frequent composers
are Palestrina, Byrd, Lassus, Willan, Howells, Darke, Perosi, Peeters,
Kodaly, Gretchaninov, and Gibbons. Or have been, under the recently
let-go choirmaster. We have a fine interim (Simon Thomas Jacobs,
formerly of Indianapolis Cathedral, All Saints Margaret Street, and
Clare College, Cambridge) but I don't know when our permanent director
of music will be announced or who it will be. Anyway, the people sing
the Gloria (Willan's S 202) and Creed (S 103 plainchant,
unaccompanied). A choir director in the 1960s resigned when told the
choir could no longer sing the Gloria (although they sing it a couple
of times a year to a super-duper setting like Mozart Coronation).

We had the noncommunicating High Mass for several decades until a
rector in the 1960s wouldn't accept the call to the parish until the
vestry agreed to end the practice. But it was widespread. In our
parish's neighborhood, you would go at 8 a.m. for Communion and then
come to our church at 11 for High Mass (for the music and sermon...no
sermon at 8 a.m.) and to chat and munch at coffee hour afterward. OR
you could go to St. Chrysostom's, not far away, at 11 for Choral
Morning Prayer and Sermon.

I think what makes choral settings less of a concert is when the
choral bits happen simultaneously with some liturgical action: during
the chanted Introit, the altar and celebrant are censed; during the
Agnus Dei, everyone is getting queued up to receive Communion, etc.
None of the chanted propers are done with everyone just sitting there.
High Mass feels very participatory to me, whether it's choral or
congregationally sung. The amount of participation impressed two good
friends of ours who are Wiccan and actually asked to visit our church
to get to know us better. One was fascinated; the other found the
experience worthwhile but "I don't know that I could sit through that
again." They didn't like how it looked when the Communion rail gate
was closed as the people came up to receive. Looked like shutting
people out, but it really is just to provide more rail "real estate"
for those wishing to kneel when they receive. We don't close it at
smaller Masses.

-- 
Scott R. Knitter
Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois USA