Hosanna

WE're going to try this tomorrow night in procession.

Going Paperless, Chapter 5

People

This was on the Third Sunday in Lent, we didn't have service the next week, and I had spring break afterward, so I didn't write last week. Chapter 6 will hopefully be coming soon (by a guest author!), but I was on a plane for it, so I can't write it. Luckily, the guest author (if he'll write) was also leader for both 3 and 5 Lent. I might get him to write some reflections on his first leading experience.

From my perspective it was great. James is a GREAT leader with very clear signaling. He has a teacher's air about him and does a great job teaching pieces. For the first time we incorporated an Agnus Dei into the service. OH! What a great start we had! I'm getting ahead by jumping to the fraction. So, there were a lot of people there that night. I had a friend visiting and some spartners and a family that hadn't been there in awhile. I wasn't leading so I sat somewhere else and helped ring. I'd trained two ringers the day before at least one of whom was there. They're working to start leading sometimes.

This was the day that I really wished, from a music perspective we could have a regular presider, just so that the lay-planners and the clergy people could more easily and regularly plan on what's going on. This week the presider, who serves as a priest at an Anglo-Catholic parish, sang the Collect for the Day. We hadn't planned it necessarily, but he did...and I droned. While Colin and I are not of one mind about what should be sung (if you don't know, I say sing everything; let's make life a musical!) I think that working to having more things sung has a major benefit: everyone can join the prayer in an orderly fashion.

While I stand in the orans during prayers to indicate my being a part of the prayer the presider is praying on behalf of the gathered community, a sung prayer gives sonorous space for the people to join on a drone. I first experienced this during a sung eucharistic prayer at St. Gregory's and it excited me. Then I talked about it with Taylor Burton-Edwards who gave me the image of a soloist and a choir. All are singing, but one is leading the way...and everyone's voice is being heard. Everyone is embodying and actively taking part in the prayer.

All our music was the same for Lent, and Matt preached a great sermon. He sat in the same chair the presider has been sitting in, and it was great on so many levels. Seamless choreography between preacher and presider, and it just worked out really well. The music is being learned, and the parts are getting stronger, I think. James led again last Sunday, but I don't know how it went yet. I really wish my idea of a group of people leading and singing together had worked out. It would be really nice to work out physical placement in the chapel and other stuff in a group and to hear people who are doing it's perspectives.

This week we're doing different stuff for the Passion and we're looking at the rite. I'll let you know how it goes.

Also: check out this post about learning to pray through humming.

Going Paperless, Chapter 4

Rounds

This past week things again got better. We took out that extra phrase in "Return to God," and we were much stronger singing the refrain together. I'm thinking about how to get a drone going, but I think it's going to stem from having some ringers that drone around the people. We might be condensing our seating, maybe which would help people hear the ringers. I think this week again I'll do all the petitions, but starting next week my have a few other students prepared to offer petitions to model it so that the next week more people will have seen people other than me offer biddings, thus when I open it up, they might be comfortable opening them.

We sang the second phrase of "Come Light of Lights" a whole lot this week. Slight malfunction that was no big problem, but we sang it over and over again. I could've taught the whole song, but I've been trying to keep it simple. Maybe this week we'll add the first phrase in. I've been going with just the second because it fits better with right before the gospel, especially if you're teaching a song very, very quickly as someone walks five feet to the altar to get the gospel book and comes back with it. That's thus far been teaching it and then us singing once or twice. Not enough time for the entire song.

I'm still trying to figure out how to teach a second phrase that has different music but the same words; when I start the second phrase the people often join in, even if I'm indicating to listen or that I'm singing. This isn't just a chapel thing, though, I've seen it other places. I think our space contributes to that, though. I think our space and what we do with it is going to get more and more important in both the paperless music we're doing and just what we're doing with the service. This dialogue about a second phrase with the same text is because we sang "What We Need is Here" as we went up to the table.

Four weeks in and I'm really starting to appreciate the way the presiders can sing as they set up the table and get things ready. I've watched Mo. Sandi and Fr. Mark do this lately. It's nice to see them pouring things or getting them just ready and still being in the community. I think that they probably appreciate it, too. I know that I get frustrated when I have to do stuff with my hands which means I can't hold a hymnal to sing whatever we're singing. We did Mark Miller's Sanctus et Benedictus again, and the hosannahs at the end are the same as the second phrase in "What We Need." Requires some thought.

In Chapter 3 I told you about introducing "Whoever Eats This Bread" as a round as a breakthrough moment. The first part starting singing stronger when the second part was introduced. This week, someone started the second part (or started to start it) before I did. When I did they joined me. Then someone started a third. I think that when we got fully going we were singing it in five parts. There may've only been 2-4 voices singing on each part, but they were singing and could be heard. As I signaled to end we all finished our parts, and the last part was a tiny voice singing with her mother. She got nervous when she realized she was really the only one singing, but I nodded to her and sang with her.

I had to think on the fly for our song after the dismissal Sunday night. We're doing "Jesus is With Us, Let Us...." during Lent, but I'd only heard it with "Go in peace to love and service the Lord" and "Let us bless the Lord." Fr. Mark used, "Let us go forth in the name of Christ," which didn't fit either of my settings, so we sang "Let us go with Christ." I think, since we've done that two weeks now and are rather robust at it I'm going to introduce the layer either this week or next. I feel like seeing that this can be more complex encourages the people, but that could be a false perception.

Apparently one of the girls was leading with her hands during the song. She has experience at home with her mom doing musical stuff with hand signals, so the idea of up and down with the hand is not new to her. After I gathered my stuff together to head out to St. Lydia's I came into the chapel to go through and out. As I walked in three girls and a mother (two of the girls belonged to her) were singing "Whoever Eats This Bread" in three part round. The tune and text stuck. A student's wife said to me (with some enthusiasm), "We liked the round! It was good!"

So, we're getting it. Little things like tiny voices singing on their own at the end of the round or people singing the songs outside the service are nice. I left bubbling and was quite pleased, which Emily noticed. I also got a really encouraging e-mail last week, which helped. Lots of good affirmation about this coming around. Easier to keep going when there's encouragement. I have some broader ideas, too, but those will have to wait awhile.

Going Paperless, Chapter 3.5

Tuesday I presented some paperless music to the LT90 class, and we sang. We sang well as a group and I was very pleased. Hopefully that will carry over to the liturgy in 35 minutes. Together we sang "Praise God" that Patrick Evans taught us in San Francisco, "Whoever Eats This Bread", and "Return to God". "Return to God" was rocky because my pitches were off. Today we're singing a song paperless in the liturgy, so we'll see how it goes. I think because there will be people there trusting the decisions of the class and willing to sing that it will go well. And we have some ringers to help me lead, and we've got some practical planning stuff down. The intentionality involved in planning the service was impressive, and I think it shows through in the liturgy in a way that the other services sometimes show a lack of intentionality.

Here's a song that we sang at St. Lydia's on Sunday night.

Going Paperless, Chapter 3

I'm feeling like Wednesdays are the days that I post about the previous Sunday's experience. Maybe I need that much time to process and think, maybe cool down, maybe that's just when I get around to it. Oh well, it's not that important; it's getting posted, and I already have a Chapter 3.5 to post maybe tomorrow or Saturday. Probably not Friday, though. All that was completely arbitrary. It's a short post, but it'll get written when it does. Nothing's ever boring on our Sunday paperless adventures; there's always something!

This week was our third week with paperless music, and I think we had a breakthrough. :) My music stuff got all switched on Saturday and Sunday as I more carefully considered what I wanted us to sing. We came in to "Return, Return to God" (see video below). It went well, and we added an extra phrase, but it worked. It was a very good starting point. It's slow, contemplative, Lenten. Colin and I are very much wanting to not take as many options as we can to make this a kid-friendly service. We want it to be accessible, but we want it to be a full service and a formational experience for the children, and hopefully an experience that seminarians can learn from about leading worship that involves children. As such, we're trying to restore the song of praise after the opening sentence (Collect for Purity being optional). This week we were going to do an English Kyrie that I was essentially going to make up. But it got skipped. It happens.

We were going to sing "Come Light of Lights" as our Gospel acclamation, but I decided to shorten it to just the second phrase. I will keep doing that, I think, even though it was a little rocky. Despite the rockiness, the singing was stronger in general this week. I think three weeks in people are starting to understand a little better or trusting themselves a little more. That our presider sang strongly was very helpful. The sermon was outstanding and I think everyone got something out of it regardless of age. I don't remember us doing the Creed....but we did say the confession, which we've added for Lent. The prayers of the people were good and were bidden. Need to make a mental note about them. During the peace I moved again, which I think works well. There was a slight miscommunication between me and the presider (I didn't hear an offertory sentence), but singing "What We Need Is Here went well. We sang it as we gathered around the table and until we were ready to start giving thanks together, making eucharist.

At someone's suggestion from last week, I stood directly across from the presider, which worked well. We've continued Mark Miller's Sanctus et Benedictus, which is going well. The hosannahs are a little confusing because of the third one the second time through, but it is what it is. During the distribution we had our breakthrough! We were singing, "Whoever Eats this Bread," and we sang and sang and sang. We had strong voices singing, and we were close together and could hear each other. When I received I made eye contact with someone across the table who was comfortable singing and they kept the song going. Then I took it into the round and someone followed me. I think there were just two of us singing the round, but I think that made the first part sing more strongly. On the way out we sang "Jesus Is With Us, Let Us Bless the Lord." Just one part, maybe I'll add harmony myself as Lent progresses.

And this week I had a very formative experience, which I'm realizing Sunday night planning very much is. It's preparation for being in parish ministry. I received some feedback from someone who's attended about the way we're doing music and about variety of musicians. I've heard it and made note, and am going to talk about it with the rest of the team, but I think for now we've made the decision to use paperless music for consistency, which is a key goal of our time planning Sunday nights. I don't want to be the only one leading the songs, but we do want to have a consistent manner of music, if not always the same "style" as it were. (Read: "Guide My Feet" will be used by the end of the year; it'll be paperless, but gospel.)

Next week, all the music is the same. Might toy with some harmony that is pre-written, or might just keep making it up. Going to try to get someone to cantor verses for "Return, Return to God," so that I can drone during petitions to demonstrate droning. I'd love to move to more singing during the Great Thanksgiving so we can drone, but these are pipe dreams. Master singing first, then droning.

Make a good Lent. Return to God.

Return, Return to God (Going Paperless, Chapter 2.5)

So, there's been a lot of shuffling for this week's music, which I'll report in Chapter 3. However I'm soliciting responses for our new Lenten procession. No longer are we doing "Wait for the Lord" from Taizé, but rather "Return, Return to God." As you watch the video, please keep this question in mind: When do we need to return to God? What do we need to bring? If you can answer in a 4-6 syllable phrase, even better. Thus far my list includes:

• In all our sadness
  
• In darkest moments
• With great humility
• In great compassion
• When we are tired
• When we are hurting
• When we are broken
• With all we have

I'm going to be incorporating stuff from your feedback and from the children in the coming weeks. Please comment or e-mail me. Commenting on the Facebook version won't be seen until next Sunday, 2/18.

Going Paperless, Chapter 2

One word summary for 2/14: abnormal. All the music we used was the same, except the Gloria. Since Rick's Gloria was too hard last week we moved to the Peruvian one, like I said we would, and it went well. "Arise, Shine" was better this week since people knew it, and really all the songs were better. But like I said, this week was an abnormal week: we had prospective students on campus and in that service. And they sang. Oh did they sing. It was great. They actually may have been just what we needed in a few ways, and they also made me forget some things, too.

Colin and I have shifted the focus of the service, and now we're in the process of implementing it. It's not a change in the service inasmuch as what we're trying to do and how we're trying to do it. All the prospectives made me forget what we'd discussed but I think it worked out. After the fact, I remembered and will keep it in mind this weekend. So, the Gloria went well. Right now echoing is working very well. "Gather Children" didn't go poorly as we gathered around the table, but it took a few times through, and there were plenty. During the peace I moved from where I was sitting in the frontish of the Chapel to the middle of the Chapel so that I would be behind everyone as we moved forward. I don't know if that helped or not, but I'm going to keep playing with my positioning in the Chapel. This week I'm going to try being directly across from the presider after we've all gathered at the table. Mark Miller's Sanctus was well received, and I have some tweaks I need to make in teaching it. We did "Alleluia, Alleluia, Give Thanks to the Risen Lord" again during the distribution, and that is where we learned a few things.

One, two chalices when there are prospective students! That's what lead to the second revelation. We weren't even thinking that far ahead when we just went with the standard Sunday night one chalice. However, since we did that it was taking awhile, and I thought "I need another song!" So, after a number of times through "Alleluia, Alleluia, Give Thanks to the Risen Lord" I taught "What We Need Is Here." That worked really well, and I'm glad that I taught it. Through Lent that's going to be our offertory/gathering around the Table song. And last Sunday we got a sneak peak at it, and only the people who read my blog will know that's what coming.

So, two weeks down. It got better. It was abnormal. I had a debrief with someone in attendance afterward who raised some things for me to consider, though I've lost in my head what they are. I was just thinking on some of them to include them in my note. Oh, I wanted to say that I've recruited a child to help with the leading, and I'm thinking I'll start incorporating that this week. The Dean contributed a paperless confractorium that he asked if we'd like him to do just before the service. It's already Wednesday and I haven't rehearsed any of the music yet. That is to come...Friday? Saturday? Sunday afternoon?

Next week we're singing: "Wait for the Lord," "Sing Praise to God," "What We Need is Here," "We Have a Hunger Lord," and "Jesus is With us, Let Us Bless the Lord." Stay tuned for more adventures in going paperless.