Songs & Updates for Saturday, October 18, 2014

This Saturday is the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

First of all, to everyone who was at mass last week, outstanding job!! We've gotten several compliments on how strong our entrances were and how tight and well-rehearsed everything was :-)

After mass, we stuck around until about 8:15 PM to work on music for the next several weeks. It was probably the longest and most productive rehearsal we've had in quite a while, so thanks again for bearing with me and for all the good ideas!

Here are notes on all the pieces we worked on:

10/18 - We Will Serve the Lord (SS #145)

This tune will be split between Gathering and Sending.

~~For Gathering, we will have an instrumental intro that repeats once, verse one, instrumental interlude, verse two, refrain, and final ending.~~

~~For Sending, we will have an instrumental into that repeats once, verse three, refrain, instrumental interlude, verse four, refrain, and final ending.~~

We also experimented with adding the old t4C 'oh, oh, oh' between verse and refrain.

~~Note that the structure for both 'halfs' of this song are different -- we're trying to follow the ink even though the song was never intended to be divided like this.~~

UPDATE (10/17): after closer inspection, the structure for both halves of this song are the same (intro, verse one, instrumental interlude, verse two, refrain, final ending). Sorry for any confusion on this!

10/18 - Proclaim to All the Nations (GC #93)

Ginny and Lisa K. will be cantering this.

We'll use Refrain I and do all four verses.

Also, we need to make sure not to forget verse two, as it is at the bottom of the page and has a different melody than the rest.

10/18 - Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God (GC #615)

We discussed several different ideas for this piece, but decided to stick with a fairly 'conventional' approach to reduce confusion with the congregation.

We'll do the song as written but add in new elements (the 'Alleluia' cannon part, harmonies, instrumental doodles, etc.) each go around to build it up.

This will give the congregation a chance to get the melody in their heads before we start adding too much on top of it.

If we have time, we'll end the piece a capella.

10/25 - They'll Know We Are Christians (GC #735)

We will once again use the 'jazzed up' arrangement of this piece from a few masses ago.

Since this will not be split between Gathering and Sending, we'll do all four verses.

10/25 - The Lord is Kind and Merciful (SS #77)

We discussed quite a few possibilities with this piece given that the verses are very low and the harmony line is rather odd.

Ultimately, we decided that Lisa K. and Jonathan will spearhead this tune.

Lisa K. will do the first verse; Jonathan and Lisa will do verse two together; everyone will join in on the third.

Jonathan will work out some harmony for the refrain.

10/25 - Where Charity and Love Prevail (GC #625)

This was another tune that was discussed extensively -- in the past, we've done it to the tune of 'House of the Rising Sun', which we've decided to not repeat for obvious reasons.