I miss you too. I was going to make Big Hare's Christmas present today, but I was unexpectedly offered the opportunity to go to a basketball game. Good thing there's so many more days left before Christmas. :-) Give him my love.
Geez, I know nothing about churches, but I do know music is important and so fulfilling (not sure about the word), especially when you work so hard for it and you are good. I'm sorry it's turning out this way. Have fun with the Christmas songs anyway.
I had my first rehearsal Thursday, and I think I will really enjoy the music. I may not sing on Christmas because I'm not sure I can learn everything, but I'm most likely to sing some and leave anything out that's too difficult.
The church I grew up in sang only a capella (fundamentalists: there's no explicit commandment to or example of instrumental music in the text of the New Testament), and there was no choir, so it was all congregational singing, all the time, and if people didn't sing, there was no music. I grew up thinking that everyone could read music and easily half of people at large could sing 4 part harmony.
Sadly, ALL the Catholic masses I've attended have been as you described with pathetic, half-hearted participation from the congregation. You're in VA, so it's possible that you could find a church of Christ...if there's one near you, and you want to see if they're decent, I'll bet you could get a nice evening of good congregational singing where folks actually sing (if the doctrinal stuff isn't too off-putting). Many churches have, like, the first Wednesday night service of the month that's just all singing
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To be honest, I think it's all about self-consciousness and the idea that if you don't sing really well, you shouldn't sing at all. As far as I'm concerned, not singing sucks all the joy out of it. If there's a vibrant choir to sing the harmonies, no one has to be all that skilled, much less need to know how to read music. The church does print the music on the liturgy sheet, though, so if you do know how to read it, it's there.
I think you're totally right about the self-consciousness. That was one of the excellent thing about congregational singing with no choir: there were no "experts" but rather just Everyone Sang.
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*sends lotsa hugs back atcha*
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Fulfilling is definitely the right word.
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Sadly, ALL the Catholic masses I've attended have been as you described with pathetic, half-hearted participation from the congregation. You're in VA, so it's possible that you could find a church of Christ...if there's one near you, and you want to see if they're decent, I'll bet you could get a nice evening of good congregational singing where folks actually sing (if the doctrinal stuff isn't too off-putting). Many churches have, like, the first Wednesday night service of the month that's just all singing ( ... )
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