The Recovering Choir Director

Easter has just begun, but my responsibilities here are slowly drawing to a close. Already I am looking at next Easter, the first in a long time I will not have to sit at a keyboard or lead a choir. The prospect of it is quite weird, but comforting in a way.

I have become ever more aware that chant is the most practical form of worship music available to the Western church. With a trained cantor and serviceable amateur singers, an atmosphere of transcendence can be easily created. My limited exposure to different types of Western plainsong lead me to believe that Ambrosian chant may even be more practical than Gregorian chant.

Let us not forget that all essential liturgical chant resides in only a few volumes. Because of the “commitment to diversity” issue, I was charged with taking music from at least 8 different sources and collating them for the choir. (I failed in this task miserably, by the way.) There was nothing noble or simple about the process.

The thing that I will miss most about this job is the incredible high that occurs after the last note of the Easter Sunday postlude is played. The thing that I will miss least about it is that I now consider it a job instead of a ministry. I’m oversensitized to music as is done in the American Novus Ordo to the point that I would gladly flee to a 1962-missal High Mass or any missa lecta.

I am mostly looking forward to my new job that starts in July. Perhaps it will reverse my hair loss ;-P I’ll tell you what it is some other time. Maybe.