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Views from the Choir Loft

Repeating Repertoire? • Andrea Leal

Andrea Leal · April 4, 2020

F WE WERE all angels, we would sing endless hosannas for eternity in Heaven, praising the Lamb with the most exquisite and breathtaking music in all of Creation. We would know how to do this without ever having learned it, and yet it would be absolutely perfect. Our hymns of praise would exalt the Most High in ways that no earthly composer, and no human masterpiece could ever attain.

But alas, we are not beautiful angelic beings. We are greatly limited in knowledge, understanding and ability to praise the Lord with song. And yet, being His creatures, we still deeply desire to exalt him with music. Unlike the angels, our music must be taught, learned and mastered. This takes an incredible amount of labor and sacrifice!

When you are further challenged by being in a parish that does not have a natural pool of “talent” to draw from, you must create that talent by teaching willing volunteers. It is no exaggeration to say that the process of training volunteer singers and teaching them a basic repertoire can take years. For this reason, it is my belief that every choir should have a set of hymns that they have mastered, which a choir director can confidently pull out of their back pocket without advance rehearsal. Especially with smaller choirs, where it is difficult to ‘hide” the mistakes of weaker singers, it only makes sense that once you have spent the time to master a song you should make full use of it.

Additionally, when you consider the sheer quantity 1 of music a choir may sing on any given Sunday, it becomes clear that doing new music all the time is truly out of the question. Consider what you must cover with your choir when you learn a new song. It isn’t just about teaching the right notes. You must also perfect vowels, tone, Latin pronunciation (if it isn’t in English), rhythm, phrasing, and you must spend time ironing out challenging sections. Practicality demands a certain amount of repetition. Case in point, my choir has this lovely hymn during Lent for the last couple of years. By now I know that we can sing it at the drop of the hat. Being able to do that is an incredible advantage.


Not only does my choir love singing something familiar, knowing that we will be singing a familiar piece on a given Sunday frees up valuable rehearsal time to dedicate to other (new!) pieces.

Therefore, while we can and should repeat some of our repertoire, once you have a core set of songs to fall back on it is important to regularly introduce fresh pieces. Not only does this prevent you and your singers from becoming burned out, but it can also be a good way to expand their knowledge of different composers and musical eras. New things are exciting to us humans. Being constrained by our earthly limitations, we do indeed tire of singing the same things over and over. If we were more like the angels, we would never tire of singing endless songs of praise, just as our Blessed Lord never tires of hearing them!

“And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings,
are full of eyes all round and within,
and day and night they never cease to sing,
Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,
who was and is and is to come!”

Rev. 4:8



NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:

1   For example, in the Extraordinary Form, there are 5 propers that are chanted at every Mass, and their melodies are not repeated very frequently. In fact, many are never repeated at all.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

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Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Repeating Repertoire Last Updated: April 5, 2020

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About Andrea Leal

Andrea Leal is a wife and homeschooling mother of 6 children. She serves as choir director for the Traditional Latin Mass in Las Vegas.—(Read full biography).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    Luis Martínez Must Go!
    Sevilla Cathedral (entry dated 13 December 1564): The chapter orders Luis Martínez, a cathedral chaplain, to stay away from the choirbook-stand when the rest of the singers gather around it to sing polyphony—the reason being that “he throws the others out of tune.” [Excerpt from “The Life of Father Francisco Guerrero.”]
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Urgent! • We Desperately Need Funds!
    A few days ago, the president of Corpus Christi Watershed posted this urgent appeal for funds. Please help us make sure we’re never forced to place our content behind a paywall. We feel it’s crucial that 100% of our content remains free to everyone. We’re a tiny 501(c)3 public charity, entirely dependent upon the generosity of small donors. We have no endowment and no major donors. We run no advertisements and have no savings. We beg you to consider donating $4.00 per month. Thank you!
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Booklet of Eucharistic Hymns” (16 pages)
    I was asked to create a booklet for my parish to use during our CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION on 22 June 2025. Would you be willing to look over the DRAFT BOOKLET (16 pages) I came up with? I tried to include a variety of hymns: some have a refrain; some are in major, others in minor; some are metered, others are plainsong; some are in Spanish, some are in Latin, but most are in English. Normally, we’d use the Brébeuf Hymnal—but we can’t risk having our congregation carry those heavy books all over the city to various churches.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    Pope Pius XII Hymnal?
    Have you ever heard of the Pope Pius XII Hymnal? It’s a real book, published in the United States in 1959. Here’s a sample page so you can verify with your own eyes it existed.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    “Hybrid” Chant Notation?
    Over the years, many have tried to ‘simplify’ plainsong notation. The O’Fallon Propers attempted to simplify the notation—but ended up making matters worse. Dr. Karl Weinmann tried to do the same in the time of Pope Saint Pius X by replacing each porrectus. You can examine a specimen from his edition and see whether you agree he complicated matters. In particular, look at what he did with éxsules fílii Hévae.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    Antiphons Don’t Match?
    A reader wants to know why the Entrance and Communion antiphons in certain publications deviate from what’s prescribed by the GRADUALE ROMANUM published after Vatican II. Click here to read our answer. The short answer is: the Adalbert Propers were never intended to be sung. They were intended for private Masses only (or Masses without music). The “Graduale Parvum,” published by the John Henry Newman Institute of Liturgical Music in 2023, mostly uses the Adalbert Propers—but sometimes uses the GRADUALE text: e.g. Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (29 June).
    —Corpus Christi Watershed

Random Quote

A priest celebrating the Mass “ad orientem” is no more turning his back on the people than a teacher leading her students in the “Pledge of Allegiance” is slighting them by turning her back on them and facing the flag with them.

— Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone (6 April 2025)

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Corpus Christi Watershed is a 501(c)3 public charity dedicated to exploring and embodying as our calling the relationship of religion, culture, and the arts. This non-profit organization employs the creative media in service of theology, the Church, and Christian culture for the enrichment and enjoyment of the public.

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