Tolle et Canta!
Greetings choir members and friends of the St. Augustine Cathedral music program!
If you have landed on this page, then James has reached out to you directly, or a friend has forwarded this link along to you. Welcome!
What follows is some general information and a few requests to help James serve you.
What to know:
The Choir will be entering a season of rebuilding after a long furlough, and now is the perfect time to join (or rejoin!) in the fun. If you are interested in participating in the music program, here are a few things you should know:
Our goals are twofold:
Serve God, and make a joyful noise unto Him, for His glory and honor. To put it more simply, “Make beauty, for Beauty’s sake.”
Have fun, and be a communal refuge for each other; a family away from family, as it were. Making music is fun; let’s enjoy it together!
No formal choral singing experience is required, but you do need to be able to match pitch, and generally control your voice. If you are unsure about this, set up a meeting with James so you can sing for him and he can help determine if choir is the right fit.
It’s OK if you don’t read music, as long as you are willing to learn by ear and listen to practice tracks outside of rehearsal. Less experienced choir members will grow in their practical knowledge of music during rehearsals, and you are welcome to approach James at any time to get help figuring out your part, or to learn the basics of reading music. • If you are not [yet] a strong singer, you may be asked to stick to melody-only singing for a time, or sit out on some of the harder polyphony. That is OK. We all start somewhere! James does his best to provide copious resources to help everyone prepare their parts, even outside of rehearsal.
Rehearsals are Wednesday evenings during choir season, and regular attendance is expected. It’s OK when special things pop up every now and again, but please be mindful that singing in a choir is a group effort, so if members of the group make a habit of not showing up, or only showing up sporadically, the whole group suffers as a result and our choral blend will become unpredictable. We will do our best to be flexible, but we do ask that you consider choir an essential part of your week. If you have questions or would like to discuss your particular situation privately, please give James a call or email him.
You will be asked to sing at special events, sometimes at odd times—but these are the normal things one would expect of a cathedral choir: holy days of obligation, ordinations, chrism mass, etc. A schedule will be shared in advance. James understands that you may not be able to make it to all of the extra events, but we do ask you make as many as you can, and inform James ahead of time when you cannot.
You may be thinking, “this all sounds very serious!” but please rest assured that this is really about you, the choir. James wants this to be the best possible experience that it can be for all of you!
Action Steps:
If you would like to join the choir, or discuss how you might participate in the music program in some other way, please let James know ASAP filling out the form at the bottom of the page:
Mark your calendars for our first rehearsal on Wednesday, Jan. 31st. (Again, please let James know you are coming so he can prepare an adequate number of packets!)
If you can think of anyone—old or new—who might like to read this message, please share this page with them! Better to have three people share this message with the same friend then them not see it at all!
Tollite Portas! (“Fling wide the portals!”)Bookmark the “Choral Ordos” header of this website; this is where James will post all the practice resources week to week. (Feel free to scroll through old entries to see the sorts of things he shared with his former choir.)
Subscribe to the ServiamScores YouTube page, where James will post practice tracks, so you don’t miss anything new.
Follow the new “Tolle et Canta • Music at St. Augustine Cathedral” Facebook page, where similar resources will be shared in future. We hope that this will grow into a wonderful repository of fun messages, photos, videos, and events which showcase all your hard work, and allow friends of the program to connect with us all as well.
See you in the loft!
We’ve got the best view in the house!
