And now, that denouement I was talking about:
Last year we hit on a pretty neat concept (hope Madonna's not reading this, she hates it when someone uses "neat") - cantors get the summer off, assembly sings everything. No responsorials - psalms are sung by all, alleluia is verseless. Certainly not by-the-books liturgy, but it REALLY helped our assembly find its voice - my obsession, remember.

So I figured every 3 - 4 years, we'd do this, make it all fresh. But the cantors dug it so much, that I decided to give them a break this summer, too - with the caveat that the next DM might call them all back in.

So here's the playlist:

St. Cornelius, Dryden MI - Jun, 2002

------------Common------------
Gathering - O God Our Help (ST ANNE)
Psalm - (common) Ps. 100, All People That On Earth Do Dwell (OLD 100TH)
GospAcc - Halle Halle Halle (Bell)
Mass - Mass of Rejoicing (REJOICE REJOICE, Haugen)
Lamb - Mass For the Life of the World (Haas)
Communion - Ps. 23, Shepherd Me, O God (Haugen)
- Ps. 34, Cry of the Poor (Foley)
Recess - How Can I Keep From Singing (Lowry)

------------Other------------
Present (OT X) - Somebody's Knocking At Your Door (spiritual)
(OT XI) - The Summons (Bell)
(OT XII) - Be Not Afraid (Dufford)
(OT XIII) - Lord, You Give the Great Commission (ABBOTT'S LEIGH, Rowthorn)

IOW, only the presentation song gets rotated. This week, there was a quick soloist line (x4) in "Somebody's Knocking", and, luckily, a cantor at each mass who could cover it.

The Lowry had gotten a bit dusty - evident at the 5pm, lately my best singing bunch, just mumbling their way through. Much better today, when I retaught it before each mass.

Otherwise, assembly's recollection was pretty good - they jumped on my Haugen mass adaptation (his melody, ICEL text, my "approach"). I named it before Agrisano published his mass of the same name. Swapped the Danish Amen in - good segue from the plainchant Doxology. Haas' MFLOW Lamb was apparently in the recesses of their mind somewhere, 'cos they were up to speed pretty quickly. Ditto Halle Halle, but we revisit that one a lot.

What's the point of all this? We have no A/C, we hit 80 degrees today, we don't want anyone dropping dead on us. Now if I could just get Fr. to drop the "boy-are-we-ever-folksy" meet-n-greet after the opening hymn, and rein the gladhanding sign-o'-peace back in, we'd get outta there in 35-40 minutes. Bugs me a bit that we're dropping key parts of the liturgy (Confiteor, Gloria. Credo) but keeping the add-ons. But I'm leaving - just let go, Jay...