My church community has drastically changed over the past 5-7 years. It went from about 90 percent English speaking to now maybe…I don’t know the statistics, but probably around 60 percent English speaking and 40 percent Spanish. We’ve added a 7pm Spanish Saturday mass and a 1pm Spanish mass on Sundays. This all seems to work out well. We now (after a lot of growing pains) have a well established Spanish choir. I’m not really a part of that movement, but a former choir member is running it and their accompanist is also the same one we use in our English speaking/singing choir. So there is some pretty nice connections between the English and Spanish speaking choirs.
Our pastor is from Mexico (came to the United States about nine years ago), so he has no problem switching between the two languages. Our English speaking choir has taken on the task of singing at this bilingual liturgy. My part as the choir director has been to try to come up with appropriate bilingual Christmas songs as well as try to maintain some of the music tradition that is expected in this church that was established some sixty years ago. A huge task where I’m sure I haven’t been able to please everyone. On top of that, our traditional Christmas service music for the last 15 years has always been Mass of Remembrance by Marty Haugen (GIA Publications)…The bilingual mass setting I picked for our midnight mass was Misa Del Pueblo Inmigrante by Bob Hurd (OCP). It was the obvious choice as both our Spanish speaking and English speaking assemblies already were familiar with the mass setting.
My real challenge was how to arrange the Christmas carols in a way that was logical, singable and familiar to both the Spanish and English speaking assemblies. My web search of GIA, OCP and WLP didn’t help to much. There are some beautiful bilingual octavos available through each of these publishers, but my criteria was simple, easy to read and mostly unison singing. Keeping in mind that there is usually little choir practice time available and little money to properly (and legally) buy quality music, I mostly used what I had available from the above mentioned publishing companies.
I went around and around in my head the best possible way to sing the bilingual Christmas carols and decided to keep a constant pattern of Verse 1 – English, Verse 2 – Spanish, Verse 3 English, Verse 4 Spanish, etc. This worked pretty well, although during O Come, O Come Emmanuel we were actually jumping from the English version to a separate piece of music with the Spanish words. Not the best arrangement, but it actually worked out ok. I followed this same pattern throughout the service, but for some reason, I changed the pattern for the recessional song “Joy to the World”—moving to the pattern, Verse 1 English, Verse 1 Spanish, Verse 2 English, Verse 2 Spanish, etc. This decision turned out to be very bad and I got mixed up and started singing the wrong Spanish verse. My cantor was singing the correct verse, but then started singing the “wrong” verse (following me). In the meantime, I noticed the choir was struggling (basically looking puzzled and not really singing at all)…I realized my mistake and started singing the correct verse, but, alas my cantor was now singing the wrong verse having followed me down the wrong road. After what seemed like an eternity (in choir director embarrassment time) the song ended. The priest and deacon hadn’t moved from their chairs and all were left standing there in the eerie silence that now completed midnight mass (Ite, missa est).
So—the moral of this story is this: When doing a bi-lingual Christmas liturgy, make it as easy as possible for the choir and assembly to sing the the bilingual music. In my case, the worship aid should match exactly what is being sung by the choir. Add translations where needed. The choir (and choir director!) should not have to have a roadmap of arrows and circles on their music to keep them singing the correct verses. In my case (using Finale) I also increased the size of the words for my ever aging choir members. Here is an example of what I did with O Come, O Come Emmanuel (public domain version):
There is no question as to the next verse to be sung and the actual printed music font is large and easy to read. I didn’t add it to the worship aid this Christmas season, but next year, you can bet it will look just like what the choir is singing. I know this may not be the best solution, but I know it is the best for my choir. We are always struggling to find enough time to practice the music for the Christmas season. There is always (at least I get this feeing) an undercurrent of “why are we even singing in Spanish when they have their own Christmas liturgy”! And, as much time as I do rehearse the Spanish singing and pronunciation with my choir, it is usually only passible when it comes time to sing during the mass. That is why I want to do everything in my power as choir director to create a scenario where there is a very good chance of success.
I was delighted to see you post again. Your efforts are so parallel to ours, it so validates what I am trying to do. We also use the Misa del Pueblo Inmigrante for our bilingual masses. We actually don’t do any Christmas masses bilingual, but we do for most of Holy Week (not Easter morning though), as well as All Saints, Thanksgiving Eve, Immaculate Conception. We do the same verse alternating pattern although while I have gone to a full worship aid, and it makes a huge difference in my opinion, I had not thought of (or actually realized that you could) create it in Finale exactly how you want it. I haven’t used Finale and I am only part time (10 hours/week) plus have a full time job and another church gig on Wednesday so I don’t know if I could handle that. I would love to see a copy of your worship aid for the Christmas bilingual if you wanted to share it. Thanks so much again for posting.
Thank you Craig. I hope to be on top of this blog in the coming year…”New Years Resolution”. I just emailed our worship aid to you.