Becoming an excellent music director

24th Sunday Ordinary Time – C

If you want to be an excellent music director, you need to master the Mass’s ritual book, the Roman Missal. Along with the Lectionary, the Roman Missal gives you the structure, rules, and guidelines you need to prepare every Mass of the liturgical year and the texts to sing for special feasts.

For example, you’ll want to know the three options for beginning the Palm Sunday Mass, the suggested music for the Adoration of the Cross on Good Friday, and the notation for the Exsultet at the Easter Vigil.

You’ll need to decide with your parish staff which version of the Pentecost Vigil to prepare, and you’ll want to rehearse with the person chanting the Announcement of the Date of Easter or the Christmas Proclamation. Even for ordinary Sundays, the Roman Missal guides you, through antiphons for each day, to appropriate song texts that complement or match the focus of that Mass.

You’ll also find the General Instruction on the Roman Missal (GIRM), the “instruction manual” for the Mass; the Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year and Calendar, which guides you on the seasons and feasts; and all of the chants for the order of Mass. Spend time studying your parish’s copy, or purchase your own. It’s that important if you want to learn to do more than just choose four songs for Mass.

This post was first published in “GIA Quarterly: A Liturgical Music Journal.”

Image credit: kb group.

Read more reflections on the Sunday readings here:

• Restraint and Generosity
• Going Further
• Can we be salt and light?
• Who is advocating for those in need?
• Bonded to Christ’s Mission