Fr. Francis; proposed cantor training: workshops on Wednesdays, September 13th and 27th
Dear Fr. Francis,
Hope you had a blest summer and all is well with the local Dominican and parish community at Ba Chuong.
I am now back in Vietnam for only one month, September. October and November I will be back home in California, and hope to return to Vietnam for December and January. During this month of September, I would like to do some training of cantors and wish to know if you would like to submit names for those you would like to attend from the Holy Spirit Choir. This workshop is going to be for anyone who cantors/serves at one of the seven English Masses in Saigon.
The goal would be to give liturgical formation for those who teach music before the Mass and lead the psalm. The technique of why and how songs are taught before Mass would be reviewed. Also, the technique of cantoring the psalm and the spirituality of leading the psalm would also be reviewed.
There will be two sessions for the cantor training:
Session 1A: Wednesday, September 13th, 7:30 - 9 pm (liturgical and spiritual foundations of cantoring, the responsorial psalm and song leading)
(during these two weeks the participants will be given materials to read and study)
Session 1B: Wednesday, September 27th, 7:30 - 9 pm (practicum, participants are quizzed on their knowledge from the reading assignments given and would demonstrate teaching music before Mass and cantoring the psalm)
I realize that you have many responsibilities and probably could not attend these sessions yourself, but I hope that you would be sending some of the cantors from Ba Chuong to this training. (But if you could attend, of course you would be more than welcome!)
These workshops will be under the guidance of Fr. Nguyen Duy (priest in charge of sacred music for the Archdiocese), using as a basic document the new Huong Dan Muc Vu Thanh Nhac (Vietnamese music document from the Bishop’s Conference) and some other materials in English. The presentations will be done in English. Hopefully a few other cantors from ICCS (Pastoral Center) and Christ the King (Cathedral) will be joining also. There will be a small registration fee, to pay for the materials. The location of the two workshops will be determined later on, after conferring with Fr. Nguyen Duy and Fr. Xuan Thao, as to which location (TTMV? Francisco Dakao?) might be available.
Could you confer with your main cantors, to see who might be available? Could you let me know by Wednesday night, September 6th, how many might be interested in attending these two workshops and their full names and contact information?
Looking forward to hearing from you, and blessings on your service to the Ba Chuong community.
peace,
Rufino
