Gospel Adoramus

Words and music by Mark Hayes

---

This anthem was our call to worship this week. It got their attention. It’s wonderful doing this kind of music, but oh did we have our work cut out for us. I think it must have been the Latin. My lips didn’t know what to do. There is more about the piece here.

I’ve sung plenty of Latin, and I’m sure many of the others have too, but not ordinarily at this tempo or in this style, and not switching back and forth between Latin and English. The thing about the switching is that the same word, or something very similar, has a different pronunciation depending on which language you are in at the moment.

We could have done much better without the music folders (the score called for clapping, which requires free hands), but it was more than enough work without having to memorize the whole thing as well.

This was the scene for my day-before practice session, in my office at home. That’s Lolla Koala on the monitor stand. The little white bear (above, in the credenza) used to sit on top of my CRT monitor years ago, but those things are no more. But then my house back then didn’t have outdoor CCTV cameras (the other monitor below Snow Bear).

The main monitor shows another choir singing the same piece, downloaded from YouTube, along with a speed control. I started out slow and worked my way up until my lips quit trying to leave my face, and I had most of the notes right. And this was the day before we sang. We had had plenty of rehearsals, sectionals even (we don’t usually need to do those). This piece was unusually hard to learn. Or maybe I’m just too old for this. I don’t care.

Next week we are scheduled to sing with the contemporary servce crowd, over in the other building, two services. I don’t normally venture in there while they are doing their thing, but we’ll see how it goes.

---

Recorded at Christ Community Church, Carmichael, California
October 1, 2023
Excerpted from: youtu.be/2nq_5rlRPQY