Monday, 20 October 2008

JOINING CATHEDRAL PARISH CHOIR


For the last few years, Exultate members have been involved in parish choir activities. Most members have joined the parish choir. When Bogor BMV Cathedral Parish Choir (BBPC) started with “Koor Gabungan” in 1990s, Exultate sent about one-third of its members. The members who took part in those activities thought that it was the right time to learn from other choirs. Exultate members did not care who would be the trainer, the choir master, the organist, the coordinator, etc. For them, the most important thing was how to learn from other people, especially from choir experts in the Cathedral such as Ibu Julia Sentosa Turangan and Bapak Tarcisius Marhadi.

The involvement continued in the early 2000s. Even in 2002, I was appointed to be “Koor Gabungan” (joint choir) choir master on the closing of 2002 Bogor Diocese Synod (21-25 October 2002). For Exultate and me, it was an honour.. despite my confusion. It was still not very clear why Pak Thomas Sunarno, who was responsible for choir assignment schedules, chose me to be the choir master, helping Pak Frans Tjakra and Ibu Maria Djafar. In that awkward situation, our commitment was still the same: we serve God… in his church.

On 13 December 2007, there was Choir Competition (Lomba Koor antar Paroki se-Keuskupan Bogor) in Bogor BMV Cathedral. To prepare it, from July to December 2007, “Sie Liturgi Paroki Katedral” gathered about 30 people to practice for the competition. Every Sunday, we practiced, with Pak T. Marhadi as our trainer. Again, I was asked to be the conductor. As the support from most choir conductors in the Cathedral Parish was minimum and the members’ commitment was not strong, practices were usually attended by a few people.

One thing that I could be proud of at that time was that Exultate members committed to take part. Eventually, Paroki Katedral Choir lost… just got “Juara Harapan II”.. worse than Cibinong Parish choir (which I had ever seen before when I became a jury in their internal parish choir festival). For some people, it was very embarrassing. For me, the process was stressful… but I learnt a lot from this.

Then, there was a new idea from Bapak Tarcisius Marhadi of establishing a fixed and more organized parish choir. He shared his idea with me about establishing a big choir whose members come from best singers and conductors of all choir groups in Bogor Cathedral. I gave full support to him. It was a great idea. However, Pak Marhadi also got some opposition from a few choir figures. Some figures felt that the establishment of parish choir would “kill” the existence of the incumbent choir groups. They suggested that parish choir as another group was unnecessary.

As “Seksi Liturgi” also had a programme of having a parish choir as a means of guidance, the idea got full support from Pak Agus Muhardi, Pak Adrianus Wijaya and Rm. Ben Sudarto. For me and Exultate, the support from those three church figures was enough and meaningful.

In reality, however, the application of the idea was not easy. From about 25 choirs in Bogor, only a few choir masters or trainers join it. Since June 2008 the regular practices started. For the first two months, the choir practices were held every other weeks on Sunday at SMP Budi Mulia (without organ). Because some people complained that Sunday afternoon was a very busy day for several activities, the practices were then moved to Saturday evening at 20.00-21.30 to Cathedral BMV. In this case, Exultate has to sacrifice its valuable time. For the better glory of God, Exultate changed the practice hour from 19.00-21.00 to 18.45-20.00. I thank my friends at Exultate as they are willing to support me and Koor Paroki. Some members showed commitment to join Koor Paroki: Maxi, mBak Andang, Ibu Hoesodo, mBak Ika, Sheila, Mbak Lia, mBak Evie, Ibu Heri, Mas Gago, Pak Simon, and Mas Josep. Some others want to join but I can understand that they still have difficulty in managing their time: Pak Ludo, Ibu Sianturi, and mBak Ambar; they have sometimes attended several practices.

The first assignment was for Misa Penerimaan Sakramen Krisma on Sunday, 19 October 2008. Koor Paroki under guidance and training by Bapak T. Marhadi prepared a lot of songs. Among them, the difficult songs include: Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus and Agnus Dei from Spatzen Messe as well as Veni Sancte Spiritus by W.A. Mozart. Those songs really challenged us. All Exultate members thank God that there was a chance to learn it from an expert (Bapak Marhadi). Some of us even told me… and I agree with them, that it was stupid that many choir masters do not want to join parish choir, and that we were luck to join it. How about the result of a 4 month-practice? Well, you can see it in another posting.

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