Videos from the Concert via Youtube

Carol of the Bells http://youtu.be/DAnXrHLw29I

Where You There on That Christmas Night w/ Children Choir http://youtu.be/6AT8fAvhF6I

Noel http://youtu.be/Os_6ZAVW_TI

Hallelujah  http://youtu.be/jUCeyoDwBiw

I've always liked to sing
But I've never been in a choir before
I was at church one day
Father Wilson mentioned that they're looking for new people
So, why not?

I was married at an early age
To my husband Bruce
He died, a year ago
We had three kids together
They're all grown up now
I guess that's the real reason I joined

You just get so invested in these songs
When you're singing them
When you sing them it just brings goosebumps throughout your whole body and shivers down your spine
You really feel the music, and the meaning behind it

Music is an outlet
Its somewhere I can go to forget about the loneliness
When I'm at rehearsal its a distraction from it all
It lets me live my life the way I should

Establishing Rapport

I cant lie and say I was not nervous going into this interview, I was very nervous and worried about how it would go. I had only prepared a few core questions that I hoped my interviewee could elaborate on but I was worried about her not elaborating enough and my interview falling short from what I wanted it to be. After the first couple questions I got a lot more comfortable with her and felt like I was able to connect with her better and understand everything she was saying and where she was coming from.

The woman's name was Sheila, she was much like myself with gender, race, and class. The only difference was her age, I assume she  may be in her 60's. This only effected my interview because since she is of the older generation I felt as if I needed to be proper, which of course I  intended this interview to be proper and professional so it did not effect my planning at all.

I simply kept my professional composure and when she talked about the death of her husband I showed compassion which I believe conveyed to her that she did not have to be afraid to open up to me.

From this interview I learned that music can be helpful with grieving and could potentially ease the pain, which is another interesting research question.

I completed my interview on Wednesday night with a woman from my choir. She conveyed very much to me her love for the choir and how it has helped her get through many tough times in her life. She was a great interviewee and I am glad I decided to interview her because she contributed a lot to my project and is a living example of how powerful music is.

This is the Church bulletin from a couple weeks ago that I got for my class for an artifact. This bullitin is very significant because it shows what the Church is all about. It also shows a conflict with advertising, the conflict being that the church(s) is only looking for money, which is a conflict tat will probably never go away but is of course interesting to look at.

This is my mind map, as you can see I am really interested in music and mental health because it is really a fascinating thing to learn about, because music has such a powerful effect on people I would lobe to learn more.

What surprised me?

What intrigued me?

What disturbed me?

(about my field notes #2)

This time at my field site the atmosphere was a bit different, due to a number of factors.

I sat behind the choir as I took notes in order to be less of a disturbance to the choir, for I felt as if I was a distraction last week. But I noticed this week that at least 50% of the 45 choir members are in their 50's or 60's, and there are a hand full of people in their 40's and at least 10 people are over 70. I also realized that people tend to have full conversations with those whom they are in the same age group with. It makes me wonder if I can consider this to be a form of high school behavior, in the sense that seniors are friends with seniors, juniors are friends with juniors, and so on.

In my last field notes (although I did not blog about it) I notice high school like clique, including the popular girls, the over achievers, the under achiever, and the wanna bees. On the day I went to my field site most of the popular group was not present. Due to this the choir seemed a lot more friendly and inviting. No one was there to make snotty comments to or at the director so I felt like the rehearsal went a lot smoother with less interruptions.,

Also there was a new girl at the rehearsal. I use to be the youngest person in the choir, me being 18, but not she is at 14. She received a much friendlier reaction when she walked into rehearsal then I ever did, I am not sure why though, if it is just do to the fact that the popular girls were not there or that people felt the need to be nicer to here since she is still a kid.

I feel like all of these facts contributed to the outcome of the rehearsal because there was more positive things than negative that occurred at this rehearsal as opposed to the last. Both of these factors leads to my second research question, will the high school cliques ever end?

Locating Online Cultures

http://www.ssrcparish.com/index.php

“Welcome to our parish website. SS. Rose & Clement Roman Catholic Parish has been bringing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to Warwick, RI for over 50 years. We hope you will find what you need on these pages. If you have any questions or need any additional information, please contact us! God bless you!”

First off the Saint Rose and Clement's Church website was a lot more technologically advanced than I would have expected. The last time I went on any church website it was very basic so that was the first thing that caught my mind when I went one the site, I guess it demonstrates the changing times with technological advancements. Other than a surprising display, I could not find any message boards or comments, I did find a page that listed all the important figures of our parish, including my choir's director, and of course the priest. There is also a tab labeled resources that includes links to other religious pages including the Vatican. The thing that stands out to me about this church is that there is a gift sop, what church has a gift shop? It just allows the stereotype that churches are all about money to flourish in this parish.

“Share the Spirit" Gift Shop

“Our "Share the Spirit" Gift Shop is open daily. We offer many different religious items including candles, rosary beads, holy pictures, medals, wall hangings, Bibles, crucifixes, Catholic greeting cards, gifts for Baptism, First Communion, Confirmation & Weddings, and much more. Special orders are happily accepted. Please stop by and take a look.”

About five or so years ago there was an addition made to the church, this addition included more rooms for all the various committees that the church promotes, but it also made this gift shop. I have never been in the gift shop because in my opinion I feel as if the concept of having the store at this place of worship is wrong and I still never understood why they did this, but I feel like by adding it the Church hurt it's image in the community.

If I wanted to study the Church itself or the gift shop I could certainly talk to the priest or I could talk to one of the deacons whom resides right next door to the church, it would certainty be interesting to understand the relationship between churches and money.

What surprised me?

What intrigued me?

What disturbed me?

(about my field notes)

What surprised me was how when I stepped out side of the choir I was able to see the beauty of the group, not just all the bad that I usually hear when I am singing with the group. It was definitely intriguing to be on the outside looking in but it was like going back in time, because I have always wanted to join the church choir so it was very familiar to me. It also made me realize I would rather be singing with them than be on the outside. Other than that I do not feel as if I discovered anything that I thought I would, but I believe this is due to the fact that when I am there I usually do not associate with anyone, just due to my quiet nature, so I think that all a long, since I joined this choir I have just been observing everyone and that is why I have been able to form research question such as, why does music effect people?

RE: Positioning Yourself

St. Basil's church originated in Central Falls near my mother's home town of Pawtucket. She and her family have attended that church since her father, my grandfather, came here from Syria. In 1997 the church moved to a new location in Lincoln where my family and I have attended since I was younger. My younger sister and I had attended the Sunday school program there for grades k-8. However in the summer when there are no Sunday School classes we would go to St. Rose and Clemet's because it is in Warwick, so do to inclining gas prices in the summer it is a lot more convenient to go there (I live in Warwick), it is also more convenient because during the summer because St Basil's only offers one mass at 10:00 and it is entirely in Arabic, so since my family does not speck Arabic fluently it makes even more scene to go to an English speaking Church.

I have never under stood the difference between my two religions, Roman Catholic and Melkite Greek Catholic, in their entirety. But some of the differences I have noticed over the years is that the Mekite Greek Catholic Church is in a darker setting as opposed to full of light like many other churches. Also the Communion is different for at the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, (St. Basil's) for at that church the priest dunks bread into the wine serving as the bread and blood of Christ, while the Roman Catholic Church(St. Rose and Clemet's) serves the typical wafer. A bigger difference is that when I was baptized at St. Basil's not only did I complete my baptism, I also completed my first communion and confirmation at the same time, rather than doing it progressively through the years like Roman Catholic Churches. Finally a few times I have asked the Deacon at St. Basil's what the difference is, and all I have been able to receive is that Melkite Greek Catholicism closer to Greek Orthodox than Roman Catholic. I do not know much about what Orthodox is but that is all I have been able to decipher through out the years.

I work at Wendy's in Warwick, since I started working there five months ago they trained me to open the restaurant, so on Saturday's and Sunday's I am the only person available to do so. My dad has mentioned to me that I should talk to my managers about taking Sunday mournings off to be with my family, but since I always open I feel obligated to do so and I feel bad requesting that of my bosses because I just get really nervous and feel very guilty. So do to that I work eight to three every Sunday so I can be home to go to five o'clock mass at St Rose and Clement's, because it is still important to me to make the effort to go to church.

Going back to the beginning of my life with music, I began with the recorder in third grade, then in forth grade I was allowed to join my elementary school choir and I took up violin. I hated the violin, so in fifth grade I continued with the choir and took up the flute. In sixth grade I decided I did not like the flute either so I took up the saxophone while continuing with choir. Finally going into seventh grade I had to chose between chorus or band, hands down I chose chorus, because over the years I hated playing instruments, in fact most of the time I just pretended to play it so it was really a waist of time. So I continued with choir all the way through High School, but I also joined more Choirs in high school. So in tenth grade I joined my school's Jazz Choir, and I continued with that all the way though high school too, then I also made it into Rhode Island Senior Allstate in my junior and senior year and then in my senior year I joined a new choir at my school, Chorale. So by the end of my high School career I was in four choirs at once! That was just crazy for me, but I would not change any of my experiences for the world. So the reason I went a little crazy with music was because through high school I went though a lot of things that hurt me emotionally and changed my life entirely, and when I was going through all the bad things I was experiencing the only peace I was able to get was when I was in my choir singing. Singing was my break from reality, it was something I could do to forget about everything, so today I need music to help me distress and get through, which is why I can never live without it.

(Sorry it took so long!!)

I am a white teen age girl born and raised her whole life in Rhode Island, the state with the most Christian Catholics. I was born in the summer to my father an Irishman, and my mother a Syrian woman. Each of these characteristics effect the way I see and think, for since I was raised as a mix of Roman Catholic and Melkite Greek Catholic, I may see a Catholic Church Choir that I am focusing my research on differently from someone who is not. For as long as I can remember I have been going to two different Churches, one, St Basil's the Great, during the school year because of their Sunday School program and the other, St Rose and Clement's, during the summer in the off season. Now that I have graduated Sunday school and have entered the work force I can no longer attend church with my family Sunday mornings, so I attend after work on Sunday nights at St Rose and Clement's since it is more convenient.

I decided to join the St Rose and Clement's Choir in September of this year. My reasons for joining this choir are, one I was to chicken to audition for my College Opera workshop (opera and the classical choir music are what bests suit my voice), and two it was something I have always wanted to do but I have always been afraid that I would not fit in, and three, my biggest reason, was that I did not want

to leave music in my past, I wanted to continue doing it and keep it in my life because I love singing so much, so this was my way of making that possible.

http://animoto.com/play/VvFqYNVHO6XHJXbhpdjbkA

Hi all! I have created this blog as a means to report the conclusions in which I will come to learn in te coming weeks about my church choir, and the power of music itself. I hope to learn why music has such a powerful positive influence on our lives.