The Anatomy of an OLA Christmas Program

Believe it or not, this year will mark  my 14th Christmas program at OLA.  I can't believe it sometimes, 14 years!!!   That's a lot of songs and 13 original concepts and stories.  Yes, ORIGINAL.   I can't think of a time when I used a "canned" Christmas program.  However, I can say that I've taken elements of stories and created my own program.  Also, it's rare that I recycle songs through out the years.  I have, though.

How do these programs come about? 

First, I come up with a concept, an idea, a story or whatever.  Next, I try and find the best possible song for the END of the program.  The tear-jerker, the one that will light the Christmas tree in your heart and send you off ready for the Christmas season.  This is my favorite part of the process.  There have been some great songs to fit this category.   Some, however have made more than one appearance.  This year, I believe this might be the third time we will use "When a Child is Born" as the final song.  It might be my favorite Christmas Song ever because of this arrangement of this song

Once I choose the final song and the concept.  I come up with a song for each class to be featured.  That's 8 songs as K-1 sing together.  Then I come up with an opening medley and decide whether or not we will have a procession in.  Mrs. McMorrow likes a procession to start the program, so most likely this year will begin with some sort of procession.  Then I try and choose a few group songs for everyone.  

Believe it or not, the script is the last thing to be written.  Often, the script is written the week of the actual program.  It is read by student or several students.  It's the glue that holds the songs together.  

And there you have it  It's not brain surgery, but it does follow some sort of formula.  So far :)

The synopsis of this years program is finished and we've begun a few songs in class.  This next few weeks will see the concept jell a little more and soon, I'll announce the concept to the students.

This week in 6.7.8 - we'll begin our presentations.  Please remember that all presentations must be ready this Friday - both the written portion and the audio portion.  If you student forgets, they will get a 0 for the day and it will be noted on Power School.

Mr. Mattei 

And if you must be going, I will understand......

"Mama" Cass Elliot said it best in her song "Make Your Own Kind of Music" (video below) when she sang - "And if you can not take my hand, and if you must be going, I will understand".  If you're going to judge me by the music I listen to, you can take a hike.  This might be the best lyric ever written - of course next to "Make your own kind of music, sing your own special song - even if nobody else sings along".  Our Jr High classes will begin giving reports next Friday on one of the songs off their playlists they turned in a few weeks ago, in hopes to expose everyone to "new" music.   As part of our Catholic faith, we stress the importance of not judging people.  Whether its by their clothing, hair style, shoes, and even music.  Jesus hung out with the prostitute, the thief, the tax collector and forgave those who put him to death.  If that isn't an example of being non- judgmental, I don't know what is.  

I've said before that music makes up the fabric of who we are, it's important that we stand behind who we are and what we believe in.  

I can't believe that we are almost half way through October.  Which for us, it's almost time to begin working on the Christmas program.  Can't believe it's that time already.  I have a good program planned, we'll see how it unfolds in the next few weeks.

Mr. Mattei 

Music on Demand - Gone is the thrill of the hunt.

Have you noticed that we as society that we tend to want things NOW?   The internet has made "the thrill of the hunt" pretty much non-existent.  Really want that new song by Miley Cyrus?  All you have to do is go to iTunes or Amazon music and it's playing on your computer/mp3 player is seconds.  Before, you had to make a trip to Tower Records, or The Wherehouse and pray that it would be in stock.  Remember these places?

I miss the days of flipping through bins at a record store and it's sad that this generation won't experience this.  Oh, I guess you can at Amoeba or Streetlight Records and the limited supply of CD's at Target or something like that, but the thrill of spending hours and hours looking for music is pretty much extinct, and it's something that I don't believe is coming back.

Even the radio is personalized.  When the invention of Pandora, IHeartRadio and now the new iTunes radio, we are able to type in an artist and get a virtual playlist of the artist and other artists of that genre.  But we are able to listen to what we want NOW.  Students say they listen to the radio in the car and I always ask if it is an FM station or XM Satellite radio.  I always applaud listening to the REAL radio (AM/FM radio) because there is still some hope that patience in the way we listen to music might still be alive and well.  We tune into a radio station hoping that in our listening experience, we'll hear that new Miley Cyrus song.  And in 1970's-80's. we'd wait patiently by the radio to hear that song and hit the record button on the cassette player in hopes to capture that song for later listening.  Now, we can get it in seconds if we want it.  What's more fun, the thrill of the hunt, or instant gratification?

In Jr High this week, we'll begin sharing our music for one another.  Hopefully, our students will hear some things they have never heard before and perhaps be interested in them.  Music is sometimes considered a personal "thing" and is a tough thing to share for fear of not being "accepted" because of the music we listen to.  We'll be talking about how we shouldn't judge a person by the music they listen to - just like we wouldn't judge because of hair style, clothing or things like that.

Don't forget the school Mass on Friday where we will celebrate our School Families and St Francis.  Mass is 10:30am, come and worship with us!!!

Mr. Mattei