Library Carnage: T-minus Five Days

Less than a week to go, and logistics have kicked in for the 2012 Ireland•Scotland pilgrimage of the Notre Dame Folk Choir. Never, in all our years of traveling, have we brought along so much music on our overseas adventures!

Here's a short list of our events, each of which has its own, unique list of songs:
- Catholic school presentation repertoire
(we're doing five of these; two in Dublin, two in Wexford,
one in Edinburgh)
- Touring repertoire for 2012 concerts
- Mary of the Gaels, Naomh Bhríde concert repertoire
(for Clonard Parish)
- Workshop repertoire for the church year
(one for Ireland: Our Lady's Island, Diocese of Ferns;
the other for Scotland, in the Archdiocese of Edinburgh)
- Mass repertoire for the Feast of Pentecost (Vigil)
- Mass repertoire for Pentecost (Mass for the Day)
(Sunday morning, including first communion)
- Votive mass for successful final exams (County Galway)
- workshop repertoire, Edinburgh, Scotland
- Wedding mass repertoire (yes, we're singing at a wedding in Scotland!)
- Trinity Sunday Mass repertoire
- Archdiocese of Edinburgh Ecumenical Program
(Presbyterian and Catholic combined repertoire,
with Cardinal O'Brien co-presiding)

This is, of course, a snapshot. Each church will have its own acoustics, its own organ (or lack thereof, sometimes just a Clavinova or acoustic keyboard). We will have few precious minutes, every time we arrive at a parish, to assess just how and where to sing.

The great blessing in preparing all of this is that the Folk Choir has champion librarians! Once we hit the bus on Monday afternoon there is no turning back for forgotten scores: we'll need to have all our choral music, flute, violin, guitar, accompanist, director arrangements – all of these securely organized and readily available.