| Summary: | In 1963, Pope Paul VI circulated the Sacrosanctum Concilium (Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy), in which he formulated one of the chief aims of the liturgical reform by suggesting that full participation in the liturgy be encouraged to all people in the congregation. Recently, the Catholic schools of the Diocese of Columbus, Ohio, exemplified this point by stating that the Diocese standards offer necessary tools to support full participation in worship in schools and in parishes. The purpose of this study is to explore how teachers and administrators interpret the meaning of full participation in terms of musical interaction within the ritual of school Masses and classroom rehearsals, and to examine how they interact with one another to plan and implement a successful experience in which students will continue to return to these rituals. In this study I investigate full participation in parochial chorus—informed by classroom and/or rehearsal interaction rituals. These rituals are understood through the lens of Collins’s Interaction Ritual Chains (2004). Collins posits that feelings of group solidarity are charged by potential emotional effervescence and symbolic content. This study originates from the works of sociologists Durkheim (1912/1995) and Goffman (1959). The methodical approach is one of a micro-ethnography. The data collection was organized using ethnographic field notes and case study applications. Data and analysis from this dissertation suggest that students and teachers embrace the vast history of Catholic Church music in parochial schools. For this dissertation I interviewed Catholic priests and music teachers who play a unique role in educating the whole person by means of a moral, spiritual, and academic foundation. I asked questions about how priests and music teachers interpret the meaning of full participation in parochial chorus. Considering the renewal of faith in the Catholic Mass is certainly a ritual experience charged up with high emotions, I suggested that a larger theoretical framework to embrace various musical settings would show a need for further research and present opportunities to understand how students interact with each other in sacred and secular environments.
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