| Entrance | Praise we our God with joy |
| Kyrie | Kyrie II (Alan Rees) |
| Gloria | Glory to God in the Highest (John Bell) |
| Psalm | Ps 22 (Fintan O’Carroll) |
| Gospel Acclamation | Here in our Midst (Peter Jones) |
| Preparation of the Gifts | The living God my shepherd is |
| Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen | Mass of Christ the King (mcb) |
| Agnus Dei | Lamb of God II (mcb) |
| Communion | Dona nobis pacem cordium (Jacques Berthier) |
| Postcommunion | Flocks in Pastures Green (J. S. Bach) |
| Recessional | Lord of all hopefulness |
It's not long at all since we last had a Sunday with a strong “shepherd” theme, but we found a whole different set of musical expressions for it. As well as the Bach and He like a shepherd true in verse two of Praise we our God with joy, we had The living God my shepherd is, with words by one J. Driscoll SJ (of the British Jesuit province, d. 1940, it says somewhere – anyone know any more?), and sung to the tune of Brother James's Air by James Leith MacBeth Bain (1840-1925). These are better words for this tune than the more familiar The Lord’s my shepherd, since there's no need to repeat the third and fourth lines of each verse. Another pleasing new discovery in the pages of Laudate.
Dona nobis pacem from Taizé has a verse for cantor setting some of the text from Sunday’s second reading from Ephesians:
Christ is our peace, making us one.
In his own person, he destroyed hostility,
He came and preached the good news of peace.
There's a photograph of Driscoll at http://sacredheartmusic.co.uk/choirs.htm
ReplyDeleteWe had 'Praise we our God' as the post communion thanksgiving hymn (we don't have a recessional) and I must have started it with the organ a little on the loud side. As I played the opening chord, 2 of the choir jumped and out of the cormer of my eye I saw one of the congregation leap to her feet!
Thanks Doc! I found the same web site today. John Driscoll SJ was choirmaster at Sacred Heart, Wimbledon from 1904, and also (simultaneously, by the sound of it) at Farm Street from 1928. He influenced the young George Malcolm, so may be said to have some responsibility for the 'continental' sound of the boys at Westminster Cathedral.
ReplyDeleteI too have looked at this website (and its twin http://www.farmstreet.org.uk/music.htm)and alas find a number of inaccuracies and omissions in what is reported there, though the main lines are correct.
ReplyDeleteFr John E. Driscoll was a very interesting man who spent quite a lot of time in the Vatican libraries transcribing manuscripts which had not been seen before and have not been seen since, by composers that most people have never heard of. The Farm Street (especially) and Wimbledon repertoires included many of these pieces printed from Driscoll's own neat handwriting. Because he did double duty at both places for a time, the libraries of both establishments got mixed up, and remain so to this day. Some pieces of 'Farm Street music' are in the Wimbledon library and vice versa.
I imagine that his sojourns in Rome were what prompted him to use the 'continental' sound that indeed did influence the young George Malcolm (who was a pupil at Wimbledon College, just next door to the church in Wimbledon).