The Easter Vigil (Holy Saturday, 2010)

Saturday, 3 April 2010

The Service of Light	Lumen Christi (chanted)
Exsultet	Plainchant
After 1st reading (Genesis 1)	Send forth your spirit (Stephen Dean)
After 2nd reading (Exodus 14-15)	I will sing to the Lord (Geoffrey Boulton Smith)
After 3rd reading (Isaiah 55: come to the water)	We shall draw water joyfully (Paul Inwood)
After 4th reading (Ezekiel 36: I shall give you a new heart)	Like the deer (mcb)
Gloria	Mass of the Creator Spirit (Ed Nowak)
Easter Alleluia + Psalm 117	Plainchant, verses by Paul Inwood
Litany of the Saints	Joseph Gélineau, ed. Robert B. Kelly
Blessing of the Font	Springs of Water (Marty Haugen)
Sprinkling	Vidi Aquam (Tomás Luis de Victoria, c. 1548-1611)
Preparation of the Gifts	Alleluia, Christus Surrexit (Felice Anerio, c. 1560-1614)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	Spring Sanctus (mcb)
Agnus Dei	from Communion Rite: Take and Eat (Michael Joncas/Gary Daigle)
Communion	Take and Eat (Michael Joncas)
Dismissal	Go in the peace of Christ, Alleluia (chanted)
Final Hymn	Thine be the Glory

For a musical banquet as rich and complex as tonight’s, the fare needs to change slowly from year to year. This year we returned to Paul Inwood’s irrepressibly joyful We shall draw water. Anerio’s Alleluia, Christus Surrexit was brimming with the same spirit.

We remembered the bells at the Gloria this year, as we did on Holy Thursday: Bishop Terence intoned the opening of the Gloria from the Missa de Angelis, and then the bells and the organ rang out Easter joy before we eased seamlessly into Ed Nowak’s fiery setting.

We’ve sung Geoffrey Boulton Smith’s simple and bold setting of the Exodus canticle every year for the last twenty years and doubtless more. I don’t know of another setting to rival it.