30th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B, 2012)

Sunday, 28 October 2012

 
Entrance Praise my soul, the King of heaven
Kyrie Dinah Reindorf
Gloria Mass of the Most Sacred Heart (Jacob Bancks)
Psalm What marvels the Lord worked for us (mcb)
Gospel Acclamation Here in our Midst (Peter Jones)
Preparation of the Gifts Cum appropinquaret Iesus (Juan Ginés Pérez, 1548-1600)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen German Mass (Schubert/Proulx)
Agnus Dei Holy Family Mass (John Schiavone)
Communion Now in this banquet (Marty Haugen)
Postcommunion Exsultate Justi (Lodovico Viadana, c.1560-1627)
Recessional Thou whose almighty word
 

Today’s Gospel reading from Mark tells of the healing of blind Bartimaeus, and our entrance, Communion and recessional songs sang of the same themes, as did our motet at the preparation of the gifts, which took its text from Luke’s version of the same story. Elsewhere, the first reading and the entrance and Communion antiphons told us to shout for joy, so we did, in Viadana’s exuberant setting of Psalm 32(33).

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B, 2012)

Sunday, 21 October 2012

 
Entrance Lord, enthroned in heavenly splendour
Kyrie Kyrie for 3 voices, adapted from Byrd (mcb)
Gloria Missa Ubi Caritas (Bob Hurd)
Psalm May your love be upon us (Daniel Bath)
Gospel Acclamation Here in our Midst (Peter Jones)
Preparation of the Gifts The Servant King (Graham Kendrick)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen Missa Ubi Caritas
Agnus Dei Missa Ubi Caritas
Communion Father, if this cup (Stephen Dean)
Postcommunion Crucifixus from the B Minor Mass (J.S. Bach)
Recessional Christ triumphant, ever reigning
 

Today’s readings speak of Jesus the suffering servant. The Crucifixus from Bach’s Mass in B Minor paints a vivid picture of our Lord’s suffering, both in the pulsing accompaniment and in the melodic strangeness of the contrapuntal entries on the word crucifixus. There’s especial drama, which we tried to bring out, in the arresting homophony on repetitions of the word passus (he suffered). Despite being the briefest miniature from an otherwise epic work, it portrays the suffering of the Passion with stark and beautiful clarity.

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Sunday, 14 October 2012

 
Entrance All my hope on God is founded
Kyrie Mass of the Creator Spirit (Ed Nowak)
Gloria Psallite
Psalm Ps 89 (Stephen Dean/James Walsh)
Gospel Acclamation Alleluia Mode 2 (Plainchant)
Preparation of the Gifts Wisdom, come softly (Diane Murden & Martin Barry)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen Mass of Creation (Marty Haugen)
Agnus Dei Mass of the Creator Spirit
Communion Centre of my life (Paul Inwood)
Postcommunion He hath filled the hungry (from Magnificat, Op 69 no 3, Mendelssohn)
Recessional Forth in the peace of Christ
 

Bekki Gocher and Karen Massey directed the music today. Wisdom, come softly set the text of the first reading, and the excerpt from Mendelssohn’s Magnificat, Op 69, reflected both the Communion antiphon, and our Lord’s strictures in the Gospel reading from Mark concerning rich men, camels, needles and the like.

27th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B, 2012)

Sunday, 7 October 2012

 
Entrance O perfect love
Kyrie Mass of the Creator Spirit (Ed Nowak)
Gloria Psallite
Psalm Ps 127 (Eugene Monaghan)
Gospel Acclamation Alleluia Mode 2 (Plainchant)
Preparation of the Gifts You are the Lord of all (Daniel Bath)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen Mass of Creation (Marty Haugen)
Agnus Dei Mass of the Creator Spirit
Communion How good is the Lord (mcb)
Postcommunion Oculi Omnium (Charles Wood, 1866-1926)
Recessional Love divine
 

Similar musical fare to the same day three years ago, but with both Charles Wood’s serene anthem, and my simple Communion processional song (both drawn from Ps 144(145)) reflecting the text of the Communion antiphon:

The Lord is good to those who hope in him,
to the soul that seeks him.

26th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B, 2012)

Sunday, 30 September 2012

 
Entrance Bring to the Lord a glad new song (Perry/Parry)
Kyrie (Dinah Reindorf)
Gloria Psallite Mass
Psalm Ps 18 (McCarthy/Bévenot)
Gospel Acclamation Alleluia Mode 2 (Plainchant)
Preparation of the Gifts Where your treasure is (Marty Haugen)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen Mass of Creation (Marty Haugen)
Agnus Dei from No Greater Love (Michael Joncas)
Communion Teach me, O God (Christopher Walker)
Postcommunion Laudate Nomen Domini (Christopher Tye)
Recessional O Jesus, I have promised
 

Today’s Entrance Antiphon, from the Prayer of Azariah in the book of Daniel, includes the words

But give glory to your name
and deal with us according to the bounty of your mercy.

We took up the theme of praise of the Lord’s name in our postcommunion piece adapted from Tye’s Actes of the Apostles of 1553. The tortuous journey from Tye’s own doggerel to mongrel Latin text (by way of O come, ye servants of the Lord) is chronicled in this interesting piece.

For us it was actually a last-minute substitution: we had rehearsed my adaptation of Rachmaninov’s Khvalite Imya Gospodne from the Vespers. (The ‘adaptation’ consisted in shrinking it down to seven parts and translating the text from Ps 134(135) into Latin; we sang it once for a wedding, for a bride who’d evidently seen My Best Friend’s Wedding.) Finding ourselves unexpectedly understaffed for seven parts, I reached into the cupboard and found Tye’s piece, opening with the same words, which we already knew from having sung it many times in Advent to the words Rorate Caeli.

The second reading from St James sounded a gory warning for the rich. We turned to the rather more irenic setting of our Lord’s words from the Gospels, paraphrased by Marty Haugen:

Where your treasure is, there your heart shall be.
All that you possess will never set you free.
Seek the things that last; come and learn from me:
where your treasure is your heart shall be.