3rd Sunday of Advent (Year A, 2013)

Sunday, 15 December 2013

 

Entrance	Rejoice, the Lord is King
Kyrie	Missal Chant (English)
Psalm	Come Lord and save us (Chris O’Hara)
Gospel Acclamation	Advent Gospel Acclamation (Philip Duffy)
Creed	Credo III
Preparation of the Gifts	Conditor Alme Siderum (T.L. de Victoria, 1548-1611)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	Missal Chant
Agnus Dei	Missal Chant
Communion	(i) O Radix Jesse (chant) (ii) Be strong, our God has come to save us (Psallite)
Postcommunion	(silence)
Recessional	Come, thou long-expected Jesus

 

I’m not sure why the Psallite composers altered the text of the Communion antiphon from will come to has come; perhaps with the aim of emphasising the immediacy of the encounter with Christ in the Eucharist. With hindsight I’d have amended it to better match the Missal text — this is, after all, the season for waiting for the Lord. In any case, you could say that any sacramental encounter is a foretaste of the real thing yet to come, and that the future tense is always the most appropriate. Though it’s more complicated than that: will come is always shorthand for will come again.

Christmas is Coming!

Music and Readings for Advent and Christmas

Sunday, 8 December 2013

 

Cathedral Choir & Notability	Bogoroditse Devo (Sergei Rachmaninov, 1873-1943)
All	O come, O come Emmanuel
Notability	God rest you merry, Gentlemen (Trad English, arr. James Neal Koudelka) The Infant King (Basque Noël arr. David Willcocks)
All	Once in royal David’s city
Cathedral Choir	Beatus Auctor Saeculi (Tarik O’Regan)
All	O little town of Bethlehem
Anthony Hunt (Organ)	Walking in the air (Howard Blake, arr. Robert Gower)
Notability	What Child is This? (Thomas Hewitt Jones) The Christmas Song (Mel Tormé & Robert Wells, arr. D W Jepson)
All	Unto us is born a Son
Cathedral Choir & Notability	The Sussex Carol (arr. Bob Chilcott)
All	Good King Wenceslas
Cathedral Choir	Carol of the Bells (Mykola Leontovych)
All	Hark the herald angels sing
Cathedral Choir & Notability	My Lord has come (Will Todd)
All	O come, all ye faithful
All	Lo he comes with clouds descending
Anthony Hunt	Chorale Prelude on Vom Himmel hoch, da komm’ ich her (Johann Pachelbel, 1653-1706)

 

Like last year’s, this year’s event was in aid of two deserving local charities, Salford Loaves and Fishes and Caritas Diocese of Salford. June Ashton of Notability was the driving force behind its organisation. As always, it was a joy for the two choirs to combine forces, this year striking notes of tender serenity in the pieces by Rachmaninov and Will Todd, and of quirky exuberance in Bob Chilcott’s Sussex Carol arrangement.

2nd Sunday of Advent (Year A, 2013)

Sunday, 8 December 2013

 

Entrance	Song of Consolation (Peter Jones)
Kyrie	Missal Chant (English)
Psalm	In his days (David Ogden)
Gospel Acclamation	Advent Gospel Acclamation (Philip Duffy)
Creed	Credo III
Preparation of the Gifts	Hierusalem Surge (Heinrich Isaac, c.1450-1517)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	Missal Chant
Agnus Dei	Missal Chant
Communion	(i) O Adonai (chant) (ii) There is a longing in our hearts (Anne Quigley)
Postcommunion	(silence)
Recessional	Hark! a herald voice is calling

 

Greater Manchester Army Cadet Force Carol Service (2013)

Saturday, 7 December 2013

 

Celebration Brass	Christmas Fanfare (mcb)
All	O Come, All Ye Faithful
Choir	Carol of the Bells (Mykola Leontovych)
All	O Little Town of Bethlehem
Choir	The Sussex Carol (arr. Bob Chilcott)
All	Silent Night
All	While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks
All	National Anthem
All	Hark the Herald Angels Sing

 

Bob Chilcott’s quirky arrangement of a traditional carol requires concentration, with the melody mainly shoe-horned into 7/8, but the occasional more conventional bar to catch the singers out. Our vigilance seemed to pay off!

1st Sunday of Advent (Year A, 2013)

Sunday, 1 December 2013

 

Entrance	Let all mortal flesh keep silence
Kyrie	Missal Chant
Psalm	Ps 121 (McCarthy/Bévenot)
Gospel Acclamation	Advent Gospel Acclamation (Philip Duffy)
Creed	Credo III
Preparation of the Gifts	Ad te levavi (F.X. Witt, 1834-1888)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	Missal Chant
Agnus Dei	Missal Chant
Communion	(i) O Sapientia (chant) (ii) To you, O Lord, I lift my soul (Marty Haugen)
Postcommunion	(silence)
Recessional	Lo he comes with clouds descending

 

For Advent, a return to the chants from the English Missal. We’re also singing the Creed, in Latin this time, with the aim of creating a musical space for the genuflection at Christmas Midnight Mass, which otherwise somehow always seems to go by half-noticed.

A return, too, to the O Antiphons, one per Sunday and one more for Midnight Mass. They are a signature tune marking out the season, and a beautiful one at that.