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.