6th Sunday of Easter (Year A, 2014)

Sunday, 25 May 2014

 
Entrance This joyful Eastertide
Kyrie Kyrie 2 from A Community Mass (Richard Proulx)
Gloria Psallite
Psalm Ps 65 (Monaghan/Steel)
Gospel Acclamation Easter Alleluia (plainchant; verse mcb)
Preparation of the Gifts Jubilate Deo (Orlande de Lassus, 1532-1594)
Sanctus, Acclamation A, Amen Mass of Creation (Marty Haugen)
Agnus Dei Lamb of God II (mcb)
Communion Live on in my love (Psallite)
Postcommunion If ye love me (Thomas Tallis, c.1505-1585)
Recessional Alleluia, sing to Jesus
 

Today’s responsorial Psalm (65(66)) instructed us to Cry out with joy to God all the earth. We echoed these words in Lassus’s setting of the opening of Ps 99(100). Ellie Slorach conducted us, in an exhilarating rendition.

The consoling words of both the Gospel reading (from John 14) and the Communion antiphon:

If you love me, keep my commandments, says the Lord,
and I will ask the Father
and he will send you another Paraclete,
to abide with you for ever, alleluia.

made for a gentle contrast with the exuberance of the Psalm. We sang, as usual for this Sunday, Tallis’s serene and uncluttered setting, conducted this time by Aimee Presswood. The Gospel reading had further words of consolation:

I will not leave you orphans;
I will come back to you.
which we celebrated in the second verse of our recessional hymn.

5th Sunday of Easter (Year A, 2014)

Sunday, 18 May 2014

 
Entrance The stone which the builders rejected (Bernadette Farrell)
Kyrie Kyrie 2 from A Community Mass (Richard Proulx)
Gloria Psallite
Psalm Ps 32 (Alan Rees)
Gospel Acclamation Easter Alleluia (plainchant; verse Anthony Hunt)
Preparation of the Gifts Regina Caeli (plainchant & Samuel Webbe, 1740-1816)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen Mass of Creation (Marty Haugen)
Agnus Dei Lamb of God II (mcb)
Communion I am the vine (John Bell) & Ps 80 (Laurence Bévenot)
Postcommunion Exsultate Justi (Lodovico Grossi da Viadana, c.1560-1627)
Recessional Battle is o’er
 

The Responsorial Psalm today was from Ps 32(33). As well as Alan Rees’s setting, we had Viadana’s exuberant version of the opening verses. Our opening song was from the second reading, from 1 Peter.

We prefaced Samuel Webbe’s sunny setting of the Eastertide Marian antiphon, mainly for upper voices, with the plainchant melody, sung by the men of the choir.

4th Sunday of Easter (Year A, 2014)

Sunday, 11 May 2014

 
Entrance The living God my shepherd is
Kyrie Kyrie II from Paschal Mass (Alan Rees)
Gloria Psallite
Psalm Ps 22 (James Walsh)
Gospel Acclamation Easter Alleluia (plainchant; verse Anthony Hunt)
Preparation of the Gifts Flocks in Pastures Green (J.S. Bach, 1685-1750)
Sanctus, Acclamation A, Amen Mass of Creation (Marty Haugen)
Agnus Dei Lamb of God II (mcb)
Communion You are the shepherd (Psallite)
Postcommunion Surrexit Pastor Bonus (T.L. de Victoria, 1548-1611)
Recessional Hail Redeemer, King Divine
 

Today was Good Shepherd Sunday, and our music was selected accordingly. The choir numbered eleven plus yours truly, so Victoria’s six-part setting of the Communion antiphon (a repeat performance from last Monday) was an enjoyable challenge. We did well.

40th Anniversary of Priestly Ordination of Canon Tony McBride

Monday, 5 May 2014

 
Entrance All people that on earth do dwell (arr. Vaughan Williams)
Kyrie Kyrie for 3 voices adapted from Byrd (mcb)
Gloria Glory to God (Peter Jones)
Psalm Because the Lord is my Shepherd (Christopher Walker)
Gospel Acclamation Easter Alleluia (plainchant & Colin Mawby)
Preparation of the Gifts To be a pilgrim
Sanctus, Acclamation A, Amen Mass of Creation (Marty Haugen)
Agnus Dei Missa Ubi Caritas (Bob Hurd)
Communion My Peace (Taizé) & Ps 4 (James Walsh)
Soul of my Saviour
Postcommunion Surrexit Pastor Bonus (T.L. de Victoria, 1548-1611)
Recessional Hail, Queen of heaven
 

A full house and a happy celebration for our soon-to-be-departing Dean. For a priestly jubilee in Eastertide it seemed appropriate to sing about the Good Shepherd, which we did in the psalm, Gospel acclamation and postcommunion motet. The latter was Victoria’s sunny, celebratory six-part setting of next Sunday’s communion antiphon.

3rd Sunday of Easter (Year A, 2014)

Sunday, 4 May 2014

 
Entrance Sing of one who walks beside us
Kyrie Kyrie Eleison from Missa Ubi Caritas (Bob Hurd)
Gloria Psallite
Psalm Centre of my life (Paul Inwood)
Gospel Acclamation Easter Alleluia (plainchant; verse mcb)
Preparation of the Gifts Mane Nobiscum (William Byrd, 1540-1623)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen Mass of Creation (Marty Haugen)
Agnus Dei Lamb of God II (mcb)
Communion Come and eat this bread (Marty Haugen)
Postcommunion This is the Day (anon., 16th C.)
Recessional Crown him with many crowns
 

Today’s Gospel reading was St Luke’s account of the journey to Emmaus. It prompted several of our musical choices, including the opening hymn, our motet at the preparation of the gifts and our Communion processional song.

I have to confess to not being completely convinced of the artistic merits of the opening hymn text by Ralph Wright OSB. To compensate, I tried pairing the text with a Good Tune. I think it worked (though perhaps not as well as in the video clip).

Easter Sunday (2014)

Sunday, 20 April 2014

 
Entrance Jesus Christ is Ris’n Today
Kyrie Kyrie for 3 voices adapted from Byrd (mcb)
Gloria Psallite
Psalm This is the Day (mcb)
Gospel Acclamation Sequence: Victimae Paschali Laudes (William Greene)
Easter Alleluia (chant & Colin Mawby) listen
Preparation of the Gifts Haec Dies (William Byrd, 1540-1623) listen
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen Mass of Creation (Marty Haugen)
Agnus Dei Lamb of God II (mcb)
Communion Now we remain (David Haas)
Postcommunion Surrexit Christus Dominus (Michael Praetorius, 1571-1621)
Recessional Go in peace, Alleluia
At the Lamb’s high feast
 

Colin Mawby’s joyful festive setting of the Easter Alleluia combines a people’s refrain, in the form of the simple chant Alleluia, with a bubbling choral fanfare on the same word, plus a more maestoso choral setting of the verse text. With thirty-five repetitions of the word Alleluia, it's probably not for everyday (or even every Sunday) use, but it’s a good one for special occasions. We last sang it at the Bridgewater Hall, for the Centenary Mass of the Catenian Association in 2008.

Byrd’s six-part setting of Haec Dies is jam-packed with dance-like exuberance. The rhythmic complexities make it a challenge for the conductor, a challenge to which our organist Anthony Hunt rose with panache on his conducting debut with the choir.

The Easter Vigil (2014)

Saturday, 19 April 2014

 
The Service of LightLumen Christi (chanted)
ExsultetPlainchant
After 1st reading (Genesis 1)Send forth your Spirit (John Ainslie)
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)As the deer longs (Bob Hurd) listen
GloriaPsallite listen
Easter Alleluia + Psalm 117Plainchant, verses by Paul Inwood
Lighting of Baptismal CandlesSprings of Water (Marty Haugen) listen
SprinklingVidi Aquam (Cristóbal de Morales, c.1500-1553)
Preparation of the GiftsAlleluia Surrexit Christus (Felice Anerio, 1560-1614) listen
Sanctus, Acclamation A, AmenMass of Creation (Marty Haugen)
Agnus DeiLamb of God II (mcb) listen
CommunionTake and Eat (Michael Joncas)
DismissalGo in peace, Alleluia (chanted)
Final HymnThine be the Glory listen
 

As ever, a diverse musical banquet to match the riches of tonight’s moving liturgy.

Good Friday (2014)

Friday, 18 April 2014

 
PsalmFather, into your hands (Martin Foster)
Gospel AcclamationChristus factus est (Johann Ernst Eberlin, 1702-1762)
Adoration of the CrossBehold the wood of the Cross (Missal tone)
Adoramus Te (Eric Barnum, 1979-)
Praise to the Holiest
Crux Fidelis (attr. King John IV of Portugal) & Pange Lingua (chant) listen
Jesus, remember me (Taizé)
CommunionAve Verum Corpus (William Byrd, 1540-1623)
Soul of my Saviour

Crux Fidelis was published in the mid 1840s as a composition of King John IV of Portugal, who lived from 1604 to 1656. On stylistic and (musical) grammatical grounds it’s much more likely a product of early-to-mid 19th century archaizing Romanticism, but no less a beautiful and thoughtful work, for all that.

Eric Barnum’s harmonised chant setting of the ancient Good Friday antiphon presented a contrast of arresting simplicity. We were ably conducted in it by choral scholar Aimée Presswood.