3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A, 2017)

Sunday, 22 January 2017

 

Entrance	Bring to the Lord a glad new song (Michael Perry/C.H.H. Parry)
Kyrie	Kyrie II from Paschal Mass (Alan Rees)
Gloria	Mass of the Most Sacred Heart (Jacob Bancks)
Psalm	Ps 26 (Paul Inwood)
Gospel Acclamation	Salisbury Alleluia (Christopher Walker)
Preparation of the Gifts	Dear Lord and Father of mankind
Sanctus, Acclamation B, Amen	Bede Acclamations (Martin Foster)
Agnus Dei	Paschal Mass (Alan Rees)
Communion	O thou who at thy Eucharist didst pray (Orlando Gibbons, 1583-1625) The Lord is my light (Marty Haugen)
Postcommunion	Salve Lux Mundi (attr. Josquin des Prez, c.1450-1521)
Recessional	Thy hand, O God, has guided

 

Salve Lux Mundi is the second part of the motet Ave Christe Immolate, usually attributed to Josquin, but argued by some to be more likely attributable to Noel Bauldeweyn (c.1480-1530). Either way, it was the first time we’d sung anything by that composer, in the last 26 years or so at least. It was quite an eye-opener for me – I’d taken music from the Middle Renaissance to be fairly plain-spoken, deadpan even, in character, compared with William Byrd’s eye for detail, or the richly atmospheric dramas of Victoria, both from sixty or so years later. Here we found drama in abundance, not least in the alternation between gently meandering counterpoint and bold homophony, the latter especially at the end in the words et nos electorum gregi numerari.

We marked the opening of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity with our recessional hymn, and with the opening verse of O thou who at thy Eucharist didst pray, sung by the choir to Gibbons’s very fine Song 1.

O thou, who at thy Eucharist didst pray
That all thy Church might be forever one,
Grant us at every Eucharist to say
With longing heart and soul: “thy will be done”.
O may we all one Bread, one Body be,
Through this blest Sacrament of unity.