Trinity Sunday (Year A, 2017)

Sunday, 11 June 2017

 

Entrance	Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God almighty
Gloria	Glory to God (Peter Jones)
Psalm	Trinity Psalm (Martin Foster)
Gospel Acclamation	Gospel Greeting (Peter Jones)
Preparation of the Gifts	St Patrick’s Breastplate (C.V. Stanford, 1852-1924)
Sanctus, Acclamation B, Amen	Jubilee Mass (Philip Duffy)
Agnus Dei	Lamb of God II (mcb)
Communion	The Love of God (Psallite)
Postcommunion	O Lux Beata Trinitas (T.L. de Victoria, c.1548-1611)
Recessional	Holy God, we praise thy name

 

Stanford and Victoria for Trinity Sunday, and a change to the elements of the Mass ordinary to mark the transition back to Ordinary Time. We haven't, to my recollection, done a ‘responsorial’ Mass setting in at least the last twenty-seven years – I much prefer a strong melody which the Assembly can take to heart, to the repetitious and disrupted feel of the line-by-line responsorial format. But responsorial settings probably have their place in celebrations bringing together a congregation without a shared common repertoire of ritual music. Philip Duffy’s Jubilee Mass was written for the golden jubilee of Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral on 4th June, and since the composer had very kindly obliged when I begged a copy, I thought we’d try out the Eucharistic acclamations.

The experience over this and subsequent weeks was positive: the setting has sufficient musical interest to keep the choir on its toes, while providing melodic fragments for the assembly appealing enough to evoke a fairly enthusiastic response. There are limits to its staying power, inevitably – what is suitable for a one-off occasion is unlikely to serve well week in week out. But at least we now have a responsorial setting in our repertoire, for when the need might arise.