1st Sunday of Advent (Year B, 2011)

Sunday, 27 November 2011

 

Entrance	Let all mortal flesh keep silence
Kyrie	Missal Chant
Psalm	God of hosts, bring us back (Sue Furlong)
Gospel Acclamation	Advent Gospel Acclamation (Alan Smith)
Prayers of Intercession	Through our lives (John Bell)
Preparation of the Gifts	Wake O Wake, with tidings thrilling (Philipp Nicolai, 1566-1608, arr mcb & J.S. Bach, 1685-1750)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	Missal Chant
Agnus Dei	Missal Chant
Communion	To you, O lord, I lift my soul (Marty Haugen)
Postcommunion	Ad te levavi (F.X. Witt, 1834-1888)
Recessional	Love divine, all loves excelling

 

Our two pieces during Communion both took their text from the entrance antiphon:

To you, I lift up my soul, O my God. In you, I have trusted; let me not be put to shame. Nor let my enemies exult over me; and let none who hope in you be put to shame.

Franz Xaver Witt was a founding father of the Cecilian movement, and his dramatic miniature is five parts imitation Palestrina to one part attempted Bruckner. Marty Haugen’s gentle prayerful setting adds verses from Psalm 25.

We sang two verses of Philipp Nicolai’s Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, in the 1906 translation by Francis Crawford Burkitt. The first was my perky dance-like arrangement for four voices, the second a more stately rendition of Bach’s chorale harmonisation. The overall mood of the piece was one of burgeoning anticipation; just right for a first celebration of Advent.

Christ the King (Year A, 2011)

Sunday, 20 November 2011

 

Entrance	Christus Vincit
Kyrie	Kyrie for 3 voices adapted from Byrd (mcb)
Gloria	Psallite Mass
Psalm	Ps 22 (Gélineau)
Gospel Acclamation	St Agatha Alleluia (mcb)
Preparation of the Gifts	Let all the world in every corner sing
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	Mass of Creation (Marty Haugen)
Agnus Dei	Lamb of God II (mcb)
Communion	Te saeculorum principem (chant) & Jesus, remember me (Taizé)
Postcommunion	Hallelujah (from the Messiah by G.F. Handel, 1685-1759)
Recessional	Crown him with many crowns

 

We opened our celebration with plainchant at its most muscular – the mid-13th century Laudes Regiae from the Worcester Antiphoner, in the version reconstructed by Laurence Bévenot. This is different from the version appearing in the Roman chant books, with the latter version’s emphasis on prayers for the Church. We prayed instead chiefly for the Pope: tu illum adiuva rather than illam.

Today’s Communion antiphon from Ps 28 –

The Lord shall reign for ever and will give his people the gift of peace

was the perfect excuse for the Hallelujah chorus, echoing the first sentiment, if not so obviously the second.

33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A) and Remembrance Sunday 2011

Sunday, 13 November 2011

 

Introit	Requiem Aeternam (chant)
Opening Hymn	Abide with me
Kyrie	Kyrie for 3 Voices adapted from Byrd (mcb)
Gloria	Psallite Mass
Psalm	O blessed are those (Paul Inwood)
Gospel Acclamation	Alleluia Mode 2 (Plainchant)
Preparation of the Gifts	Will you let me be your servant
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	Mass of Creation (Marty Haugen)
Agnus Dei	Lamb of God II (mcb)
Communion	Confitemini Domino (Taizé) & Ps 117 (Bévenot)
Postcommunion	Justorum Animae (Charles Villiers Stanford, 1852-1924)
Recessional	O praise ye the Lord

 

Stanford’s powerful and dramatic setting of words from the book of Wisdom was just right for Remembrance Sunday, as was the plainchant introit from the Requiem Mass, and the hymn which followed our two minutes’ silence at the beginning of Mass.

The readings and antiphons for the 33rd Sunday were harder to match with suitable songs, I thought, but Paul Inwood’s gentle setting of the responsorial psalm hit the right note, as did our song – taking up the image of the good and faithful servant from St Matthew’s Gospel – at the preparation of the gifts.

32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A, 2011)

Sunday, 6 November 2011

Entrance	Awake, awake, fling off the night
Sprinkling Rite	Springs of Water (Marty Haugen)
Gloria	Psallite Mass
Psalm	Ps 62 (James Walsh)
Gospel Acclamation	Celtic Alleluia (Fintan O’Carroll)
Presentation of Confirmation Candidates	Christ be our Light (Bernadette Farrell)
Preparation of the Gifts	Wisdom Come Softly (Diane Murden & Martin Barry)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	Mass of Creation (Marty Haugen)
Agnus Dei	Lamb of God II (mcb)
Communion	Because the Lord is my Shepherd (Christopher Walker)
Recessional	O Jesus Christ, remember

 

We had fairly family-friendly musical fare for a celebration including the presentation of most of our eighteen candidates for Confirmation and First Communion this year. While the children and their parents processed to the Paschal Candle to light their Baptismal candles, we sang Christ be our light.

We sang my second setting of the Lamb of God for the first time in a good while. While it was off the road it underwent a re-fit – the final phrase being rewritten to bring the words more closely into line with the Missal text, the way composers are now being encouraged. The congregation seemed to cope with the change without demur. The revised version survived scrutiny by the panel of the Bishops’ Conference, and was approved for publication in Glory to God, now appearing (in its agreeably rapid second printing) at a religious bookshop near you. I'm not sure why the publisher’s own web site gives so little information about it.

31st Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A, 2011)

 

Entrance	Lord of all hopefulness
Kyrie	Belmont Mass (Christopher Walker)
Gloria	Psallite Mass
Psalm	Ps 130 (Paul Inwood)
Gospel Acclamation	Alleluia Mode 2 (Plainchant)
Preparation of the Gifts	Dear Lord and Father of mankind
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	Belmont Mass
Agnus Dei	Belmont Mass
Communion	Centre of my life (Paul Inwood)
Postcommunion	Pater Noster (Igor Stravinsky, 1882-1971)
Recessional	Guide me, O thou great redeemer

 

Today’s readings offered images of parenthood. Have we not all one Father?, we were asked in the first reading from Malachi, and we heard our Lord’s answer in the reading from St Matthew’s Gospel: you have only one Father, and he is in heaven. We sang Stravinsky’s setting of the Lord’s Prayer, in which we call God Father, and obey his command (again recounted by Malachi) to glorify my name.

There were images of motherhood too, in the Responsorial Psalm, and in St Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians, but fewer choices when it came to musical settings embodying the same images.

The Communion Antiphon was from Psalm 15:

Lord, you will show me the path of life
and fill me with joy in your presence.

and our Communion processional song was Paul Inwood’s setting of this Psalm.

30th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A, 2011)

Sunday, 23 October 2011

 

Entrance	Father, Lord of all creation
Kyrie	Belmont Mass (Christopher Walker)
Gloria	Mass of the Most Sacred Heart (Jacob Bancks)
Psalm	Ps 17 (James Walsh)
Gospel Acclamation	Salisbury Alleluia (Christopher Walker)
Preparation of the Gifts	Make me a channel of your peace (Sebastian Temple, arr. William Llewellyn)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	Belmont Mass
Agnus Dei	Belmont Mass
Communion	Lord, your love has drawn us near (Stephen Dean)
Postcommunion	Love divine, all loves excelling (Howard Goodall)
Recessional	All my hope on God is founded

 

Prompted by today’s readings, our musical selections reflected on love, human and divine.

For the ordinary of the Mass, we continued with Chris Walker’s Belmont Mass, whose prayerful chant-inspired melodies to my mind succeed in embodying the ‘noble simplicity’ spoken of (in Sacrosanctum Concilium) as characteristic of the liturgy. The published version is entirely for unison voices, but we experimented today with a cappella four-part harmony, the choir fitting the words to the harmonies of the organ part in both the Kyrie and the Agnus Dei. It worked very well, I thought, and it will give us the option of varying the texture – unison voices with organ, unaccompanied unison singing, accompanied and unaccompanied vocal harmonies – to suit times and seasons.

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A, 2011)

Sunday, 16 October 2011

 

Entrance	O God beyond all praising (Gustav Holst/Michael Perry)
Kyrie	Belmont Mass (Christopher Walker)
Gloria	Mass of the Most Sacred Heart (Jacob Bancks)
Psalm	Ps 95 (Reynolds)
Gospel Acclamation	St Agatha Alleluia (mcb)
Preparation of the Gifts	Holy is God (Liam Lawton)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	Belmont Mass
Agnus Dei	Belmont Mass
Communion	Turn to me (John Foley)
Postcommunion	Ab ortu solis (William Byrd, 1540-1623)
Recessional	Holy God, we praise thy name

 

In today’s first reading, from Isaiah, we heard the words from the rising to the setting of the sun, apart from me, all is nothing. We sang a similar text with a different scriptural source (namely Malachi) in Byrd’s setting of the tract for the Votive Mass of the Blessed Sacrament:

From the rising of the sun to its setting,
my name is great among the nations,
and in every place a pure sacrifice is offered to my name:
for my name is great among the nations.

This same scriptural text is highlighted in the new translation of the third Eucharistic prayer, which we also heard today.