New Music for the Mass – Salford Cathedral Centre, Saturday 5 November 2011

New Music for the Mass: a day for parish music directors, organists, singers and other musicians

 

You are invited to a day at the Cathedral Centre, Salford, on Saturday 5 November 2011 (10.30 am – 4.00 pm) to look at music for the new translation of the Missal. This is a repeat of the event held in June of this year, so if you missed out on that occasion, we hope you'll be able to join us this time round. Places are limited to 60, so do please get your booking in early!

Martin Barry (Director of Music at Salford Cathedral) and Fr Peter Jones (parish priest, composer and chair of the Archdiocese of Birmingham Church Liturgy and Music Committee) will present a day of new music for the Mass, introducing a wide range musical settings written for the new translation of the Missal.

The admission charge is £10, which includes a buffet lunch and tea, coffee, etc., during the day. Please pay on the day upon arrival. Cheques should be made payable to ‘Salford Cathedral’.

For catering purposes and the production of materials please ensure that you book for the day by e-mailing Martin Barry. You can also e-mail Martin if you have any questions about the day.

If you do not have access to e-mail then you can ring Cathedral House on 0161 834 0333 in order to book for the day. Please give your full name and contact details.

We look forward to seeing you there!

26th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A, 2011)

Sunday, 25 September 2011

 

Entrance	O God, thy people gather
Kyrie	Mass of the Creator Spirit (Ed Nowak)
Gloria	Mass of the Most Sacred Heart (Jacob Bancks)
Psalm	Remember your mercy (Paul Inwood)
Gospel Acclamation	Alleluia Mode 2 (Plainchant)
Preparation of the Gifts	The Servant King (Graham Kendrick)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	Spring Sanctus (mcb)
Agnus Dei	Belmont Mass (Christopher Walker)
Communion	Christ laid down his life for us (Psallite)
Postcommunion	Christus Factus Est (Felice Anerio, 1560-1614)
Recessional	At the name of Jesus

 

Today’s second reading included the magnificent hymn to Christ’s kenosis (‘emptying’):

His state was divine,
yet he did not cling
to his equality with God
but emptied himself
to assume the condition of a slave,
and became as men are;
and being as all men are,
he was humbler yet,
even to accepting death,
death on a cross.
But God raised him high
and gave him the name
which is above all names
so that all beings
in the heavens, on earth and in the underworld
should bend the knee at this name of Jesus
and every tongue should acclaim
Jesus Christ as Lord
to the glory of God the Father.

Anerio’s setting of the key central section of the hymn is one we sing often as the Gospel acclamation for Good Friday, but today was different: on Good Friday we sing the words with defiance, in the face of our Lord’s shocking death; today we sang in full acknowledgement of the resurrection.

Musically the difference came in the section in triple time beginning Propter quod et Deus exaltavit illum (‘But God raised him high’). For Good Friday we keep the tempo the same; today we skipped along at three-in-the-space-of-two, and the sense of irrepressible joy was, well, irrepressible.

25th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A, 2011)

Sunday, 18 September 2011

 

Entrance	Praise to the holiest
Kyrie	Kyrie II from Paschal Mass (Alan Rees)
Gloria	Mass of the Most Sacred Heart (Jacob Bancks)
Psalm	Ps 144 (Jones/Steel)
Gospel Acclamation	St Agatha Alleluia (mcb)
Preparation of the Gifts	Bread I bring (Christopher Walker)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	Spring Sanctus (mcb)
Agnus Dei	Mass of the Creator Spirit (Ed Nowak)
Communion	How can I repay the Lord (Stephen Dean)
Postcommunion	Teach me, O Lord (Thomas Attwood, 1765-1838)
Recessional	Tell out, my soul

 

The heavens are as high above earth as my ways are above your ways, my thoughts above your thoughts, we heard in the reading from Isaiah. John Henry Newman’s verses from the Dream of Gerontius said the same thing:

In all his words most wonderful;
Most sure in all his ways

The readings and propers, for the most part, dwelt on God’s promise to answer the call of those in need. Our communion processional song meditated on this in words from Ps 116:

I love the Lord, because he heard my voice;
In my distress he did not spurn me.
The snares of death lay waiting for my soul;
My only hope was calling on the Lord.

24th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A, 2011)

Sunday, 11 September 2011

 

Entrance	Praise my soul, the king of heaven
Kyrie	Mass of the Creator Spirit (Ed Nowak)
Gloria	Mass of the Most Sacred Heart (Jacob Bancks)
Psalm	Ps 102 (Boulton Smith/Gélineau)
Gospel Acclamation	St Agatha Alleluia (mcb)
Preparation of the Gifts	Now we remain (David Haas)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	Spring Sanctus (mcb)
Agnus Dei	Mass of the Creator Spirit
Communion	Forget not what God has done (Marty Haugen)
Postcommunion	Prayer of St Richard of Chichester (Malcolm Archer)
Recessional	Thanks be to God (Stephen Dean)

 

Today’s readings, focusing on God’s forgiveness, were summed up, as so often, in the psalm response:

The Lord is compassion and love
slow to anger and rich in mercy

We had three versions of Ps 102(103) – the responsorial psalm itself, and Marty Haugen’s setting, and Henry Lyte’s stirring and stately paraphrase in our opening hymn.

The second reading had the words If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord, closely reflected in the final verse of David Haas’s Now we remain.

23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A, 2011)

 

Entrance	All people that on earth do dwell
Kyrie	Kyrie Eleison from Missa Ubi Caritas (Bob Hurd)
Gloria	Missa Ubi Caritas
Psalm	O that today (Chris O’Hara)
Gospel Acclamation	Easter Alleluia
Preparation of the Gifts	Ubi Caritas (Bob Hurd)
Sanctus, Acclamation B, Amen	Spring Sanctus (mcb)
Agnus Dei	Missa Ubi Caritas
Communion	Like the Deer (mcb)
Postcommunion	Sicut Cervus (G.P. da Palestrina, 1525-1594)
Recessional	Love divine, all loves excelling

 

As usual for this Sunday in the year we were joined by members of Province No. 1 of the Catenian Association, which made for a large and willing singing (and speaking) assembly. We made our first full use of the new translation of the Order of Mass, and all seemed to go well. In general it seemed that the sung responses were more successful than the spoken ones, the notes on the page (for the assembly as well as the choir) forcing people to pay attention to the words too. In contrast, with the spoken responses it seemed that concentration was flagging by the end of Mass, so that plenty of instances of and also with you crept in by the time we responded a final time to the Lord be with you. But our gradual implementation of the new texts has been proceeding smoothly since Easter, and today’s experience suggested that this will continue.

The second reading today spoke powerfully of the commandment to love, and both our recessional hymn and our song at the preparation of the gifts tied in with this. The latter fitted nicely with our Lord’s words in the Gospel too: where two or three meet in my name, I shall be there with them, which found echoes in Bob Hurd’s rendition of the ancient hymn:

The love of Christ joins us together;
let us rejoice in him,
and in our love and care for all
now love God in return.

In true communion let us gather;
may all divisions cease
and in their place be Christ the Lord,
our risen Prince of Peace.

May we who gather at this table
to share the bread of life
become a sacrament of love,
your healing touch, O Christ.

Today’s responsorial psalm (94(95)) had the words

For he is our God and we
the people who belong to his pasture,
the flock that is led by his hand.

and we sang similar words paraphrased from Ps 99(100) in Vaughan Williams’s stirring Coronation arrangement of our opening hymn.