Palm Sunday (2013)

Sunday, 24 March 2013

 

Entrance	Hosanna to the Son of David (Chris Mueller) All Glory Laud and Honour
Psalm	My God, my God (Alan Smith)
Gospel Acclamation	Glory and Praise (mcb)
Preparation of the Gifts	Stabat Mater (G.B. Pergolesi (1710-1736) & plainchant
Sanctus	Missa Orbis Factor
Acclamation	Missal Tone: Save us, Saviour
Agnus Dei	Missa Orbis Factor & Missa O Quam Gloriosum (T.L de Victoria, 1548-1611)
Communion	Father, if this cup (Stephen Dean)
Recessional	My song is love unknown

 

We’s been singing the responsorial Psalm throughout Lent with a solo cantor singing the verses, so today we took the version of Alan Smith’s setting of Ps 21(22) published in Music for the Mass 2, rather than the choral version we’ve used in previous years. The solo voice, it seemed to me, is much better suited to the intensity of the psalmist’s lament here.

The upper voices of the choir sang the haunting opening movement of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, flanked by chant verses sung by the men: to follow, we had the second verse of the same hymn (Cuius animam gementem), while beforehand, we took the verse Virgo virginum praeclara, which the Liber Usualis gives as the opening verse of the alternate text to be sung to the same tune as Stabat Mater. A moving combination, anyway.