15th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A, 2011)

 

Entrance	Thou whose almighty word
Kyrie	Taizé Kyrie I
Gloria	Mass of the Most Sacred Heart (Jacob Bancks)
Psalm	Ps 64 (Stuart Beer)
Gospel Acclamation	Alleluia Mode 2 (Plainchant)
Preparation of the Gifts	Eye has not seen (Marty Haugen)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	Mass of Creation (Marty Haugen)
Agnus Dei	Holy Family Mass (John Schiavone)
Communion	Seed scattered and sown (Dan Feiten)
Postcommunion	How lovely are thy dwellings (Johannes Brahms, 1833-1897)
Recessional	Love Divine

 

The seed in today’s readings is identified with the word falling on receptive ears. Our Communion processional song made a different connection, using the image from the Didache: as seed was scattered on the hill and then gathered to make one loaf of bread, so are we gathered into Christ’s body. The music, in different hands, could have a chirpy 60s folk quality to it, but we took it at a gentler pace, which lent a prayerful air, and gave time for the multiple scriptural sources of the text to resonate.

The Communion antiphon itself, from Ps 83(84), included the words

How happy they who dwell in your house! For ever they are praising you.

We sang the same text in the well-known chorus from Brahms’s German Requiem.

Another new Gloria today, namely that from Jacob Bancks’s Mass of the Most Sacred Heart. For a piece given away freely via the internet it has a good deal of musical merit, chiefly in the skilful use of connected melodic themes to mirror the structure of the text itself. On the other hand (as I read in a blog discussion of the piece) the part-writing seems curiously cavalier about musical grammaticality, with a proliferation of consecutive fifths and octaves, unresolved discords, gratuitous second inversions, and the like. The composer seemed unrepentant, and the least that can be said is that to the untrained ear the piece seems to work well.

11.30 Mass at St Nameless’s: 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A, 2011)

 

Entrance	Here I Am, Lord (Dan Schutte)
Preparation of the Gifts	In bread we bring you, Lord (Kevin Nichols)
Memorial Acclamation	He is Lord (2 verses)
Communion	Bind us together
Recessional	As I kneel before you (Maria Parkinson)

 

At the cathedral today they celebrated First Holy Communion for the children of the parish, and the choir were given the customary weekend off.

I went to the principal Sunday Mass in my home parish, where they were celebrating the Leavers’ Mass for the local primary school. The children acted as readers, and there was a School Assembly-style contribution from all the children before the final blessing, but otherwise it was a normal Sunday Mass.

There’s never any strong sign that liturgy and music here are shaped by familiarity with the General Instruction of the Roman Missal, or Celebrating the Mass, and the parish priest seems content not to do anything about it. My impression is that the only template for the way liturgy is conducted in the parish is local practice over the last few decades. I don’t think there’s any sense among the parishioners that it ought to be done differently.

The parish priest contributed some game-show host antics, in recruiting one of the children to take over from him in leading the penitential rite. (He put a microphone in front of the child, and said “Say I confess, and everyone will follow”, with predictable comedy consequences.) The PP also led the one piece of “ritual” music, namely the hymn that stood in for the Memorial Acclamation, calling out the words for verse two, Gospel-music style, over the last notes of verse one.

I was saddened by the spectacle, and mildly embarrassed that it’s the parish I live in.

Saints Peter & Paul (2011)

Wednesday, 29 June 2011

 

Entrance	The Church’s one foundation
Gloria	(ad experimentum)
Psalm	Ps 33 (mcb)
Gospel Acclamation	St Agatha Alleluia (mcb)
Preparation of the Gifts	Tu es Petrus (Hans Leo Hassler, 1564-1612)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	Mass of Creation (Marty Haugen)
Agnus Dei	Missa Ubi Caritas (Bob Hurd)
Communion	Come to me (Martin Barry & Diane Murden)
Recessional	For all the saints

 

The choir outnumbered the congregation for our celebration of today’s feast. Singing in a nearly empty Cathedral allowed us to revel in the reverberant acoustic, especially in the sumptuous motet by Hassler, a new addition to the composers in our music library.

The Body and Blood of Christ (Year A, 2011)

 

Entrance	O Bread of Heaven
Kyrie	Kyrie Eleison from Missa Ubi Caritas (Bob Hurd)
Gloria	(ad experimentum)
Psalm	Ps 147 (Colin Mawby)
Sequence	Lauda Sion Salvatorem (Chris Mueller)
Gospel Acclamation	St Agatha Alleluia (mcb)
Preparation of the Gifts	Sweet Sacrament Divine
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	Mass of Creation (Marty Haugen)
Agnus Dei	Missa Ubi Caritas (Bob Hurd)
Communion	Take and Eat (Michael Joncas)
Postcommunion	Ave Verum Corpus (W.A. Mozart, 1756-1791)
Recessional	Soul of my Saviour

 

My “retro” taste in hymns this morning attracted comment from The Management. Opportunities to sing old favourites like these are relatively infrequent, and it seems to me that they’re still powerful vehicles for Eucharistic devotion, especially for those who (like me) still have them firmly lodged in memory. But for all that, the Mass propers tell of a more active relationship with the Sacrament than we find in hymns for Benediction:

The Lord fed his people with the finest wheat and honey;
their hunger was satisfied.(Ps 80:17)

and

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood will live in me and I in him, says the Lord. (Jn 6:57)

So there’s some more thinking to be done before next time.

We made room for an abridged version of the sequence, in the form of Chris Mueller’s very fine harmonised chant setting for six-part choir of the final verses, which we preceded with the opening lines of St Thomas Aquinas’s original chant. The music of Mueller (who is director of music at the church of Notre Dame in Morningside Heights, Manhattan, New York) is a pleasing internet ‘find’, and I’m glad that there’s more to explore.

Trinity Sunday (Year A, 2011)

 

Entrance	Father, Lord of all creation
Kyrie	Kyrie Eleison from Missa Ubi Caritas (Bob Hurd)
Gloria	(ad experimentum)
Psalm	Canticle from the Flames (Felix Goebel-Komala)
Gospel Acclamation	St Agatha Alleluia (mcb)
Preparation of the Gifts	God so loved the world (John Stainer, 1840-1901)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	Mass of Creation (Marty Haugen)
Agnus Dei	Missa Ubi Caritas (Bob Hurd)
Communion	God beyond all names (John Bell) & Benedicta sit sancta Trinitas (chant)
Postcommunion	O Lux Beata Trinitas (T.L. de Victoria, 1548-1611)
Recessional	Holy, holy, holy, Lord God almighty

 

In Felix Goebel-Komala’s exhilarating interpretation of the canticle from Daniel 3, cantor and assembly engage in zestful dialogue, the choir first supporting the assembly, but eventually succumbing to enthusiasm and elbowing the cantor aside for the last few stanzas of the litany. Ian Williams carried off the cantor’s role with all the requisite panache. We last sang the piece during our Trinity Sunday Mass three years ago, celebrated at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester with the Catenian Association marking its centenary, where the irrepressible vivaciousness of the Canticle elicited a willing response from the vast singing assembly.

We continued our exploration of the works of Victoria, in this his four hundredth anniversary year. O lux beata Trinitas is strictly an evening hymn, but a bit of nifty footwork with the Latin – changing iam sol recedit into iam sol ascendit, even if that’s not the usual verb to describe the sun going up – made it into a fitting song for a morning celebration.

A publisher had very kindly afforded a preview of a revised setting of the Gloria, so we tried it out this morning. When it’s eventually published it will certainly become a staple of our repertoire.

Pentecost (2011)

 

Entrance	Holy Spirit, come confirm us
Gloria	Mass for John Carroll (Michael Joncas)
Psalm	Ps 103 (David Saint)
Gospel Acclamation	Pentecost Sequence (arr. Richard Proulx); Easter Alleluia
Rite of Confirmation	Come Holy Spirit (Stephen Dean) Spirit of God (Bernadette Farrell) Veni Creator Spiritus (T.L. de Victoria, 1548-1611) Spirit of the living God & Psalm 103 (John Ainslie) Come Holy Spirit (Stephen Dean)
Preparation of the Gifts	Wisdom, come softly (Martin Barry & Diane Murden)
Sanctus, Acclamation A, Amen	Gathering Mass (Paul Inwood)
Agnus Dei	Mass of Hope (Stephen Dean)
Communion	Come to me and drink (Bob Hurd)
Recessional	Come Holy Ghost

 

Four parishes came together for a celebration of the Sacrament of Confirmation during our Sunday Mass of Pentecost. This made for an exceptionally large number of candidates, and a rich (and long) celebration. With hindsight, maybe we could have skimped on some elements of the Mass: perhaps recited the Gloria, and omitted the second reading and the sequence. What do you think?

Bob Hurd’s Come to me and drink has several verses mentioning the Spirit, including these lines based on Romans 5:5:

Into our hearts the love of God has been poured
through the Spirit that dwells within.

The Ascension (2011)

Sunday, 5th June 2011

 

Entrance	Praise him as he mounts the skies
Gloria	Mass for John Carroll (Michael Joncas)
Psalm	Ps 46 (Stephen Dean)
Gospel Acclamation	Easter Gospel Acclamation (Brian Luckner)
Preparation of the Gifts	New praises be given
Sanctus, Acclamation B, Amen	Spring Sanctus (mcb)
Agnus Dei	Mass of Hope (Stephen Dean)
Communion	I will see you again (Psallite)
Postcommunion	Ascendo ad Patrem (G.P. da Palestrina, c.1525-1594)
Recessional	At the name of Jesus

 

The fourth verse of our closing hymn pictures the Ascension –

Bore it up triumphant, with its human light,
through all ranks of creatures, to the central height,
to the throne of Godhead, to the Father’s breast;
filled it with the glory of that perfect rest.

– in the same imagery as St Paul, in today’s second reading from 1 Ephesians:

This you can tell from the strength of his power at work in Christ, when he used it to raise him from the dead and to make him sit at his right hand, in heaven, far above every Sovereignty, Authority, Power, or Domination, or any other name that can be named, not only in this age, but also in the age to come.