The Exaltation of the Holy Cross (2014)

Sunday, 14 September 2014

 

Entrance	The Glory of the Cross
Kyrie	Mass of the Redeemer (mcb) - Penitential Act
Gloria	Psallite
Psalm	Ps 77 (Eugene Monaghan)
Gospel Acclamation	Easter Alleluia (chant) & Adoramus te no. 2 in G minor (Antonio Lotti, 1667-1740)
Preparation of the Gifts	Behold the wood of the cross (Dan Schutte)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	German Mass (Schubert, arr. Richard Proulx)
Agnus Dei	Mass of the Redeemer (mcb)
Communion	Forget not what God has done (Marty Haugen)
Postcommunion	O Crux Ave (Rihards Dubra, b.1964)
Recessional	At the name of Jesus

 

It’s unusual for us to have an elaborately choral Gospel acclamation, but the Lectionary text for today was virtually that of Lotti’s dramatic miniature. We preceded and followed it with the chant Easter Alleluia, so the whole thing, I trust, felt like a moment for the entire assembly.

Fr Michael’s powerful homily dwelt on the word behold, so Dan Schutte’s simple invitation to adore the Crucified was (fortuitously) well-chosen.

23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A, 2014)

Sunday, 7 September 2014

 

Entrance	All people that on earth do dwell
Kyrie	Mass of the Redeemer (mcb) - Kyrie
Gloria	Psallite
Psalm	O that today (Chris O’Hara)
Gospel Acclamation	Easter Alleluia
Preparation of the Gifts	Make me a channel of your peace
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	Missal tone
Agnus Dei	Mass of the Redeemer (mcb)
Communion	Where two or three are gathered (Liam Lawton)
Postcommunion	Sicut Cervus (G.P. da Palestrina, 1525-1594)
Recessional	O God our help in ages past

 

Back with a bang, even though we were few in number in the absence, for a couple of weeks more, of our student members. We were helped along by the Catenians of Number One Province, assembled as usual on this Sunday for their annual Mass. The opening and closing hymns shook the rafters.

Today’s Gospel reading from Matthew 18 ended with the words

For where two or three meet in my name,
I shall be there with them.

We sang Liam Lawton’s reflection on these words, by turns stirring and thoughtful. As I think I’ve mentioned before, the uplifting refrain more than makes up for the rather plain and uninspired verses.

18th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A, 2014)

Sunday, 3 August 2014

 

Entrance	All who hunger gather gladly
Gospel Acclamation	Easter Alleluia (chant)
Preparation of the Gifts	Christ be beside me
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	Missal Tone
Communion	Eat this bread (Taizé)
Recessional	Now thank we all our God

 

Summer holiday fare. With Anthony away in Lourdes for the Diocesan pilgrimage, it was yours truly on the organ; piano as well, for Rick Wakeman’s arrangement of Bunessan made famous a long time ago by Cat Stevens.

Fr Michael was away in Lourdes too, and we were privileged to have Fr Chris Hilton from the Oratorian Community at St Chad’s as our celebrant. The Eucharistic Prayer, sung in its entirety to the Missal chant, to my ear had a sense of timeless stillness.

Requiem Mass for the centenary of the outbreak of World War I

17th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

Sunday, 27 July 2014

 

Entrance	(i) Requiem Aeternam (chant) (ii) Be thou my vision
Kyrie	Mass XVIII (at Masses of the Dead)
Gloria	none
Psalm	Ps 118 (Simon Reynolds)
Gospel Acclamation	Advent Gospel Acclamation (Andrew Wright) with chanted verse
Preparation of the Gifts	The kingdom of God
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	Mass XVIII and Missal tones
Agnus Dei	Missa pro defunctis
Communion	Forget not what God has done (Marty Haugen)
Postcommunion	(i) Lux Aeterna (chant) (ii) Justorum Animae (R R Terry, 1865-1938)
Recessional	Abide with me

 

The choir – this time a skeleton crew of regular members, with no reinforcements – once again achieved remarkable results in challenging circumstances. The occasion was sprung on us, ironically for a WWI commemoration, at the eleventh hour, so with only a brief rehearsal before Mass we brushed up the plainchant Requiem, including Introit and Communio. Richard Terry’s melodramatic Edwardian miniature, which presumably dates from around a hundred years ago (I can’t find a reliable record of the publication date), and the opening and closing hymns also fed into the themes of death and war.

As well as this we had music appropriate to the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time. The Communion antiphon for the day was from Ps 102(103):

Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and never forget all his benefits.

We sang Marty Haugen’s setting of the same psalm, and rounded off three Sundays on which the Gospel reading touched on the Kingdom, with a hymn on the same subject.

That’s all for now from the choir — we’re on our annual break for the next five Sundays. Back in September.

16th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A, 2014)

Sunday, 20 July 2014

 

Entrance	O God, thy people gather
Kyrie	Kyrie from Mass of the Redeemer (mcb)
Gloria	Mass of the Redeemer
Psalm	O Lord, you are good (mcb)
Gospel Acclamation	Advent Gospel Acclamation (Andrew Wright) with chanted verse
Preparation of the Gifts	All that is hidden (Bernadette Farrell)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	Mass of the Redeemer
Agnus Dei	Mass of the Redeemer
Communion	Here I stand (John Bell)
Postcommunion	O Quam Gloriosum (T.L. de Victoria, 1548-1611)
Recessional	O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder

 

Ordination to the Priesthood of Alfred Rebello and Laurence Gambella

Friday, 18 July 2014

 

Entrance	Lord, You Give The Great Commission
Kyrie	Missa de Angelis
Gloria	Missa de Angelis
Psalm	I will sing forever of your love (mcb)
Gospel Acclamation	Easter Alleluia (chant)
Litany of the Saints	chant
Illustrative Rites	Veni Creator Spiritus (chant)
Kiss of Peace	(i) O Quam Gloriosum (T.L. de Victoria, 1548-1611) (ii) Ubi Caritas (Maurice Duruflé, 1902-1986)
Preparation of the Gifts	Greater love hath no man (John Ireland, 1879-1962)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	Missa de Angelis & English Missal tone
Agnus Dei	Missa de Angelis
Communion	(i) Whoever eats my flesh (John Ainslie) (ii) O Sacrum Convivium (Olivier Messiaen, 1908-1992) (iii) Sweet Sacrament Divine
Postcommunion	Of the Father’s love begotten
Recessional	Hail Queen of Heaven

 

A big event at this time of year, once our student members have departed for the summer, always calls for additional forces to augment the choir. I don’t know whose idea it was to have the Mass of Ordination at 7 pm on a Friday evening, but between you and me it wasn’t an inspired decision. We had about forty minutes to rehearse a rather overloaded musical programme with a semi-scratch choir, the cathedral (where the building works in Cathedral House oblige us to rehearse before a service) rapidly filling with a noisy congregation. Needless to say, I was a picture of effortless serenity. 😊

We did thoroughly well, anyway, especially in a dramatic rendition of Ireland’s Greater Love. The treble solo, as well as the responsorial psalm, were sung beautifully by Jack Topping of Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral. Also worthy of mention was the Communion chant, from John Ainslie’s new collection of English proper chants, a resource we are certain to make more use of in future.

Congratulations to the new priests, and also to the choir members, both regulars and guests, for such a fine musical performance on the most cursory preparation.

15th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A, 2014)

Sunday, 13 July 2014

 

Entrance	Thou whose almighty word
Kyrie	Kyrie from Mass of the Redeemer (mcb)
Gloria	Mass of the Redeemer
Psalm	Ps 64 (Stuart Beer)
Gospel Acclamation	Advent Gospel Acclamation (Andrew Wright) with chanted verse
Preparation of the Gifts	Eye has not seen (Marty Haugen)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	Mass of the Redeemer
Agnus Dei	Mass of the Redeemer
Communion	Seed scattered and sown (Dan Feiten)
Postcommunion	Tantum Ergo (Duruflé)
Recessional	Love Divine

 

On this Sunday eighteen years ago we sang for a live televised Mass on ITV. The Psalm setting and the Gospel acclamation then were the same as today’s, and we sang another of Duruflé’s Gregorian motets, namely Ubi Caritas. On the theme of sown seed we had Bernadatte Farrell’s Unless a grain of wheat, rather than Dan Feiten’s more cheerful and musically lightweight offering (which nonetheless incorporates the rich theology of the Didache).

It’s a long time now since ITV carried regular live broadcasts of religious services, or indeed any kind of televised worship. We had a spell of about five years when we featured regularly in the same broadcaster’s My Favourite Hymns, culminating in my trad jazz arrangement of Just a closer walk with thee one Christmas morning. But it’s about ten years since this programme too had its budget axed. It was fun while it lasted.