The Ascension of the Lord (2015)

Sunday, 17 May 2015

 

Entrance	Praise him as he mounts the skies
Kyrie	Kyrie for 3 voices adapted from Byrd (mcb)
Gloria	Psallite
Psalm	Ps 46 (Shaun MacCarthy)
Gospel Acclamation	Easter Alleluia (chant)
Prayers of Intercession	Stay with us, Lord (mcb)
Preparation of the Gifts	Viri Gallilei (William Byrd, c.1540-1623)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	Spring Sanctus (mcb)
Agnus Dei	Lamb of God II (mcb)
Communion	There is one Lord (Taizé)
Postcommunion	Ascendit Deus (Ferdinand Schaller, 1875-1921)
Recessional	Alleluia, sing to Jesus

We had two contrasting choral reflections for today’s feast, in Byrd’s extended setting of the Introit, and Schaller’s simple miniature in Cecilian idiom, setting the text of the Gospel acclamation. The latter piece was another interesting CPDL find, from a composer about whom it seems hard to find very much information. (The slim biographical information available tends to be limited to a note that Herr Schaller met his tragic end in a snowstorm.) Ellie Slorach directed the Byrd, and Rebecca Fenwick the Schaller.

6th Sunday of Easter (Year B, 2015)

Sunday, 10 May 2015

 

Entrance	This joyful Eastertide
Kyrie	Kyrie for 3 voices adapted from Byrd (mcb)
Gloria	Psallite
Psalm	Ps 97 (Peter Smedley)
Gospel Acclamation	Easter Alleluia (chant)
Prayers of Intercession	Stay with us, Lord (mcb)
Preparation of the Gifts	Greater Love Hath No Man (John Ireland, 1879-1962)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	Spring Sanctus (mcb)
Agnus Dei	Lamb of God II (mcb)
Communion	If there is this love (Martin Barry & Diane Murden)
Postcommunion	If ye love me (Thomas Tallis, c.1505-1585)
Recessional	Come down, O love divine

 

Today’s Gospel reading from John 15, a powerful excerpt from the Farewell Discourse, gave us the lines:

This is my commandment:
love one another, as I have loved you.
A man can have no greater love
than to lay down his life for his friends.

prompting both our Communion song – a reprise of our accompaniment to the Mandatum on Holy Thursday – and John Ireland’s dramatic meditation for Passiontide. The weight and scale of the latter piece’s more dramatic sections probably call for for large choral forces, but we gave, I thought, a credible rendition with just a dozen singers singing one and two to a part. Robin and Claire Wolfendale provided the solos.

5th Sunday of Easter (Year B, 2015)

Sunday, 3 May 2015

 

Entrance	Bring to the Lord a glad new song (C.H.H. Parry/Michael Perry)
Kyrie	Kyrie for 3 voices adapted from Byrd (mcb)
Gloria	Psallite
Psalm	Ps 21 (James Walsh)
Gospel Acclamation	Easter Alleluia (chant)
Prayers of Intercession	Stay with us, Lord (mcb)
Preparation of the Gifts	Alleluia Surrexit Dominus (Jacquet de Mantua, 1483-1559)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	Spring Sanctus (mcb)
Agnus Dei	Lamb of God II (mcb)
Communion	I am the vine (John Bell) & Psalm 79(80) (Bévenot)
Postcommunion	Easter Anthem (Paul Inwood)
Recessional	Battle is o’er

 

4th Sunday of Easter (Year B, 2015)

Sunday, 26 April 2015

 

Entrance	All people that on earth do dwell
Kyrie	Kyrie for 3 voices adapted from Byrd (mcb)
Gloria	Psallite
Psalm	The stone which the builders rejected (Bernadette Farrell)
Gospel Acclamation	Easter Alleluia (chant)
Prayers of Intercession	Stay with us, Lord (mcb)
Preparation of the Gifts	This is the day (Anon, c.1600)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	Spring Sanctus (mcb)
Agnus Dei	Lamb of God II (mcb)
Communion	Eye has not seen (Marty Haugen)
Postcommunion	Surrexit Pastor Bonus (G.P. da Palestrina, 1525-1594)
Recessional	Hail Redeemer, King divine

 

3rd Sunday of Easter (Year B, 2015)

Sunday, 19 April 2015

 

Entrance	Let all the world in every corner sing
Kyrie	Kyrie for 3 voices adapted from Byrd (mcb)
Gloria	Psallite
Psalm	Ps 4 (James Walsh)
Gospel Acclamation	Easter Alleluia (chant)
Prayers of Intercession	Stay with us, Lord (mcb)
Preparation of the Gifts	Now the green blade riseth
Sanctus, Acclamation A, Amen	Spring Sanctus (mcb)
Agnus Dei	Lamb of God II (mcb)
Communion	Touch Me and See (Psallite)
Postcommunion	Surrexit Christus (adapted from G.B. Pergolesi (1710-1736) by Richard Proulx)
Recessional	Lord, enthroned in heavenly splendour

 

Easter Sunday (2015)

Sunday, 5 April 2015

 

Entrance	Jesus Christ is Ris’n Today
Kyrie	Kyrie for 3 voices adapted from Byrd (mcb)
Gloria	Psallite
Psalm	This is the Day (mcb)
Gospel Acclamation	Sequence: Victimae Paschali Laudes (William Greene) Easter Alleluia (chant)
Preparation of the Gifts	Christo Resurgenti (François Couperin, 1668–1733)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	Spring Sanctus (mcb)
Agnus Dei	Lamb of God II (mcb)
Communion	Confitemini Domino (Taizé) & Ps 117 (Laurence Bévenot)
Postcommunion	Surrexit Christus Dominus (Michael Praetorius, 1571-1621)
Recessional	Go in peace, Alleluia At the Lamb’s high feast

 

The seven sung services between Holy Thursday and Easter Sunday represented our most ambitious musical programme in many years. It was exhausting but rewarding. Happy Easter!

The Easter Vigil (2015)

Saturday, 4 April 2015

 

The Service of Light	Lumen Christi (chanted)
Exsultet	Plainchant
After 1st reading (Genesis 1)	Send forth your Spirit (Stephen Dean)
After 2nd reading (Genesis 22)	Preserve me, God (Patrick Killeen)
After 3rd reading (Exodus 14-15)	I will sing to the Lord (Geoffrey Boulton Smith)
After 4th reading (Ezekiel 36: I shall give you a new heart)	Like the deer (mcb) listen
Gloria	Psallite
Easter Alleluia + Psalm 117	Plainchant, verses by Paul Inwood
Blessing of Water	Springs of Water (Marty Haugen)
Sprinkling	Vidi Aquam (T.L. de Victoria, c.1548-1611)
Universal Prayer	Stay with us, Lord (mcb) listen
Preparation of the Gifts	Dextera Domini (Orlande de Lassus, 1532-1594) listen
Sanctus, Acclamation A, Amen	Spring Sanctus (mcb)
Agnus Dei	Lamb of God II (mcb)
Communion	Now we remain (David Haas)
Dismissal	Go in peace, Alleluia (chanted)
Final Hymn	Thine be the Glory

 

A mix-up involving an absent reader meant that we omitted what was going to be the fourth of five Old Testament readings (Isaiah 55, followed by an adaptation of Bob Hurd’s With joy you shall draw water). New this year was the second reading, telling the story of Abraham and Isaac. The accompanying psalm was our first from Patrick Killeen’s collection Sing a New Psalm.

Bishop John intoned the Gloria and the Alleluia (the latter to the simple Easter tone), and sang the Preface, and his part in the dialogues in the Eucharistic Prayer and at the Dismissal. In all, it was our customary musical feast, ranging from chant, through Victoria and Lassus, to Marty Haugen and David Haas. I’d like to think our music succeeded in serving the ritual needs of a rich and complex liturgy, in a welcoming diversity of musical idioms.