Saints Peter and Paul, 2009

Entrance	The Church’s One Foundation
Kyrie	Kyrie I (Jacques Berthier)
Gloria	Coventry Gloria (Peter Jones)
Psalm	Ps 33 (mcb)
Gospel Acclamation	Easter Alleluia
Preparation of the Gifts	Dear Lord and Father of Mankind
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	Gathering Mass (Paul Inwood)
Agnus Dei	Mass XVIII & Missa O Quam Gloriosum (Tomás Luis de Victoria, 1548–1611)
Communion	Come to Me (Martin Barry & Diane Murden)
Postcommunion	Tu Es Petrus (Jacob Clemens non Papa, c. 1510-1556)
Recessional	For All the Saints

For our celebration of the feast of Saints Peter and Paul today we were joined by members of Province 1 of the Catenian Association. We had music to suit a large and willing singing assembly – the Gathering Mass, the Coventry Gloria, and some rousing and well-known hymns. It's some years since we’ve sung Paul Inwood’s mass regularly on Sundays, but it’s just right for large ad hoc gatherings when you want to be sure people will know it well enough to be able to play their part.

The choir sang the setting of Tu Es Petrus by Clemens non Papa (according to Wikipedia his nickname - not the pope - was a joke on the part of his publisher), and the Agnus Dei from Victoria’s Missa O Quam Gloriosum, sandwiched between the first and third lines of the Agnus from Mass XVIII. This seems to me a good way to include gems from the repertoire of polyphonic mass settings, while maintaining the participation of the assembly first and foremost.

12th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B, 2009)

Entrance	Eternal Father, strong to save
Kyrie	Kyrie Litany from Missa Ubi Caritas (Bob Hurd)
Gloria	Missa Ubi Caritas (Hurd)
Psalm	Ps 106 (Boulton Smith/Bévenot)
Gospel Acclamation	The Wulstan Alleluia (Here in our Midst) (Peter Jones)
Preparation of the Gifts	Laudate Dominum (Mozart)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	Missa Ubi Caritas
Agnus Dei	Missa Ubi Caritas
Communion	The eyes of everyone (mcb)
Postcommunion	Oculi Omnium (Charles Wood, 1866-1926)
Recessional	Thanks be to God (Stephen Dean)

A prayer for those in peril on the sea, to go with the storms depicted in the verses of Sunday’s responsorial psalm. They’re unusually dramatic for psalm verses, and we acted them out with big dynamic contrasts, and a sudden pause for the calm after the storm to descend in the third verse.

Two versions of the communion antiphon The Eyes of All – a new simple setting of mine with a congregational refrain, and Charles Wood’s serene prayer of thanksgiving.

More serene thanksgiving in the Mozart (the soprano solo beautifully rendered by Gwen Leech), echoing today’s psalm response O give thanks to the Lord, for his love endures for ever. And then, to finish, a more exuberant expression of gratitude in Stephen Dean’s hymn setting, which deserves to be more widely known.

Corpus Christi, 2009

Entrance	Of the glorious body telling
Kyrie	Kyrie Eleison (Dinah Reindorf)
Gloria	from Missa Latina (Daniel Bath)
Psalm	Ps 115 (Psallite/Stephen Dean)
Gospel Acclamation	Here in our Midst (Peter Jones)
Preparation of the Gifts	Sacerdotes Domini (William Byrd)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	Mass of Christ the King (mcb)
Agnus Dei	Lamb of God II (mcb)
Communion	Take and Eat (Michael Joncas)
Postcommunion	O Sacrum Convivium (Olivier Messiaen)
Recessional	O bread of heaven

Another of our rich and varied musical banquets for the solemnity of the Body & Blood of the Lord, transferred from last Thursday - ranging from Daniel Bath’s Gloria in Cuban jazz style to Messiaen’s vision of the heavenly banquet, at turns almost mute with reverence and dazzling in its vision of future glory.

For the responsorial psalm we took the response from Psallite (Raise the cup of salvation, only we added “I will” by way of an anacrusis, to bring the words more in to line with those of the Lectionary) and psalm verses set by Stephen Dean. The two seemed to go together well.

Compared with the brimming sensuality of the Messiaen, we had to work hard to bring Byrd’s Sacerdotes Domini to life. But I think we found the right understated note of solemnity and mystery for the first half – “The priests of the Lord offer incense and loaves to God, and therefore they shall be holy to their God, and shall not defile His name” – while injecting a spring in the step for the cheerful alleluias with which it concludes.

We didn’t sing today’s sequence Lauda Sion Salvatorem. It’s optional, and to my mind the Latin chant setting isn’t a thing of great beauty. It’s long too. Maybe next year; or maybe I’ll look for a more appealing vernacular setting. Suggestions anyone?

Trinity Sunday, 2009

Entrance	Holy, holy, holy, Lord God almighty
Kyrie	Kyrie Eleison from Missa Ubi Caritas (Bob Hurd)
Gloria	Missa Ubi Caritas
Psalm	Ps 32 (Robert Sherlaw Johnson)
Gospel Acclamation	Here in our Midst (Peter Jones)
Creed	Credo III
Preparation of the Gifts	A Hymn to the Trinity (Tchaikovsky)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	Missa Ubi Caritas
Agnus Dei	Missa Ubi Caritas
Communion	God beyond all names (John Bell) & Benedicta sit sancta Trinitas (chant)
Postcommunion	Tibi Laus (Orlande de Lassus)
Recessional	Holy God, we praise thy name

A sung Credo for a feast on which we reflect perhaps more than usual on the mysteries of what we believe. We sang it antiphonally, the choir and people alternating lines, but having tried it that way I think I prefer singing it all straight through tutti. The text isn’t a dialogue, and it feels arbitrary to allocate some propositions but not others to the singing assembly. It doesn’t make it any easier to sing, anyway - with Credo III you either know it or you don’t. It would be good to sing it often enough that it’s familiar even to younger members of the congregation.

For Communion, a combination of John Bell’s God beyond all names from the Iona collection We walk his way, and the chant antiphon Benedicta sit sancta Trinitas. Strictly speaking the latter is the Introit for today's Mass, but it lends itself nicely to breaking up into three shorter sections interleaved with John Bell’s refrain. In previous years we’ve sung Bernadette Farrell’s song with the same title. Another good text for a day when we reflect on mysteries!

Pentecost, 2009

Entrance	O Spirit All-embracing
Gloria	Mass of the Celtic Saints (Liam Lawton)
Psalm	Send forth your Spirit (Paul Wellicome)
Sequence	Holy Spirit, Lord of Light (Edward Caswall) – chant
Gospel Acclamation	Eastertide Gospel Acclamation (Bernadatte Farrell)
Rite of Confirmation	(i) Come Holy Spirit (Loh I-to, 1936-) (ii) Veni Creator Spiritus (Tomás Luis de Victoria, 1548-1611) (iii) Come Holy Spirit 2 (Stephen Dean)
Preparation of the Gifts	Wisdom, Come Softly (Martin Barry and Diane Murden)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	Mass of the Celtic Saints (Liam Lawton)
Agnus Dei	from Beneath the Tree of Life (Marty Haugen)
Communion	Spirit of the living God & Psalm 103 (John Ainslie)
Recessional	Come Holy Ghost, creator, come

For a special occasion, our usual rich and varied musical banquet. Victoria’s Veni Creator alternates polyphonic verses with verses from the familiar chant setting. We had chant for the Sequence too, though in previous years we’ve also sung the arrangement by Richard Proulx, which clothes the chant melody in a jaunty 6/8 with parallel fifths between the voices.

Come, Holy Spirit, which we sang during the Rite of Confirmation, is a haunting short piece by the Taiwanese ethnomusicologist Loh I-to, consisting of simple ostinato lines for three voices in what in Western music would be called the phrygian mode. The voices enter one by one and the piece’s sense of brooding mystery rises and then ebbs away, conjuring a vivid sense of the Spirit hovering over the chaos. The piece comes from the GIA collection Sound the Bamboo, a compilation of hymns and other sacred music from Asia, of which Loh was also the general editor.

For the Communion procession we alternated repetitions of Spirit of the Living God with verses from psalm 103. The same psalm verses appear in Paul Wellicome’s Send forth your Spirit. This is an unusually lusty sing for a responsorial psalm setting! But no less effective for all that. The rafters shook.

The Ascension, 2009

Entrance	Christ Triumphant
Gloria	Mass of the Celtic Saints (Liam Lawton)
Psalm	Ps 46 (Shaun MacCarthy)
Gospel Acclamation	Eastertide Gospel Acclamation (Bernadatte Farrell)
Prayer of the Faithful	Regina Caeli (chant)
Preparation of the Gifts	Hail the day that sees him rise
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	Mass of the Celtic Saints (Liam Lawton)
Agnus Dei	from Beneath the Tree of Life (Marty Haugen)
Communion	My Peace (Taizé) & Ascendit Deus (chant)
Postcommunion	God is gone up with a merry noise (William Croft, 1678-1727)
Recessional	Alleluia, Sing to Jesus

For the Communion procession we’re singing Jacques Berthier’s My Peace interspersed with chant verses from the short responsory for the office of Terce: Ascendit Deus in Jubilatione. This means that on Sunday we’re singing the same text in three different guises: as well as this Latin version, we’re singing Shaun MacCarthy’s exhilarating setting of the Responsorial Psalm, which sets the Grail text God goes up with shouts of joy to verses that flash past in a flurry of alternating 7/8, 8/8 and 3/4, and William Croft’s God is gone up with a merry noise.

Croft succeeded his teacher John Blow as organist of Westminster Abbey in 1708 (it says in Wikipedia). His verse anthem is in a different style from our usual choral fare, with two majestic choruses flanking a perkier verse for six-part semichorus. In recent years we've sung Palestrina’s Ascendo ad Patrem. The Croft piece makes for a sparkling alternative to Palestrina's more sedate and stately vision of our Lord ascending.

A sung Marian antiphon in place of reciting the Hail Mary after the prayer of the faithful. It's May, after all.

6th Sunday of Easter (B), 2009

Entrance	Speak Out (mcb)
Gloria	Mass of the Celtic Saints (Liam Lawton)
Psalm	Ps 97 (Peter Smedley)
Gospel Acclamation	Eastertide Gospel Acclamation (Bernadatte Farrell)
Preparation of the Gifts	A new commandment (Susan Sayers/Malcolm Archer)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	Mass of the Celtic Saints (Liam Lawton)
Agnus Dei	from Beneath the Tree of Life (Marty Haugen)
Communion	Lord, your love has drawn us near (Stephen Dean)
Postcommunion	If ye love me (Thomas Tallis, c. 1505–1585)
Recessional	Come down, O love divine

Four different pieces reflecting on the theme of God's love, to go with the multiple references in today's scripture readings. Both the Archer and Dean pieces offer a simple, thoughtful and singable refrain for the assembly, and verses for cantor or choir. Tallis's If ye love me sets the text of today's Communion antiphon, and the final hymn links the same ideas of divine love and God's Spirit.

My own Speak Out is an attempt to set today's entrance antiphon (plus the psalm verses from the Gradual) to a boisterous tune that takes up the idea of a voice of joy. It's mostly in 4/4, but there's some skipping around in alternating 5/4 and 3/4 as well, and we were treated to some fiery improvisation along the same lines from Anthony at the end of the song, while Fr Tony incensed the altar and the children processed out for their own Liturgy of the Word.