The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Entrance	Holy light on earth’s horizon
Kyrie	Kyrie II from Paschal Mass (Alan Rees)
Gloria	Glory to God in the Highest (John L Bell)
Psalm	Ps 44 (Stephen Dean)
Gospel Acclamation	Advent Gospel Acclamation (Andrew Wright), with chanted verse
Preparation of the Gifts	Ave Maria (Sergei Rachmaninoff, 1873-1943)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	German Mass (Schubert, arr. Proulx)
Agnus Dei	Hurd Mass (Bob Hurd)
Communion	The Almighty works marvels for me (Peter Jones)
Postcommunion	Magnificat Octavi Toni (Orlande de Lassus, c.1532-1594)
Recessional	Hail Queen of Heaven

We took a break from our summer break, to sing for today’s feast. A good turnout, and a little bit of thinking ahead in rehearsals in July, meant that we took both Rachmaninov’s Bogoroditse Devo (sung to the Latin text of Ave Maria) and the Lassus Magnificat in our stride.

Peter Jones’s very different setting of the Magnificat, with its gentle ostinato refrain and verses for cantor, was just right as a realisation of today’s Communion antiphon. Hail, Queen of Heaven, on the other hand, seemed not to rouse the assembly to full throat the way it often has in the past: I'm not sure whether that reflects a dwindling of it in popular memory, or just that the summer holiday congregation was a bit smaller than for a regular Sunday.

17th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C, 2010)

Entrance	Praise to the Lord, the almighty
Kyrie	Taizé Kyrie I
Gloria	Coventry Gloria (Peter Jones)
Psalm	On the day I called (Daniel Bath)
Gospel Acclamation	Advent Gospel Acclamation (Andrew Wright), with chanted verse
Preparation of the Gifts	Seek ye first
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	German Mass (Schubert, arr. Proulx)
Our Father	(Estelle White)
Agnus Dei	Hurd Mass (Bob Hurd)
Communion	Blest are they, the poor in spirit (David Haas)
Postcommunion	Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring (J.S. Bach)
Recessional	Holy God, we praise thy name

With the Lord’s Prayer at the heart of today’s Gospel reading, we gave the prayer greater prominence during the Communion Rite by singing it to the well-known and much-loved setting by Estelle White. There's an irony here — we don’t normally sing the prayer, precisely because of our Lord’s words in St Luke’s Gospel: Say this when you pray. There are prayers which are incomplete if you don’t sing them: the words Alleluia, Hosanna, Gloria for instance, are, biblically speaking, all parts of songs. The Lord’s Prayer, however, is inherently prose rather than song.

It made sense to sing it today, though, reinforcing the link between the words we had heard during the Liturgy of the Word, and the same words uttered in prayer, when sometimes we might rattle them off without pausing to make the connection.

16th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C, 2010)

Sunday, 18 July 2010

Entrance	All are welcome (Marty Haugen)
Kyrie	Kyrie Eleison from Missa Ubi Caritas (Bob Hurd)
Gloria	Missa Ubi Caritas (Bob Hurd)
Psalm	Ps 14 (Stephen Dean/Laurence Bévenot)
Gospel Acclamation	Advent Gospel Acclamation (Andrew Wright), with chanted verse
Preparation of the Gifts	Will you come and follow me (John L Bell)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	German Mass (Schubert, arr. Proulx)
Agnus Dei	Hurd Mass (Bob Hurd)
Communion	Forget not what God has done (Marty Haugen)
Postcommunion	O Sacrum Convivium (Giovanni Croce, 1557-1609)
Recessional	O Christ the same (Timothy Dudley-Smith)

Today’s Mass was the occasion for a diocesan celebration, led by Bishop Terence, in thanksgiving for the work of the Sisters of the Holy Family of St Emilie, soon to leave the Diocese after thirty-seven years. Sr Anne O’Shea has been in Salford for thirty-six of those thirty-seven years, for the last twenty-five as Parish Sister and Sacristan here in the Cathedral parish. Timothy Dudley-Smith’s O Christ, the same, set to the tune of Danny Boy, is a favourite of hers. ‘Retirement’ probably isn’t the right word for Sr Anne’s move to Ireland, but we wish her peace and long happiness.

The Gospel reading featured our Lord being welcomed into their home by Martha and Mary, and this prompted the choice of opening hymn, and, indirectly, Croce’s O Sacrum Convivium. It was sung by the choir under the able direction this week of Sabine von Hünerbein, while yours truly had the weekend off to attend a conference.

15th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C, 2010)

Entrance	Lord enthroned in heavenly splendour
Kyrie	Kyrie Eleison from Missa Ubi Caritas (Bob Hurd)
Gloria	Missa Ubi Caritas (Hurd)
Psalm	Ps 68 (Stephen Dean/Ian Forrester)
Gospel Acclamation	Advent Gospel Acclamation (Andrew Wright), with chanted verse
Preparation of the Gifts	The Servant Song (Richard Gillard)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	German Mass (Franz Schubert, arr. Proulx)
Agnus Dei	Hurd Mass (Bob Hurd)
Communion	Eat this bread (Taizé)
Postcommunion	Love Divine (Howard Goodall)
Recessional	Father, Lord of all creation

The second line of our opening hymn was first begotten from the dead, the title accorded to our Lord by St Paul in today’s second reading. The Gospel reading, the story of the good Samaritan, gave us several other of our musical selections, including the hymn at the Preparation of the Gifts, our recessional hymn (Give us grace to love as brothers / All whose burdens we can share) and – reflecting the love which the disconcerting lawyer reluctantly finds written in the Law – Howard Goodall’s setting of Charles Wesley’s Love Divine.

This latter is a scrumptious piece, showcasing the composer’s copious gifts as a melodist. If I were Howard Goodall’s music teacher, though, I might want to make him write it out again with all the barlines in the right place.

14th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C, 2010)

Entrance	When I survey the wondrous cross
Kyrie	Kyrie for 3 voices adapted from Byrd (mcb)
Gloria	Mass for John Carroll (Michael Joncas)
Psalm	Ps 65 (Monaghan/Steel)
Gospel Acclamation	Advent Gospel Acclamation (Andrew Wright), with chanted verse
Preparation of the Gifts	Make me a channel of your peace
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	German Mass (Schubert, arr. Proulx)
Agnus Dei	Hurd Mass (Bob Hurd)
Communion	Taste and See (Richard Proulx)
Postcommunion	Jubilate Deo (adapted from the Stabat Mater by Joseph Haydn, 1732-1809)
Recessional	Forth in the peace of Christ we go

The first reading – Rejoice, Jerusalem – and the Responsorial Psalm – Cry out with joy to God, all the earth – gave us our postcommunion piece, adapted from Haydn. It sets a hybrid text from Psalms 65(66) and 99(100) to the finale (Paradisi Gloria) of his Stabat Mater. To my mind the psalm-based text is perhaps better suited to the exuberance of the music – a rollicking choral fugue – than the text originally set by the composer.

The second reading’s the only thing I can boast about is the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ gave us our opening hymn, and the sending out of the seventy-two in the Gospel reading, with their message of peace, prompted the choice of our recessional hymn.

In fact, all three readings mentioned peace, and this suggested our hymn at the preparation of the gifts, sung in the charming arrangement by William Llewellyn published by the RSCM in the excellent collection Sing With All My Soul.

13th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C, 2010)

Today the Year 3 children of the parish primary school celebrated First Holy Communion. Music was provided by the children of the school, and the cathedral choir had the day off. We’re back next Sunday.

12th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C, 2010)

Entrance	Praise to the holiest
Kyrie	Kyrie for 3 voices, adapted from William Byrd (mcb)
Gloria	Coventry Gloria (Peter Jones)
Psalm	Ps 62: For you my soul is thirsting (author unknown)
Gospel Acclamation	Salisbury Alleluia (Christopher Walker)
Preparation of the Gifts	Your love is finer than life (Marty Haugen)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	German Mass (Franz Schubert, arr. Richard Proulx)
Agnus Dei	Hurd Mass (Bob Hurd)
Communion	The eyes of everyone (mcb)
Postcommunion	Oculi Omnium (Charles Wood, 1866-1926)
Recessional	At the Lamb’s high feast

We heard the words of Psam 62(63) twice, once in Marty Haugen’s fine setting with three-part close harmony for the women’s voices in the verses, and once in today’s responsorial psalm.

We sang the latter to an Anglican psalm tone - a rare venture for us into a sound-world quite different from our more usual style, namely tones by, or in the style of, Laurence Bévenot. Bévenot’s psalm tones are inspired by the Gregorian modes, though with a simpler termination (cadence) at the end of each line than in the Gregorian tones themselves. Anglican chant, by comparison, is both more elaborate and more formulaic at the ends of the lines, and the task in rehearsal was to make light of the cadences, so as not to find ourselves repeatedly subordinating the natural speech rhythms to those of the music.

I’m not sure who wrote the tone we used. We were singing from a manuscript copy found gathering dust in the choir’s music library. Choir members who move in the right circles said it was a well-known Anglican tone, but between us we weren’t able to pinpoint it.

The setting of the Kyrie was an adaptation by me of the Kyrie from the Byrd Mass for Three Voices, expanded (chiefly by repetition) to accommodate the third form of the Penitential Rite. Click here to download a copy, which you’re most welcome to print out and make use of.

The first reading today from Zechariah, and the Gospel reading, both talked of our Lord’s suffering. The stark prophecy: they will look on the one whom they have pierced prompted the choice of our final hymn of thanksgiving –

At the Lamb’s high feast we sing
Praise to our victorious King,
Who hath washed us in the tide
Flowing from his pierced side.

[update 26/6/10: fixed the link to the Kyrie.]