Good Friday

Celebration of the Lord's Passion

2 April 2010

Psalm 30	Father, into your hands (mtgf)
Gospel Acclamation	Lenten (mtgf)
Passion Acclamation	Behold the Lamb of God (John Bell)
Intercessions	response (Marty Haugen)
Veneration of the Cross	Invitation (A G Murray)
	Reproaches (Peter Jones)
	I have been crucified (Christopher Walker)
	Jesus remember me (Taizé)
Communion	Calvarie Mount (Tallis arr. Charles Wood)
	When I survey the wondrous cross

It is hard to judge the music for Good Friday. There is a question of tone. Many of the texts given in the missal for singing are about the glory of the cross. There is also a question of logistics. How long will the Veneration last, how much will be needed for Communion? This year the veneration seemed to be slower and we also started singing earlier — I usually like the action to begin before singing so that the focus is on the action. Any I have been crucified which was going to be used as the altar is dressed became part of the veneration and the altar was dressed in silence — a welcome pause. Jesus remember me was the final piece in the time of veneration. We seem to only sing Taizé during the Triduum.

I noted that the psalm response does not actually occur in John's version of the passion - but is found in Luke. It also struck me that Behold, the Lamb of God which we sang, as on Sunday, a couple of times in the passion is more a response than an acclamation.

Calvarie Mount is drawn from a English Catholic post reformation text. In Early modern Catholicism: an anthology of primary sources it is described: 'Calvary mount is my delight identifies the suffering of the persecuted Catholics which that of Christ. Probably written by a priest to encouraged his oppressed flock, the ballad expresses a fervent wish for martyrdom.' 'Let me from prison pass away/ On hurdle hard to lie/ To Tyburn drawn without delay/In torments there to die.' is part of the full text. It is sung to Tallis' First Mode Melody. Usually we sing it in a simple 3 part arrangement this year I took Charles Wood's arrangement in his St Mark Passion and further arranged it so that the violinists intertwined chromatically in the second verse and took the wonderful descant in the third verse.

Looking ahead to the new translation - well, there will be new translations of the Intercessions and for the texts of the Veneration, including the Reproaches. We will need a new, or adapted, setting of the invitation (This is the wood of the cross) and though other setting may not have to change it would be probably a good time to review them.