Good Friday

22 April 2011

Psalm 31	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 Gregory Murray)
	Reproaches (Peter Jones)
	O vos omnes (Victoria)
	Jesus, remember me (Taizé)
	O Crux ave (Rihards Dubra)
Communion	Calvarie Mount (Tallis arr. Charles Wood)
	When I survey the wondrous cross

I noted last year that coming changes will particularly affect the intercessions and the invitation to the cross. The procession with the cross was one of those points where the congregation really sang its response. The question becomes is it this tradition (because we have used the same setting over a number of years), this setting (an intrinsic quality in the music) or this context (this a point where the assembly wishes to express itself in song - it makes sense to sing this or at this point)? Like most things it is probably a combination. The first and third are connected - this what we do at this point - it's part of the ritual. For the most part the significant change for most musicians will be parts of the Mass and as those can be established outside the Triduum it means that tradition and ritual can be maintained.

Two motets were new this year. The catalyst for Victoria's O vos omnes from his Tenebrae Responsories was the 400th anniversary of his death. Apart from the pathos he manages to draw from simple means the text from Lamentations seem to add an extra layer to the liturgical moment. To sing All you who pass this way as people process to venerate the Cross add perhaps a further reproach. A challenge for Good Friday which I am not otherwise sure we meet except in the Gospel Acclamation is the glory of the Cross — lament is easier or at least better provided for. The second motet by the contemporary Latvian composer Rihards Dubra also addressed this in a quiet way. The text is taken from Vexilla regis and within the first bar you know that you are in the hands of confident choral composer who is not ashamed to write simply and with warmth.