1st Sunday of Advent

2 December 2012

Entrance	Longing, trusting (mtgf)
Penitential Rite	Kyrie - Orbis factor
Psalm 24	To you, O Lord (mtgf)
Gospel Acclamation	Salisbury (Christopher Walker)
Preparation of Gifts	O thou the central orb (Charles Wood)
Eucharistic Acclamations	Creation (Marty Haugen)
Lamb of God	Advent Lamb of God (mtgf)
Communion Antiphon	The Lord will bestow his bounty (mtgf)
Communion	Turn my heart (Marty Haugen)
Final	Hark a herald voice

And so we begin again and at the same time carry on. Nothing new in the core settings this season - but then it was the first anniversary of the full use of the new translation. I am not sure if today's texts are particularly memorable - or perhaps have strong images - but there was a familiarity about the collect and other prayers which seas interesting. We use the Eucharistic Acclamations of the Mass of Creation each year from September until the end of the Christmas and so encompass 3 seasons. This fundamentally practical. One of the benefits of this is that rehearsal time can be used for other things. It also allows the congregation to have confidence. The Mass of Creation is also our default setting which we use for any college Mass - such as later this week for the Immaculate Conception. It is also used at the term time Sunday evening Mass. So we need a setting which provides a common song to a number of sectors of community: the core Sunday morning community, those who are new each September, people from the evening Mass who come outside tern time, staff and students who come to major celebrations outside Sunday and those who visit over Christmas. Inherent in this is my belief that it is fundamentally the role of the core community to lead and encourage participation in the acclamations. And there was one change - we sang the 3rd Memorial Acclamation, Save us, Saviour, as suitable for Advent. I am keen that we use all three acclamations and not get stuck in the rut of only using the first, for example. However I do find this setting slightly awkward with a ¾ bar which feels rushed as though it should be 4/4 - and the first bar exhibits one of my bête-noires 6/4 when it should be 3/2.

Marty Haugen also appeared at Communion this was partly intendd as contrast to the Charles Wood anthem earlier which is a bit of a blast but fitted Advent with its please to 'Come, quickly, come'. We followed the view that the text at the end is a misreading or misprint: 'transforming clay' rather than 'day' - which makes more sense but is a little harder to sing to the music with the two consonants.

We moved to another stage in my antiphon project. The idea is to set the Missal antiphons to a formula which is used and adapted over a season. The Advent settings are musically related to those of Christmas - but with a change of modality.