Holy Family of Jesus, Mary & Joseph

28 December 2014

Entrance	See amid the winter's snow
Penitential Rite	St Gabriel (mtgf)
Gloria	Christmas (Paul Gibson)
Psalm 104	He, the Lord, is our God (mtgf)
Gospel Acclamation	Salisbury Alleluia (Christopher Walker)
Preparation of Gifts	Carol at Bethlehem Cave (Spanish arr. Walker)
Eucharistic Acclamations	Creation (Marty Haugen)
Lamb of God	Christmas (mtgf)
Communion Antiphon	Our God has appeared (mtgf)
Communion	Mary ponder in your heart (Christopher Walker)
Final	Unto us is born a Son

It can a simple, and possibly even obvious, thought which enlightens a feast for you but Living Eucharist noting that the Gospel was partly about the Holy Family gathering with older people. We used the optional readings for Year B and that idea ran through the other readings too with the reference to Abraham and Sarah.

Psalm 104 is not otherwise used on a Sunday. The response I wrote went from 4/4 to ¾ - I always slightly worry that this is my mistake but no that is how it naturally sounded. Picking a point from Christmas night in the congregation's leaflet I left the time signatures out of the music. My suspicion is that elements such as changing time signatures make the music look 'complicated' and therefore effect the congregation's response. I would argue that including the music encourages or at least reminds people to sing and some (many?) may be familiar with basic musical notation. I suppose it is this idea of 'basic musical notation' that suggest not making things appear to complex, such as omitting time signatures or empty bars at the end of a response. The purpose is to give people the necessary information to sing which may not mean a faithful representation of the musical score.

Christmas - Day Mass

25 December 2014

Entrance	Once in royal David's city
Penitential Rite	St Gabriel (mtgf)
Gloria	Christmas (Paul Gibson)
Psalm 97	All the ends of the earth (mtgf)
Gospel Acclamation	Salisbury Alleluia (Christopher Walker)
Preparation of Gifts	Sing we the Virgin Mary (Niles)
Eucharistic Acclamations	Creation (Marty Haugen)
Lamb of God	Christmas (mtgf)
Communion Antiphon	All the ends of the earth (mtgf)
Communion	Child of my heart (Scottish arr. Hagen)
	Away in a manger
Final	O little town of Bethlehem

Both Mass during the night and at 11am were full - I would suggest more than our usual congregation.This will partly because outside term time we gain those who may usually go to the evening Mass but as well as regulars having families staying we also a fair number of the less frequent locals and former students.

I realised that I need to make a list of our Christmas repertoire as we fall on various pieces each year with different choir members having their favourites. And each we add a couple of new pieces or perhaps resurrect. Child of my heart is a Marty Haugen arrangement of a Scottish tune which also used by the Iona Community. Where the Iona version (Cloth for the cradle) is lively; this is a gentle lullaby. It is probably 20 years since I last used it but it is a lovely melody. On re-looking I find I want to tweak the words for either sentimentality or what is possibly dated cliché — but a lot of Christmas music would be at risk in the light of those comments.

Christmas - Mass during the Night

25 December 2014

Carol	Once in royal David's city
Choir	O radiant dawn (James MacMillan)
Carol	While shepherds watched
Choir	Shepherd's Cradle Hymn (Bavarian arr. MacPherson)
Carol	O little town of Bethlehem
Choir	Verbum Caro (Richards Dubra)
Carol	Infant lowly
Choir	O holy night (Adam)
Carol	Joy to the world
Entrance	O come all ye faithful
Penitential Rite	St Gabriel (mtgf)
Gloria	Christmas (Paul Gibson)
Psalm 95	Today a Saviour has been born (Bernadette Farrell)
Gospel Acclamation	Salisbury Alleluia (Christopher Walker)
Profession of Faith	Credo III - Et incarnatus (Josquin)
Preparation of Gifts	What shall we give (Catalan arr. Dean)
Eucharistic Acclamations	Creation (Marty Haugen)
Lamb of God	Christmas (mtgf)
Communion Antiphon	The Word became flesh (mtgf)
Communion	Night of Silence/ Silent Night (Daniel Kantor)
Final	Hark the herald angels

This year there was just singing from 11.30pm. On reflection there were 2 items too many and it may have been better to have ended with a choir piece.

We sang Credo III again, after a year's absence, with the interpolation of the Josquin Et incarnatus (from Missa Pange Lingua) to allow people time to genuflect - this needs more than a rubric in the booklet. We sang it alternately but I am not sure if the bold type was clear enough in the dim atmospheric lighting. One of the issues that has struck me in the liturgy leaflets is how you give (musical) information to enable people to participate. It may be better, though would require more preparation, to put in the booklet the music for the section which the congregation sing and just text for the rest.

We tried a new descant for Hark the herald angels — it is hard eclipse the memory of a Willcock's descant; for composers as well as singers.

4th Sunday of Advent

21 December 2014

Entrance	Longing, trusting (mtgf)
Penitential Rite	Kyrie 'Orbis factor'
Psalm 88	I will sing for ever (mtgf)
Gospel Acclamation	Helmsley Alleluia (adp. mtgf)
Preparation of Gifts	O come divine Messiah (French)
Eucharistic Acclamations	Creation (Marty Haugen)
Lamb of God	Advent (mtgf)
Communion Antiphon	Behold, a virgin shall conceive (mtgf)
Communion	O holy Mary (Owen Alstott)
Final	O come, O come Emmanuel

I was away this weekend - but normal musical service continued. It is probably best not to record my liturgical experience; it did make one appreciate again that those things one thinks of as normal, such as, just singing parts of the Mass is not a universal experience.

Looking back at this most Marian of Sundays I suspect this Mass might have better reflected this. However, it would also have seemed odd not to have sung O come, O come Emmanuel. In some ways this Sunday has a sense of 'why are we waiting' — increasing the numbers of 'Come, Lord Jesus'.

3rd Sunday of Advent

14 December 2014

Entrance	On Jordan's bank
Penitential Rite	Kyrie 'Orbis factor'
Canticle - Luke 1	My soul rejoices (mtgf)
Gospel Acclamation	Helmsley Alleluia (adp. mtgf)
Preparation of Gifts	Song of God among us (Huijbers)
Eucharistic Acclamations	Creation (Marty Haugen)
Lamb of God	Advent (mtgf)
Communion Antiphon	Say to the faint of heart (mtgf)
Communion	God of day and God of darkness (Marty Haugen/Sacred Harp)
Final	Benedictus (Bernadette Farrell)

Due to a blip in the system we did not have a Mass sheet this morning and so the hymn books came out and change for the 1st hymn.

God of day and God of darkness was new to us. The tune Beach Spring is from the Sacred Harp tradition. The tune is suggested as unknown, possibly English - it is a beautiful tune. We sang the 2nd and 3rd verses to some robust Sacred Harp harmony - I had swapped the tenor tune with the soprano line for the 3rd verse.

Immaculate Conception - Feast Day

10 December 2014

Entrance	The Angel Gabriel
Penitential Rite	St Gabriel (mtgf)
Gloria	Angels and Saints (Steven Janco)
Psalm 97	Sing a new song (mtgf)
Gospel Acclamation	Salisbury Alleluia (Christopher Walker)
Preparation of Gifts	Ave maris stella (Elgar)
Eucharistic Acclamations	Creation (Marty Haugen)
Lamb of God	Angels and Saints (Steven Janco)
Communion	Verbum caro (Richards Dubra)
Final	Tell out my soul

Our Feast day was transferred as the Principal Celebrant, +Richard Moth, was in Salford on Monday.

We have not sung Elgar's setting of Ave maris stella for a number of years. (Our University motto is drawn from the text Monstra te esse matrem — it has always struck me as a slightly odd motto for what was founded as a male institution.) I was far more impressed by Elgar's setting this time especially the unison entries of the other parts as a soft interjection during the soprano and alto verses. The Dubra piece was new to us. It is similar to O Crux Ave in being simple homophony but here more an accompanied Soprano melody. It is part of a larger cantata and it struck me as self-consciously lovely by which I mean it was written to sound lovely - this is not criticism as the piece achieves its aim.

2nd Sunday of Advent

7 December 2014

Entrance	Longing, trusting (mtgf)
Penitential Rite	Kyrie 'Orbis factor'
Psalm 84	Let us see, O Lord (mtgf)
Gospel Acclamation	Helmsley Alleluia (adp. mtgf)
Preparation of Gifts	O comfort my people (Irish arr. mtgf)
Eucharistic Acclamations	Creation (Marty Haugen)
Lamb of God	Advent (mtgf)
Communion Antiphon	Jersualem, arise (mtgf)
Communion	My soul in stillness wait (Marty Haugen)
Final	Come, thou long expected Jesus

We sang the last hymn to Stuttgart the choir told me afterwards that it is always sung to Cross of Jesus and they had never sung it to the other tune.