29th Sunday in Ordinary Time

18 October 2009

Entrance	Christ be our light (Bernadette Farrell)
Penitential Rite	omitted
Gloria	St Gabriels (mtgf)
Psalm 32	May your love be upon us (mtgf)
Gospel Acclamation	Alleluia Beati (Christopher Walker)
Preparation of Gifts	Ours were the griefs he bore (Stephen Dean)
Eucharistic Acclamations	Mass of Creation (Marty Haugen)
Lamb of God	Lamb of God 6 (mtgf)
Communion	He became poor (John Bell)
Final	Praise to the Holiest (John Henry Newman)

A baptism with Sunday Mass is not something we do well yet. Apart from improving communication so that it is not a surprise on a Sunday morning there are two aspects that relate to the choice of music. At present the rite feels very wordy so how might music be used. Secondly, the congregation which normally sings the parts of the Mass well and could be said to have a leadership role is sounds muffled. This relates to a non musical issue that they are uncertain what their role is.

The presence of a baptismal party affects the choice of music on the day. Often when there is a baptism we use Archbishop Denis Hurley's text 'God at creation's dawn' which articulates what is happening and our part in it. This time we sang 'Christ be our light' as something which seems to be quite well known.

I wondered about using 'Ours were the griefs he bore'. We can shy away from the more painful aspects of the gospel. Or was this 'too miserable' for a joyful baptism? How might it affect this potential moment of evangelisation? In the end I decided to keep it. We had after all prepared it. It is a lovely piece demanding a sustaining of line in the verses by the choir. It was also a piece that was relatively new to our repertoire and this was an opportunity to consolidate it. And it linked the readings with the rite expressing the mystery the child is baptised into - Christ suffered for you.

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time

11 October 2009

Entrance	All my hope on God is founded
Penitential Rite	St Gabriels (mtgf)
Gloria	St Gabriels (mtgf)
Psalm 89	Fill us, Lord, with your love (mtgf)
Gospel Acclamation	Alleluia Beati (Christopher Walker)
Preparation of Gifts	Restless is the heart (Bernadette Farrell)
Eucharistic Acclamations	Mass of Creation (Marty Haugen)
Lamb of God	Lamb of God 6 (mtgf)
Communion	I loved wisdom (Collegeville Composer's Group)
Final	Will you come and follow me (John Bell & Graham Maule)

Wisdom is the pearl of great price in these readings. The young man wants knowledge and answers rather than wisdom and so he went away dissatisfied.

Bernadette Farrell's setting of Psalm 89 (90), written for the Irish Church Music Association Summer School — there is a wall hanging in the Irish National Centre for Liturgy with the words Restless is the heart which I have always presumed to be part of the inspiration for this beautiful piece. The matching of the text from St Augustine with the psalm bring an extra depth to the readings — the young man is a restless heart searching for God.

The Communion Antiphon from Psallite again picked up the theme of wisdom — as it is an unusual but attractive theme in the first reading I presume — however either of the Antiphons given in the Missal might have picked up the gospel better, particularly the first:

The rich suffer want and go hungry, but nothing shall be lacking to those who fear the Lord.

27th Sunday in Ordinary Time

4th October 2009

Entrance	Love is his word
Penitential Rite	St Gabriels (mtgf)
Gloria	St Gabriels (mtgf)
Psalm 127	O blessed are those (Paul Inwood)
Gospel Acclamation	Alleluia Beati (Christopher Walker)
Preparation of Gifts	Ubi Caritas (Bob Hurd)
Eucharistic Acclamations	Mass of Creation (Marty Haugen)
Lamb of God	Lamb of God 6 (mtgf)
Communion	Your words are life, Lord (Collegeville Composer's Group)
Final	Love divine, all loves excelling (Charles Wesley)

It was wondered when I mentioned the opening and closing hymns before Mass whether there was a theme going on. Is love the dominant theme of today's readings? What else might we have sung that illuminated the Gospel? I looked at the GIA Hymns for the Gospels which offers text related to the Sunday Gospels. It offered two texts, the first Enter in the realm of God focussed on the end of the passage about welcoming little children; the second God! When human bonds are broken apart from having an irritating exclamation mark seems to presuppose a modern pastoral answer before the question is even asked. The Michael Forster text in the edition of Hymns Old and New where he provided a text for every Sunday seemed to make a better job of this task. It was probably easier as he started from the first reading from Genesis. Now I am not sure I would use any of these as I think the task of a chosen sung text is to illuminate and make connections not to reiterate or interpret the particular text.

A little know fact about Love divine that the text was written to be sung to Fairest Isle by Purcell, which it fits very nicely and memory suggest that Wesley is alluding to the original text, if not parodying it.

This week slightly suffered from lack of opportunity for second thoughts or what do you do when the Mass sheet is already printed - don't be so well prepared? Anyway I did consider changing the psalm so that it used the actual given response but the Inwood setting does work well. I also would have changed the Communion response - the chosen text was a scrabble to find something but a better something would have been better, possibly based on 1 Cor Missal text. The psalm tone was pleasing.

Bob Hurd's Ubi Caritas is lovely. It is also interesting how he inserts 2 new verses into the text which bring more contemporary theological concerns in without, in my opinion, damaging the original - actually enhancing it.

26th Sunday in Ordinary Time

27 September 2009

Entrance	God whose almighty Word
Penitential Rite	St Gabriels (mtgf)
Gloria	St Gabriels (mtgf)
Psalm 18	The precepts of the Lord (mtgf)
Gospel Acclamation	Alleluia Beati (Christopher Walker)
Preparation of Gifts	The love of the Lord (Michael Joncas)
Eucharistic Acclamations	Mass of Creation (Marty Haugen)
Lamb of God	Lamb of God 6 (mtgf)
Communion	Let the word (Collegeville Composer's Group)
Final	Forth in thy name

I have noticed before that the Sundays which occur at the beginning of the new Academic year for us are often full of 'hard sayings'. Not the easiest weeks to choose appropriate music for. I suspect that 'God who almighty word' may get quite a few outings over the year — it's the mixture of a strong melody and words with Trinitarian focus which are apposite to Sunday.

The starting point for choosing The Love of the Lord was the second reading but the idea of the refrain of having nothing more than Christ to offer was related to the Gospel.

Our adventure with Psallite continues. I suppose that I am looking for three things: a good melody for the refrain, the use of a text that illumines the moment of Communion, something of musical interest for the singers. Too often, even when looking beyond just the Song for the Table, there is little of musical interest and/or the refrain seems too short, or not particularly memorable. Is the desire for musical interest selfishness on the part of musicians? Not when I think the attractiveness of the piece is contributed to.

This week's Communion antiphon was a repeat from 22nd Sunday - chosen in the light of the comments above.

A different Lamb of God which begins in Fm with the last invocation in the major.

25th Sunday in Ordinary Time

20 September 2009

Entrance	Brother, Sister, let me serve you (Gilliard)
Penitential Rite	St Gabriels (mtgf)
Gloria	St Gabriels (mtgf)
Psalm 52	The Lord upholds my life (mtgf)
Gospel Acclamation	Alleluia Beati (Christopher Walker)
Preparation of Gifts	Like a child rests (Walker)
Eucharistic Acclamations	Mass of Creation (Marty Haugen)
Lamb of God	St Gabriels (mtgf)
Communion	I am your Saviour (Collegeville Composer's Group)
Final	God his love, his the care (Dearmer)

The Gospel seems to run on and even echo last week's with the prophecy of the passion. However, in between in Mark's Gospel is the Transfiguration - this is the mountain Jesus and his disciples are leaving. The attractive end of the reading seems to be the latter half with its argument about who is the greatest and the invitation to welcome a little child.

I am not sure there are hymns, or at least nothing came to mind, that is linked to the prophecy of the passion — which is a significant turning point in each year of the lectionary. There is plenty about the passion: last week we used 'Praise to the holiest', this week there was reference in both opening and final hymns. Perhaps there is possibility with the canticle from 1 Peter Christ suffered for you?

This morning we had a Pastoral Letter so no homily on the scripture.

This week's Communion song was down as the 'Song for the Week' (i.e. Entrance Antiphon) in Psallite. The text is based on that of the Entrance Antiphon so does it matter that we transferred it? Part of the way that the Roman Rite uses scripture particularly the Psalms and the rest of the Old Testament, it seems to me, is that context is everything. I am your Saviour is given as Entrance Antiphon for all three years by choosing Psalm 55 (56) (the Graduale has Ps 77) the authors of Psallite preface and prepare for the first reading but can also be heard as a post-passion statement of Christ — I will be with you for ever. At Communion this phrase (in this context) comes to be about the Eucharist. To reflect this adjustment of meaning another psalm or other canticle may have been better for the verses.

24th Sunday in Ordinary Time

13 September 2009

Entrance	All that is hidden (Bernadette Farrell)
Penitential Rite	St Gabriels (mtgf)
Gloria	St Gabriels (mtgf)
Psalm 114	I will walk in the presence (mtgf)
Gospel Acclamation	Alleluia Beati(Christopher Walker)
Preparation of Gifts	He became poor (John Bell)
Eucharistic Acclamations	Mass of Creation (Marty Haugen)
Lamb of God	St Gabriels (mtgf)
Communion	I am the way (Collegeville Composer's Group)
Final	Praise to the Holiest (John Henry Newman)

We expected to be unaccompanied today - and were. This often means that the first hymn needs to be familiar so that people can sing with confidence and recognise that we can do this without accompaniment. All that is hidden seemed to work well. I have long thought that it is a piece that is not immediately attractive or easy. In part this is because it needs to be sung with conviction to actually work.

Alleluia Beati was new and will accompany us through to Advent. People picked it up without any rehearsal. As the music was on the leaflet perhaps we have a congregation of closet sight readers! The repetition of the same melody twice seemed to work and it was effective to diminuendo into the gospel.

We pair He became poor with verses from Philippians 2 sung to a simple French tone. This in part dates back to an uncomfortableness with simple ostinatos which some musicians have - not believing that the ostinato might be enough. As a reflection on the Paschal Mystery this picked up on the Gospel. The choice of music this Sunday more reflected the prophecy of the Passion rather than Peter's statement of faith.

23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

6 September 2009

Entrance	O changeless Christ (Dudley Smith)
Penitential Rite
Gloria	St Gabriels (mtgf)
Psalm 145	My soul give praise to the Lord (mtgf)
Gospel Acclamation	(A Gregory Murray)
Preparation of Gifts	Song of the Man born blind (Bob Hurd)
Eucharistic Acclamations	Mass of Creation (Marty Haugen)
Lamb of God	St Gabriels (mtgf)
Communion	O praise the Lord (Collegeville Composer's Group)
Final	Praise my soul ( )

The beginning of September is when change Mass parts for Ordinary Time=- Autumn. It is usually staggered over a few weeks. Today we moved back to Mass of Creation which usually sees us through until the Baptism of the Lord. The GLoria was new last year but seemed to be sung well. Space permitting it would be interesting to put the verses on the leaflet to see if all would join in — perhaps just the last verse.

O praise the Lord seemed neither one thing or the other - there was neither harmonic nor melodic tension to make the repetition of the short phrase rewarding. Though the sung repetition of the words after each phrase of the verse was interesting it did not blossom into a longer refrain which may have been needed.