Society of Saint Gregory

I watched St John's Cathedral Portsmouth at 10.00am, also via churchservices.tv - single cantor and organ. All the essential music, even a communion processional (although no procession obviously). It lacks atmosphere but very prayerful all the same. These services can be replayed at any time.

I've just discovered that Howard Baker has sadly died at the age of 63. He has been director of music at St Mary's Cathedral Newcastle since 2000 and was an occasional poster on this forum. I knew Howard as a boy treble in the early 1960s when his voice soared around the lofty rafters in St Bede's ...

This issue is on the rise. I usually take the position that it's a paid job and essentially a private service so I just do what I'm told (certainly when I'm asked to play elsewhere). However there is a limit to what I will play on the organ, and CDs are usually preferred for non-church music anyway ...

I have been plugging away in my parish for quite a few years and have always had an assembly willing to sing. I have found that the following works: 1. Have a choir (if possible) but not every week. We have them about once a month to lead new material, sing irregular verses and belt out refrains ...

We too were packed to the rafters, and also Good Friday. Our Vigil has lower numbers but usually still quite reasonable. We are a country town parish with no other options for miles, so that may be a factor.

Interesting thread. Probably no single explanation/solution. For what they're worth, my thoughts are: 1. A good confident lead from the organ or music group, with varied dynamics and tone to match the text (I find the piano alone does not lead/support/encourage as much as the organ) 2. Rehearsal of ...

Just caught up with this thread, so here's what we're doing in Andover: Gloria: Belmont (Walker), Parish Mass (Jones), Revised Coventry (Jones) Acclamations: Parish Mass (Jones) and Revised Mass of Creation (Haugen) Lamb of God: Belmont (Walker), Revised Mass of Creation (Haugen) We only started in ...

Seems a very balanced and interesting music list. You must have a great assembly! If our parish could manage that lot I'd be delighted. Thanks Nick. Coming from you that's quite a compliment! For us the choir's role is usually limited to leading the assembly in the responses/refrains and sometimes ...

We did the following: Entrance: To you, O Lord, I lift my soul (Psallite) Penitential rite: spoken Psalm: God of hosts, bring us back (Inwood/Psallite) Advent Alleluias (Andrew Wright) Gospel dialogue: Missal chants (first time sung by our deacon) Prep of gifts: Rorate caeli (Latin response, English ...

We dropped the recessional hymn some years ago with very few complaints. We do have one at special times (eg. Christmas and Easter). Like others, we have trouble getting people to sing during communion, although when the choir is present we have a refrain-based processional song which people do ...

I spent 10 minutes before mass introducing the people to the Belmont Gloria, the Peter Jones Parish Mass Holy (with acclam 2) and the Belmont Lamb of God. We’ve produced a music sheet for the pews with one revised and two new settings to keep us going up to Advent. The choir met on Friday evening to ...

In our parish, where the choir is on the opposite side to the ambo, the psalmist joins the two readers at the altar steps, they all bow together and go to the ambo where two of them sit down. They each do their bit and after the gospel acclamation they all return in the same way as they came. At ...

Thanks for all the replies. It seems there's a 'correct' way (and I heard it thus on the Ash Wednesday broadcast from Liverpool Met Cathedral) and a more intuitive assembly-friendly way (as per this midi file http://nethymnal.org/htm/l/o/lojthink.htm ). I think I might just avoid this tune in future ...

Have been lurking on this forum for a while, but now braving active participation. Yesterday we had this hymn to the usual Southwell tune and I played through the whole verse as written (minims at the beginning and end of each line of text). I knew there was a tendency to sing it like ‘Blest are the ...