JW wrote:What do you have in mind, londonchurchman? Here is the music page of our website http://www.rcrainham.freeuk.com/music.html. The webite is being re-designed so any comments would be welcomed. I need convincing that posting music lists is productive, though it would save me emailing them to the choir.
Do other churches look at posted music lists? Would it put them off, thinking "we couldn't do that so we won't bother trying".
When the new translation was introduced, I made an offer to the deanery via our parish priest to run a half day session on new Mass settings. I didn't hear a thing, and there are still old-translation Mass settings being used in the deanery. Last summer I even heard the Duffy Gloria refrain used with the old words of the verses being SAID!
Thanks for the link - what an impressive website. I know it can be time consuming to post music lists up, and there is nothing more annoying than finding a website saying here is our latest music list and finding that it is 3 years old. I do think if there is a steady repotoire that posting up an example music list will give interested people an overall impression of what to find.
I also think helpful to mention whether is a choir and what is their role, the hymn book being used, and if possible what the balance is between traditional and modern music. Also with use of the wording perform and music group the page is understandably addressed to potential choir members, rather than a more general introduction to the congregation about the music in their church and their involvement in it. I also noticed that the services page implies there is a sung mass at 10am and 6.30pm wheras the music page says there is no music at the evening mass. Hope this is helpful.
I think those shared sessions that you describe are a great way of spreading good practice - what a shame that you got no response.
Thanks to londonchurchman for some perceptive comments. I noticed I left out some Chrism Mass items. After the first hymn the men sang the plainchant introit Dilexsti The choir sang the psalm using a rather splendid chant and the acclamation was Praise to you O Christ (Walsh) with a plainchant verse. The hymn at offertory was Blest be the sun. I wonder why the priests do not sing the Eucharistic prayer when concelebrating - they certainly make a fine sound on the doxology!
organist wrote:Thanks to londonchurchman for some perceptive comments. I noticed I left out some Chrism Mass items. After the first hymn the men sang the plainchant introit Dilexsti The choir sang the psalm using a rather splendid chant and the acclamation was Praise to you O Christ (Walsh) with a plainchant verse. The hymn at offertory was Blest be the sun. I wonder why the priests do not sing the Eucharistic prayer when concelebrating - they certainly make a fine sound on the doxology!
In the diocese of Portsmouth the clergy have all chanted the EP together for the past 19 Chrism Masses (but not to the Missal tone, which is not only too boring to contemplate but which also does not respect the literary form of the prayer). The clergy of A&B did the same thing at all major diocesan concelebrations in the 1980s but stopped doing it when +Cormac moved to Westminster. The Bishops of England and Wales also used to sing the EP at their Low Week and November meetings in the days when these took place at Westminster (late 1970s-early 1980s) and the precentor at the Cathedral was the late Fr Daniel Higgins who made them do it!
Some of the African clergy working in the UK have a happy tendency to break into song during their sermons. It can even be accompanied if you get the liaison right.
This year the Prefaces were sung on Holy Thursday & Easter Vigil, plus the prayers of the General Intercessions on Good Friday. Both our deacons also sang the dialogues before and after the Gospels for the first time, one despite great merriment from his family.
Nick Baty wrote:You can be resourced up to the hilt but what matters is how the principal musicians of celebrant, cantor and congregation sing the liturgy.
Some of the best music in the country comes from cathedrals with fewer resources: Clifton, Hallam, Salford. They're the places I'd go to for inspiration.
'Best' by what criteria? I'd imagine we all have a different idea about which pieces/ types of music inspire us.
'The role of the schola is to foster congregational singing. In strong language, [Pius] Parsch [(1884-1954)] stated that the choir had historically committed two sins: taking over the congregation's Propers in the seventh century, and taking over the congregation's Ordinary and moving to the choir loft in the seventeenth century. The first of the choir's sins Parsch judged as venial, the second as mortal!' (Anthony Ruff, Sacred Music and Liturgical Reform)
