Pentecost sequence.

[Hare]

That particular tune is one I really, really dislike. All those crotchets, one after another. There must be an alternative ........

I have found recordings on YouTube that uses essentially the same tune as found in Celebration Hymnal, but with a few dotted crotchets rather than the relentless stream of crotchets. A slight improvement.

I have heard of it being tried in a 2-in-a-bar-feel 6/8 rhythm; HO-ly SPI-rit / LORD of LIGHT- / etc

[VML]

Or Here we go round the mulberry bush.......

[Southern Comfort]

There's a very beautiful setting of the Pentecost Sequence in the Psallite Mass "At the Table of the Lord".

10 Pentecost Sequence.mp3

The songbook also gives the same setting with the Latin text for those who want to use it in that language.

[High Peak]

There's a very beautiful setting of the Pentecost Sequence in the Psallite Mass "At the Table of the Lord". 10 Pentecost Sequence.mp3
The songbook also gives the same setting with the Latin text for those who want to use it in that language.

Now that is lovely!!!

[MARYFA]

Why not sing Caswall's 'Holy spirit, Lord of light' to the beautiful Plainsong of 'Veni Sancte Spiritus? It has always seemed to me that the
translation was specifically crafted to be sung to that melody just as the usually given 'Christians to the Paschal Victim' translation of the
Easter Sunday sequence fits easily to the Plainsong of 'Victimae Paschali laudes' . The same goes for Corpus Christi. The short form
'Lauda Sion' translation beginning ' Behold the bread of angels sent' can easily be sung to the plainsong 'Ecce panis angelorum'.
All these melodies are available in e.g. Plainsong for Schools and other collections such as the Westminster Hymnal.

[nazard]

Thank you for that suggestion. I did the 'Christians to the Paschal Victim' translation from the missal to any only slightly adapted tone this year, and was very pleased with the way it went. The responses from the priest and congregation were all favourable.

[alan29]

Why not sing Caswall's 'Holy spirit, Lord of light' to the beautiful Plainsong of 'Veni Sancte Spiritus? It has always seemed to me that the
translation was specifically crafted to be sung to that melody just as the usually given 'Christians to the Paschal Victim' translation of the
Easter Sunday sequence fits easily to the Plainsong of 'Victimae Paschali laudes' . The same goes for Corpus Christi. The short form
'Lauda Sion' translation beginning ' Behold the bread of angels sent' can easily be sung to the plainsong 'Ecce panis angelorum'.
All these melodies are available in e.g. Plainsong for Schools and other collections such as the Westminster Hymnal.

How do you teach the congregation to join in?

[MARYFA]

Why do they have to?
Active participation does not mean that every body must sing every thing.

[IncenseTom]

Why do they have to?
Active participation does not mean that every body must sing every thing.

Spot on.

[gwyn]

Active participation does not mean that every body must sing every thing.

Absolutely.

[alan29]

The only excuse for making a congregation sit and listen is when something is sung exquisitely and and uses music that is beyond the capability of the assembly to whom the text belongs.
I have yet to hear exquisite choral singing in a parish in 60 years.
I have heard vast quantities of mediocre, badly phrased, indifferently tuned, unbalanced choirs that have left me wondering if their directors are listening critically to the sound. Such things are totally unworthy of the worship of God. They belong in karaoke bars.

[IncenseTom]

If the text "belongs" to the congregation that doesn't mean they have to sing it to enter into it.

I can listen to certain passages of scripture and participate in it - without reading along out loud.

And surely collective congregational singing is more akin to what happens in karaoke bars?

[alan29]

If the text "belongs" to the congregation that doesn't mean they have to sing it to enter into it.

I can listen to certain passages of scripture and participate in it - without reading along out loud.

And surely collective congregational singing is more akin to what happens in karaoke bars?

In the liturgy the proclamation of scripture is explicitly a "he/she reads .... we all listen" activity. I'm sure you know that.
I have yet to see a rubric where that applies to a hymn text .... and the Sequence is only a hymn.
Karaoke is where people put themselves up to be listened to no matter what the quality .... purely because they want to be heard.
Communal liturgical singing is something very different.

[nazard]

The only excuse for making a congregation sit and listen is when something is sung exquisitely and and uses music that is beyond the capability of the assembly to whom the text belongs.

An interesting statement. How did you establish the truth of it?

[IncenseTom]

My point is that people don't all have to be 'doing' all the time.

When there is a Sequence it is so unusual compared to the routine of Sunday to Sunday that it makes sense to me to retain the option of not feeling obliged to make the congregation do it.

On Easter Sunday I sang the sequence myself to an improvised psalm tone as the official text on the missalette was different to that of the settings in the hymn book. We prioritised having the correct liturgical text proclaimed over an uncomfortable sing-along. If we'd tried to make the congregation sing the text there would have been silence.

Conversely, for Pentecost we're singing Holy Spirit Lord of Light as a congregational hymn because that will work, not because the congregation own the text and we're somehow failing if every single person in the pews isn't raising the roof all of the time.

(I was thinking of the sort of karaoke where large groups of people sit in a booth and all murder various songs together because they all feel obliged to join in.)