Remembrance Sunday

[nazard]

Remembrance Sunday is coming up, and every year I get pressurised into playing "O God our help in ages past", to St. Anne, which I personally consider to be one of the plainest and most tedious tunes to have stayed in print for very long. However, I have found this descant by Alan Gray which livens it up considerably, while not being too difficult to play.

I think the music of Alan Gray is very underrated, and I find his "Book of Descants" very useful.

Have any board members got any good ideas for Remembrance Sunday?

St Anne.pdf

[alan29]

We do the silence at the start of the 11am Mass, then business as usual.

[JW]

We've more or less settled on a format for our Remembrance Sunday Requiem Mass over the years. There will be a (1 minute) silence as part of the Bidding Prayers. The music list this year is as follows:

Mass setting: Glendalough Mass, no Gloria.

Gathering Voluntary: Opening of Bach's Actus Tragicus

Entrance Hymn: Abide with me

Psalm:. The Lord's my shepherd (Crimond)

Offertory: Father I place into your hands.

Communion Procession:. Chopin E minor prelude.

Communion thanksgiving: We come to tell our story..

Nimrod to be played as a Postcommunion meditation.

Recessional: Eternal father strong to save.

Voluntary:. Te decet hymnus, John E West

[nazard]

Our total list is rather different:

Pre mass voluntary: Priere, A. Guilmant

Opening hymn: To Christ the Prince of Peace (Narenza)

Last Post, a minute's silence, Reveille

Mass setting: Peter Jones' Parish Mass

Offertory: O God of earth and altar (Cruger)

Communion: Be still my soul (Finlandia) - I wanted Like a mighty river flowing (Old Yeavering) but I was overruled.

Recessional Hymn: O God our help in ages past (St Anne) - I gave in to the pressure

Final voluntary: Alte Kameraden (Carl Teike) - well outside our usual repertoire, but it suits the occasion.

[JW]

I have to say that I don't risk playing descants as our congregation lack confidence: only on Christmas and Easter perhaps when we have strong singers in the choir.

I'm sure many parishes have interesting liturgies for this day. For us there was a navel base locally till the 1980s and also earlier army bases, so we have a tradition to uphold whilst there are former service families in the parish.

[markyboy2000]

For many years we sang at the end of our Remembrance rite a unison choir piece 'Out of the depths' written by two folks named only by initial. It was published by Cary's and is thus well out of print. It was apparently written by friends of our then organist in the 1910s or 20s.
It has fallen out of use - under one priest we sang it after every evening funeral reception - some of my choir tried to get me to play it this year but I resisted (partly because I can't find it in the loft!!
I have only heard it sung once anywhere else, in Middlesbrough's old cathedral over 30 years ago; its a bit off topic but I wondered if anyone has heard of it, and whether it is still used.

[MARYFA]

I think I know the one you mean. We used to sing it at my Convent School. The last time I heard it was about thirty years ago at a funeral
in St. George's Church in York so perhaps it was a Middlesbrough speciality.

[oopsorganist]

Not the ordinary one by Webb then?

[oopsorganist]

https://hymnary.org/hymn/SGHC1920/page/197

[MARYFA]

No, that's not the one. There is another metricised one in the Leeds Catholic Hymnal which is not the one I know either.

[PaulB]

Might it be this one by any chance? Commonly sung churches in the Newcastle area a long while back, and I occasionally get asked for it at funerals. I've no idea how accurate it is - I just took down verbatim what an old boy of the parish sung through for me. So if this is recognisable to anybody, and they have the real music, I'd be very grateful for a copy!

[MARYFA]

Yes, this is the one. I cannot access page 2. I also have a copy worked out from memory by myself (I put it into D major). There must be some real music in someone's cupboards.

[markyboy2000]

Yes, that's the one - in D as far as I remember. We sang it one speed, and the undertaker, who sang at Egton Bridge, sang it another. What some of the (non-practicing) families thought I"ve no idea.
I"ll dig through the cupboard again and scan it in if I find it.

[High Peak]

We've more or less settled on a format for our Remembrance Sunday Requiem Mass over the years. There will be a (1 minute) silence as part of the Bidding Prayers. The music list this year is as follows:

Mass setting: Glendalough Mass, no Gloria.

Gathering Voluntary: Opening of Bach's Actus Tragicus

Entrance Hymn: Abide with me

Psalm:. The Lord's my shepherd (Crimond)

Offertory: Father I place into your hands.

Communion Procession:. Chopin E minor prelude.

Communion thanksgiving: We come to tell our story..

Nimrod to be played as a Postcommunion meditation.

Recessional: Eternal father strong to save.

Voluntary:. Te decet hymnus, John E West

Why no Gloria? Because you have an "Eternal rest...."?

[JW]

Re no Gloria, please see Southern Comfort's post in the Remembrance Sunday or 33rd Sunday thread last year. As it happened our PP decided to say it anyway...