Papal Visit

[Southern Comfort]

(And no, I've never been on Twitter!)

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But I have been aware over the past three days of people performing at the different locations who had access to this forum via their Blackberries and who were glad to be kept in touch, especially when schedules were not running to time.

[docmattc]

Indeed, congratulations to all involved today, and indeed throughout the visit.

[Southern Comfort]

Overall verdict on Cofton Park:

The Mass was a good lesson in how to combine the best of the old and the new, normal parish practice with what is needed for the big occasion, without pomposity and bombast. A good contrast with Westminster Cathedral. I was not really convinced by the CJM showcase beforehand, however.

On the whole, the Mass music was very well done, and the timing was good (even though some tempi seemed a little laboured). It was very good to see Peter Jones being presented to the Pope afterwards, along with Tim Menezes, and to spot David Saint, Darquise Bilodeau, Mary Rowse and other SSG stalwarts flashing across the screen, as well as new SSG friends such as Frances Novillo. Obviously all the hard work in rehearsing had really paid off.

There are of course lots of small details that could be commented on, but only a few here:

Thank God the weather cleared up! What would have happened to the choir folders if it had rained?

One 'feature' of the MacMillan pieces both here and at Bellanhouston was that they didn't end: the composer had to tack on a closure in every case. Particularly noticeable in the Sanctus and Memorial Acclamation, where the people end in mid-air, the choir then take over with an imperfect cadence, and the instruments then bring the music to a resounding full-stop, just at the point where in fact you would want an open cadence to enable the prayer to continue. It would have been better to stop where the choir stopped, on a chord of A. Even better if the people had also been enabled to stop there.... And as for the bagpipe intro to the Holy — how very English.....

Papal MC Marini was caught rolling his eyes during the Agnus....

Some people in the congregation appeared to be singing the Sanctus, but not many. More noticeable (and surprising) was the large number of people who were not singing Credo III. My own view is that this happens in part because of the dialogue between cantors and all. It works much better if everyone is encouraged to sing everything, which is what happens in some parishes but not in others. The constant stop-start makes it more difficult to learn, incidentally, as well as to sing.

As at Bellahouston, much more music programmed for Communion than was actually needed. Perhaps more music would have been needed had Communion taken longer — for example, if it had rained.

And there were noticeable divergences between what was in Magnificat and what the Pope (in particular) actually did.

The only really noticeable liturgical glitch was at the Gospel, when Deacon Jack Sullivan was brought up far too late to receive the Pope's mandate before proclaiming the Gospel. He was moved during the final Alleluias, instead of during the verse. He could still have just about made it to the ambo in time to capitalise on the end of the Salisbury Alleluia, if he had not forgotten to collect the Book of the Gospels from the altar (!) and had to be sent back for it.

But how good to have different languages used in the intercessions, even if German and Irish are not commonly used in the UK. Would Polish and Portugese have been better?

For the theologians, it was to be noted that the Pope had no problem with saying "Pray...that our sacrifice may be acceptable..." Many priests and bishops prefer to say "my sacrifice and yours" on the basis that this is a more accurate translation of the Latin. The resultant impression given is that the people are not joined with the sacrifice of the priest, which is of course untrue. We are all associated in the same single sacrifice. In fact "my sacrifice and yours" is also an inaccurate translation of the Latin meum ac vestrum sacrificium, which literally means "my-and-your sacrifice", which could be rendered "my sacrifice which is also yours" but is more succinctly and more elegantly rendered as "our sacrifice".

The final estimate of attendance was given as 50,000 — pretty good, especially in view of the rain earlier in the day. Once again, well done to all concerned. It was worth it!

[John Ainslie]

Re- Hyde Park Vigil

I understand Alex Marshall, our very talented young cellist from Summer School 2009 was bearing a candle lit from the Paschal Candle at Hyde Park. I know she made it to TV, but I will have to watch again to see if the SSG banner did the same, but it was certainly there.

Indeed it was. Alison Lamb and I were in the last (society/organisation) section of the procession of over 600 banners - ours standing out very distinctively amid the boringness of McCrimmon's mass-produced offerings - thanks, Matt Conroy. We were lining up, only to be unexpectedly pulled out by an official and promoted to the head of that section, directly behind the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre. (Perhaps they thought we were associated with the Knights of St Gregory!) In the carnival-like atmosphere of this phase of the event, the Knights were very photogenic: in the stop-go of the procession they had lots of pics taken of them, but I can guarantee that 80% of them have our banner in the background!

The trouble was that everyone processed single-file before the parade of bishops - every personal chit-chat held up the entire procession. By the time we got there - it took over an hour - we were told not even to stop to shake hands because "we're running late". Nonetheless I did greet +Arthur Roche, +Alan Hopes, +Michael Evans and a few others. On reaching our seats at the rear of the front 'stalls' section, we had to furl our banners, so you wouldn't have seen them when HH arrived, 45 minutes late, even though he passed within feet of our seats in the popemobile. Then, furnished with candles, our row then went down to the front to have them lit from the Paschal Candle for adoration, as related above, and line the stage at its front. Certainly memorable!

The contrast between the carnival feel of the early afternoon - no one but no one joined in the songs being sung by the choir - and the reverence and prayerfulness of the Eucharistic service was stunning. Participation in this was very good. You could almost have heard a pin drop during the adoration silence - and that with a crowd reportedly numbering 80,000. Even the Sunday Telegraph reporter noticed this.

[John Ainslie]

Re- Beatification Mass

Yes, indeed, well done, everybody. It came across very well. In my parish, the two main morning Masses were cancelled. Instead, we had a big screen in the church and participated in the Mass from 100 miles away, with Communion from the tabernacle - and of course the collection! This had episcopal approval, we were told. Before you go running to comment, ask yourself just what kind of communities we have nowadays - the Facebook community, the twitter community - and, on an entirely different level, the union of all Masses in the one sacrificial offering of Christ. Yes, it raises all kinds of questions about liturgical assemblies. Let's have a debate (on another thread).

One 'feature' of the MacMillan pieces both here and at Bellanhouston was that they didn't end: the composer had to tack on a closure in every case. Particularly noticeable in the Sanctus and Memorial Acclamation, where the people end in mid-air, the choir then take over with an imperfect cadence, and the instruments then bring the music to a resounding full-stop, just at the point where in fact you would want an open cadence to enable the prayer to continue. It would have been better to stop where the choir stopped, on a chord of A. Even better if the people had also been enabled to stop there.... And as for the bagpipe intro to the Holy — how very English.....

Yes, I noticed both these 'features' - and disliked them. Ending on the A chord would be much more sensible.

More noticeable (and surprising) was the large number of people who were not singing Credo III. My own view is that this happens in part because of the dialogue between cantors and all. It works much better if everyone is encouraged to sing everything, which is what happens in some parishes but not in others. The constant stop-start makes it more difficult to learn, incidentally, as well as to sing.

People are not used to singing in dialogue with the choir, as my own efforts at chant in English demonstrate. But it can be achieved with some firm direction and good organ-leading. Otherwise, singing throughout a long piece can be very breathtaking - in a breathless sense.

But how good to have different languages used in the intercessions, even if German and Irish are not commonly used in the UK. Would Polish and Portugese have been better?

I was thinking Polish and Tagalog (Filippino).

There was a hilarious misprint at the end of the Eucharistic Prayer: "ut simul gloria tua perenniter satiemur, iungit manus per Christum Dominum nostrum..." - "that we may enjoy the vision of your glory, he joins his hands through Christ our Lord..." The rubric has got swallowed up in the text.

[Hare]

Re- Beatification Mass

.......and good organ-leading.

Absolutely. Just as at Westminster, eh, SC?

[Southern Comfort]

You could almost have heard a pin drop during the adoration silence - and that with a crowd reportedly numbering 80,000. Even the Sunday Telegraph reporter noticed this.

This was one of the most notable features of all the set-piece liturgies: the length and quality of the silences, which was very powerful. One wonders how this affected those watching on TV and via the internet.

In the traditional way of thinking, silence does not make good radio — or TV, come to that — and producers hate it and avoid it at all costs. That extraordinary silence in The Monastery was almost unprecedented in TV history, apart from the two minutes' silence at the Cenotaph each year. Now we have shown that extended silence can be a normal part of even the biggest liturgies. If only we could do the same in our diocesan and week-by-week parish practice.

[docmattc]

Re- Hyde Park Vigil

Indeed it was. Alison Lamb and I were in the last (society/organisation) section of the procession of over 600 banners - ours standing out very distinctively amid the boringness of McCrimmon's mass-produced offerings.

That's excellent news John- and much cheaper than the McCrimmon ones too. Its amazing what can be achieved with a curtain pole and a bit of imagination!

[VML]

At the very end of the Sky News cover tonight, + Vincent was asked if he was pleased about how everything went. Speaking of this morning he said you could call it a 'class act!' Well done to all concerned. I must admit I was not wildly enthused by B&S at ten past eight, but I thought Bernadette Kierney came over very well, and was probably rather more suited to the 'warm up' session than Carol Vorderman in Hyde Park.

[Southern Comfort]

Can't remember which news coverage I saw earlier on — could have been Sky or Beeb24 or something else — but +Vin in an interview shortly after the Pope had taken off described the Cofton Park Mass as "perfect" — more than he said about Westminster! I largely agree with him, if it hadn't been for the turgid MacMillan items (you'd expect me to say that, of course), which seemed out of place, as we had predicted.

Now would be a good time also to congratulate those in the SSG fold who were responsible for the service with religious in the chapel at St Mary's, Strawberry Hill. Aidan Rossiter and Martin Foster had a hard time of it, given that the Pope was by then running at least half an hour late. How long did Veni Sancte Spiritus go on for in the end? But the overall impression was good, and an effective contrast to the schools gathering immediately following. Some of those kids had been in position since 6.00am without a chance to use the loo.....

[keitha]

I would just like to add my congratulations and, as a viewer and listener,thanks, to those who were involved in putting together, leading and performing (if that is the right word) at all the Papal liturgies over the last few days, which all seem to have gone very well and been a credit to all concerned. I think all the effort was worth it.

Now that it is safely over I will reveal the Cofton Park personnel (as I have been asked several times if I know who was involved)!

The overall Music Director was Fr Peter Jones, David Saint (St Chad's Cathedral) directed the biggest 'schola' I have ever seen (200 singers) and Alan Smith was the assistant conductor, relaying Fr Peter's beat to the half of the choir seated on the far side of the sanctuary from the half that Fr Peter was conducting. The organist was Lee Ward, director of the London Oratory School Schola, and the brass and timpani players were from the Birmingham Conservatoire. The cantor of the Responsorial Psalm was Matthew Sandy, from Coventry,a choral scholar from Kings College, Cambridge University, the other cantors being Darquise Bilodeau (Burton-on-Trent), James Brash (Leamington Spa) and Frances Novillo (Westminster). The on-site liturgy director was Fr Timothy Menezes.

The Schola comprised the London Oratory School Schola, Colla Voce (an ensemble made up mainly of ex-LOS Schola members), the choir of The Oratory School, Woodcote, members of the Oratory Choirs from Oxford and Birmingham, St Chad's Cathedral Choir and members of the Birmingham Archdiocese Singers. The rest of the choir (of over over 2,200) came from parishes and secondary schools throughout the Birmingham Archdiocese, and youngsters from the Leeds Diocese youth choral music programme.

The organ was supplied by Viscount Organs (a Unico 500 with Physis synthesis technology) from Bicester. All the instruments were located in a temporary building behind the sanctuary away from the weather (and everyone else!). The instrumentalists saw the conductors on large closed-circuit monitors. Fr Peter, Alan Smith and David Saint were all kept in touch with each other via similar monitors out 'on stage', and radio links, and the cantors on 'stage 2' (James Brash and Frances Novillo) had monitors so that they could also follow Fr Peter remotely. It seemed to me, as an observer, that the TV engineers on site did an amazing job for the music team. The sound system was also superb (thanks to the sound company, Wigwam, and 'Mystic', their chief engineer, who didn't seem to have a surname!).

I enjoyed MacMillan's Mass, which I have grown to like over the last few months. James MacMillan listened to the morning rehearsal, went to see Fr Peter and the choir before the mass and gave them some nice words of encouragement, and provided some balancing advice to the sound engineers, which was found to be very helpful.

A huge 'well done' to Fr Peter, who envisaged having a large choir involving as many people from the parishes as possible from the start, stuck with the concept through thick and thin, and who enabled around 900 people from parishes throughout the Archdiocese to experience singing music in a way none of them had ever imagined before, most singing music in parts for the first time (the whole choir sang Elgar's 'Ave Verum Corpus', not just the Schola, even if it was sung after the BBCTV broadcast was over).

I thought that the BBC's TV coverage of the liturgical celebrations during the Papal visit was of a very high standard indeed. The only thing that grated on me was the broadcasting of studio discussions on camera during Communion (which was never particularly long) at both Glasgow and Birmingham. I found this to be intrusive during a very solemn part of the liturgy. After all, we would not talk to each other during this part of the Mass, and it seemed to me very wrong that a group of commentators should be chatting away on site at this time. They were not summarisers at a sporting event, and I was a bit surprised that the priests present did not try to stop it. Incidentally, why on earth did Hugh Edwards keep referring to Mgr Ganswein (the Pope's private secretary) and 'Mister' Ganswein throughout the visit?

[gwyn]

Well done indeed, Father Peter and all concerned.

[dunstan]

First time I've been online since CP - was absolutely pooped when I got home yesterday and crashed for many hours.

From a choir member's viewpoint, almost everything came off fantastically well (we were a little uncertain during the eucharistic acclamation), and we were just frustrated at the Elgar Ave Verum being squeezed out: indeed, we sang it afterwards in rebellion at the stage management who were trying to get us off stage and back to the warm pavillion.

Then, while unloading, a huge cheer went up from the choir around me - a glance at the big screen showed Fr Peter with His Holiness. Our heads want to express, obviously, our great appreciation for all he has done but this spontaneous cheer showed our affection as well.

Does anybody know who the Pavillion MC was? She deserves a huge vote of thanks for the dogged cat-herding, and for the announcement of the weekend: "Cardinal Wiseman and St Francis of Assissi, if you need the loo go now."

[VML]

Believe me, the Elgar Ave Verum was not squeezed out. It was so good to come home after our parish Mass, which had ended with Praise to the holiest, (plus a quick organ blast of Faith of our fathers, I couldn't resist it,) and turn on Sky News just in time for the end of Communion, Sine Nomine, and then the Elgar. Perfect Malverns music, thank you all.

[mcb]

...the choir [at the Hyde Park event] of people from around the dioceses. I am told that they have been treated like 2nd-class citizens over the past two days.

Not quite as bad as that, all things considered, though it's about right as a description of the rehearsal on day one (Thursday). 150-odd singers from round the country had been assembled at great cost to themselves (you had to make your own travel and accommodation arrangements for the three days), and it was evident that no-one had thought too hard about what role we were going to play. It was insulting (and a long way to have travelled) to be given a folder with two pieces of music in it. The person responsible for organising the event didn't cover himself in glory trying to defend the situation: we were there to be the congregation, not the choir, so we could sing from our Magnificat Missals or pick it up as we went along. Choir members took matters into their own hands, and by Friday the shortage was remedied by countless bootleg copies of all the music we'd been denied sight of. Stephen Dean (sitting not far away from me) must have been wailing and gnashing his teeth at the sight of so many photocopied pages of Laudate being shared around.

The Friday rehearsal was loads better, in any case. Conductor Nigel Swinford, and his outfit, the excellent New English Orchestra and Singers, had evidently received an ear-bashing from disgruntled diocesan singers at our treatment, and there were gracious apologies and an evident new mood, in which we were at last involved in the music-making. It was a good and enjoyable rehearsal.

By the big day we'd been elevated to VIPs. The scheduled early morning rehearsal was cancelled, so our first engagement was to arrive in time for lunch, laid on for all the performers. (They fed us again later too, in between the warm-up event and the arrival of the Pope.)

As for the event itself, I found it moving beyond any expectation I'd had. The day was full of boisterous celebration, the most surreal moment of which was the rock-star welcome for... "the Bishops of England and Wales", summoned on to the stage for the start of the procession. That must surely have been a unique experience in their episcopal careers! One or two of them milked it for all it was worth. No names, no pack drill, but you could probably guess who I'm talking about.

The Pope got the same treatment when he arrived, of course, but what amazed me was how quickly he turned the occasion to one of genuine holiness and prayer. He shrugged off the adulation and put our Lord in the centre of things, in the form of the Blessed Sacrament on the altar. The reverence of the silent prayer was jaw-dropping. And then, unbelievably, Benediction, in front of 80,000 people. In Hyde Park. This jaded old cynic was briefly in tears.

An amazing occasion. To my surprise.