There is always great forum activity in the run up to / aftermath of easter and Christmas, as to what everyone is planning, requests for ideas, post-mortems afterwards etc. But....why do we hears so little about other Holydays? Ascension and Corpus Christi, to my knowledge, passed without forum comment (I am open to correction; I may have missd something) What about Peter & Paul?
My two penn'th is that we did De Angelis and Credo III; hymns "For all the saints", "O thou who at thy eucharist" and "Faith of our fathers". Organ voluntaries all pre-restoration English.....................
Well, I was summoned to accompany a Mass in the "big church down the road" with two schools and some parishioners attending. I arrived to find that I couldn't make the promised keyboard work, and was left to accompany everything on guitar, everything being: Here I am Lord (Schutte), a Holy Holy that I remember from a previous existence (but managed to find in Hymns Old and New), Oh the love of my Lord (Estelle White) and Follow me, follow me.
It was curious that I was asked to set myself up behind a pillar out of sight of most of the children, I had no microphone, and it is a BIG church. I didn't feel empowered or empowering, but the children did sing.
Personally I prefer to play it as a slow rhumba on the organ. Most of the congregation are very forgiving of my usual maxim..."If the composer was daft enough to put it in a sensible time signature - and gave it guitar chords, they're inviting me to play it in a dance tempo". Slow rhumba is always effective for the slow ballads and the foxtrot works well too; I steer away from the tango because it's too readily recognisable from the pews.
When I was much less liturgically aware than I am nowadays I used to play the organ (with some particularly effective wobblers) for school masses and would string together quickstep medleys of hymns - Sing it in the Valleys + Follow Me + He Brings us to His Banqueting Table - all seamlessly linked by the most embarrassingly unsubtle modulations imaginable!
A far cry from the more sensible selections we had yesterday at school. We had the usual crowd pleasers (Shine Jesus Shine......) but sang the Canedo Alleluia plus a set of Eucharistic Acclamations (anyone else working in a school, have a look at Patrick Geary's Salsa Acclamations, my kids love them - not easy to begin with but hugely rewarding) and the whole thing seasoned delicately with a little plainchant (alright, it was only the Kyrie from Orbis Factor but the eleison bit is so simple that almost all of the kids will have a go). We also had Communion Song 3 by way of an Agnus - but in the light of the very valid points made by Presbyter on another thread - for how much longer? Which I guess probably applies to all of our familiar settings as soon as the new missal translation hits the presses. Has anybody seen the latest version? Go on, there's only us here and nobody will tell....
Did anyone use Laudate 380 sung to Sine Nomine (For all the Saints tune)? Words are by Patrick Lee and they are a potted history of the two saints. Could be useful especially in a school setting. One to flag up for next year ....
I arrived at the end of the 7.30 service to hear two verses of "For all the Saints" sung in two different keys simultaneously. Very close mind you, about a semi tone apart, or sometimes a whole tone. There were only a handful of people in the church and none of them stayed for Music Group practice. Not even the sopranos with the unusual harmony going on.
Did anyone use Laudate 380 sung to Sine Nomine (For all the Saints tune)?
Call me an old fuddy-duddy but I'm never completely comfy with anything other than For All The Saints being sung to Sine Nomine. Same goes for Eventide and Abide With Me, Repton and Dear Lord & Father of Mankind. Rockinghan and When I Survey The Wondrous Cross. To sing anything else to such tunes as these smacks of One Song To the Tune of Another in ISIHAC. Good for a bit of a laff but can't be taken seriously.
I'm aware that there may be regional/generational variations though and perhaps my comfortable, standardised world could do with a bit of a metrical jolt now and again.
Here, we are constantly bombarded with new music so it came as no surprise to be presented with a new hymn. But then the organist began and I recognised the tune and could sing along - but my surprise was such that I couldn't remember the words of the hymn afterwards. If the music is supposed to help us recall the words (the prayer), shouldn't there (preferably) be a specific tune for each hymn?
Familiarity doesn't necessarily breed contempt. A test for you - how many prayers can you recite because you can sing them whilst doing the dishes?
"One song to the tune of another" ought to be used sparingly, and I sympathise with Gwyn's sentiments, above. There are exceptions though, like "Kingsfold". This tune seem to accommodate all manner of texts and therefore doesn't put one in mind of a particular set of words. We use it for a versified paraphrase of the Benedictus, "I heard the voice of Jesus say", and "O praise our great and gracious Lord", to name but three. It can be used without accompaniment, which is good when it effectively doubles the number of singers for us.
If you ever compose a setting of a text, that text becomes all the more memorable. You hear the text, you recall your music and the words just flow back.
Holy days... mm: trying to get back on topic, there ought to be more sung texts based on the exploits/words of Ss Peter and Paul. Perhaps Peter rather than Paul, because the latter is too bogged down with lengthy sentences and subordinate clauses. I can think of two or three home grown songs, but nothing well known. Any ideas?
My PP tells me that it is now official that Epiphany, Ascension and Corpus Christi will be observed on the following Sundays - surprised no-one has mentioned it if it is true....................?
And with all other Holdays of Obligation which fall on a Saturday or Monday moving to a Sunday, can anyone work our what is the smallest number of days (apart from Sundays) on which we'll have to go to Mass and, therefore, which is the first year this will happen!
Does this mean we'll permanently lose the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord? And will the Ascension always take the place of the Seventh Sunday of Easter?
Also, any particular reason why the Feast of the Transfiguration is so important that it takes precedence over one of the Bread of Life Sundays?
We had the announcement this morning at Mass about the changes to the Holydays. Surprisingly my PP, who said "No fool in Rome is going to tell me how to celebrate my Mass" when GIRM3 and "Celebrating the Mass" were published, is bang up to date on this one: statement from the Bishops' Conference on Thursday, poster on the notice board on Sunday. Where are our priorities? Reinforcement of our liturgical values is publicised with a whimper, three days when you don't have to go to church publicised with a bang!
I'd be quite happy with the decision if I thought that anything substantial had been done to try to encourage attendance at Holyday Masses, other than the usual notices in the bulletin. In the whole of this county there are (to the best of my knowledge) only three evening Holyday Masses that aren't at 7.30. There's no Mass in Norwich, that I know of, that people could go to on their way home from work, none that are early enough for a family with young children to attend and still have their children in bed around their normal time. Our PP doesn't want us to have music at the evening Holyday Mass because it would drag things out too long(!) Surely, if we don't take the externals of Holyday Masses as seriously as the externals of Sunday Masses we can't really expect our communities to take them seriously. I'd be really interested to know if there is a single parish out there that does coffee after Holyday Masses as well as after Sunday Masses and wonder if any parish has thought to do a 'light supper' after Mass - even if it were only jacket spuds and beans. No need to rush to make a meal after work, fostering a sense of community...
Apologies for venting off like that - if it's any consolation my blood pressure has dropped considerably since I started to get that off my chest.
I'm in two minds on this one. I'm very worried that we seem to want to imply that our worship is almost an optional extra. At the same time, as I am often in Lourdes during June I either get two Corpus Christis or none. i would be better though if we could now add the other Holy Days that are celebrated mid-week in Europe. Often it's the only chance working people get to celebrate Mass during the week.
If I understand this correctly, part of the reasoning is to upgrade these feasts – moving them to a time when the parish is already together to celebrate.
But I can't help thinking it will help our priests a lot too. Our parish priest has to celebrate a minimum of three Masses on Holydays, one in each of his parishes. Then there are the two primary schools and the secondary. One of the parishes under his care became vacant when the then parish priest suffered a heart attack and died just becore celebrating his fifth Ascension Day Mass.
We mightn't like the idea that we have fewer priests and that, therefore, there are fewer eucharistic celebrations but that is the reality.
Reginald's idea about a parish supper after evening Mass is a superb one – anything which helps build parish community has to be good. So let's get on with it. It's not another job for Father – he already has more than enough to do.
It's more than 20 years since we first heard mutterings about the possible future shortage of priests. The time has arrived. We really do need to help.
so it came as no surprise to be presented with a new hymn. But then the organist began and I recognised the tune and could sing along - but my surprise was such that I couldn't remember the words of the hymn afterwards. If the music is supposed to help us recall the words (the prayer), shouldn't there (preferably) be a specific tune for each hymn?
my PP, who said "No fool in Rome is going to tell me how to celebrate my Mass" when GIRM3 and "Celebrating the Mass" were published, is bang up to date on this one: statement from the Bishops' Conference on Thursday, poster on the notice board on Sunday. Where are our priorities? Reinforcement of our liturgical values is publicised with a whimper, three days when you don't have to go to church publicised with a bang!
