Pentecost Sequence

[docmattc]

Following the very useful discussion regarding the Easter Sequence I'm going to ask next obvious question. What to people do for the Pentecost Sequence?

[mcb]

We sometimes do this one - the chant melody adapted to a 6/8 dance rhythm and sung on and off in parallel fifths, with an English translation of the text.

Minus the handbells, but we once did it with a tabla! (I wanted a hand drum of some kind, and that was the most interesting option.)

Other years we've done the chant straight, unaccompanied, with Caswall's English version of the text. As in Laudate, 300.

M.

[dunstan]

We sing the hymn "Holy Spirit Lord of Life" as the Pentecost sequence.

As for the item suggested above, it appears to still be in copyright - does the site where it's available from have permission to post it?

[mcb]

It's the publisher's own web site.

[dunstan]

Fair enough. Just checking.

[Peter]

We sing the hymn "Holy Spirit Lord of Life" as the Pentecost sequence.

So do we (Laudate 301) and it seems to work well.

There's a Taizé "Veni Sancte Spiritus" chant with verses in several languages (if you like the idea of "singing in tongues" for Pentecost) paraphrasing the Sequence and lots of instrumental bits. This is good if you have enough singers to maintain the chant in four parts as well as add the verses, but I've never managed to use it successfully as the congregation seem to get bored of singing the refrain very soon. It's in the first volume of the old Collins Taizé books, which I think are now out of print. There's a similar chant in Laudate (298 with verses only in English), which we have not tried.

Christopher Walker's setting in Laudate 307 (mentioned by Paul Inwood in the latest M&L) also has verses, in English only, paraphrasing the Sequence: we find that this as a repeated chant goes down very well at Communion but have never tried adding verses or using it as a Sequence.

[docmattc]

There's a Taizé "Veni Sancte Spiritus" chant with verses in several languages (if you like the idea of "singing in tongues" for Pentecost) paraphrasing the Sequence and lots of instrumental bits. This is good if you have enough singers to maintain the chant in four parts as well as add the verses, but I've never managed to use it successfully as the congregation seem to get bored of singing the refrain very soon. It's in the first volume of the old Collins Taizé books, which I think are now out of print.

This is a piece I know well and its very prayerful, but I've never used it as the sequence precisely because it doesn't go anywhere for the congregation- it is a mantra. I have used it successfully during the communion procession in the past where such repetitive chants work well. As Reginald mentions in the thread on the Easter Sequence, sequences have a processional character and to cover an action, the Taize would be fine. But sequences now don't cover any action, they stand in their own right and I think the congregation would get restive if they couldn't see an end in sight.

To confound the problem, Pentecost Sunday is the first of our 2 first Communion Sundays, so that whole dynamic has to be taken into account. As Pentecost ranks with Christmas in importance, I would prefer not to have to double up, but the other weekends in May are bank holidays. It would be a shame if the little darlings' sacraments of initiation ruined a long weekend wouldn't it? But thats a whole different topic.