Society of Saint Gregory

Our new lectionaries are with us, and if you've looked ahead to Lent you'll see that we are now given eight options of what we can sing in lieu of Alleluia. There is no rubric suggesting 'these or similar words' so am I right in thinking that we must now use these exact chants and nothing else ...

Yes, it is true I was making a generalisation; to which of course there might well be exceptions. However I am afraid the examples you give do not qualify.

First, with Gelineau-style psalm texts what matters is not the number of syllables (which is variable) but the fixed number of stresses ...

The new translation still uses the Gelineau system of rhythmic patterning; so if you compose with that in mind (as I frequently did in the past) then the business of lines with differing numbers of syllables is no more of a problem than before.


This isn't always the case, regrettably. The new ...

A fabulous document, full of insight, and restating the imperative for the whole (Western) Church to unite around the renewed/reformed liturgy. I really like the observation that we would not be able to understand Christ's suffering and death as the supreme act of liturgical worship if we had not ...

I caught Covid on Wednesday of Holy Week. I asked my daughter Maura to take over from me, leading a 30 strong music/ choir team through the Triduum & Easter Sunday for the first time. Together, they did an amazing job; with 15 people received into the church there were a lot acclamations to ...

Obligatory on Easter Sunday, optional on the 2nd Sunday, but never (afaik) at the Vigil.

What is the difference between MixPad and Audacity? Does MixPad do something more than Audacity? Is it more user-friendly?

Definitely more musician-friendly, to my eye. It's easy in MixPad to display bars and beats rather than a raw time scale, has tools for, e.g., pitch correction, and handles ...

If you were at the Virtual Choirs workshop last week, you know that neither I (a Mac user) nor any of the Windows experts who were present had any particularly appealing suggestions for a free Windows-compatible alternative to Mac tools for music production such as GarageBand.

I'm happy to say that ...

From another thread long ago:



I looked at this list and thought "Who is Dan Feiton?!" It turns out that Dan Feiten (correct spelling) wrote only one song that has lasted, Seed, Scattered and Sown , a fairly folksy offering (1987) which I remember from some American hymnals of bygone years but ...

Dom Gregory Murray. Also in the New English Hymnal, number 537.

A lot of credit to the excellent organist (Nigel Morris?) too; a magnificent voluntary at the end which I think was an improvisation of 'O God our help in ages past' (the recessional hymn)
I wonder if he played the (misnamed) 'St Anne' Fugue by Bach? It's what Anthony usually played when we sang O ...

pdsfd wrote: Wed Jun 26, 2019 5:40 pm I've heard the folksy version of it, but at both this church and at Salford we have sung it at a much slower pace, and it is better for it IMO.

Here's a nice version of it; the same arrangement (and about the same tempo, I think!) that we sang in Salford.

VML, I'm blushing.

Thanks pdsfd, those are heart-warming things to hear. :) I wonder if your experience counts as good evidence in support of putting the 'dots' on the people's sheet week in week out? A regular attender at the Cathedral would end up being able to read music whether they liked it or not. :)

As for ...

organist wrote: Fri May 10, 2019 11:19 am 8.30 p.m. at the cathedral fire at the back inside, 3 readings...

Three? I wonder what grave pastoral necessity made them cut things back so far. Evidently not shortage of time, since there was time enough for the Vierne Messe Solenelle.