The trouble with Communion Processionals

[musicus]

...but I suspect I'm going to be ruled off-topic .

Self-moderation is always preferable.

[alan29]

Our Veneration was "accompanied" by Cds ...... the first of which was of two ladies singing a "new age" setting of Pie Jesu to the sound of a harp. Then Allegri's Misesere, the Barbers Agnus Dei.
I was astonished, appalled and mortified in equal measure.

[Nick Baty]

Time you took them in hand, Alan29.
Even if they'd been sung live, which of those items has anything to do with the veneration?
We share your astonishment, appalledness (?) and mortification.

[Southern Comfort]

This sort of thing happens because people try to celebrate the Good Friday liturgy as if it were a funeral service for Jesus. It isn't.

Even though it starts off in sadness with the reading of the Passion, Reproaches during the Veneration, etc, it should have a sense of progression towards the Easter Vigil so that music for Communion on this day reflects the Triumph of the Cross — "Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle", "What wondrous love is this", etc, starting to celebrate Christ the Victor over death — rather than more wallowing in grief.

[gwyn]

SC advised;

This sort of thing happens because people try to celebrate the Good Friday liturgy as if it were a funeral service for Jesus. It isn't.

Good point S.C.

[Nick Baty]

Very good point, SC.

I was trying to explain this to one of our youngsters on Good Friday, while I was rehearsing with the brass ensemble. He heard me tell the horns to really cresc in the final verse of My Song is Love Unknown, at the words “.... no story so divine, never was love dear king...” And he asked me “Aren’t we supposed to be sad today?”

I said that, while we were remembering some very sad events, we knew what happened next and that this wasn’t the end of the story. And why we should be grateful for the events of Triduum. All very clumsy – I’m not too good with little people.

This isn’t a TV drama with a cliffhanger. We do know what happens in the next scene – and there’s still a long way to go before the credits roll.

[alan29]

This sort of thing happens because people try to celebrate the Good Friday liturgy as if it were a funeral service for Jesus. It isn't.

That is especially true given the nature of John's "take" on the passion. I don't know if it was even that explicit ...... something "nice" in the background while people venerate.
The best non-live music thing I have come across was the year that the PP read the reproaches while seated on his chair. There was something starkly beautiful about just hearing the words.
Nick ...... there is no way on God's earth that I want to get involved with arguing with the sets of attitudes that came up with Pie Jesu. What do they teach them in seminaries these days?

[Nick Baty]

One can only hope that, being in Latin, not everyone will have understood what the words meant. Although even a non-linguist like me can work them out quite easily. Having said that, I do speak fluent Scouse and can just about understand East Anglian!

[keitha]

The trouble is that there are two settings of 'Pie Jesu' in McCrimmons 'Music for Holy Week and Easter' - an otherwise useful resource book.

Neatly returning to the topic, for us this has been the Holy Week with Communion Processionals, all Taize chants, and all have worked well, with the choir receiving first and singing as they processed to the altar, and the congregation joining in as they were passed by the choir. We will be doing more of this so that it becomes a habit once I have found more resources.

[Nick Baty]

The trouble is that there are two settings of 'Pie Jesu' in McCrimmons 'Music for Holy Week and Easter'

That's the problem with quite a few collections. It might be a huge editorial blunder but because it's "in the book" it's seen as OK.

[Nick Baty]

Returning to this more than six months on, this morning's communion song raised the roof – a setting of Psalm 41(42) from the new Grail translation. And for once, my timing was just about right – the choir was back in time to sing the last verse and to add descant to the final refrain. The silence afterwards was stunning.

(Also noticeable today, was the Orange Lodge marching past us as Mass finished, the drums banging a different rhythm and much louder as they passed our building. I'm told there's anti-Catholic rhetoric in that drum beat – I don't know if that's true or not but we all went out and waved at them. )

[VML]

What was the tune that raised the roof?
New or old and well known?
And if new, how did people learn it well enough to raise the roof?

[Nick Baty]

It wasn't anything known outside our community. We ran through it before Mass – and it caught on. Perhaps it was just the day or the weather or the mood!

[VML]

How long do you spend before Mass with the assembly practising? We now have a quiet five minutes before Mass, (and it's rather a good thing,) and most people turn up during that..

[Nick Baty]

No more than two minutes. And it helps quell the chattering which, in a flat ceilinged room, can sound particularly loud!