Alleluia! Lent is coming...

[FrGareth]

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? And since most of them seem new to British ears, does anyone have settings ready to go?

[Nick Baty]

Looking at the CTS New Sunday Missal, one of those given is "Praise to you, O Christ, King of eternal glory". Already well-known setting by James Walsh in Laudate and in the (old) Collins A Responsorial Psalm Book for Sunday and Feastdays.

[High Peak]

John Ainslie's new edition of "Sing the Psalms Simply" has musical settings in chant style for all eight Lenten Goepel Acclamations.

[Nick Baty]

I will continue to use my own setting: "Glory to you, Lord Jesus Christ, the living word who calls us to life".
The more proscriptive our liturgy becomes, the more I feel called to be elsewhere.

[mcb]

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? And since most of them seem new to British ears, does anyone have settings ready to go?

The Composers Guide says The text of the Lenten Acclamations may be repeated and also adapted, so it sounds like there's plenty of flexibility.

[Nick Baty]

Might they still need approval for publication, though?

[keitha]

I don't think so Nick. The Liturgy office guides says "...any published setting of the Responsorial Psalm (or any musical setting using
APC) will need to be submitted to the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales for permission prior to publication. Publication is understood as making the text available to others either in print or digitally and whether freely or for a fee.".

This requirement is conspicuously absent from the sections on the Gospel Acclamations.

[dmu3tem]

I checked the rubrics sent to me by Martin Foster. In Section 19: Publication B. Acclamation before the Gospel Clause 207 it states:

' The text of the Acclamation is taken from the Lectionary. It may be used freely as long as it is acknowledged'.

Then 'Alleluia' is declared to be in the Public Domain 'no acknowledgement is needed'. You have to acknowledge the Lenten Acclamations; and also the verses.

I hope things stay that way. The more we debate this, or worse, directly ask the Bishops Conference the more we encourage them to extend further copyright restrictions into this area too.

[Nick Baty]

Apologies. Accidental double post. Please delete.

[Nick Baty]

I'm finding it all too much. I'm now worshipping with a community which uses the pre-2024 Lectionary and the pre-2010 Missal – and has no immediate plans to change. The music isn't quite what I'd like, but it's such a joy to celebrate the Liturgy in English, rather the gobbledegook.