Pentecost Sunday, Year A

What we sang 

• Entrance:   City of God - Schutte
• Psalm:       Send Forth your Spirit of Lord - Aniceto Nazareth
• Offertory:  Spirit of God - Miriam Therese Winter (this one)
• Communion:   O Breathe on Me O Breath of God
• Sending:     Freely Freely - Owens

What I'd like to have sung

We did pretty well overall:  the psalm was sung, there were some good links between the hymns and the sermon, and a good focus on the Holy Spirit.

Would have been a good day for Be Still for the Presence of the Lord - not an old favourite, but a growing new one.

5th Sunday of Easter, Year A

What we sang 

• Entrance:   Seek Ye First - Karen Lafferty
• Gloria:  Peruvian
• Psalm:  - spoken
• Gospel acclamation:  Alleluia, alleluia Give thanks ... Fishel
• Offertory: - instrumental
• Communion:   Servant Song - Richard Gillard
• Sending:  Hail Queen of Heaven

What I'd like to have sung:

The Celtic Alleluia, and in particular some of its verses.    People in Ireland do know this, but for some reason it's hardly every sung.    Maybe they just don't like the word "celtic" - people overseas don't realise how much some Irish despise this term, which is a catch-all for a whole collection of sub-national groups today.

And I'm sure there's another hymn I know with "The Way, The Truth and the Life" in it - can't think of it any more though.

HQOH was put on because it's May, so "Mary's month" in the northern hemisphere.

How a non-liturgical church structures their music

I ran into this blog post the other day.   In short it explains the structure which one non-liturgical (non-denom I think) church uses to structure the music in their services.

This isn't an approach that would work for Mass.  But it might be something to think about if we happen to find ourselves planning a "praise and worship" type of session before a liturgy - as a way of transitioning people from "out there" to "source and summit".

So what do they do   (summarised and simplified):

We usually have five songs at the start of our services that are meant for the church to sing together.  

First song:  a “gathering” song, an invocation that focuses attention on God and asks for Gods way to be present with us.    

Second song:  transitional between the “1″ and “3″, usually up-tempo and lyrically strong.  

Third song:  A testimonial telling of God’s work in us.  

Fourth song:  transitional  The verses are testimonial but the chorus speaks only of who God is with no mention of us. 

Fifth song, remove all mention of us and focuson the attributes and character of God. 

The article ends with well-made point, which I think is good to make for any denominiation and applies equally well to parish organists, music directors, choir leaders, band-leaders, et al:

May we, as worship leaders, implement songs and elements that point our people heavenward, laying aside our own agendas and musical preferences. If we want to lead our congregation well, we must choose to love the individuals more than the music, realizing that our role is relational far more than it is melodic.

I'm going to be using that last line "our role is relational far more than it is melodic" in a lot of places"

ANZAC Day 2014, Dublin

The above was officially released in NZ a year or two before I left - lovely to see that it's made its way to ANZAC ceremonies worldwide.

Apart from that, we has the Australian and NZ national anthems, and some works be a choir from Queensland on their way to the Cork Choral Festival:

• Lest we Forget - Ron Dawson and Kevin Morgan
• The Soul of Australia - Words J Abbott and music Tim Sherlock
• Tallis Canon

The Easter Triduum + Easter Sunday 2014

Three days and a Sunday, one post - let's see how much I can remember!

Holy Thursday

What we sang 

• Entrance:   I am the Bread of Life - Toolan
• Psalm: - spoken
• Gloria Peruvia
• Foot washing - I Heard the Voice of Jesus Calling - John Bell - played on CD
• Offertory:   Take our Bread
• Communion: Ubi Caritas
• Sending:  Silence

What I'd like to have sung:

I miss Gregory Norbet's "The  Lord Jesus", because the text is such a great fit.    It was used the first year I was here, but that was more the music co-ordinator and one very talented pianist who was able to play and sing it at sight even though she didn't know it.    Haven't met anyone else since who knows it.

That said, John Bell's "We Walk His Way" was an amazing find while I was travelling, and I knew that "I Heard ... " would work for Thursday as well as the rest of the year as soon as I heard it.   We had a young pianist tonight who's not yet a song-leader, so had to settle for the CD tonight.  It sounded fantastic - really proved just how much the church's sound system is designed for playing CD's and lot for live music.

And I miss a proper Gloria.   Not 'cos I'm a liturgist.   Just 'cos the Peruvian is a great son, but is missing to much of the theology from the full text.   

Good Friday

What we sang 

• Entrance:   silence
• Psalm: - spoken
• Gospel acclamation:  Praise to You Lord Jesus Christ - unknown.
• Response to the intercessions:   O Lord hear us we pray, O Lord give us your Love.
• Veneration of the Cross:   Were you There - Afro-American spiritual
• Communion: violin instrumental first, followed by The Old Rugged Cross
• Sending:  Silence

What I'd like to have sung:

The Reproaches - ideally Frank Andersen's verison, accompanied by a guitar and violin.   But really, any version would do.

Easter Saturday

What we sang 

• Exultet: - was read, not sung   
• Psalm 1 - Send forth Your Spirit O Lord - well known locally, I haven't been able to track down who this arrangement is by
• Psalm 2 - I Will Bless the Lord - Frank Hernandez
• Psalm 3 - You will draw water in Joy - another locally known version
• Gloria - Peruvian - complete with electronic bells (sounded lovely)
• Gospel Acclamation:    Alleluia No 1 - Fishel
• Offertory:   Come to the Water - Andersen
• Communion:   A solo - I didn't catch the name of the song
• Sending:     Sing a New Song

What I'd like to have sung:

Frank Andersen's Exultet.   Or any other Exultet with a refrain part.   (I found a simple one from the UK in 2011, but haven't yet had the right people to introduce it with).

Any or all of Christ be our Light,  Jesus Christ is Risen Today and even some Hallelujah Chorus would have been lovely.   But we did a simple, joyful service well, with plenty of Alleluia in there.

Easter Sunday

What we sang 

• Entrance:   Seek Ye First
• Gloria - The Latin Gloria, Missa de Angelis version
• Psalm: - Alleluia No 1 - Fishel.    Aiming for three verses, but it got cut short.
• Gospel Acclamation:  Pilgrim Alleluia - Lawton - made a welcome return, very well sung by the children present
• Offertory:   instrumental
• During Communion: instrumental "What Wonderous Love" - played 7 times due to the crowd
• After Communion  "You Raise me Up" - Secret Garden
• Sending:  Because he Lives - the Gaithers

What I'd like to have sung:

Jesus Christ is Risen Today, with full pomp and ceremony - this is the only day in the whole year when I like a thundering organ.

The Easter Song - unknown.   Folky but with long memories.

Lord of the Dance.    

Or The Lord is Alive by Jean-Paul Lécot.   This is a new old-favourite, I learned it here in a parish I visited with when still thought I was just her for six months.

The Gloria was an experiment.  Our lead-musician today is a lovely woman who doesn't cope well with minor keys.    She's tried bluffing her was through the Peruvian, but it really doesn't work.   We've tried an arrangement to Ode to Joy,  but doing it with the official text has too many words for comfort, and an unofficial version that we have is even further from the real text than the Peruvian.    But she remembers the old Latin version, and was confident that she pull it off.    The older people joined in - and so did the African community, so that counts as a win and has been added to the "hymns the parish knows" list.

Because He Lives was new to me.   I was sceptical at first - but the lead musician suggested it, and I figured that if she knows it, then lots of other people would too, and I was right.    Big hit among all ages and the Africans.    Probably I was the only one there who thinks it's just a bit too country-and-western.   But I'll get over it, again, it needs to go on the regular list. 

We are the Easter People, year-round

A nice quote from Rory Cooney, good guidance for liturgical planning no matter what the scale of your musical programme:

I try to keep a paschal repertoire active all through the year, so that much of our music can be used on any Sunday and also works well for the Easter season.

So - if someone suggests a new Mass setting or the like, then one of the judgement calls is "could we use this at some time during the Easter Triduum or season(assuming we've learnt it during the year?" If the answer is "no, it's too banal / complicated / dreary / whatever" - then it's probably not fit for a regular Sunday either.

Palm Sunday, Year A

What we sang 

• Entrance:   All ye who Seek a Comfort Sure - African arrangement
• Psalm: - we didn't
• Offertory:   Hosanna - Carl Tuttle
• Communion:  Soul of my Saviour
• Sending:   All ye who Seek a Comfort Sure  -   again!

What I'd like to have sung

No one in Ireland seems to have heard of the W Jabusch "The King of Glory" which is in my mind as the classic for Palm Sunday.   The classic here is "All Glory Laud and Honour" - but I'm not keen on it myself.

Our African community picked music this week, so the choices are from their repertoire combined with what they think of as the core Irish hymns.   The repetition of the opening hymn at the end, instead of the planned African one was a last minute thing - I didn't quite understand the reason, sometimes you just have to go with things!