While we've been in the season known to many as "Ordinary Time" (or to some, perhaps, "Boring Time"), we're finally back to the numbered Sundays of the Year (or more literally, "through the Year", from the Latin "per Annum") after a string of Solemnities throughout June. One might be quick to call it a "return to normalcy" (after the great seasons of Lent, Passiontide and Easter, plus several June solemnities). "Return to normalcy" is the phrase attributed to President Warren Harding in 1920, after our nation going through World War I.
As our usual practice we have returned to the sung Ordinary of the Mass in English for the months of July, August (with the exception of our Italian Heritage Mass on August 2), September and October.
Also, you will see our Mass sheets streamlined, including the music for the Psalm response, the Alleluia and any hymns that are not in the Pew Missal. Please take one of these as this is your guide. And if you don't sing for whatever reason, I encourage you to pass it along to your friend (or at least, neighbor) who will. Any hymns that are in the Pew Missal (in the case of this weekend, three of them) will be referenced in the guide (e.g., All people that on earth do dwell, Pew Missal, #80).
Given the Psalm response, Let all the earth cry out to God with joy, our entrance hymn begins, All people that on earth do dwell, sing to the Lord with cheerful voice..., using the classic hymn tune "Old Hundredth". Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote an arrangement of the hymn for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth in 1953. The first and final verses begin with fanfares that call for "all available trumpets". In writing this, Vaughan Williams was asked to write a short motet for the Coronation. Instead, "If you can persuade the Archbishop to have a hymn in the Coronation serivce," he quipped to the organist of Westminster Abbey, "I'll make a mess-up of 'Old Hundredth.'" (Source)
Speaking of Ralph (or "Raph", rhymes with "safe", depending on who you're talking to) Vaughan Williams, he wrote several other hymn tunes. One of them, "Sine Nomine" (Latin for "Without Name"), is the tune to which we sang last week's entrance hymn, For all the saints.
One one of the several Facebook pages I frequent that are on the topic of church music, some have asked whether or not anyone is doing any "patriotic" music either the weekend before or after Independence Day (July 4, the day I just happen to be writing this post). I opted for this weekend for two reasons: 1) the Fourth falls on a Friday this year, making this weekend a "three-day weekend", and 2) last weekend was the Solemnity of the Apostles Saints Peter and Paul, which took a much higher priority. So, this weekend we will "double up" on the "patriotic" hymns - I vow to thee, my country as the meditation hymn after Communion and God of our fathers as the recessional.
So, without further ado...
MUSIC FOR HOLY MASS
ORDINARY OF THE MASS:
Holy Angels Mass (BMP) (Listen) or recited
A Community Mass (Richard Proulx) (Sanctus, Memorial Acclamation, Amen and Agnus Dei)
ALLELUIA: Dom Anthony Gregory Murray, OSB
The rest:
Entrance hymn: #80 All people that on earth do dwell ("Old Hundredth") (Listen)
- The listen link is to the aforementioned "The Old Hundredth Psalm Tune", Ralph Vaughan Williams' "mess-up of Old Hundredth", complete with brass. As the hymn was written for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, it was only fitting that his "mess-up" was encored for her 50th Anniversary of her Coronation.
Psalm 66: R./ Let all the earth cry out to God with joy (Fr. Samuel F. Weber, OSB)
Offertory hymn: #230 Praise, my soul, the King of heaven ("Lauda Anima") (Listen)
- The listen link here is one that pairs a majestic pipe organ with a digital organ. The venue: the famed Methuen Music Hall in Methuen, Massachusetts. The organs: the equally famed Aeolian-Skinner pipe organ and a smaller digital organ. I don't quite remember if the digital organ was either a Rodgers or a Marshall & Ogeltree. The two organists in this link were, sure enough, Douglas Marshall and David Ogeltree. In addition to building their own digital product as "Marshall & Ogeltree", they were at one time the longtime New England distributor for Rodgers organs (our organ, incidentally, is a Rodgers).
Hymn during Communion: Jesus, my Lord, my God, my all (Mother Alexis Donnelly, RSM)
- See last week's post which mentions "Alexis Donnelly Way".
Meditation hymn: I vow to thee, my country ("Thaxted"/back page of Mass Guide) (Listen)
- The music for this stirring hymn comes from Gustav Holst's work, "The Planets", in particular, the movement, "Jupiter". While the hymn is sung mainly in the United Kingdom and even in Canada, it is a very effective hymn here in the United States.
Recessional hymn: #139 God of our fathers ("National Hymn") (Listen)
- Written right here in the United States for our nation's Centennial in 1876.
Happy Independence Day weekend!
Quod scripsi, scripsi!
BMP
