11th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C, 2010)

Entrance Remember your mercy, Lord (Paul Inwood)
Kyrie Lord, show us your mercy (mcb)
Gloria Missa Ubi Caritas (Bob Hurd)
Psalm Ps 31 (Stephen Dean/Harry Bramma)
Gospel Acclamation Salisbury Alleluia (Christopher Walker)
Preparation of the Gifts Lord, hear my voice (mcb)
Sanctus, Acclamation A, Amen German Mass (Franz Schubert, arr. Richard Proulx)
Agnus Dei Hurd Mass (Bob Hurd)
Communion There is one thing I ask (Chris O’Hara)
Postcommunion Adoremus in aeternum (adapted from Gregorio Allegri, 1582-1652)
Recessional Rejoice, the Lord is King

We were compared favourably with the Sistine Chapel choir this morning by Fr Tony, freshly returned from a trip to Rome to celebrate the end of the Year for Priests. His approbation was for our singing of the chant verses in Adoremus in Aeternum, adapted from Allegri. The spirit of the chant, it seems to me, is in aestu temperies: coolness. There’s no room for ‘personality’ in the singing of it; rather, the voices of the singers, like the notes of the melody themselves, are a vehicle for the text, and the musical pace and dynamic contour are those of the rise and fall of breathing.

I’ve looked hard for a source for the Allegri. We were singing from photocopies of a crumbling original long out of copyright, marked with the phrase from Gregorio Allegri but not revealing who the adaptation was done by, nor from what original source. At a guess, I’d imagine it was Richard Terry. Can anyone shed any more light?

Our music today led us through an unfolding reflection on God’s mercy. We began with pleas for forgiveness in our opening song, Paul Inwood’s setting of Psalm 24(25), and in the Responsorial Psalm (31(32)); our song at the Preparation of the Gifts (which was actually a setting of the Entrance antiphon) combined the same plea with the yearning for God’s presence articulated in Psalm 26(27). The latter psalm also furnished the text for the Communion antiphon, sung to Chris O’Hara’s gentle tuneful setting. Then in the Allegri we sang quoniam confirmata est super nos misericordia eius (for his mercy is confirmed over us), and our final hymn took up the injunction we’d sung earlier in Psalm 31(32) to rejoice in the Lord.

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