Sunday, June 22, 2008

MUSIC FOR HOLY MASS

Twelfth Sunday of Ordinary Time - June 22, 2008
Blessed Sacrament Church, Providence, RI

Today I attended Mass at Blessed Sacrament for the first time since the last time I filled in over there (which was Ash Wednesday). For the first time I finally got to hear the music director play - he's quite good.

Anyhoo...

Praise to the Holiest in the Height..."Billing"
- (It has been EONS since the last time I got the pleasure of hearing this hymn in a Catholic setting!)
Lord, in your great love...Alstott
- (It was also good to finally hear the Psalm of the day instead of a seasonal Psalm or some hymn to replace it - the latter is a no-no.)
Alleluia...Mode VI
For the beauty of the earth..."Dix" (with a gorgeous free accompaniment on the last verse)

This group could have been better, however:
Sanctus and Amen from Jesuits Mass...Dufford/Schutte
Christ has died, alleluia...Wise
Agnus...Olawski
You are mine...Haas

Thankfully, they recovered and closed with a keeper:
Father, we thank thee who hast planted..."Rendez a Dieu" (I love this one!)

Peace,
BMP

2 comments:

Jason Pennington said...

Ah yes, Rendez a Dieu. I programmed that one often at Fatima. The congregation and choir both loved it. I loved it too from an improvisatory standpoint because of the groovy middle section. The hymn can generate countless creative chorale preludes, whereas many tunes, I believe, can't, such as Winchester New, for example. That's probably because W.N. is one of my least favorite tunes in the universe and thus I was always hard pressed not to wax Messiaen on the tune during processions, back in the Golden Age when there processions.

JP

klohs said...

for an instant I thought you said "wax Messican" instead of "wax Messiaen" ... gotta cut down on the black tea ... :-P