MUSIC FOR HOLY MASS

5 PM - Saturday, June 20, 2009
Anticipated Mass for the Twelfth Sunday of Ordinary Time
St. Joan of Arc Church, Cumberland, RI

On the most part, not bad. A couple of pieces from my If You Must Use Hymns suggestions for Ordinary Time XII were used this afternoon. Those were I sing the mighty pow'r of God, and a setting of the 27th Psalm. They weren't in the places I suggested, but they were there.

Entrance hymn: "Ellacombe"...I sing the mighty pow'r of God
Psalm 107 (Give thanks to the Lord, his love is everlasting) and Alleluia: both by Owen Alstott from OCP's Respond and Acclaim
Offertory: Walker...The Lord is my light
- (Not the setting I had in mind. Text was fine. Melody was mediocre at best. It was kinda like the St. Louis Jesuits trying to do Early American hymnody.)
Sanctus, Memorial, and Amen: Alstott...Heritage Mass
- (I may have said this before: probably THE best Mass setting that has an OCP copyright to it. Bob Hurd's Missa Ubi Caritas may run a close second.)
Agnus Dei: Mass XVIII
Communion: (two pieces)
- (1) B. Hurd...Taste and see
- - (personally, for a contemporary Taste and see, I like James Moore's setting better)
- (2) Malotte...The Lord's Prayer
- - (Bad move this time. I have to say it, for multiple reasons. First of all, I can see why many frown on this setting, but that is usually assuming that this is sung at the time when the Pater Noster is sung. Today it was towards the end of Communion. My mom simply knows this setting as "the Our Father that Perry Como sings". I'm assuming that this was sung in honor of Father's Day, which is tomorrow. Again, a bad move, which I equate to programming a patriotic hymn every time Memorial Day or Independence Day comes around, or an Ave Maria just because it's Mother's Day. Further, the glissando that the cantor (a male) used to howl that "for EEEEEHHHHH-ver" towards the end was just awful. Even my wife, a non-musician who still appreciates good music, said to me after,"I didn't like it one bit!")
Recessional hymn: "St. Catherine"...Faith of our fathers, living still
- (again, probably for the same reason as the Malotte Lord's Prayer, but at least Faith of our fathers is a decent hymn.)

Peace,
BMP