Saturday, March 31, 2012

AFTER THE SATURDAY MASS TONIGHT...

Tonight, after my 5:00 Mass, I am heading up to Cumberland High School to sing with a group of people I sang with only once since my high school graduation.  That group is the Cumberland High School Clef Singers.  We were a select group of about 25-30 or so from a larger chorus of over 100 that went out and sang at some of the country clubs, the public library, and made some cool trips (for me it was New York City as a junior, and the Virgin Islands as a senior).

Of course, as a chorus, we sang a bit of everything, sacred and secular works by Mozart, Spirituals, medleys by guys like Roger Emerson, etc.  Tonight, we get to revisit that, under the co-direction of Mrs. Nectar Lennox (who I am pictured with here - she hasn't changed a bit), who was my director, and Ms. Susan Alves, who took the reins once Mrs. Lennox retired.  During my senior year, I got to experience both teachers, as Ms. Alves was Mrs. Lennox's student teacher that year in all three music classes I had that year - vocal music, Clef Singers, and music theory.

(Photo taken by my wife Ann, using her phone!)

I for one would spend free periods in Mrs. Lennox's classroom in addition, even if there was no class going on, which in that case I'd diddle on the piano for 40-some minutes till the bell rings.  Sometimes it would be another vocal music class, or perhaps music appreciation (where people would often bring in their own records from home and they get played).

Anyhoo, getting back to this concert: this huge chorus that I am taking part in consists of current Clef Singers and alumni from Clef Singer groups going all the way back to its founding by Mrs. Lennox back in the early 1960's (I was a 1982 graduate).  Below is the program.  The pieces in bold are those I am singing in (we pretty much got grouped by what we sang at the time we attended).

1. Sanctus (W.A. Mozart, from his Requiem)
2. Elijah Rock (arr. by Jester Hairston) (This has one of my favorite bass parts to sing!)
3. O Happy Day (arr. by Edwin Hawkins)
- (our version knocks the Sister Act II version on its hiney!)
4. My Old Kentucky Home (Stephen Foster, arr. by Donald??? Moore)
- (I first heard this song on a record of blooper reenactments by Kermit Schafer.  It was the last line, followed by one of the guys yelling out "OH GOD! WHO GOOSED THAT SOPRANO?!"  The arrangement we'll here tonight, however, is quite beautiful.)
5. Sing Alleluia, Sing (Julie Knowles) (not the one by the Dameans, THANK GOD!)
6. And So It Goes (Billy Joel, arranged by Kirby Shaw)
- (I love Billy Joel's music, and this arrangement is goregous!)
7. Route 66 (Bobby Troup (arranged by Kirby Shaw)
8. Seasons of Love (Jonathan Larson, from Rent)

Intermission

9. Pick-a-little, Talk-a-little/Goodnight Ladies (Meredith Wilson, from The Music Man)
- (In my high school days, we did "76 Trombones" from that same musical!)
10. Shut de Doh (Randy Stonehill, arranged by Mark Hayes)
- (I got to hear it at rehearsal last night.  Sounds Caribbean.)
11. Home (source unknown - credit is blank here)
12. Rock-a-bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody (Sam Lewis, Joe Young, Jean Schwartz, arr. by Harry Simeone) (My dad used to bellow out this chorus on many a car ride.)
(We rudely interrupt this blog post to bring you this Christus Vincit/iSNARK! public service announcement: I POOTED!)
13. Every Time I Feel the Spirit (arranged by William Dawson)
14. Hallelujah! (G. F. Handel, from Messiah)
- (This and the aforementioned Mozart Sanctus are THE two pieces I can still sing without looking at the score.)
15. If You Believe in Music (Gary Fry)
- (Late in my junior year, John Grenon, then a senior, made All-Eastern Chorus, and brought this piece back with him.  It's been in our repertoire since.)

This will be a fun night, but I shall have it with care, as I am coming up straight from my 5:00 Mass, and I still have three Masses tomorrow morning, the first being at 7:30 AM.

As we all uttered every time we took our bow at the end of every concert we sang:
WE LOVE YOU MRS. LENNOX!

Peace,
BMP

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

HOLY WEEK at HEARTS

Part One: Palm Sunday (IV-1-12)

Brass trio at Sat. 5 PM and Sun. 9 and 11:15 AM.

Entrance: (except 7:30) Schubert - Pueri Hebraeorum / (7:30) Mode VII - Hosanna Filio David
Procession: ST. THEODULPH - All glory, laud, and honor (H-62)
Psalm 22: BMP - My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
Gospel Acc: BMP - Glory and praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ
Pause: Dubois - Adoramus Te, Christe
Offertory: PASSION CHORALE - O Sacred Head, sore wounded (H-75)
Sanctus: Schubert - from Six Antiphons for Palm Sunday
- (Note: the aforementioned Pueri Hebraeorum also comes from the Six Antiphons)
Memorial Acc: Jubilate Deo - Mortem tuam annuntiamus, Domine
Amen: adapted from Sanctus VIII
Agnus Dei XVIII
Communion: J. B. Faure - The Palms
Recessional: ICH GLAUB AN GOTT - To Jesus Christ, our sovereign King (W-497)

Peace,
BMP

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

CHRISTUS VINCIT SPORTS

Home Front Edition

The iSNARK! has a proud papa moment...
My daughter Brittany, a high school FRESHMAN, made the school softball team!

You go, girl!
Love ya --- Dad

Sunday, March 18, 2012

ST. JOSEPH DAY at HEARTS

St. Joseph, Husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary
III-19-12, 9 AM - Sacred Heart Church, West Warwick, RI

Entrance: ORIEL - Joseph, be our guide and pattern (W-693)
Kyrie: Caudana - Messa Laus Tibi Christe
Gloria (Used on solemnities): Proulx - Gloria Simplex (if we sing it)
Psalm 89: BMP - The Son of David will live for ever
Gospel Acc: BMP - Glory and praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ
Offertory: ST. THEODULPH - By all your saints still striving (W-706)
- (using St. Joseph verse for the middle verse)
Sanctus and Agnus XVIII
Memorial Acc: Jubilate Deo - Mortem tuam annuntiamus, Domine
Amen: adapted from Sanctus VIII
Communion: TBA
Meditation: LAND OF REST - Come now, and praise the humble saint (W-694)
Recessional: PLEADING SAVIOR - Holy patron, thee saluting (TM-108)

(TM=Today's Missal, which we also have in the pews, but without the infamous Music Issue.)
Peace,
BMP

PS: Zeppoles after Mass!

Friday, March 16, 2012

LENT IV and V at HEARTS

Sacred Heart Church, West Warwick, Rhode Island


Fourth Sunday of Lent (Laetare) - III-18-12

Entrance hymn: MIT FREUDEN ZART - Lord Christ, when first you came to earth (W-438)
Psalm 137: Alstott - Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you
Offertory hymn: PASSION CHORALE - Our Father, we have wandered (W-755)
Communion anthem: Stainer - God so loved the world
Meditation hymn: NARENZA - To Christ, the Prince of Peace (W-491)
Recessional hymn: CRUCIFER - Lift high the cross (W-704)

Fifth Sunday of Lent - III-25-12

Entrance hymn: PARKER - The royal banners forward go (H-63.2)
Psalm 51: Alstott - Create a clean heart, a clean heart in me, O God
Offertory hymn: PASSION CHORALE - O Sacred Head, sore wounded (H-75)
Communion anthem: Rossini - Jesu, Salvator noster
Meditation hymn: HERZLIEBSTER JESU - Ah! holy Jesus, how hast thou offended (H-71.1)
Recessional hymn HORSLEY - There is a green hill far away (H-65.1)

Common to both Sundays:

Gospel Acclamation: BMP - Glory and praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ
Sanctus and Agnus XVIII
Memorial Acclamation: Mortem tuam annuntiamus, Domine
Amen: adapted from Sanctus VIII

Peace,
BMP

Thursday, March 8, 2012

LENT III at HEARTS

Sacred Heart Church, West Warwick, Rhode Island
Third Sunday of Lent; III-11-12

Ordinary: 
Caudana - Missa Laus Tibi Christe (Kyrie)
Mass XVIII (Sanctus, Agnus)
Jubilate Deo - Mortem tuam annuntiamus, Domine (Memorial)
adapt. from Sanctus VIII (Amen)

Proper:
Proulx/Gelineau - Lord, you have the words of everlasting life (Psalm 19)
BMP - Glory and praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ (ante Evangelium) 

Hymns, etc.
Entrance: NEWMAN - Praise to the holiest in the height (H-343.1)
Offertory: ROCKINGHAM - When I survey the wondrous cross (H-337)
Communion: Troyte/Montani - My God, my Father, while I stray
Meditation: JESUS, MEINE ZUVERSICHT - Let thy blood in mercy poured (H-190)
Recessional: HORSLEY - There is a green hill far away (H-65.1)

Peace,
BMP

Monday, March 5, 2012

AH YES! DAS FLUKE! (March 2012 WTF Award)

Let me call your attention to a couple of stories:
and

Both talk about Miz Sandra Fluke, the Georgetown University law student who got to speak to a panel of wackocrats, hoping that the government will pay for the necessary medicine that will prevent her from becoming a mommy when she least expects while doing her three years at the law school (in a Catholic university, mind you, or perhaps Catholic in name only since it accommodated Obama at AT LEAST one occasion that I can recall).  Let's see: 60 grand in tuition.  She claims she'd be doling out three grand in birth control (that's a g-note a year).  However, according to the first report, one can go to WallyWorld and get said birth control pills for just five bucks a month, thus saving her $940 a year in my book.  For that same price, her man-du-jour could shell out the same five bucks and get a box of rubbers (the term I grew up with in high school and college).  Wait: she can even save the other 60 bucks by simply doing the world a huge favor, that is, keeping her legs closed.  So if she's spending 60 grand in tuition each year, another $60 ain't gonna make a bit of difference.  Take that from someone who's never seen what 60 grand looks like!
Further, a mere 14% of those who use the pill (according to the first story) actually use the pill for something other than to prevent their own offspring.  Therefore, only 4 to 5% of the entire student body (assuming, and only assuming, that 40% or so use contraception) use it for non-contraceptory purposes.  Those rare cases I can understand, and I'm sure an honest doctor (I'm talking a real doctor and not some chimp from Planned Barrenhood) would have no problem faxing the necessity to the insurance company.  But for the case of simply assuring the freedom to (as one commentor on the second story put it) "get laid like it's 1999, but not wanting to pay $19.99 to do it"?  Hell, no!  Ya wanna play, ya gotta pay!  If you can't afford to have the painters in, keep'em out!

Oh, and this crap (from someone on a friend's Facebook wall) about Viagra being covered by insurance?  My insurance does NOT cover Viagra.  I don't know about other insurances, but mine doesn't.  Oh well!  Tisk, tisk!  What's fair is fair.

Rush Limbaugh has nothing to be sorry for.  He gets paid for telling it like it is.  For me, telling it like it is is merely part of my pro bono work.

And another thing - these Catholics in name only: Fluke, Sibelius, Pelosi (all flukes, just like Obama, but nonetheless) would all have been excommunicated "latae sententiae" by Cardinal Burke if he was to be their Ordinary.

Miz Fluke is studying law.  You would think she'd learn to uphold the constitution of her country instead of trying to screw it up.  Bad enough other wackocrats (Sibilius, Pelosi, Obama, Barney Phwank, David Chickachini, Weldon Shitehouse, and Lincoln Chafee to name a few) are already trying to do so.

This is not your father's Democratic party.  The Democrats I knew in my youth never pushed for the kind of crap these wackos are pushing for.  In Rhode Island, we had J. Joseph Garrahy for a governor - one of the last of the true pro-life Democrats (and a true Catholic) - in the late 1970's-early 1980's.  He treasured his state AND his Church.

Peace,
BMP

PS: The March 2012 WTF AWARD goes to Sandra the Fluke!

Friday, March 2, 2012

LENT II at HEARTS

III-4-12: Sacred Heart Church, West Warwick, RI

Entrance: H-61 The glory of these forty days / "Erhalt uns, Herr"
Kyrie: Messa Laus Tibi Christe / F. Caudana
Psalm 116: I will walk before the Lord / R. Rice
Gospel Acclamation: Glory and praise to you / BMP, adapted from "Vexilla Regis"
Offertory: H-119 O wondrous type, O vision fair / "Wareham"
Sanctus and Agnus XVIII
Memorial Acclamation: Mortem tuam annuntiamus, Domine / from Jubilate Deo
Amen: adapted from Sanctus VIII
Communion: O Deus, ego amo te / XVIII c., arr. Montani
Meditation: H-413 Lord, as to thy dear cross we flee / "St. Bernard"
Recessional: H-342 Jesus, Name all names above / "St. Theoctistus"

Peace,
BMP

Thursday, March 1, 2012

DIGNUM ET JUSTUM EST

It's amazing how the dialog that is the Sursum Corda is interpreted in a congregation.

Priest: The Lord be with you. (Dominus vobiscum.)
People: And with your spirit.  (Et cum spiritu tuo.)
- A few people start to slip (And also with you) but often catch themselves, thanks to our And with your spirit reminders on our pillars.
Priest: Lift up your hearts. (Sursum corda.)
People: We lift them up to the Lord. (Habemus ad Dominum.)
- Nothing has changed.  Fine.
Priest: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. (Gratias agamus Domino Deo nostro.)
People: It is right and just. (Dignum et justum est.)
- It's so easy to spot the ones that still botch that one up (It is right to give him thanks and praise).  They stick out like sore thumbs, and possibly even look at each other as to ask "Did we say something wrong?"  It's been getting better over the last few weeks, till Ash Wednesday came about.  At that point, you could tell how many APEX Catholics came to Mass that day.

Peace,
BMP