THE CHOIR II.

At practice tonight, we went over the Haydyn gloria again, as well as the Mozart Laudate Dominum (Which I don't know) and Tallis' If Ye Love Me. (Which I do know.) Also, the two hymns we're doing were gone over. We're doing something to 'Vigiles et Sancti', and we're doing the Vaugn-Williams setting of 'All People That on Earth Do Dwell'. I love the third verse of this. Moving the melody to the tenor and having the sopranos and altos sing alternate harmonies is wonderful.

From all appearances, the Red Mass is going to be a musical feast. It's next Monday at 5:15 at the Cathedral of Ss. Peter and Paul, if anyone wants to come.

COMPUTER WALLPAPERS.

I now have a rotation of different ones. This is my current, and I have lots of others. I've already shown This one, This one,and This one, but I hope to find a way to resize this Concept Art from the Thor movie, so that I can make it into a wallpaper.This was the one from last week, and This is for next week.[/immaturity]

And now,

Some music from my parish.

And also,

I'm changing the blog layout again. This was okay when I was 16 or 17, but it's too dark and gloomy now. I think I'd like to try something brighter, somthing with rainbows,something more cleaner and modern.

Thanks be to God!

THIS.

And now,

A lovely Cope.

I'm begining to think that what they say is true.

That when people die, there's no such thing as closure.Or at least, that it takes a long,long time for it to come.

Yeah I know, I'm depressing everyone again, but I've been thinking about my dad lately (That's probably the reason that I've been losing sleep) and I only feel a bit better now than I did two months ago this time. Maybe it's because I'm still not used to him not being around. Somwhere in my brain, it has'nt yet registered that he's not here anymore, so sometimes I'll be like "Wait till I tell dad about this!" about some stupid thing that happened, or that I saw, and I'll remember "Oh yeah. I can't do that." Last week, I was on my way home from classes, trying to call anyone, because I wanted to talk and see how the family was, and I nearly called his old cell number.

Pie Iesu,Domine, dona eis requiem.

And now,

A musical interlude.

Oh My.

In Western Civ. , the book we're using is a standard college textbok for this class. Or least, it's supposed to be. And if it is, I'm very very depressed about the state of American education, because it gives phonetic pronunciations for words they think students might not be familiar with.
Words like "Athens", and "Aristophanes","Pericles","Socrates",etc. These were words and subjects that I learned of in tenth grade.

Yet it is that they suppose that American students won't have heard of these yet.

America is doomed, I called it. Idiocracy is our future.*

*Look up "Idiocracy" if you've never heard of it.

A Proper Blessing.

Albs, long surplices, and gothic vestments in a white Gothic church.

Comper would have been proud. (Though it needs moar apparels on the albs.)

You know that I hate?

When you work hard on an assignment and stay up late, only to find that the assignment is due on a different date, and that you actually should have been doing some other assignment that was due that day. XP

Ritual Notes.

(This was the 12:15 English Mass)
Music:
Procession: Our Lady of Mercy, sweet and pure
Mass setting (Minus gloria and agnus dei) A community mass, Richard Proulx
Gloria: mass in b flat 'Orgelmesse', F.J. Haydn.
Agnus dei: Holy Cross mass, David Isele
Sequence: Plaudat Agmen Captivorum, mode VII
Alleluia Ave Maria, mode I
Creed: Credo III
Offertory: Ave, verum corpus, W.A.Mozart
Hymn:Mother of Mercy, day by day
Communion:
Hymn:Maria, mater gratiae
Motet: Ave Maria, Jacques Arcadelt
Recessional: This is the feast of victory
Postlude: Dialogue sur les Grandes Joux, Clerambault (Yes, really!)


Minus the rain, today was an excellent day. Besides being Mercy Day, the external solemnity of the feast of Our Lady of Mercy,the mass celebrated at the parish was wonderful. In a way, and I mean this as an extreme compliment, it seemed almost like an anglo-catholic rather than Roman Catholic mass.

Yours truly ended up in the procession rather than in the choir today, because I'm one of the postulants, and all the postulants, priests, and brothers were in the procession. We got the 'Bar Song' during the procession. (I call that hymn the Bar Song because, despite having lovely lyrics, it was written in the 30's, and the music relfects that. It sounds rather like an old bar song than a hymn to Our Lady, but the parishioners love it and they refuse to sing the text to any other tune. (And yes, that means they've tried.) There were a crucifer and two acolytes, thurifer, and four torches at the elevation.
The vestments were the gold gothic set with the tudor rose pattern that gets taken out on feast days (It's the one used at 40 hours and the one that's always used at the Easter vigil) The M.C. wore a surplice made entirely of lace (As in, no actual fabric. And it was'nt the sort that's made out of embroidered nylon, the kind that was popular in the 1940's. This is completely made of knit lace, which if it was'nt/is'nt an abuse, it ought to be.*)

The mass was celebrated ad orientem as well. The opening versicles of the mass were sung. rather than simply being said, and all the responses and prayers (including the final blessing and dismissal) were sung.As noted above, the Mercedarians have special sequences for the feast of Our holy Father, S.Peter Nolasco, and Our holy Mother and foundress, Our Lady of Mercy.
After the sermon (A good rousing one on secularism, islamic extremism, and the power and intercession of Our Lady, as well as the importance of devotion to her (The rosary, scapular, chaplets and novenas, etc.) the brothers renewed their vows, and then the creed was sung.

At the offertory, the missal was removed from the altar during the incensation, which is is now the common practice. Then, the celebrant, concelebrants,M.C., and then the people were incensed. At the sanctus, the thurifer and torchbearers came into the sanctuary, genuflected, and knelt. The sacred host and the chalice were incensed at the elevation, and the torchbearers and thurifer left after the amen at the end of the canon. (The Roman Canon was used.)

Communion was given standing, but with the M.C. and one of the taller servers holding the communion patens for the people's communion.

At the end of mass, we all recessed to the narthex for the versicle, response and blessing. ('Prosit', etc.) The organist then played Clerambault's lovely dialogue, which is an od coincidence. (I was just talking about it not too long ago.) It was lovely to hear the 16' pedal reeds in use with the 32' contre Bourdonne. It's a lovely sound, and gets you the sound of the 32' reeds but without the shaking of the windows near the organ loft.

Pretzels and water ice were in the parish hall after mass.

Sunday in the Octave.

"O virgo virginum,*quam pulchra es et decora in deliciis! Tu fons pietatis,humanos miserata quaestus,te conspiciendam dedisti, ut educeres vinctos de tenebris, et umbra mortis, et vincula eorum disrumperes, alleluia."

-Benedictus antiphon.

V.Respice de caelo, et vide* Et visita vineam istam
R.Et perfice eam, quam plantavit dextera tua.
Oremus.
Deus, qui per gloriosissimam Filii tui Matrem ad liberandos Christifideles a potestate paganorum nova Ecclesiam tuam prole amplificare dignatus es: praesta quaesumus; ut, quam pie veneramur tanti operis institutricem, ejus pariter meritis et intercessione a peccatis omnibus, et captivitate daemonis liberemur.

*Prepares to do something stupid.*

I'm ordering some 12-16mm coral and aventurine beads, to make the stereotypical medival rosary. I can't find any bone beads, or even white beads that are plain, round, and 15-20mm. I could also use plain glass or pierced silver, but those are hard to find. So for now, I'll just have to take apart my green agate and glass beaded rosary to use the glass gauds for the new one.

Also, I'm investing in some flexwire, since it's been recommended to me.

First Vespers of Our Lady of Mercy

Ant.1 VIDI captivitatem*populi mei, filiorum meorum et filiarum mearum,quam superduxit illis aeternus
Ant.2 Conteram virgam eius* de dorso tuo, et vincula tua disrumpam.
Ant.3 In funiculis Adam* traham eos,in vinculis caritatis
Ant.4 Ecce hereditas Domini*filii, merces,fructus ventris.
Ant.5 Non fecit* taliter omni nationi: et iudicia sua non manifestavit eis.

Capit. Eccli.24,23-24
Ego quasi vitis fructificavi suavitatem odoris, et flores mei fructus honoris et honestatis. Ego mater pulchrae dilectionis et timoris, et agnitionis, et sancta spei.

Hymnus:

Dei Mater Virgo,
absque casu stella
Pulchra tamquam luna, Utque sol electa.

Nostras audi preces
Tu, quae capivorum,
miserata quaestus
Conteris catenas

O ter fausta dies,
qua afflatu tuolum pro votis
recreasti Petrum!

O nimis profundus
caritatis ardor!
sic a culpa solve
quos a iugo grates

Agit iste grates
ordo, quem benignua
voce demonstrasti
consecrandum tibi

Tuo, diva, Parens,
Gnatos reple zelo,
Ut corde sequamur,
Ore quod vovemus

Ei laus, qui simplex,
Personisque Trinus
Contulit Mariam
Nobis in parentem. Amen.

V.A Domino factus est istud.
R Et est mirabile in oculis nostris.

Ad Magnif.Ant. Laudate*Dominum Deum nostrum, quo non deseruit sprantes in se: et in me ancilla sua adimplevit misericordian, quam promisit domui Israel, alleluia.

Collect:

Deus, qui per gloriosissimam, etc.
sudu