Occassional psalm

Psalm 122, King's College Choir.

The Tones.

Antiphonale Romanum,

There are some mysteries which are so deep, that men can never fathom the dephths of their meaning. I have realised, that the Fourth mode is one of these mysteries.

Seriously, I've been chanting the office regularly for about three three years now, and yet the fourth mode confuses me. IT FAILS TO MAKE SENSE. I'll start off with an antiphon or responsory or hymn or something, and the whole thing will sound EXACTLY like the the first mode, and then, whoops, last note is different. That's where I was with they hymn Decora Lux last evening. It sounds and appears to be in first mode, and then the last note is different, so it turns out it's not. That makes learning it a bit harder. Sometime I wonder if the fourth mode is actually just a very successful trolling attempt that no one has figured out yet.

And also, everything they say is true: Pius XII/Bea psalter= COMPLETELY UNSINGABLE. Don't waste your time. Stick to the Vulgata or Nova Vulgata.The phrases are far too long for me personally. It seems like your stuck on the dominant for ever. Sometimes they're far too short, and you're on the dominant for a single syllable before going into the termination.

I'm still on the fence about whether the Nova Vulgata is better of the New Nova Vulgata. (Yup, they revised it. The revised version is in Lauds and Vespers, but I have he older version now. The only real differences are in the canticles.)

And now,

Franz Schubert.

This taught me not to trust teh internetz. The way people talk about the church in France, you'd think that every church except the SSPX is having horrible terrible modern music and liturgy at mass, with the exception of maybe the organists of St. Sulpice and Notre Dame de Paris, where they HAVE to keep that going. But Notre Dame de Paris also has the gorgeous choir and two other fine choirs, including a boychoir, all singing wonderful music such as this, along with chant, various schools of polyphony, and things like This.

So yes, Notre Dame is now on my list of Places I have to go before I die. If not for the choir, at least for something like This.

Oh, and I can't help it, I have to post the Kyrie from the Schubert mass to.

Ritual notes.

Hmm, can't beleive this is my second to last Ritual Notes for a year.

Anyway, it was the solemn profession of Brs. James and Scott, at Our Lady Of Lourdes church, at 7:30 PM.

Music:

Prelude: Prelude and fugue in D, BWV 532

Entrance: Some sort of early baroque sounding march alternating between the brass quintet and the organ

Proper antiphon, By all Your Saints Still Striving (St.Theodolph- Yeah, Where's my King's Lynn, people?)

Mass: Missa de Angelis

Psalm: Mode III chant

Alleluia: Festival alleluia (Descant on last repetition)

Offertory: Tu Es Petrus, M. Haller)

Mysterium Fidei: Mortem tuam, mode Mode I

Communion:

Ecce Quam Bonum, Montani

Mother of Mercy, Day by Day

Antiphon to Our Lady: Salve Regina (Chant)

Recessional: O God Beyond All Praising (Thaxted, Richard Proulx's setting with choir only 3rd verse, descant last verse)

Postlude: Another organ and brass piece, this one was late baroque. Reminded me quite a bit of Handel.

There were far too many clergy for me to name them all, but the celebrant was Fr. Francesco Poda,secretary to the Provincial of the Roman Province, there were two deacons who I have seen at the seminary,quite a few priests from the seminary, and many of the priests and brothers from the other houses in the U.S. They all, with the altar servers in choro filled up the first five rows of pews on the east side of the church*.

There was a thurifer and boat-bearer, crucifer, two acolytes, six torch bearers, two M.C.s, and all the rest if the servers. The thurifer and crucifer wore laced surplices, and the other M.C. (One of the older altar servers) wore one of those sheer type lace surplices that became popular in the 30's and 40's.

All the priests seemed to be wearing matching red vestments, the same set that Lourdes usually uses on Good Friday, and the celebrant and two deacons wore albs edged with lace. (The same ones Lourdes uses at the easter vigil.)The two to be professed wore over their habits the white mantle which is worn on solemn occasions under the capuche.

The procession went from the rectory porch around to the church, and when they entered the church, the brass quintet played the march, then the choir sang the hymn. There were some short remarks before the act of penitence and the kyrie by Fr.James.

After the readings, the alleluia and verse were sung by the choir, and the gospel procesison lined up at the foot of the altar. There was a bit of time as the verse was long. The gospel book was incensed, and then the gospel read. After the gospel, the second M.C. took a chair to the footpace of the altar, and kneeling there, held a microphone while an acolyte held the book.Each was called, and then an explanation was given to them, after which they made known their intention to offer themselves forever to God in the order. Fr. Podda gave the homily. After the homily came the rite of profession. Fr. Podda, the two deacons, and the M.C. went to the footpace of the altar again,and the two to be professed stood outside the sanctuary the interrogation and the litany of the saints followed.

During the litany of the saints, all knelt except for the two to be professed, who lay prostrate on the floor outside the sanctuary with their hoods raised to cover the head.After the litany of the saints, there was a collect, and the two each read the profession formula, Fr, Podda Ratifying it. They each placed the Book of Profession on the altar and signed it, as did Fr.Podda and Fr.Matthew. Then the celebrant, the two deacons, and the M.C. went to the footpace of the altar again, and the two who had just made profession knelt on the floor, each holding a lighted candle.The celebrant said the prayer of blessing on consecration over them, and then they were given the signs of presfession with an admonishment after each. (The Breviary, the Rule and Constitutions of the order, and an image of Our Lady, foundress and protectress of the order.)After which, Fr.Podda confirmed them as members of the order, and all the brothers and priests present gave them the sign of peace.

The offertory and canon proceeded as usual. Only four priests concelebrated at the altar, the rest stayed in the pews.The host and chalice were incensed at the consecration, and at the amen, the servers took the torches and incense back to the sacristy.

Communion was gievn to the priests first who came into the sanctuary to take the chalice and receive the host. Afterward, the sanctuary gates were closed and everyone else received kneeling, at the rail. A solemn blessing was given rather than the simple blessing. At the end, there were cake and cookies in the parish hall.

Oh, and check this out.

This.

And now,

Ian Tracey.

<3

So that's why the concilium shortened the office.

Maybe IR Doing it Rong, but it takes me an hour and 15 to sing matins and lauds form the liturgia horarum.Today, with the full invitatory tone (Rather than a psalm tone) both hymns (Sacris Solemnis AND Verbum Supernum Prodiens) and the sung responsories, (I usually recite those on Sundays since I don't have access to anything with the responsories for the new offices in it) It took me an hour and 35.

I can't imagine having to add one and 1/2 more nocturns to matins,tripling the amount of responsories, and adding two more psalms to lauds. And don't get me wrong, I think that the reduction of matins to a single nocturn of of two very long lessons and responsories was unfortunate, and the triple nocturn of three or nine lessons is the ideal. But if if takes me the long to do what's essentially one nocturn plus an extra reading from matins of the old office of corpus Christi, I can't imagine how long it would take to sing the entire thing. And I don't sing slow. Slow chant becomes boring. So yeah, that's that.

I don't have any new art.

Here's something I drew months ago.

I guess I should fess up.

As to what my friend, my brother and I did last Sunday. Obviously, I went to a series of conerts, but what I did'nt say was that the 'series of concerts' was actually Punk Island on governor's Island. It was amazing. I got to see In Circles, Bucket Flush, Common Enemy, and Disaster Strikes, among other bands that I wanted to see. It was a great day. I woke up at 5 and sang Matins and Lauds of Trinity Sunday. My brother and i grabbed some snacks from a gas station and caught the trolley from here to 3oth to catch the Megabus ($10 tickets!) After the bus ride, we rode trains to the ferry.

I had somehow forgotten my fear of large bodies of water until we got on the ferry. Luckily, my friend kept me busy talking, so no panic attack. We wandered around a bit, waiting for the bands to start playing, and ended up getting our pictures taken by some random lady. I don't know who she was or where they went, but she was polite and asked, so we obliged.

In Circles was the first band we saw. I loved the vocalist. Her singing was wonderful, I even loved her jokes and guitar tuning problems. After that, we saw The Homeless. That was an interesting act: A bass acoustic, a saxophone, a violin, a Washboard, and an accordion. The girl with the washboard and the violinist had the best voices. Too bad about Morning Glory and Stza Crack though. Shame they didn't come and Stza was there by himself.

But yeah, great stuff. I don't talk about it much, but I do have a bit of a history in punk music. Nothing amazing or spectacular, I was never in like some touring band or anything. But I wasn't straight-laced in high school, I was Straight-Edge. I'll leave you with that much.

I would highly reccomend

This Book. I've been reading it over vacation, and it's absolutely wonderful. His ideas of how to say the office reverently and devoutly are very helpful and you can see from hw he talks of the office and joining with the perpetual hymn of praise in heaven, and uniting ourselves with Christ the High Priest, that he predated but is completely consonant with Paul VI's Sacrificium Laudis.

Part of me wonders,

Whether it would be inherently evil and wicked to go to St.Thomas' fir evensong while we're in New York. Obviously, I'm the only person that would be remotely interested in going, so my brother and mom would have to find somewhere else to go to with their friends. That's probably a terrible thing to do, but it's not like I'd ever have another chance to go. It's at 4PM, so I'll have plenty of time to get to the bus stop once it's done.

It's all a matter of convincing my travel mates.

Okay, I've seen enough to form an opinion.

Please, please, for God's sake and that of your parish, if you are in any way in charge of music at a parish, please DO NOT buy the 4th edition of the worship hymnal. It's a step back. IT STINKS.

It's claimed to be a 'traditional' hymnal, but about 85-90% of the hymns in it are modern compositions. Many good ones have been expunged (Eg.,Hills of the North, Rejoice, Jesus, My Lord, My God, My all, Lift Up Your Heads, O Mighty Gates, Lord Christ, When First You Came to Earth, O for a Heart to Praise My God, O Gladsome Light, O Radiant LightSee amid the Winter’s Snow, Thy Strong Word Didst Cleave the Darkness, ‘Tis Good, Lord, to Be Here.) These are all gone now.The Loss of Jesus, My Lord, My God , My All is particularly depressing. It's quite a well loved hymn at Our Lady of Lourdes, It's one of the few that everyone seems to know by heart.

So yes, stick with Worship III, get yourself some new material for the new mass settings. (And, I'll repeat my call that the Adoremus and Worship III are meant to go together. Worship provides your material for The proper of time fine but is light on hymns for saints and Our Lady. Adoremus is big and beefy on solemnity, saints and festivals of Our lady, but rather light when it comes to the proper of time excepting Advent and Easter. Get them both and everyone will be happy.*)

And also,

THIS,

Which I've wanted to learn since I was 16, but lack of money to buy music,lack of talent, and lack of confidence kept me from learning. But now, I has free public domain music, a year of practice, and a bit more confidence.

AWESOME SAUCE.

Things are working out okay.I just need my friend Steve to call me. I feel like I'm being avoided, but out of charity, I'll just have to assume that he's been kidnapped by ninja pirates and forced to work in an Indonesian sweatshop making the little plastic wheels that go on Hotwheels.

Or something like that. As long as I excuse him.

And once again,

A demo of the organ at my Parish, Our Lady of Lourdes. I love this because you can hear the 16' Pousaune + 32' Contrebasse combo that works so well. You can also hear the 32' Contrebombarde in the processional hymn, as well as the chamades.

See, even if the church building was built awkwardly and without an organ in mind, the one that's there now works fine.