11022011-SEP All Souls Communion

All Souls Day 2011 at St. Joseph, La Puente, CA

The first time ever that the English Propers are sung at our parish.

http://musicasacra.com/sep/

Posted to ChantCafe:

Our nascent 'garage chant club' consists of the cantor you see, the "secretary" you're reading, a newbie, and CMAA's vast resources.

The pastor was gracious to allow this atypical setup for All Souls, with the ulterior motive to highlight the Christian elements of the Dia de los Muertos celebrations in our area (they'll allow it in schools as a 'cultural' expression).

The SEP introit accompanied a candle procession, followed by the Spanish choir's "Caminaremos" with guitar and organ (and possibly an accordion). The full Ordinary was in typical Latin American styles and with the aforementioned instrumentation, as was the Resp. Psalm. The SEP communion was followed by "Pan de Vida" and a prolonged silence. The priest processed out to "In Paradisum" followed by yet another guitar/organ-led hymn.

Of note was the extreme contrast between plainchant motifs and your average Spanish choir's use of hymns and "moving" rhythms. The chants created solemnity and were beautifully sung; many heads turned up in wonder. Without a single sentence of logical argument in favor of plainchant, many present were convinced of the power of singing the Mass. The choir director expressed the earnest desire to continue to work with our cantor/chant group. I made sure to make use of every opportunity to spread the Propers Gospel, and went as far as giving him a copy of the Spanish Ordinary I found in the MusicaSacra/forum page.

We need the Simple Spanish Propers.

And to close, while most of the Ordinary was hymned in that Spanish-choir style, the Agnus Dei was chanted in Spanish and with a melody very close to the Jubilate Deo simple Ordinary (ironically, because I think it uses the Requiem Agnus Dei as its source). This chant is the sole vestige of our former "reform-of-the-reform" associate priest.
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I forgot to add, that while most people sang most of the Ordinary, the instrumentation and the mic-ed choir tended to drown out the congregation. BUT WHEN THE AGNUS DEI WAS CHANTED . . . the flower was undressed and you could REALLY hear the congregation.

Everyone (in the Spanish community) could sing it! And our English speakers (who know the Latin melody), could have at least hummed along!

That, right before the communion and its introit, really helped to set the tone for that very important moment of reception.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• All Souls Day
• Simple English Propers
• Communion
• Lux Aeterna