Tomorrow's offerings at Our Place for the 2nd Sunday before Advent: City of God, how broad and far (Richmond)
Sing to God new songs of worship* (Ode To Joy) Christ, whose glory fills the skies (Ratisbon) Judge eternal, throned in splendour (Rhuddlan)
*this one brings back memories of the launch of Psalm Praise at All Souls, Langham Place, back in 19seventysomething, with Michael Baughen and the PP team thoroughly enjoying themselves!
“God is in his temple” - Groningen.
"We are the Church!” (Donald Stuart March & Richard Kinsey Avery).
“How lovely is thy dwelling-place” - Harington (Retirement).
“Bricks and mortar, hands and labour” - Nettleton.
“Revive your Church, O Lord” - Carlisle.
Haggai's vision.
“How lovely is thy dwelling-place” - Harington (Retirement).
Of course I read that as "Haggis vision" ...
How lovely is thy dwelling-place was a favourite of the minister who married us, and tended to feature as the opening hymn at St Magnus if David was away or Bill couldn't think of anything else!
For our offerings this morning, imagine a sandwich made with the most delicious, freshly-baked bread, but with dog-food in the middle:
Love divine, all loves excelling - Blaenwern[/i] One shall tell another - New Wine God forgave my sins - Freely, Freely Stay with me - Taize* Immortal, invisible, God only wise - St Denio
* This was accompanied by guitar and violin, with a few ad lib harmonies added by me, and actually didn't work too badly.
It was rather telling that the singing (from a fairly full church) in the first and last hymns was con gusto, and in the others ... wasn't.
Freely, freely is something of a classic (!) now, being well over 50 years old, though I'm personally not all that keen on it. It seems a bit short to serve as an Offertory Hymn, and the tune can be dirge-like.
One shall tell another is, I think, a difficult one to sing at the best of times, and surely not suitable as a Gradual Hymn (which is where Your Place had it, I guess). We don't have a Gradual Hymn, but we do have the Gospel Alleluia sung by cantor and people.
Stay with me is OK with appropriate instruments (a flute would sound well, too), and I'm sure the harmonies you added lifted it from being as dull as it can so easily become. Taize chants during or just after Communion can work well when rendered sensitively.
I agree 100% about the other two Offerings!
Our Place's hymns were as I mentioned earlier, and my Spy tells me that there was a reasonable turn-out (for us). I gather that the Faithful were encouraged to sing lustily, as the church heating was Not On today, and the weather has turned somewhat more Novemberish.
How lovely is thy dwelling-place was a favourite of the minister who married us, and tended to feature as the opening hymn at St Magnus if David was away or Bill couldn't think of anything else!
Sadly it didn't go too well, although we have had it before.
How lovely is thy dwelling-place was a favourite of the minister who married us, and tended to feature as the opening hymn at St Magnus if David was away or Bill couldn't think of anything else!
Sadly it didn't go too well, although we have had it before.
Well, I think it's rather beautiful - thanks for bringing it to my notice!
Our Diocese once had a week-long Conference thingy (at Butlin's, Bognor Regis), and, although I only attended on a couple of days, I well remember a most enjoyable workshop on how to use the Psalms in worship, led by no less than John Bell. The session did indeed feature the Scottish a capella singing of metrical versions, though Our Place sticks rigidly to the responsorial sort of psalms found in the RC church (and others). Variety in the ways the psalms are rendered is a Good Thing IMHO.
A lovely version of Psalm 150 - timeless and beautiful:
We had
Gather us in
Take this moment
Loord, how can I repay.
Our God reigns (played New Orleans style)
To my mind Taizé chants are only bearable with 4 part harmony and soloists singing the descant/verses. Otherwise they can succumb to the slow=meaningful virus.
I find it sad that, when "Songs of Praise" comes from Scotland, the metrical psalms and paraphrases rarely appear. They are the real treasure of the Scottish Church. There are some terrific ones: "The Lord's my shepherd" to Orlington, "O send thy light forth" to Invocation, and of course "Ye gates, lift up your heads on high" to St George's, Edinburgh. We also mentioned "Behold the mountain of the Lord" to Glasgow a few days ago.
Re: Harington, I have played it a few times over the years (and rate it highly) as it was in the old English Hymnal albeit to a Lent hymn with dull words rather than a metrical psalm. An alternative name to the tune (old EH 85) is "Retirement" and which name was highly suitable for those who sang it on those occasions 🤣
Anyway back to today
BCP Holy Communion for Trinity 22
Come let us join our cheerful songs (Nativity)
Alleluia sing to Jesus (Hyfrydol)
Ye holy angels bright (Darwalls)
The service was otherwise spoken so quite a change from usual. The 9 ctogenarian communicants present actually sang pretty well.
Evensong
How great thou art
Hylton Stewart in C canticles
Lead me Lord (aka 3 blind mice 🤭)
Conquering Kings their titles take (Innocents)**
O strength and stay upholdimg all creation
(aka the Spirella Corsets hymn in our family as one of my aunts had worked for them)
** a good while since I came across this and recall the tune being sung to 'twinkle twinkle little star' when I was a small child 🤣. A good service tonight with decent singing.
To my mind Taizé chants are only bearable with 4 part harmony and soloists singing the descant/verses. Otherwise they can succumb to the slow=meaningful virus.
I think great care needs to be taken with context, too. Taizé chants simply weren’t designed for what most churches would consider their standard Sunday service. They were designed for a very specific, meditative style of daily prayer, and for a Eucharistic liturgy of similar style. I’ve encountered them working well when used during Communion, but otherwise, they often just don’t fit.
For Reasonable Reasons, we had only two hymns today:
“Earth and All Stars”/EARTH AND ALL STARS
“O Day of Peace”/JERUSALEM*
That there were only two hymns was, for me at least, made up for by them both being hymns I like, and by the choir getting to sing Palestrina’s Sicut cervus.
* Yes, that JERUSALEM—Parry’s tune for Blake’s words. The text was written by Carl Daw for The Episcopal Church’s Hymnal 1982.
Evensong
Introit:
Blest are the pure in heart- Walford-Davies
Responses-William Smith
Anthem: Dear Lord and Father CHH Parry
Hymns:
Have faith in God my heart- Doncaster
New songs of celebration render- Rendez à Dieu
The strife is o’er - Victory
except that the visiting cleric inadvertently swapped over the second and third hymns, much to the discombobulation of the organist. Nor did he announce the anthem, the placing of which varies according to the officiant, so I for one was expecting a hymn at that point.
11 singers, 8 congregants.
A 15 minute sermon during which the preacher asked people to let him know candidly if he was losing his marbles.
... metrical psalms and paraphrases ... are the real treasure of the Scottish Church.
They certainly are!
There are some terrific ones: "O send thy light forth" to Invocation ...
No, no and thrice no! That has to go to Martyrs!
and of course "Ye gates, lift up your heads on high" to St George's, Edinburgh. We also mentioned "Behold the mountain of the Lord" to Glasgow a few days ago.
Now you're talking! I can't remember the last time I sang Ye gates, except when one of the gentlemen in our choir spontaneously bursts into song at the end of choir practice, and of course I join in ...
@Nick Tamen I heartily agree with you comment about the place of Taize chants. They are esssentially mediatative pieces designed to be sung by large numbers of people during an evensong-style of service. Then they are very powerful. They work much less well with a small congregation during a liturgy with lots of action.
@Nick Tamen I heartily agree with you comment about the place of Taize chants. They are esssentially mediatative pieces designed to be sung by large numbers of people during an evensong-style of service. Then they are very powerful. They work much less well with a small congregation during a liturgy with lots of action.
Yes...though I don't think you necessarily need a large congregation. I know the congregations at Taize itself are often quite large (100s or 1000s!), but a Taize-based service - quiet and meditative - can also work well with only a few people present.
Our Cathedral used to have a monthly Sunday evening (8pm) Taize Prayer in the lovely atmospheric Romanesque crypt - IMHO an ideal location, as the incense didn't have far to travel upwards - and the usual attendance was about 30-40. The venue moved to the nave whilst the crypt was refurbished some years ago, but AFAIK the service disappeared with Covid...
@Nick Tamen I heartily agree with you comment about the place of Taize chants. They are esssentially mediatative pieces designed to be sung by large numbers of people during an evensong-style of service. Then they are very powerful. They work much less well with a small congregation during a liturgy with lots of action.
Yes...though I don't think you necessarily need a large congregation. I know the congregations at Taize itself are often quite large (100s or 1000s!), but a Taize-based service - quiet and meditative - can also work well with only a few people present.
Yes, Taizé-style prayer can work with small groups, as long as one or more competent musicians are leading that group. But, as @Alan29 says, the Taizé chants are generally out of place in a liturgy with lots of action, and I’d add liturgies with a lot of words. As I said, I think some Taizé chants can work during Communion, but that’s about the only place I’d put them in a traditional Western Sunday liturgy.
That said, it’s worth noting that meditative Taizé chants aren’t the only style of Taizé music. There are also Taizé styles of singing psalms and of intercessions (such as this setting of parts of Psalm 118 and these intercessions). Those can sometimes work in a more traditional liturgy with lots of actions and words, again as long as there is competent musical leadership, and as long as there’s not a musical disconnect between them and the rest of the service.
I've just bought CC 1 & 2 and 100 Carols for Choirs; if I'd known I was going to be singing again after David died, I would have rescued our copies before clearing out his study and giving everything away.
Scottish Voices have an Advent service in Perth Cathedral on 13th December, so I'm all set for the Matin Responsory and This is the truth sent from above (among other things). 🙂
Another day, another Requiem.
Usual RC tat for hymns ending with "O Jesus Christ remember when thou shalt come again," sung to Aurelia. An unusual choice. And I have to play Panis Angelicus during communion, which is a guilty pleasure.
At the name of Jesus (Evelyn or Camberwell) Crown him with many crowns (Diademata) Our Father (Caribbean) All for Jesus (All For Jesus) All hail the power of Jesus' name (Miles Lane)
Perhaps a rather predictable list, but none the worse for that IMHO. I'm not too keen on a metrical Lord's Prayer during the Eucharist, as it tends to break the flow of the liturgy whilst it gets announced, and people have to fumble for their hymnbook...but at least it's not the Cliff Richard Abomination again...
“Crown him with many crowns” - Diademata.
“Blessed be the name of the Lord” (Clinton Utterbach).
“Don't be afraid” (Wild Goose).
“In heavenly love abiding” - Penlan.
“Jesu, lover of my soul” - Aberystwyth.
Immortal, Invisible (St. Denio)
Rejoice, The Lord Is King! (Darwall)
When I Survey The Wondrous Cross (Rockingham)
Here Is Love Vast As The Ocean (E. Lowry)
Parish Communion: Christ the King
(From memory as I have no list)
All hail the power of Jesus’ name - Miles Lane
…. one I didn’t know.
Meekness and majesty
During Communion: Jesus, remember me
( Taizé)
Rejoice the Lord is King ( Darwall )
We had a very busy morning at St Pete's: it started with the baptism of a little boy from (I think) South Africa or possibly Zimbabwe, who's been coming along with his mum for the last couple of months. I think his dad works over there, and it was today because his dad was over here and they're heading back soon. I think his mum is either working or studying over here.
Instead of a sermon, we had a talk from a lady from Linlithgow Link, which is one of the charities we support, and provides transport for people who have hospital appointments but can't get there by themselves.
Then the AGM ... Actually it could have been worse - it didn't take much more than half an hour.
The hymns were a dog-food sandwich:
Lo, he comes with clouds descending - Helmsley - lovely, but why not next week? Great is the Lord, and most worthy of praise The King is among us - Kendrick He is Lord :rolleyes: The Church's one foundation - Aurelia
And not a single mention of stirring anything up ...
We had (where I was this morning):
Let all the world in every corner sing. (Luckington)
O worship the King all glorious above (Hanover)
The King of love my shepherd is (Dominus regit me)
Crown him with many crowns (Diademata)
For some reason the RCC in the UK has decided that the Feast of Christ the King of the Universe should also be Youth Sunday.
For once in my life I complained about the utter dross that was chosen. I won't bore people with ahet they were.
We had a very busy morning at St Pete's: it started with the baptism of a little boy from (I think) South Africa or possibly Zimbabwe, who's been coming along with his mum for the last couple of months. I think his dad works over there, and it was today because his dad was over here and they're heading back soon. I think his mum is either working or studying over here.
Instead of a sermon, we had a talk from a lady from Linlithgow Link, which is one of the charities we support, and provides transport for people who have hospital appointments but can't get there by themselves.
Then the AGM ... Actually it could have been worse - it didn't take much more than half an hour.
The hymns were a dog-food sandwich:
Lo, he comes with clouds descending - Helmsley - lovely, but why not next week? Great is the Lord, and most worthy of praise The King is among us - Kendrick He is Lord :rolleyes: The Church's one foundation - Aurelia
And not a single mention of stirring anything up ...
IIRC, and I haven't checked (C of E Shipmates will confirm one way or t'other), the post-Communion prayer for today in England is Stir-Up, O Lord etc. etc. - which makes better sense, in a way, if it comes at the end of the last main Eucharist before Advent.
For some reason the RCC in the UK has decided that the Feast of Christ the King of the Universe should also be Youth Sunday.
For once in my life I complained about the utter dross that was chosen. I won't bore people with ahet they were.
Indeed - the 1662 BCP Collect for the last Sunday after Trinity. My Christ-Mass pud comes from Tess Coe...
I can't recall My Old Mum ever making an Xmas pudding, though she did make an exceedingly tasty CAKE, more Fruit, Marzipan, and Icing than CAKE, IYSWIM.
Comments
It also has some deliciously crunchy, Purcellian false relations.*
* or "splats" as David called them.
I use RHUDDLAN for that.
City of God, how broad and far (Richmond)
Sing to God new songs of worship* (Ode To Joy)
Christ, whose glory fills the skies (Ratisbon)
Judge eternal, throned in splendour (Rhuddlan)
*this one brings back memories of the launch of Psalm Praise at All Souls, Langham Place, back in 19seventysomething, with Michael Baughen and the PP team thoroughly enjoying themselves!
Name Of All Majesty (Majestas)
Jesus Shall Reign Where'er The Sun (Duke Street)
My Hope Is Built On Nothing Less (Solid Rock)
“God is in his temple” - Groningen.
"We are the Church!” (Donald Stuart March & Richard Kinsey Avery).
“How lovely is thy dwelling-place” - Harington (Retirement).
“Bricks and mortar, hands and labour” - Nettleton.
“Revive your Church, O Lord” - Carlisle.
Fill Thou My Life - RICHMOND
Be Still, My Soul - FINLANDIA
Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken - ABBOTS LEIGH
There is strength within the sorrow
I will worship (I will worship)
Only by grace can we enter
Of course I read that as "Haggis vision" ...
How lovely is thy dwelling-place was a favourite of the minister who married us, and tended to feature as the opening hymn at St Magnus if David was away or Bill couldn't think of anything else!
For our offerings this morning, imagine a sandwich made with the most delicious, freshly-baked bread, but with dog-food in the middle:
Love divine, all loves excelling - Blaenwern[/i]
One shall tell another - New Wine
God forgave my sins - Freely, Freely
Stay with me - Taize*
Immortal, invisible, God only wise - St Denio
* This was accompanied by guitar and violin, with a few ad lib harmonies added by me, and actually didn't work too badly.
It was rather telling that the singing (from a fairly full church) in the first and last hymns was con gusto, and in the others ... wasn't.
Freely, freely is something of a classic (!) now, being well over 50 years old, though I'm personally not all that keen on it. It seems a bit short to serve as an Offertory Hymn, and the tune can be dirge-like.
One shall tell another is, I think, a difficult one to sing at the best of times, and surely not suitable as a Gradual Hymn (which is where Your Place had it, I guess). We don't have a Gradual Hymn, but we do have the Gospel Alleluia sung by cantor and people.
Stay with me is OK with appropriate instruments (a flute would sound well, too), and I'm sure the harmonies you added lifted it from being as dull as it can so easily become. Taize chants during or just after Communion can work well when rendered sensitively.
I agree 100% about the other two Offerings!
Our Place's hymns were as I mentioned earlier, and my Spy tells me that there was a reasonable turn-out (for us). I gather that the Faithful were encouraged to sing lustily, as the church heating was Not On today, and the weather has turned somewhat more Novemberish.
Not one I've heard before - is this it?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyeCxkB75_s&list=RDMyeCxkB75_s&start_radio=1
Our Diocese once had a week-long Conference thingy (at Butlin's, Bognor Regis), and, although I only attended on a couple of days, I well remember a most enjoyable workshop on how to use the Psalms in worship, led by no less than John Bell. The session did indeed feature the Scottish a capella singing of metrical versions, though Our Place sticks rigidly to the responsorial sort of psalms found in the RC church (and others). Variety in the ways the psalms are rendered is a Good Thing IMHO.
A lovely version of Psalm 150 - timeless and beautiful:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiNbLm7AUPI&list=RDBiNbLm7AUPI&start_radio=1
I will enter his gates
Jesus put this song
In Christ there is no East or West
Let us Build a House
Some other thing I can't remember.
It wasn't my favourite service.
Gather us in
Take this moment
Loord, how can I repay.
Our God reigns (played New Orleans style)
To my mind Taizé chants are only bearable with 4 part harmony and soloists singing the descant/verses. Otherwise they can succumb to the slow=meaningful virus.
Anyway back to today
BCP Holy Communion for Trinity 22
Come let us join our cheerful songs (Nativity)
Alleluia sing to Jesus (Hyfrydol)
Ye holy angels bright (Darwalls)
The service was otherwise spoken so quite a change from usual. The 9 ctogenarian communicants present actually sang pretty well.
Evensong
How great thou art
Hylton Stewart in C canticles
Lead me Lord (aka 3 blind mice 🤭)
Conquering Kings their titles take (Innocents)**
O strength and stay upholdimg all creation
(aka the Spirella Corsets hymn in our family as one of my aunts had worked for them)
** a good while since I came across this and recall the tune being sung to 'twinkle twinkle little star' when I was a small child 🤣. A good service tonight with decent singing.
For Reasonable Reasons, we had only two hymns today:
“Earth and All Stars”/EARTH AND ALL STARS
“O Day of Peace”/JERUSALEM*
That there were only two hymns was, for me at least, made up for by them both being hymns I like, and by the choir getting to sing Palestrina’s Sicut cervus.
* Yes, that JERUSALEM—Parry’s tune for Blake’s words. The text was written by Carl Daw for The Episcopal Church’s Hymnal 1982.
Introit:
Blest are the pure in heart- Walford-Davies
Responses-William Smith
Anthem: Dear Lord and Father CHH Parry
Hymns:
Have faith in God my heart- Doncaster
New songs of celebration render- Rendez à Dieu
The strife is o’er - Victory
except that the visiting cleric inadvertently swapped over the second and third hymns, much to the discombobulation of the organist. Nor did he announce the anthem, the placing of which varies according to the officiant, so I for one was expecting a hymn at that point.
11 singers, 8 congregants.
A 15 minute sermon during which the preacher asked people to let him know candidly if he was losing his marbles.
Now you're talking! I can't remember the last time I sang Ye gates, except when one of the gentlemen in our choir spontaneously bursts into song at the end of choir practice, and of course I join in ...
Yes...though I don't think you necessarily need a large congregation. I know the congregations at Taize itself are often quite large (100s or 1000s!), but a Taize-based service - quiet and meditative - can also work well with only a few people present.
Our Cathedral used to have a monthly Sunday evening (8pm) Taize Prayer in the lovely atmospheric Romanesque crypt - IMHO an ideal location, as the incense didn't have far to travel upwards - and the usual attendance was about 30-40. The venue moved to the nave whilst the crypt was refurbished some years ago, but AFAIK the service disappeared with Covid...
That said, it’s worth noting that meditative Taizé chants aren’t the only style of Taizé music. There are also Taizé styles of singing psalms and of intercessions (such as this setting of parts of Psalm 118 and these intercessions). Those can sometimes work in a more traditional liturgy with lots of actions and words, again as long as there is competent musical leadership, and as long as there’s not a musical disconnect between them and the rest of the service.
https://youtu.be/9_5t2K6T2PQ?si=nkX54pwHwCK0Swxb
I couldn't find a decent recording with words*, but this is how the tune goes.
* although I think it was on a vinyl recording we made at St Magnus in the mid-80s, complete with a descant written by David. ❤
MARTYRS is one of my favorite psalm tunes. Alas, it’s not in our hymnal.
'Fear not' they said.
Only advent rep.
For now.
Scottish Voices have an Advent service in Perth Cathedral on 13th December, so I'm all set for the Matin Responsory and This is the truth sent from above (among other things). 🙂
Usual RC tat for hymns ending with "O Jesus Christ remember when thou shalt come again," sung to Aurelia. An unusual choice. And I have to play Panis Angelicus during communion, which is a guilty pleasure.
Confusingly there are two groups using the title "Scottish Voices": a secular ensemble (https://scottishvoices.org/ ) and an ecclisiastical ensemble ( https://www.rscm.org.uk/learn-with-us/rscm-choirs/sv/ ). @Piglet sings with the latter.
We do interesting stuff too ...
I was indeed looking at the Other One!
(looks like you put in some miles!)
At the name of Jesus (Evelyn or Camberwell)
Crown him with many crowns (Diademata)
Our Father (Caribbean)
All for Jesus (All For Jesus)
All hail the power of Jesus' name (Miles Lane)
Perhaps a rather predictable list, but none the worse for that IMHO. I'm not too keen on a metrical Lord's Prayer during the Eucharist, as it tends to break the flow of the liturgy whilst it gets announced, and people have to fumble for their hymnbook...but at least it's not the Cliff Richard Abomination again...
“Crown him with many crowns” - Diademata.
“Blessed be the name of the Lord” (Clinton Utterbach).
“Don't be afraid” (Wild Goose).
“In heavenly love abiding” - Penlan.
“Jesu, lover of my soul” - Aberystwyth.
How Deep the Father's Love for Us - own tune
In Full and Glad Surrender - ST. ALPHEGE
Rejoice, The Lord Is King! (Darwall)
When I Survey The Wondrous Cross (Rockingham)
Here Is Love Vast As The Ocean (E. Lowry)
(From memory as I have no list)
All hail the power of Jesus’ name - Miles Lane
…. one I didn’t know.
Meekness and majesty
During Communion: Jesus, remember me
( Taizé)
Rejoice the Lord is King ( Darwall )
Instead of a sermon, we had a talk from a lady from Linlithgow Link, which is one of the charities we support, and provides transport for people who have hospital appointments but can't get there by themselves.
Then the AGM ...
The hymns were a dog-food sandwich:
Lo, he comes with clouds descending - Helmsley - lovely, but why not next week?
Great is the Lord, and most worthy of praise
The King is among us - Kendrick
He is Lord :rolleyes:
The Church's one foundation - Aurelia
And not a single mention of stirring anything up ...
Let all the world in every corner sing. (Luckington)
O worship the King all glorious above (Hanover)
The King of love my shepherd is (Dominus regit me)
Crown him with many crowns (Diademata)
For once in my life I complained about the utter dross that was chosen. I won't bore people with ahet they were.
Annual general meeting
In the Church of England, these are usually IME held in April/May, after Easter.
IIRC, and I haven't checked (C of E Shipmates will confirm one way or t'other), the post-Communion prayer for today in England is Stir-Up, O Lord etc. etc. - which makes better sense, in a way, if it comes at the end of the last main Eucharist before Advent.
I've looked at the C of E website, and the post-Communion prayer for today (Christ the King) is this:
Stir up, O Lord,
the wills of your faithful people;
that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may by you be plenteously rewarded;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
This Post Communion may be used as the Collect at Morning and Evening Prayer during this week
My italics.
I'm guessing that @Piglet 's Place, being Piskie, might well have something different.
Our Christmas pud comes from Lidl.
Oh, please do ...
Indeed - the 1662 BCP Collect for the last Sunday after Trinity. My Christ-Mass pud comes from Tess Coe...
I can't recall My Old Mum ever making an Xmas pudding, though she did make an exceedingly tasty CAKE, more Fruit, Marzipan, and Icing than CAKE, IYSWIM.