Grassroots Liturgist

As I read through the Triduum feedback forms, one sentence made me pause and caused my spirits to rise. Ever since the end of lockdown, when I was asked to lead the music and aspects of the liturgy for the Paschal Triduum, I have been giving these forms to those involved in the planning and ‘delivery’ of the liturgies as well as some members of the congregation. The planning group met in mid-January, though my own planning had been going on at a gentler pace for 12 months.  At that meeting, we discussed new, improved procedures, established who was responsible for what, and then went our separate ways to fulfil our roles.  There was a further meeting between myself, the Parish Priest and the Deacon for some of the finer details.  Meanwhile, we all kept in touch via a chat room. Our numbers and singing are such that we cannot entirely dispense with instrumentation between the two Glorias of Maundy Thursday and the Easter Vigil.  So, although we don’t use the or...

I have said  previously that I don't like Gospel Acclamations and Responsorial Psalms to be too lively - rapidly switching between exuberant singing and attentive, "heart"-listening doesn't come easily to me.  However, after some years I began to feel that the standard, triple-Alleluia was in need of some......enhancement; and, after getting an idea from watching a Papal Mass on TV, we began to make use of a short fanfare to introduce the Gospel Acclamation. Two flautists play this simple fanfare (the top line is the melody, the bottom line is a harmony that I came up with), then the cantor sings unaccompanied followed by choir and congregation (with the harmony); the cantor then sings the verse and all repeat the Alleluia (again, with harmony). It's a simple embellishment but it does to serve to highlight the Gospel Acclamation a little more. As well as this we have also been introducing Gospel Acclamation tones from John Ainslie's  Sing the Psalms Si...