Music for this Sunday
Last Sunday, the first Reading was about Creation. The prelude by Robert W Jones was a very modern and moody piece. The first time I heard it I fell in love; it reminded me of Genesis 1:2—And the earth was without form, and void; and the darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
I used it as an introduction to the Kyrie we will use until Christ the King. The Orbis factor plainsong mass setting is also designated as Vatican XI. It is prescribed for use in Ordinary Time. We are admonished to preserve and to give pride of place to plainsong.
The designation of Orbis factor is from the trope. A trope was a text added to a chant, giving new context for the original chant. It probably developed and was in use in 8th century France. The Council of Trent (1545-1563) abolished tropes. Orbis factor means Creator of the world. While the use of tropes was discontinued the designation of the underlying chant by the trope has continued to the present day.
October is a ‘Marian’ month. We will end our weekend masses with a Marian hymn in honour of Our Lady.
This Sunday, October 13, the Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B, the prelude is Fantasy on the hymn Holy, Holy, Holy, composed by Piet Post (1919-1979) was a Netherlands composer. The tune, NicæaI, was composed by the renown and prolific composer, John Bacchus Dykes, a High Church Anglican priest.
We also change our Gospel Acclamation to Park Street. It is most useful for clarity to give musical tunes names. The Gospel Acclamation, Park Street, written by your Parish Musician was named after the street in Columbia during my tenure at Saint Peter’s.
The Offertory Hymn, Will You Come and Folow Me, has become popular on both sides of the pond. The words, by Scotsman John L Bell, often writes for the Iona Community, an œcumenical community founded in Scotland in 1938. The tune, Kelvingrove, Kelvingrove is a picturesque neighbourhood of Glasgow through which the River Kelvin flows. The tune is of secular origin. Interestingly, while it is most commonly known in triple metre, it also exists in duple metre. The composer Harold Darke is published in some hymnals with the tune in duple metre with his accompaniment.
The anthem, God Be in My Head, has been set by many composers. We are singing the best known, by Sir Henry Walford Davies. Walford Davies was Master of the King’s Music from 1934-1941. OCP suggests it as an after-Communion meditation. The lyrics outline our faculties and their uses. During Communion while the Godhead is veiled from our objective faculties, I find it a wonderful prayer that the Body and Blood transforms us in our daily lives. We ask God to be ‘in our head’ so that he transforms our thoughts, that he be in eyes so that we see beyond the commonplace to see God in everything, and so on.
The postlude is given the very appropriate name of Postlude, and was composed by Jacques-Louis Battman (1818-1886). Little is found about him except that he was an organist in Dijon, France.