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Category Archives: Liturgical Music
Digital Downloads
More and more, liturgy publishers are promoting the downloading of music from the web. It’s happened a few times: I’ve needed a few extra copies of something for rehearsal. Pay, click, boom: copies are ready. After some years, I see … Continue reading
Posted in Liturgical Music, Parish Life
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Chosen Race
At a recent rehearsal, one of my singers commented on this lyric from one of our songs: For we who are a chosen race are holy, yet still seek … What is the message for an all-white choir to be … Continue reading
Posted in Liturgical Music, Liturgy, Parish Life
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Vulnerability
I was alerted to Richard Clark’s piece on Corpus Christi Watershed on “Continuity and Vulnerability …” It might not be the most popular bit published there. The author does make the suggestion that liturgical rites have a continuity from 1570 … Continue reading
Posted in Liturgical Music, Liturgy, The Blogosphere
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Gather IV Review: Eucharist
Continuing in this post with a review of a particular section of GIA’s newest edition of the Gather hymnal. Today, let give a quick look to the 41 entries under the heading of Eucharist, numbers 1005 through 1045. There are … Continue reading
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Gather IV Review: Christian Initiation/Baptism
Would we ever have thought to see items numbered 992 through 1004 in a hymnal? It’s not even three-fourths of the way through GIA’s newest edition of the Gather hymnal. In this post, let’s look at thirteen pieces in the … Continue reading
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Gather IV Review: Ascension and Pentecost
Last time in this series, we looked at music for Easter and its season. Continuing today with a look at the end of the season in GIA’s newest edition of the Gather hymnal. Let’s start with a survey of 24 … Continue reading
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Gather IV Review: Easter
What’s the next stage of our review of GIA’s newest edition of the Gather hymnal? Easter, naturally. The season, not the day. Twenty seven entries are hymn-tune heavy. Here’s a breakdown for numbers 556-582: traditional organ + choir, 10 contemporary stanza … Continue reading
Posted in Easter, Liturgical Music
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Gather IV Review: Good Friday
In the pages marked “Good Friday” in GIA’s newest edition of the Gather hymnal, we find seven entries specific to the day. As expected, “O Sacred Head” (549) and “Were You There” (554). I doubt you can have a serious … Continue reading
Posted in Holy Week, Liturgical Music
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Gather IV Review: Holy Thursday
By continuing a review of GIA’s newest edition of the Gather hymnal, I wanted to offer a peek at songs listed by liturgical season. Numbered pieces 444 through 626 would be huge for a single post. So a little bit … Continue reading
Posted in Holy Week, Liturgical Music
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Sister Thea
My wife mentioned that Thea Bowman did a parish mission at the church where we met, many years before I arrived there. I wonder if she mentioned there her description of Black sacred song she put into words for the … Continue reading
Posted in Liturgical Music, Saints
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Breastplate
In hymnals, we get a portion of the whole of the prayer attributed to Patrick of Ireland. The full wiki thing is here, with commentary and notes. Did you know there’s an eleven-part structure? invocation of the Trinity. invocation of Christ’s … Continue reading
Posted in Liturgical Music, Saints, spirituality
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Gather IV Review Part 5b: Service Music
Continuing in this post with a review of GIA’s newest edition of the Gather hymnal. Complete Mass settings were reviewed here. The hymnal also includes fragments of Mass settings and single acclamations. One of the shifts in contemporary church music … Continue reading
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Gather IV Review Part 4: Rites of the Church
GIA’s newest edition of the Gather hymnal features a substantial section for “Rites of the Church.” There’s a little something for everything here. There are six acclamations for RCIA in numbered sections 118-127. Eleven musical bits for baptism of children … Continue reading
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Forty Days
Image credit of the modern Judean Desert: By David Shankbone – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3417044 Time to break out the big book in this collection. While most users are moving bookmarks from Pentecost to Ash Wednesday, I find … Continue reading
Posted in Lent, Liturgical Music
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Gather IV Review Part 3: Psalms and Canticles
GIA’s newest edition of the Gather hymnal devotes many pages, and numbers 28 through 117, to Psalms and Canticles. Just because these settings are stuck in the “Psalter” a lot of music directors confine themselves to dropping them in the … Continue reading
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Catholic Sensibility 