Society of Saint Gregory

Gareth, We had another thread on funerals not long ago, including a discussion of the increasing practice of having the "memorial words" at the beginning, rather than a eulogy at the end. Having experienced this on a number of occasions, I am all in favour of it, even if it is not in the ...

Now here's a question. In the interests of injecting some variety, even originality, into the annual and apparently eternal repetition of the old chestnuts, I have tried inserting into the Christmas Midnight programme carols that folk will have heard elsewhere, like 'Mary's Boy Child' - with very ne...

Adeste at the end? Singing "O come etc" when they are actually going? You took the words out of my mouth, Alan. We always have this at the beginning, or rather at the end of our vigil as we segue into midnight Mass, to accompany the blessing of the crib. Thats exactly what we do too. And ...

alan29 wrote:Hark the Herald.
A real blast and just 3 verses long + the added bonus of impromptu descants in the final verse.

Moreover, if the choir really lets go on the last-verse descant, it might well get a round of spontaneous applause from the congregation - as mine did some years ago!

Also 'Glorias' sung in the 'responsorial' form are judged by some liturgists to be inappropriate as the Gloria is a continuous hymn of praise which should be sung or recited without interruption. Welcome to the SSG discussion board, MARYFA - but which liturgists? There are occasions, e.g. Christmas...

I think we need an appraisal of the Missal (and Graduale) antiphon texts in relation to their musical usability. The prayers and order of readings were reviewed and revised by the relevant bodies for the revised Missal and Lectionary respectively. The antiphons were left unchanged (a) to respect the...

Straying perilously close to the topic edge I note that (having temporarily mislaid my current copy of M & L but recalling previously reading the liturgy planner online) following the sequence HOME > MUSIC AND LITURGY JOURNAL > link in the body of the text to CURRENT ISSUE leads to a display of...

I remember the open meeting with Cardinal Arinze at Westminster Cathedral some years back when he was in charge of CDW - why do I think it took place on April 1st? Knowing his Nigerian origin, he was asked whether dancing was appropriate in the liturgy. His good-humoured answer was 'no', but shimmyi...

OK. Liturgy is liturgy. For koinonia and kerygma, see the Wikipedia articles. For diakonia, see the article provided by the World Council of Churches. Only martyria might briefly stump one: it means 'witness' and gives us the name 'martyr'.

Thanks for the support John but let's avoid the exclusive jargon, eh? I presume you refer to my use of five venerable Greek words. I would suggest that anyone who reads this blog has the wit to use Google or whatever to look them up. In this Year of Faith a little education to discover new depths o...

... and the greater challenge is not how to render the song but rather how to ensure that outsiders will 'know we are Christians by our love'. Putting faith into action beond the enclosed space of worship is a focus for the Year of Faith which we are in danger of overlooking if we concentrate on em...

There is a danger that this and similar discussions on Mass propers, especially regarding Entrance Songs, can get stuck on an antiphon v. hymn dilemma. French monastic communities have developed, over the last 30 years and more, troparia. A troparion is a biblically-based text using an extension of ...

The only unanswered question is whether the text of Grail IV is at all susceptible to change.... As in some of it might become more singable Quite. If you have bought the 'Singing Version' of The Revised Grail Psalms , you will have quickly discovered that the former regular stresses marked in the ...

I take Southern Comfort's point about the desirability of having a single version of the psalms that everyone can become familiar with. We have been very fortunate with Grail 1 – which is why I view with discomfort the possibility of being compelled by Vox Clara or whoever to change to Grail 4, but ...

For amateur choirs the whole issue of propers is fraught. In my church we have been experimenting lately with the 'Anglican Use Gradual' (available for free download, ultra-simple plainsong, same melody week, text of the Graduale Romanum but in 16th-cent English translation), using its introit foll...