5 December - Second Sunday of Advent

Advent Wreath from Curt Jester

I know. I don't need to hear it. I'm late. Again.

This time, I have two lists. I played the 7:45 am Mass at Immaculate Conception Church in addition to my usual 10:30 am service at St. Joseph's Episcopal Church.

The 7:45 am Mass at Immaculate Conception Church: as usual, the numbers come out of GIA's Gather Comprehensive 1994 (green cover):

Sunday 7.45 am Mass: First Sunday of Advent
Prelude: Improvisation on the Agnus Dei from Misa Luna
Opening Hymn: 321, On Jordan's Bank (WINCHESTER NEW)
Kyrie: Misa Luna
Psalm: 72, Psalm 72 (Verse: "In his days justice will flourish; in his days fullness of peace forevermore; Joncas)
Gospel Acclamation: 263 (Hughes Alleluia in C)
Offertory: 337, Creator of the Stars of Night (CONDITOR ALME SIDERUM, Mode IV)
Sanctus, Mem. Accl., Amen: 228, 229, 231; Community Mass (Proulx)
Agnus Dei: Misa Luna
Communion Hymn: 332, Wait for the Lord (Taizé)
Closing Hymn: 334, Savior of the Nations, Come (NUN KOMM DER HEIDEN HEILAND)
Postlude: Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland (Andreas Nikolaus Vetter)

I managed to survive playing the parts from Misa Luna. I did not follow the accompaniment as written. Instead, I solo'd out the melody, especially for the Agnus Dei. I even improvised on that theme for a prelude, hoping to get it in these peoples' heads, but nooooo... they still didn't sing it. I guess it will take a while. I'm glad when I had introduced new service music to my group that I had improvised on the major themes as much as a month before they sung it. That enabled the people to have the tune in their heads so that by the time we around to singing it, they were able to pick it up without any problems.

My beefs with this Mass setting still stands... at least the Kyrie was easy enough to pick up, especially since it was in a "call and response" type of setting. Admittedly, the melody of the Agnus Dei has grown on me, but I still stand by my opinion that it is not congregational friendly. Plus, the words are not "licit". I even checked the new translation of the Mass, and the Agnus Dei is essentially untouched. So the words are still "wrong" in my opinion—they added words where they shouldn't, and I think it was just to fit the music. You see, this Mass was originally written in Spanish. It's probably fine in Spanish (I don't speak Spanish, so I can't tell), but in order to fit the music for English, they had to add some extra words.

Maybe the people will eventually learn this one. But I have my doubts, sorry to say.

Enough about that. On to my next list.

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St. Joseph's Episcopal Church where I played the usual 10.30 am service. As usual, the numbers are out of The Hymnal 1982.

Second Sunday of Advent: Holy Eucharist Rite I
Prelude: Improvisation on "Comfort, comfort ye my people"
Processional Hymn: 67, Comfort, comfort ye my people (PSALM 42)
Kyrie: S-91 Missa de Sancta Maria Magdalena (Willan)
Psalm: Psalm 72 (Plainsong, Tone VIII.1)
Sequence Hymn: 75, There's a voice in the wilderness crying (ASCENSION)
Offertory Hymn: 59, Hark, a thrilling voice is sounding (MERTON)
Sanctus: S-114, Missa de Sancta Maria Magdalena (Willan)
Lord's Prayer: chanted (S-119 in Hymnal 1982)
Fraction Anthem: S-158, Missa de Sancta Maria Magdalena (Willan)
Communion Anthem: Es ist ein' Ros' entsprungen (arr. M. Praetorius)
Recessional Hymn: 76, On Jordan's bank the Baptist's cry (WINCHESTER NEW)
Postlude: Improvisation on Winchester New

I'm happy with the job my choir did on short notice with the anthem. Special thanks to Demetrias76 and lady_karelia for their assistance. :)