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6th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A • 2023)

Greetings friends—
First of all: an extra-special and warm welcome to our newest friend Ron! We are so glad that he has joined us, and look forward to getting to know him better in due course, of course!

Here’s our ordo for the weekend:

  1. Entrance Antiphon Hymn to the tune of ‘Morning Song’.

  2. Fr. Weber #1067

  3. Psalm 119 (I’m sorry there’s no normal practice track as I typically do. I will place a basic Organ demo below.)

  4. Alleluia ‘de Angelis’

  5. Offertory Antiphon Hymn to the tune of ‘Slane’.

  6. Fr. Weber #1083

  7. Palestrina They did eat and were fully satisfied

  8. Communion Hymn: My God, Accept My Heart This Day to the tune of ‘St. Columba

  9. Ave Regina Cælorum followed immediately by:

  10. O Glorious St. Michæl to the tune of ‘Ellacombe


This is an old organ-only practice track, however each voice part does have a time stamp in the description.

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5th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A • 2023)

Hello Friends‚
Here’s our ordo for this weekend.

NB: Just like last week, our psalm based on Office Psalm Tone 3a and will be melody-only with each verse divided in half chanted women/men.


  1. Entrance Antiphon Hymn to the tune ‘Old Hundredth’ (Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow)

  2. Entrance Antiphon: Fr. Weber #1046 (Option ii)

  3. Kyrie from Missa de Angelis with Olbash Gloria

  4. Psalm 112: The just man is a light in darkness to the upright.
    *This is set to Psalm Tone IIIA which is the same as last week. There is no practice video for this psalm since it is so similar to the one linked below from last week.

  5. ‘Alleluia de Angelis’

  6. Offertory: When Morning Guilds the Skies
    This is new to us, but such a joyful hymn. We will sing it multiple times this year to learn it well.

  7. Communion Antiphon: Fr. Weber #1059

  8. Communion Anthem: Ave Verum Corpus by Elgar

  9. Communion Hymn: Let Your Face Shine Upon Your Servant (Illumina Faciem Tuam
    (Refrain hymn which we haven’t done in a long time.)

  10. ***Ave Regina Cælorum





Since the YT video of our communion hymn dates to the time before I figured out how to convincingly record the melody in the proper octave, here’s an Organ-only demo as well which is a little less “muddy”. On the bright side, there are S.A.T. timestamps for the video.


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4th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A • 2023)

Hello Friends‚
Here’s our ordo for this weekend, which will be a little different from our normal routine. Chief among the changes are the facts that our psalm will be melody-only (based on Office Psalm Tone 3a) and there will be no particular choral anthem (as we are combining this with the offertory “hymn” which is Anglican chant).


  1. Entrance Antiphon Hymn to the tune ‘MERTONA’ which is a trope of another well-known tune with some additions appended to the end.

  2. Entrance Antiphon: Fr. Weber #1029 (Option iii!)

  3. Kyrie from Missa de Angelis with Olbash Gloria

  4. Psalm 146: Blessed are the poor in spirit…

  5. ‘Alleluia de Angelis’

  6. Offertory: The Beatitudes as set to an anglican chant tone that is modeled on James O’Donnell’s Psalm 139 (all masses) NB: There are demo mp3’s of each voice part below.

  7. Communion Antiphon: Fr. Weber #1038

  8. Communion Hymn: Blest are the humble souls that see (The Beatitudes) as paired with VENI CREATOR

  9. Alma Redemptoris Mater




Chant formula after James O'Donnell.  DO NOT PRINT OR SAVE TO YOUR DEVICE.

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Advent IV • A 2022

Hello Friends—
Here is our ordo and resource list for Advent IV.

  1. O Come Divine Messiah (remember, we will only sing the first verse that is a trope of the Entrance Antiphon text, before transitioning to #2)

  2. Rorate Cæli Desuper Motet

  3. Psalm 24: Let the Lord enter; He is the King of Glory.

  4. Offertory Hymn: Oh! What Light and Glory
    (Audio track below the image of the hymn posted below)

  5. Communion: Ecce Virgo Concipiet motet interspersed with cantored Fr. Weber verses.
    As a reminder, our sequence is:

    1. Ecce Virgo Concipiet Refrain & Verse (no da capo repeat)

    2. Verse

    3. Ecce Virgo Concipiet refrain only

    4. Verse

    5. Whole motet, as written, with repeat structures.

      In other words: Medium, verse, Short, verse, Long

  6. Veni, Veni Emmanuel

  7. Alma Redemptoris Mater, followed immediately by:

  8. Come Thou, Redeemer (O HEILAND REISS)
    (Audio track below the image of the hymn posted below)



I’m sorry I only had time to do a melody-only demo, but it’s still useful for getting the whole thing back in your ear before Sunday.

 
 
 
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Christmas Eve Master Resource List

Greetings All—
Here is a master list of the special things we will be singing on Christmas Eve. I am going to organize these resources by category, not order per se, as I think it important for us to focus on the music for Mass itself first, and special other things only secondarily. If you spend any time availing yourself of these resources, please make sure Mass music is the best prepared.
—James


Mass Music:

Pre-Mass fanfare (as the bells begin to toll):

Entrance Hymn: Adeste Fideles (O Come, All Ye Faithful) arr. Willcocks:

This video features just the descant.

Entrance Antiphon (During Incensation of the Altar)

Mass Ordinary: Missa Tribus Vicious by Christoph Dalitz

Don’t forget that these videos have time-stamps so you can solo out your voice part, if needed. You can also use the playback controls (little gear icon) to slow down playback if this is helpful too.

Don’t forget: the Sanctus transitions seamlessly into the Benedictus! (6 beats, breath on beat 5/6)

Psalm 96: Today is born our Savior, Christ the Lord.

Christmastide Alleluia

There is no video of this at present, however we have sung this the last 4 years.

And the hymns that we will sing at Mass:

  1. (Adeste Fideles / O Come, All Ye Faithful)

  2. Angels We Have Heard on High

  3. Hark the Herald Angels Sing

  4. Silent Night (with this arrangement of mine as a soft introduction)

  5. Joy to the World


 

Prelude (Special / Motets)

Gaudete, Christus est Natus

There are individual voice part videos available on the YouTube Playlist HERE.

A Day of Joy and Feasting

And here is a list of some of the other hymns that we will sing before Mass:

  1. Of the Father’s Love Begotten (listen on YouTube)

  2. O Little Town of Bethlehem

  3. Infant Holy, Infant Lowly

  4. Away in a Manger

  5. Once in Royal David’s City

  6. Bring a Torch, Jeannette, Isabella

  7. Maria walks amid the thorn (special German carol ‘Maria durch den Dornenwald ging’ that I’ve anglicized; demo below)

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Immaculate Conception • 2022

Greetings all,
Thanks for such a wonderful performance at Lessons & Carols on Monday. You truly sang wonderfully, and made me very proud. I received multiple complements on how well you sounded (particularly the Ecce Virgo Concipiet, which seemed to be a crowd pleaser!). I am truly honored and humbled to be your director, and I really do love you all. We are “small but mighty!!” Gold stars, all around.

As for Thursday, here is a brief overview of our ordo, with a few practice tracks so you can do a little prep-work in advance of Mass, since we will barely have time to even warmup! After Mass, we will transition down to the church basement for a rehearsal for Advent III, with a little time spent on some special things for Midnight Mass as well. It’s that time of year where we just have to plow ahead and make the best of it.

  1. Entrance Antiphon Hymn (sung to the tune of Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee)

  2. Introit; IF sung, I will take care of it since we will have limited warmup time.

  3. OLBASH ORDINARY since there is a Gloria, and this solemnity technically isn’t an ‘Advent’ Mass. The ordinary will be printed in the worship aids (and you all know it by now anyway).

  4. Psalm 98 • Sing to the Lord a new song
    This is based on the traditional plainchant Ave Maria, and we have sung it in the past. If you can muster parts on the verses, great, if we feel iffy during warmups, we’ll just scrap parts all together. Melody-only video linked below.

  5. (Normal Advent Alleluia that is in your Advent booklet.)

  6. Offertory: I Will Magnify by Corfe

  7. Communion Antiphon: Fr. weber #2167 (option ii)
    audio player embedded below the psalm video

  8. Communion Hymn / Motet: My Soul Doth Magnify (Prætorius)
    We sang this on Monday at L&C.

  9. Recessional Hymn: Immaculate Mary

Looking ahead, during rehearsal I’d like to refresh ourselves on the Dalitz Missa Tribus Vocibus (this will be new to a few of you; just do the best you can), as well as a few other Christmas Eve goodies from previous cycles that will hopefully return quickly. We will work on the Christmas things first, and then peek at the rest for Sunday. Don’t forget that almost all of these videos have timestamps which allow you to skip ahead to hear your voice part being soloed out.

Here are a few things to help you prep for rehearsal after Mass:

A blast from the past! (We’ll try and it see if it comes back or not.)

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