St. Michael and All Angels - September 28, 2014

• Opening Hymn 319 “Come, let us join our cheerful songs” 
• Service Music: Holy Trinity Service – Christopher Tambling
  Kyrie, Gloria, The Great Thanksgiving/Holy, Holy, Holy Lord;
  Lord’s Prayer; Lamb of God (Service Music Booklet)
• Psalm 103: 19-22 (Tone VIII.2)  
• Gospel Alleluia: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
  the whole earth is full of his glory.
• Offertory Hymn 272 “Christ the fair glory of the holy angels"
• Anthem: Angelus suis – Michael Haydn
  God shall give his angels charge over thee: to keep thee in all thy ways. 
• They shall bear thee in their hands: that thou hurt not thy foot against a stone. (from Psalm 90)
• Communion Hymn  48 “Let all mortal flesh keep silence” 
• Concluding Hymn 420 “Praise the Lord, ye heavens adore him
• For leaflet copy with pointed text of Psalm, see here»

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Pentecost 15 - September 21, 2014

• Opening Hymn 381 “Praise, my soul, the King of heaven”
• Service Music: John Merbecke
• Psalm 105: 1-5  
• Baptismal Hymn (Franconia)
• Gospel Alleluia: So he led forth his people with gladness:
  his chosen with shouts of joy
• Offertory Hymn 329 “Maker, in whom we live"
• Communion Hymn 72 “Bread of heaven, on thee we feed”
• Concluding Hymn 392 “Eternal, unchanging”
  
• For leaflet copy with text of Psalm and baptismal hymn, see here»

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Visit St. Barnabas on the Danforth (at Chester Station) map » or visit the website here »

Holy Cross Day - September 14, 2014

• Opening Hymn 187 “As royal banners are unfurled” 
• Service Music
• Community Mass – Richard Proulx (Kyrie, Sanctus, Benedictus) 
• Psalm 98: 1-6  
• Gospel Alleluia: We adore you O Christ and we bless you:
  because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world 
• Offertory Hymn 602 “Lift high the cross”
• Communion Hymn 75 “With the body that was broken”
• Communion Motet: Crux fidelis – King John IV of Portugal

Faithful cross, above all other, one and only noble Tree:
None in foliage, none in blossom, none in fruit thy peer may be.
Sweetest wood and sweetest iron, sweetest weight is hung on thee.

• Concluding Hymn 431 “Take up your cross”

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Music Notes

This is from a recent Church Times (UK) explaining why, when singing the psalm, we pause at the half-verse. The first reason would also make a valid argument for pausing while saying the psalm. 

Q: In chanting the Psalms, some church choirs make a distinct break in the middle of each verse and yet run on from verse to verse with scarcely a pause. What is the theory behind this curious way of disrupting the flow of the the poetry? 

A: Several factors explain this custom of chanting the Psalms. It is a reminder that the Psalms are Hebrew poems, characterised by parallelism and rhythmic balance of thought in the separate phrases of each verse and highlights their literary structure. Far from disrupting the poetic flow, in Hebrew versification this was transparently clear and good translations endeavour to reflect that feature, whether the Psalms are sung or said. 

Musicologists have also drawn attention to the acoustic conditions of spacious and resonant churches in which the Psalms were chanted when a silent pause - a so-called 'pausa conveniens' - was necessary between the phrases of each verse but not between consecutive verses, to allow the echo of the musical cadence of the first phrase to fade away before the choir resumed singing the second phrase: for example: "Praise Him sun and moon": [pause] "Praise Him all ye stars of light". 

This method of chanting was welcomed as an aid to devotion, by providing a 'pause of recollection', to reflect on the deeper spiritual meaning of the Psalms.

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Visit St. Barnabas on the Danforth (at Chester Station) map » or visit the website here »