SUNDAY XIV at 8:00, and "RETURN TO NORMALCY"

While we've been in the season known to many as "Ordinary Time" (or to some, perhaps, "Boring Time"), we're finally back to the numbered Sundays of the Year (or more literally, "through the Year", from the Latin "per Annum") after a string of Solemnities throughout June.  One might be quick to call it a "return to normalcy" (after the great seasons of Lent, Passiontide and Easter, plus several June solemnities).  "Return to normalcy" is the phrase attributed to President Warren Harding in 1920, after our nation going through World War I.

Given the Psalm response, Let all the earth cry out to God with joy, our entrance hymn begins, All people that on earth do dwell, sing to the Lord with cheerful voice..., using the classic hymn tune "Old Hundredth".  Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote an arrangement of the hymn for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth in 1953.  The first and final verses begin with fanfares that call for "all available trumpets".  In writing this, Vaughan Williams was asked to write a short motet for the Coronation.  Instead, "If you can persuade the Archbishop to have a hymn in the Coronation serivce," he quipped to the organist of Westminster Abbey, "I'll make a mess-up of 'Old Hundredth.'" (Source)

Speaking of Ralph (or "Raph", rhymes with "safe", depending on who you're talking to) Vaughan Williams, he wrote several other hymn tunes.  One of them, "Sine Nomine" (Latin for "Without Name"), is the tune to which we sang last week's entrance hymn, For all the saints.

One one of the several Facebook pages I frequent that are on the topic of church music, some have asked whether or not anyone is doing any "patriotic" music either the weekend before or after Independence Day (July 4, the day I just happen to be writing this post).  I opted for this weekend for two reasons: 1) the Fourth falls on a Friday this year, making this weekend a "three-day weekend", and 2) last weekend was the Solemnity of the Apostles Saints Peter and Paul, which took a much higher priority.  So, this Sunday we will close with America, the Beautiful.

So, without further ado...

MUSIC FOR HOLY MASS

Entrance hymn: #313 All people that on earth do dwell ("Old Hundredth") (Listen)

- The listen link is to the aforementioned "The Old Hundredth Psalm Tune", Ralph Vaughan Williams' "mess-up of Old Hundredth", complete with brass.  As the hymn was written for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, it was only fitting that his "mess-up" was encored for her 50th Anniversary of her Coronation.

Gloria: Holy Angels Mass (BMP) (Listen) or recited
Psalm 66: R./ Let all the earth cry out to God with joy (Fr. Samuel F. Weber, OSB)

Alleluia: setting by Dom Anthony Gregory Murray, OSB (Listen)
Offertory hymn: #551 Praise, my soul, the King of heaven ("Lauda Anima") (Listen)

- The listen link here is one that pairs a majestic pipe organ with a digital organ.  The venue: the famed Methuen Music Hall in Methuen, Massachusetts.  The organs: the equally famed Aeolian-Skinner pipe organ and a smaller digital organ.  I don't quite remember if the digital organ was either a Rodgers or a Marshall & Ogeltree.  The two organists in this link were, sure enough, Douglas Marshall and David Ogeltree.  In addition to building their own digital product as "Marshall & Ogeltree", they were at one time the longtime New England distributor for Rodgers organs (our organ, incidentally, is a Rodgers).
Sanctus, Memorial Acclamation, Amen and Agnus Dei: #'s 874, 875, 878 and 879 respectively Heritage Mass (Owen Alstott)

Hymn during Communion: In the Cross of Christ I glory ("Charlestown")
- Cute little Early American tune.
Meditation hymn: #667 Jesus, my Lord, my God, my All ("Sweet Sacrament") (Listen)
- Repeated from last week to gain more familiarity as we revisit this beloved Catholic classic.  This hymn will come up again in a couple of weeks.
Recessional hymn: #732 America, the Beautiful ("Materna")
- I really don't think we need a listen link for this one, do we?  Nah! ;)

Happy Independence Day weekend!

Quod scripsi, scripsi!
BMP