Notes

By now the world should know that I like text-driven music for the liturgy. Of course, I have my favorites. We all do. I love the Mozart Ave verum corpus, which technically would work for Communion all the time. And since we celebrate the Eucharist every Sunday, we could “liturgically, legally” sing it every Sunday morning. It is also no secret that I would program the Victoria O magnum mysterium every Christmas Eve if given my druthers. For me, that marriage of text and tune ca... Read More

We are about to enter the most dramatic part of the Christian year. The sequence of events marked by Holy Week and Easter are, I believe, the most dramatic. Many will immediately argue about or for the glorious drama of the Christmas sequence, including traveling to Bethlehem, being turned away at the inn, the birth in the stable, the angels, the shepherds, the Magi, the flight into Egypt. However, something about the birth of the Christ Child seems quieter and simpler than the Holy Week/Eas... Read More

For the first time, this week’s NOTES: Music & Liturgy is in retrograde, to coin a musical term. The 20th Century contemporary composers, working with 12-tone or aleatory music, could state their 12-tones in order and then in retrograde, inversion and retrograde inversion. Here I am only backing up a Sunday rather than inverting it or backing up and inverting it. However, this backing-up is intentional, as our Holy Communion Ringers played for the 10:30 service on Sunday, and... Read More

Somewhere between Vacation Bible School and the Decalogue in the Book of Common Prayer, I know we have at some point in our lives memorized the Ten Commandments. Well, this Sunday (March 4), the Ten Commandments appear and will be read officially as the First Lesson. Young and old alike will hear the beloved, famous Old Testament words, and I imagine many of us will remember when we first heard them. To go along with the Ten Commandments early in the 10:30 liturgy, ... Read More