Like it or not, most of our communities will not measure up to the Sacramentary's dream of attendance at the Triduum celebrations: "The Mass of the Lord's Supper is celebrated...with full participation of the whole local community and with all the priests and clergy." Full as our churches may be on these days, we know that attendance represents only about twenty or twenty-five percent of our weekend attendance, and an even smaller percentage of Christmas and Easter Sunday throngs.
Passion Sunday gives us an opportunity to celebrate the events commemorated on Holy Thursday and Good Friday with our whole community, and we should not miss the chance to make this day as rich as possible. It is an opportunity for us to discover anew how intricately woven into the fabric of our being the mystery of Christ is. For "by dying he destroyed our death and by rising he restored our life." In the celebration of Passion Sunday, the great numbers of our assemblies have the opportunity to give thanks with a special intensity for God's great gift to us in Christ Jesus.
Focusing on the rites of Passion Sunday, three pieces of the ritual stand out as needing special attention: the procession with the palms, the proclamation of the Passion, and, less importantly, the dismissal.
The Procession. At the main Sunday mass, there is normally a solemn procession in which the assembly carries blessed palms into the church from an outdoor gathering place. This procession follows the "Palm Sunday" gospel and a brief homily. Since people have gathered outside (or at least away from their usual worship aids), I think it is important to do either a very familiar piece (like "The King of Glory," or a well-known antiphon of an ascent psalm, like Psalm 122) or a quickly learnable refrain with no new text (like "Blessings on the King" by Michael Lynch, or "Hosanna" by Gregory Norbet.) I generally put a schola or small choir outdoors with the assembly and the main choir, organ, and instruments take up the strain once the procession arrives into the church building. Two pieces I have found very effective for this are the traditional "All Glory, Laud, and Honor," especially in the unison arrangement by S. D. Wolff cited at the end of this article, and "The Road to Jerusalem," a setting of Psalm 122 with brass trio, a composition of my own.
The Passion. The sentiment is by now universal among everyone except missalette publishers that scripted Passion readings which assign to the priest the words of Jesus and to the assembly the words of the alternately faint-hearted and hostile bystanders is an historical aberration of the 60's and 70's, and ought to go the way of "Sons of God" and Nehru jackets. The assembly of believers, we have come to appreciate, is the real, historical presence of the Christ in the world. Therefore, if it is to take any reading part in the passion at all, it should be the part of Jesus, not of his murderers, or the frightened apostles, or the crowds!
Other formats may be better. In "actor's theater" versions of the Passion, several speakers take different roles in the story, which is told by one or more narrators, and the ensemble acts as a "chorus" for crowd parts. Pastoral Press has published one version of such a Passion, by Fr. Ron Brassard. In another approach, we have used five or six narrators to do "chunks" of the reading, sections of the story which are delineated by the scenes: the upper room, the garden, before the Sanhedrin and Pilate, the way of the cross, and the conclusion. Each section concludes with a sung acclamation by the assembly, such as the Eucharistic acclamation "Dying you destroyed our death...", the refrain of a song such as "We Remember" or "Only This I Want," or, in this year of the Lucan passion, the ostinato refrain "Jesus, Remember Me" from Taizé. The episodic narration of the gospel also allows the assembly to change posture at different times as well, which can help keep attention focused. Another possibility for communities that have the time and resources is to do a sung Passion, such as the newly published "Passion according to St. Luke," by Lucien Deiss, scored for organ, cantor, choir, and assembly (NALR).
The Dismissal. A final musical decision to be made is this one: how will the Passion Sunday liturgy end? Will we go quietly into the solemnity of Holy Week? Or will we aver together that the mystery of the Passion includes within it the reality of Easter, a reality which we never cease to keep our eyes on, and end with bold music? Is there a third choice somewhere in between? There is no right answer. I think that both ways are valid, and even the same parish might choose differently from year to year. I have ended Palm Sunday with guitar, flute, and violin playing an instrumental version of "O Sacred Head," and I have used Richard Hillert's wonderful concertato on "Lift High the Cross," and both ways were successful. But these things need to be thought through and executed with the parish's overall vision of the Lent-Easter season in mind. If all the parts of the liturgy are functioning together: music, environment, homily, etc., we are well on the way toward preparing a time and place for God and people to meet intimately, with mutual and profound joy.
What I have said above notwithstanding, the tradition of the church is clear that the Paschal Triduum stands at the apex of the church's year. The memorial days of Jesus passage through death to life are of paramount importance. "The Easter Triduum of the passion and resurrection of Christ is thus the culmination of the entire liturgical year. What Sunday is to the week, the solemnity of Easter is to the liturgical year." (Sac. #18)
The centrality of the Paschal Mystery and its celebration in the Triduum has repercussions for music throughout the year. The music for the Triduum should be prepared for throughout the year, so that its use during these days is comfortable and familiar to all, heavy with the memory of its use in other seasons. This is not a time for new music; it is rather the intense "culmination" of rite and music used all year. Each Sunday that we celebrate together is a memorial of Jesus, of the mystery that God-among-us is. Each Sunday we have remembered Jesus Passion, death, and resurrection, keeping his memory alive in the breaking of the bread as we ask his Father to let him live in our flesh and our deed. Now we celebrate Triduum and Easter as the "Great Sunday." It might be better to say that if we have celebrated each Sunday as "the day of resurrection" (as opposed, say, to planning Sundays on individual "themes"), then our Triduum repertoire will draw on the music we have used through the year.
Keeping these things in mind, we turn our attention to some of the specific rites that need our musical attention on these days. In summary form, they include: Thursday--the washing of the feet and the procession with the Eucharist; Friday--the reading of the Passion (treated above), the veneration of the cross, and the great intercessions; the Easter Vigil--the Fire and Exsultet, the liturgy of the Word, the Baptism Rite, and the Easter Eucharist. Perhaps some of my reflections, drawn from my experiences at St. Jerome Parish in Phoenix, will prove helpful in shaping music for the Triduum and Easter in our parish.
HOLY THURSDAY: the Washing of the Feet. A key insight to the whole Paschal Triduum, which is to say to the meaning of who Jesus is and therefore of who God is and who we are, flows from the significance of Jesus servant-action during the Last Supper. It is recounted especially for this reason on this day: only John's gospel mentions this event. The death of Jesus has meaning only in the context of what is before and after it: it is the culmination of his life. The final gift of Jesus self in the memorial meal is to be a sign of this whole way of life--life given in service of others.
Often, however, the events of the Triduum, like those of Christmas, suffer because of over-historicization in our liturgies. The act of foot-washing is enough, and should speak for itself. Since we have heard the gospel and see the foot-washing taking place, why sing a song that tells the story again? Let's sing, rather, of mutual love and service. The ancient "Ubi Caritas" text is most appropriate today. There is the sparse but lovely setting of the ICEL text by Sr. Maria of the Cross (Composers' Forum) that has always been a favorite of mine. The Taizé "Ubi Caritas," popular in some areas, suffers in my opinion both because the refrain is in Latin and because it is not melodically or harmonically interesting enough to sustain as a mantra. (It works somewhat better for me with the recitative verses from I Cor. 13.) Other settings are available as well, including "Where Charity and Love Prevail" and my song "Faithful Family," a metrical translation that can be done simply with guitar and/or keyboard, or with full orchestration and SATB choir added to the assembly's song.
Procession with the Eucharist. The ancient practice of keeping vigil through the night begins with the procession that ends the Holy Thursday celebration. The focus of this Eucharistic procession continues to be the eternal presence of God in Christ and Christ in the world, specifically in the Eucharistic people. This reality demands that we carefully choose the music for this procession so that we don't lose sight either of the utter gift-ness of our Eucharistic community nor of the continuing call to live that gift outside the church doors. "One Bread, One Body" is the song I have used for this procession. Certainly no song or songs can ever exhaust the meaning of the Eucharist. Music will help us keep our hearts fixed on Christ, but best we see the real Christ and not some pious mirage. Where shall we look? The foot-washing has pointed us to family and stranger, the people all around us, especially those who need us at this time.
GOOD FRIDAY: Musical environment. Try using an instrumental call to worship. I have used the Adagio in Gm by Tomaso Albinoni, played by a string quartet (it is available for organ as well) to begin the celebration, and during the Adagio the ministers come in silently, prostrate themselves for a substantial period while the assembly kneels, and go to their places as the piece ends.
General Intercessions. The great intercessions of Good Friday can come to life if they are not simply read by the presider. As always, the intercessions should be read or sung by another minister.
At the conclusion of each invitation to prayer, the cantor sings, "Let us pray to the Lord," and the assembly responds appropriately. The presider then prays the prayer of intercession on the assembly's behalf. We use Michael Joncas's invitation and response from evening prayer in the collection "O Joyful Light" (NALR).
Veneration of the Cross. Large numbers of people who attend the Good Friday service make this one of the longest parts of the rite, often outlasting the Passion in length in larger churches. This is not a bad thing at all, and we should avoid the temptation to be "practical" and shorten it by using a forest of crucifixes at the veneration. Musically, this time can be enriched and deepened by a good mixture of silence, instrumental music, congregational singing, and choral and solo music. Some of my choices can be seen in the listings that follow. Intersperse the selections with silence. This is a precious moment in people's celebration of the Triduum. It calls for reverent musical attention with resort neither to the maudlin nor to the temptation toward "Passion Play" kinds of historicization. Christ suffers and dies now in the lives of these people and in the world that they hold in prayer: music should hold this suffering and dying together in the air, and push it toward the celebration of the Easter Vigil.
THE EASTER VIGIL AND THE GREAT SUNDAY
It is not easy (nor should it be) to shape the Easter vigil musically so that it displays both movement and weight, both its ancient tradition and its up-to-the-future importance for the parish community. The weight of the vigil, displayed in its several rites and its length, is a coefficient of the solemn place it occupies at the center of the Christian liturgical life. The saving power of God, experienced in all of human history right up to the present pregnant moment, is the object of our common memory this night. The Presence that faithfully hounds the human experiences of all kinds of devastation, war, exile, personal uprooting and death, ever ready to reveal itself in the playing out of time as rescue and transformation, is the Presence that tonight is celebrated in fire, story, bath, and meal. Most strikingly, we thrill to the living sign of the elect entering the baptismal waters and emerging, light-clad and gleaming, a new creation.
Movement is required of our vigil to prevent it from becoming ponderous and boring. But this is no time for the minimalism that has crippled liturgical practice in our Church for so many centuries, and continues to be the bane of so many pragmatic American churches. Some churches, in fact, opt for a "true" vigil, spending the night in word and prayer awaiting dawn, when the baptismal rite and Eucharist are celebrated. On the other hand, many of our other parishes are trying to create substantive and beautiful vigils which last between two and three hours, to make them more accessible to greater numbers of the people. This is the style of vigil that my own parish celebrates, and from which my comments will unfold.
Fire, Procession, and Proclamation. If it's not broken, don't fix it! The fire rite, beautiful in its primitive simplicity, hardly needs our musical attention. There are a couple of points: first, if your community still uses the chant "Exsultet" (ours does), it should be noted that the proclamation need not be done by a priest or deacon (Sacr. "Easter Vigil" #17). Following the most ancient rule of ministry, the person who sings the Exsultet should be the person blessed with the talent for the role. Secondly, there are more and more options of new musical settings for this rite. Most notably, Everett Frese's "Exsultet" (NPM) has been used in whole or in part in parishes of varying sizes with success. Marty Haugen's "Light of Christ," available in octavo form and now in the Gather hymnal, is another setting which would be especially useful in a more sedentary vigil (that is, one in which the assembly doesn't process during this rite.)
Liturgy of the Word. Variety is important during the liturgy of the Word. The formula given in the sacramentary for each of the readings is Reading / Response / Prayer. Occasionally, we can let silence replace a sung response. Or we can use music as an environmental element, as with the creation reading (a performer might improvise on piano, organ, or synthesizer during the reading); or by using a quietly played "Come to the Water" instrumentally during a robust proclamation of Isaiah 55. (There is no need to sing the song when the reading is proclaimed. Just suggesting it with music adds the dimension we want.) Another technique is to use a single psalm as a response to several readings. The Dameans' "We Praise You, O Lord" (NALR), using various verses, can be the response to the creation and Exodus readings and to a prophetic reading as well, and the response is well enough known that the assembly requires no books--the liturgy of the word can be done in half-light and the responses made "by heart." Use just one or two verses after each reading.
Remember: the dynamic we are trying to prepare is an open channel of communication between the remembering heart of the assembly and the living, saving Word of God, so that they can pulse with the same heartbeat. This may, or may not, be best served by seven readings and seven different responsorial psalms.
Baptisms. The litany of the saints and the baptismal acclamation are the important musical parts of this rite. We do the traditional chant litany, but others are available, from Grayson Brown's gospel version (NALR) to Robert Hutmacher's ostinato-like litany in GIA's Cantor-Congregation Series (G-2374).
For a baptismal acclamation, it is hard to beat Howard Hughes's charming "You Have Put on Christ," available in the ICEL Resource Collection (GIA), in Worship III, and octavo (GIA, G-2283). We sing it once, simply and joyfully, after each baptism, then as a more developed piece in canon and with instruments during the sprinkling of the assembly with baptismal water, changing the text to "We have put on Christ..." As I mentioned in last month's article, musicians should investigate the acclamations and litany by David Haas in "Who Calls You by Name." I think many of us will find some "keepers" there.
In general, what is important overall in the vigil is to make it musical: not just full of songs, but musically balanced in its parts. A new "Glory to God" with tons of instruments won't make up for a missing baptismal acclamation, nor will six choral responsorial psalms replace a spoken "Exsultet" or a lackluster "Alleluia." The Alleluia should be very present tonight, most importantly in the extended gospel acclamation, meant to be a procession, with verses from Psalm 118.
Let me share with you a further thought on Easter music. Virtually every major hymnal's section of music for Lent and Triduum outweighs its Easter section in the numbers of pieces available, and the pieces chosen for the Easter season are textually very similar. Perhaps we are fonder of singing about what bad people we are than we are confident that the Easter event is true for us. Maybe the experience of sin and repentance is a proclamation we are more confident in than one of the ultimate triumph of life over death, perhaps again because our stake in the latter is so high and so personal. We need to compose and seek out compositions that proclaim the Easter message in contemporary terms, which witness to resurrection occurring in the lives of people and communities in our own day, and which at once do not deny the undeniable pain and the irreversible harm that sin and evil have wrought in the world. When we begin to realize that Christ dead and risen is we ourselves dead and risen, right now, as we live and breathe, this reality will begin to make sense to us, and we won't settle either for the triumphalistic nor the maudlin in our musical prayer.
What follows is a listing of some musical pieces appropriate to this season from the current repertoire for Choir, congregation, and instruments.
CONGREGATIONAL (choir optional)
Passion Sunday
Holy Thursday
Good Friday
Easter
Ascension
Pentecost
CHORAL MUSIC
Holy Thursday
Tableprayer by Michael Balhoff, Gary Daigle, and Darryl Ducote. (GIA, The Best of the Dameans Vol 2; also This Very Morning) This piece has now been anthologized in, Gather and Glory and Praise Comprehensive Edition. A simple congregational response to a cantor's or choir's invocations is set to a charming melody which develops into two lovely musical interludes. Also available in an octavo. [Note: this piece is not a "tableprayer" in the current jargon meaning "unauthorized Eucharistic prayer." It is a litanic song, appropriate for either the setting of the table or the communion procession.]
Good Friday
Adoramus Te, Christe by Theodore Dubois. From the neo-romantic cantata, The Seven Last Words of Christ, this short choral movement (only 24 bars) could be an effective meditation after the reading of the Passion, after the homily, or after communion on Palm Sunday or Good Friday. Harmonically simple, it nevertheless requires a disciplined choir to execute the dynamic shading and sustained intonation the composer demands. Originally published by Fischer, check your music store for its current distributor.
Pietá, by Tom Kendzia (OCP) The hook of this choral piece is the thrice-repeated soprano solo "Come and see what I have done..." which recalls the ancient "O vos omnes" antiphon. The melodic and instrumental writing is superb, piano and organ scores complement each other, and the woodwind parts actually add something, rather than being afterthoughts. I have a problem with the textual parallelism of "Have mercy on us" and "Forgive us," but this is easily remedied by simply repeating "have mercy..." This is a perennial favorite of both my choirs and congregation.
Pie Jesu by Andrew Lloyd Webber (Hal Leonard). Available in several editions and keys, this familiar centerpiece of Webber's mildly controversial Requiem is a masterpiece from a composer who moves with ease between the popular music styles of our time. I have used this piece during the veneration of the cross; it could be an effective part of a tenebrae service, or with slides connecting the suffering of Jesus with the suffering of the world in every age.
EASTER
Alleluia Round Boyce/Proulx (GIA, G-2494) For choirs who want a simple "alleluia" chorale with a stunning cumulative effect, try this SAB canon with organ, flute, and two horns or trombones. This beautifully crafted piece is an accessible alternative for groups not yet ready to tackle the Randall Thompson.
Awake, Arise, Go Forth in Faith by Eugene Englert (GIA, G-2747). Englert's music is always solid and melodic. "Awake, Arise" is an Easter anthem for SATB, organ, and trumpet. It could be converted to an energetic congregational piece, with a choir-only "B" section.
Fanfare for Easter by Lloyd Pfautsch (Flammer, A-5030). A choral staple for 25 years or so, this choral fanfare (unaccompanied choir and brass quartet) is a great eye-opener for the Easter liturgy. The brief text can be touched up easily for inclusive language.
Jesus Christ Is Risen Today by Robert Powell (GIA, G-2455). One of the gems of GIA's Choral Concertato Series, this one is scored for organ, brass quartet, congregation and choir SATB.
The choral writing in verse two adds some rhythmic excitement to the solid pulse of the hymn, and the whole arrangement is exciting, perfect for the season.
Now Christ Is Risen Bach/Wagner (Flammer D-5309 SAB; A-5880 SATB) This chorale, from Cantata 15, is only two minutes long, and could serve as a call to worship during the Easter season. The baroque trumpet writing is lively and contrasts in double and quadruple meters the short three- to four-bar choral phrases.
The Strife Is O'er, Praetorius/Klammer (GIA, G-2796). From the Ars Antiqua series, this renaissance chorale is simple enough to be performed by a youth choir. I wrote a ritornello for woodwinds and percussion from musical material in the piece and performed this classic in madrigal style as we processed from the baptistery to the church at the Vigil. I don't think Praetorius minded.
This Is the Day by Michael Joncas (Oregon Catholic Press). I have used this setting of Psalm 118 for so long as the seasonal Easter psalm at my large choir mass that I had to mention it here. It is vintage early Joncas: melodic, rhythmic, fresh, unpretentious; with a spontaneity about it that is infectious.
Up from the Earth by Rory Cooney (Oregon Catholic Press). Choir can do this anthem of mine alone or as a song with the assembly. I think it is strong in its rhythmic energy, contemporary sound, and a text that insists on the "now" of the Paschal mystery.
Burn Bright by Marty Haugen (GIA, G-2665). This Pentecost song is an invitation to Greeley's "dance of the Spirit." It cries out for choreography as it evokes a sense of the creative Spirit with its ambiguous modality and sensuous polyrhythms. I love it.
The Day of Pentecost by W. B. Roberts (GIA, G-2914). This impressionistic piece tells the Pentecost story with an airy organ accompaniment, powerful choral writing, lovely recitative sections for mezzo soloists, and a choral speaking centerpiece which attempts to recreate the sounds of the "many tongues" of Pentecost. Its length and moderately difficult organ part may prove daunting to some, but the effort expended would be well spent on this classy chorale.
Festival Canticle by Richard Hillert (Concordia, 98-2305). Anthologized in OCP's "Music Issue" and in Worship III, this increasingly popular setting of one of the hymns from Revelation is triumphant, but I feel it also retains in the verses a sense of the "memory of pain" which saves it from being just another flashy piece.
HAVE YOU TRIED?
Variations on O Filii et Filiae by Raymond Haan (Concordia, 97-5854). For two trumpets and organ, these variations can be, in whole or in part, a beautiful call to worship or interlude at the time of the collection and procession with the gifts during the Easter season.