Good Friday: a cappella?
  • canadashcanadash
    Posts: 1,501
    I was just wondering. How many of you sing an a cappella Good Friday liturgy?

    We have been doing so for about five years and continue this to the Gloria at the Easter Vigil Mass. Does anyone else do this?
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,979
    No.
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  • Richard MixRichard Mix
    Posts: 2,798
    We haven't given up a short intonation for O Sacred Head
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  • SalieriSalieri
    Posts: 3,177
    We've always done a cappella from the Gloria on Holy Thursday to the Gloria at the Easter Vigil.
    Thanked by 1canadash
  • kevinfkevinf
    Posts: 1,191
    Yep. It has its challenges but we get pitch from a pitch pipe.
    Thanked by 1canadash
  • donr
    Posts: 971
    We will be doing this for the first time this year.
    Thanked by 1canadash
  • PaixGioiaAmorPaixGioiaAmor
    Posts: 1,473
    Yes. No instruments whatsoever for Good Friday.
    Thanked by 1canadash
  • Spriggo
    Posts: 122
    We do, mostly. I still use minimal organ on a couple of things.
    Thanked by 1canadash
  • Jani
    Posts: 441
    Always
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  • ClemensRomanusClemensRomanus
    Posts: 1,023
    We do.
    Thanked by 1canadash
  • G
    Posts: 1,400
    Did from 2002 to 2008.
    Mostly plainsong, but some SATB chorales and hymns.

    (Save the Liturgy, Save the World)
    Thanked by 1canadash
  • TeresaH
    Posts: 53
    I always have.
    Thanked by 1canadash
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    At our cathedral, the organist doesn't even show up that day.
    Thanked by 2bkenney27 canadash
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    Is this some sort of contest?
    Anything you can do, I can do better.....You say potaytoh, I say potahto....
    Thanked by 2CharlesW jeffinpa
  • canadashcanadash
    Posts: 1,501
    No, I was just curious if our situation was out of line with others. I was surprised by the responses for the Vigil Mass, and was curious about Good Friday.

    Ben, our organist doesn't come either.
  • kenstb
    Posts: 369
    We always do.
    Thanked by 1canadash
  • barnabus1898barnabus1898
    Posts: 91
    We're doing it for the first time here. Everything after the Gloria on Holy Thursday to the Gloria on Holy Saturday. I think we'll be doing it this way from now on so long as my rector is at the helm. We're also singing the reproaches for Good Friday.
    Thanked by 1canadash
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,979
    I use the organ to accompany hymns and choir pieces. I don't think I want to do the Stainer, "God So Loved the Word" without accompaniment just yet. I will also accompany the tenor as he sings the Reproaches. We are using an older setting I suspect may be Anglican in origin and soft accompaniment works well with it.

    There is no contest. This is the way I am doing it and those who don't like it can go elsewhere and listen to someone else. I promise you, however, you will like the other places in town much less. You won't hear Stainer and the Reproaches may be replaced with, "Lord Let Me Walk."
    Thanked by 1canadash
  • hartleymartin
    Posts: 1,447
    For a number of years we've done Ash Wednesday and Good Friday entirely a capella. We're not an average suburban parish choir though.
    Thanked by 1canadash
  • Ioannes Andreades
    Posts: 310
    No instruments on Good Friday only.
    Thanked by 1canadash
  • Carl DCarl D
    Posts: 992
    We've been fortunate, doing a capella for all of Lent. The organ will come alive at Easter Vigil.
    Thanked by 4M. Jackson Osborn canadash kenstb [Deleted User]
  • bkenney27bkenney27
    Posts: 444
    Yup! No organ at all on Good Friday.
    Thanked by 1canadash
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,414
    We do at Walsingham. (A Capella, that is.)
    Thanked by 1canadash
  • soarmarcsoarmarc
    Posts: 42
    Yes, we do exactly the same. Good Friday is entirely a cappella and Easter Vigil is sung a cappella until the Gloria.
    Thanked by 2canadash kenstb
  • mloucks
    Posts: 7
    Good Friday has been sung from start to finish "unaccompanied" for the past six years.
    This will be changing this year, however, with new pastor...
    Thanked by 1canadash
  • canadashcanadash
    Posts: 1,501
    mloucks: It will be interesting to note if the faithful notice the change and what their reaction will be. I'd love to hear.
  • PaixGioiaAmorPaixGioiaAmor
    Posts: 1,473
    What was the pastor's objection?
  • matthewjmatthewj
    Posts: 2,700
    At a prior parish I had a new Pastor insist that I use some song from the late 1970s with a piano part for the Mandatum on Holy Thursday, despite the fact that we'd done Gloria-to-Gloria a capella for the three years prior to his arrival. Seeing as he was the chief liturgist of the parish, I of course followed his instructions. So, we did everything unaccompanied except his requested piece, which I accompanied on a piano playing exactly as the score indicated.

    Afterward he told me to make note not to do that piece the next year, saying that it seemed dated.

    Yes... Indeed it was.
    Thanked by 8chonak Adam Wood canadash M. Jackson Osborn BruceL Andrew Motyka Ben bkenney27
  • BruceL
    Posts: 1,072
    Even the most opposed-to-my-plans in past jobs admitted that Good Friday was great with no accompaniment. For what it's worth, if I had one basket I had to put all my eggs in for a "traditional" liturgy for the year (pax Easter Bunny), I'd go for Good Friday. People "get it", regardless of outlook. I don't think that takes away from the glory of the Resurrection at all.
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    Don't know about that. I feel like the average parish would crucify a music director who failed to program WERE YOU THERE.
    Thanked by 2CharlesW Jani
  • BruceL
    Posts: 1,072
    (Do it Palm Sunday...) (Don't tell anyone...but we do)

    Plus, WERE YOU THERE is an excellent a cappella piece!
    Thanked by 1Richard Mix
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    Yes it is. But hardly a part of an uber-traddie dream liturgy.

    (I can hardly stand it, myself. For all my PoMoOrtho theology of anamnesis and the sacrificial character of the Eucharist, I always want to yell 'No! I wasn't there. Stop asking. You ask every year. Still no!'
    Thanked by 4M. Jackson Osborn ryand barreltone bkenney27
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,979
    I hate "Were You There" but don't want to deal with the backlash if I remove it.
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,414
    One of the arguments I have heard against hymnody at mass is that 'a hymn is sung for its own sake' and is disruptive of liturgical action. I don't at all agree with this as a prohibitive tenet, but, if ever there was a hymn sung 'for its own sake' it is 'Were you there'. Fortunately, I have not encountered this spiritual song (for that is what it is, it is not a hymn) very often, but know that it is widely popular. Would that people had the same emotive attachment to their heritage of chant as they do to their favourite spiritual songs. Rather than on account of their favourite songs, they ought to be vexed if they didn't hear, say, the Gregorian reproaches on Good Friday, or Pascha nostrum on Easter (both in either English adaptations or Latin). We have our work cut out for us!
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • Protasius
    Posts: 468
    I only once heard an organ between Holy Thursday Gloria and Holy Saturday Gloria (unless I was doing some organ practice with closed doors), and that was in the Netherlands on a holiday trip. In Germany I haven't heard of anybody doing that (except for the protestants of course). We get the pitch from our humming choir director and his tuning fork.
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,092
    "Would that people had the same emotive attachment to their heritage of chant as they do to their favourite spiritual songs. Rather than on account of their favourite songs, they ought to be vexed if they didn't hear, say, the Gregorian reproaches on Good Friday, or Pascha nostrum on Easter (both in either English adaptations or Latin). We have our work cut out for us!"

    That, we can safely say, has not happened in the past millennium in regular parish communities, and it's not traditional to imagine it would be. (It might be traditionalist, but not traditional.)
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,979
    We sing Reproaches in English chant. But I am still stuck with "Were You There" unless I want to start WW III and generate hard feelings for months to come. It's not worth it.
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    "Would that people had the same emotive attachment to their heritage of chant as they do to their favourite spiritual songs. Rather than on account of their favourite songs, they ought to be vexed if they didn't hear, say, the Gregorian reproaches on Good Friday, or Pascha nostrum on Easter (both in either English adaptations or Latin). We have our work cut out for us!"


    That, we can safely say, has not happened in the past millennium in regular parish communities, and it's not traditional to imagine it would be. (It might be traditionalist, but not traditional.)


    Hope springs eternal.

    I actually think this is a big deal, and that it is important to move toward a practice that allows personal piety and nostalgia to align with universal tradition.
    (See my essay on that here.)
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,414
    Goodness!
    It's not traditional??
    'It might be traditionalist but not traditional'??
    Are we victim to the frequently encountered 'we have never done it that way' shibboleth?
    In a case like this (if what you suggest has a portion of truth) innovation would be a highly desirable accomplishment.
    It may not be 'traditional', but it would certainly be 'Traditional'.

    (It occurs to me that you may be stating unpleasant realities that do not, actually, accord with your own preferences.)
  • Jeffrey Quick
    Posts: 2,086
    As a matter of fact, I wasn't there, even though He was thinking of me. And had I been there, I know all too well, I would have been asking for Barabbas.

    But the suitability of "Were you there?" can't be examined in an unbiased manner. There are probably unsuitable Polish hymns that are well-beloved by Polish-American congregations. But they're generally in Polish, and if you mess with them, nobody accuses you of hating Poles. And there I'll let the sleeping elephant lie.
  • bkenney27bkenney27
    Posts: 444
    FWIW, we chanted the Reproaches directly out of the Graduale Romanum last year with every last word translated in the worship aid and it was very well received. I fear it may change this year though.
  • mloucks
    Posts: 7
    Yes, unaccompanied for Good Friday.

    canadash: it appears that the change has been retracted.
  • Mignarda
    Posts: 1
    Yes, all through Lent.
  • canadashcanadash
    Posts: 1,501
    Mloucks: Yes, I just realized this. I was wondering who has continued, or even recently started the practise.
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