Our schola sang an EF nuptial Mass this past weekend, a rarity in our neck of the woods.

There were only five of us: three baritones and two light baritones. I hired someone else to sing Franck's "Panis angelicus" after the communio. We had the support of a fine organist.

What follows are a few details that have to do with how to pull off the full nuptial propers with five men (able singers), sacred chant, and a bit of simple polyphony.

1. The bride entered to Clarke.

What we sang for the introit ("Deus Israel coniungat vos") requires a little explanation. The couple wanted polyphony, but due to various external factors, we had fewer singers than I had anticipated, so an SATB setting -- any setting really that required SA voicing -- was out of the question. So the question became, "where can one find a TB setting of 'Deus Israel'?"

I couldn't find one, so I took Bud Clark's quite serviceable arrangement of this text to a fauxbourdon formula by Orlando di Lasso and modified it. Bud's arrangement is here:

http://quilisma-publications.info/34ea - Nuptial Mass Propers.html

It's SATB, so I set it for TB by bringing the S melody down an octave for the tenors and then assigning the T melody to the basses with tweaks to make it hold together better as a counterpoint to the tenor line. Behind this bicinium, the organ provided the overall SATB score. It all fit nicely together.

For the verse and G.P., we used Bud's setting, again adapting the melody, borrowing here and there from all the parts to make a strong, coherent line with a good reciting tone. See the attached for the vocal part.

(Bud, I'll hit your tip jar!)

2. The Ordinary was Mass XVII with Kyrie C, accompanied by the organ from the organ book for the Graduale Romanum. This setting is very triadic and fits well with major-sounding polyphony and, incidentally, "Adoro te".

3. The Gradual and Alleluia antiphons were accompanied by organ as far as the verses, which we then sang a cappella.

4. The Offertory music was the most interesting part.

Here again the bride wanted something polyphonic and the groom also wanted some verses of "Adoro te" with organ accompaniment.

Initially we thought a Rossini setting of the proper might work, but twelve days before the wedding, our upper voice resources fell through. We could not do the Rossini. Scurrying, I found a setting of "In te speravi" by Palestrina at cpdl.org, but it's for five voices.

What to do? Well, I did what anyone else here would do, which is to write a setting myself. It needed to be a relatively simple bicinium for TB, to jibe well with chant and the other polyphony, and to lead nicely into "Adoro te." Also, it could not be too long, since "Father likes to keep things moving." So, I said a prayer to Sts. Gregory and Cecilia, crossed myself, and wrote the attached.

The schola liked it just fine, had no trouble learning it, and even put up with my tweaking their parts here and there after hearing them negotiate it. When we sang it at the wedding, we sang it better than we ever did in rehearsal, and for a moment, the piece seemed to disappeare into something like "the musical collective."

Mind you, I consider this purely service music, the kind a real organist/music director might write on the job quickly, in a pinch. As far as its composition, I went where the text led me, not where a particular compositional school or style would have me go.

It seemed to work.

Note that it is scored for baritones with rather large ranges. I'd welcome any suggestions for improvements.

6. The Communio was a cappella and led into the Franck.

7. We sang two verses of "O Sanctissima" for the flowers presented to Mary.

This was do-able with relatively few but able resources. Cheers.