Music for a Wedding in Lent (OF)
  • Christina
    Posts: 2
    Dear Members of Musica Sacra,

    My fiance and I will be getting married on the day before Laetare Sunday.

    Due to the nature of the season, I have been unsure of how to proceed in terms of liturgical music for the Mass. I can see why people were discouraged from marrying during Lent in the past, since it's difficult to balance the joyous nature of the sacrament with the penitential nature of the season. Unfortunately, changing the date is not an option.

    At any rate, I have done a significant amount of research online on the subject, but I have been unable to find anything conclusive. I have contacted the Worship Office of my diocese but have not yet heard back. My fiance and I love beautiful liturgical music, but we are not experts on the subject, so I would like your opinions on what we have come up with so far.

    Here is a tentative program -- the prelude, processional, recessional, and postlude are mainly for trumpet and organ, but everything else is polyphony. Feel free to offer suggestions for improvement and let me know what you think is acceptable/not acceptable for a wedding in Lent.

    Prelude
    The Heavens Declare the Glory of God (Marcello)
    Sinfonies De Fanfares: I. Rondeau and Iii. Fa (Mouret)
    The Water Music Suite in F Major , Hwv 348: Viii -- Hornpipe (Handel)
    Jubilate Deo (Gabrieli) or Exultate Deo (Palestrina) (I'm still unsure about these -- they certainly have a very exultant tone, and I believe the Jubilate is associated with Easter. I may substitute Tallis' "A New Commandment" here.)
    Sicut Cervus (Palestrina)

    Entrance of the Wedding Party
    Trumpet Voluntary in D (Purcell)

    Entrance of the Bride
    The Prince of Denmark's March (Clarke)

    Offertory
    Ubi Caritas (Durufle)
    or
    A New Commandment (Tallis)

    Communion
    Ave Verum Corpus (Byrd)
    O Sacrum Convivium (Tallis)
    A Prayer of King Henry VI (Ley)

    Presentation of Flowers to the Blessed Mother
    Ave Maris Stella (Nino Rota)
    or
    Ave Maria (de Victoria)

    Recessional
    Te Deum, H. 146 -- Prelude (Charpentier)

    Postlude
    Marche Joyeuse (John Head)

    (Some other songs we have thought about including: Tallis - "Verily Verily," "Remember Not," "O Lord in Thee," "Absterge Domine" and de Victoria - "Jesu Dulcis Memoria")

    Our parish choir director, a fourth-generation organist who is well-versed in traditional liturgical music, has approved this program and has no problem including an instrumental organ and trumpet prelude, processional, recessional, and postlude; apparently weddings are exceptions from the GIRM restrictions on instrumental music in our diocese. Our celebrant is also on board.

    A few additional questions:

    1) Is the Gloria sung at weddings during Lent? There seems to be some disagreement on this issue.

    2) Where should Tallis' "Miserere Nostri" be sung during a Nuptial Mass during Lent, if at all?

    3) Is it ever acceptable to sing "Exultate Deo" outside of Easter?

    Thank you all in advance for helping me out -- there's just so little out there on this topic.

    Christina


  • Liam
    Posts: 5,092
    a simple Catholic rule of thumb: it's better to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission.
  • Andrew Motyka
    Posts: 946
    1. Yes. Almost all ritual Masses now have a Gloria, even during Lent. (There should be no disagreement. This is cut and dry.)
    2. It would be fine anywhere but at Communion, in my opinion. There are plenty of other opportunities for penance.
    3. I don't think it's unacceptable as long as the setting doesn't have an Alleluia in Lent. There may be better choices.

    Overall, it looks like a nice program. You might want to look into the proper texts of the liturgy and consider those. All of these are beautiful pieces to sing at Mass, but none are the actual Mass texts.

    Do you have a professional choir singing? That's a pretty heavy program for a parish choir that's getting ready for Easter in 3 weeks.
    Thanked by 1Ben
  • hartleymartin
    Posts: 1,447
    The ritual masses are normally only permitted on ferial days. The weekdays of Lent don't count as ferias, so you may have to use the mass of the day, which will include the readings and psalm of the day and will not have a gloria, but will have a Penitential Rite and the Kyrie.

    In keeping with the customs of the church, the music should be beautiful, tasteful but not overly jubilant as it is still technically during a penitential season.

    Otherwise, most of your proposed music seems just fine. If you are going to have a polyphonic mass, the Lotti Mass in the Dorian Mode is quite lovely without being out of character for the season.

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