It's just about that time of the year when I've lost all affection for the Asperges. I know there are a couple of versions, but we're restricted to the usual one by dint of our limited Kyriales.
What I've done here is take the Victoria Asperges, chop out a small bit of the polyphony and splice in a little more of the chant. Plus: making the repeat of the Antiphon at the end entirely chant. This gives the cong. a chance to have a sing which the full polyphony version largely prevents.
We tested it on Sunday and it went quite well: you actually look forward to singing the full chant antiphon at the end!
Lots of kids grew up hating Asparagus, dreading when mom said that Asparaging word at dinner, then in later years making Asperaging comments whenever the subject arose, still harbouring frightening memories of the Asparages being sung at Mass, in later years wondering if it was a sin to have cast such Aspersions on the Asperges.
And actually, since we're in the subject of sprinkling rites, I'm not sure if this is copyrighted but this originally handwritten one was used by the church I'm in now for many years before I got there. It's quite, 19th/20th century and not really the style that we've moved towards.
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