Easter Gospel acclamations based on The Strife Is O'er

Eric D. Williams

I have an oddball request. I grew up attending an ELCA church that used the 1958 SBH "red book" until the mid-90s. I'm Catholic now, but I still have a soft spot for the old SBH service music. I'm a cantor and the director of a small unison choir, and I'd like to do something a little different for the gospel acclamation during the Easter season. Setting 1 in the SBH has a gospel alleluia taken from W.H. Monk's adaptation of The Strife is O'er, but there's no accompanying gospel verse, as is found the the OF mass. By any chance does anyone here know of a matching verse tune for the Monk Alleluia? Thanks in advance. :)

M. Jackson Osborn

Why don't you use a compatible gregorian psalm tone for the verse, and do the Monk alleluya before and after it. Of course, I'm offending MJO by going along with triple alleluyas outside the Easter vigil, but at least it's good music and has some bit of liturgical gravitas.

Eric D. Williams

Someone in another forum suggested that, too. The trouble is that I lack the musical training to easily pick a compatible tone. If push came to shove, I'd have to do it by trial and error.

BTW, what's wrong with triple alleluias outside of the Easter vigil? (Bear in mind that I attend and cantor for OF masses.)

MatthewRoth

The classical form of the Alleluia in the Roman Mass is the chant found in the Graduale Romanum, which opens with Alleluia, then repeats the Alleluia with its iubilus, extending the first syllable of the name of God. This beautiful extension, the melisma in chant terms, is repeated after the verse when Alleluia is sung a third time.

Some people get on MJO’s case for knocking on the triple Alleluia melodies used regularly. First, I often hear more than 9 (three intoned, then the whole thing repeated, and again after the verse), so the whole thing is ruined by the lack of consistency driven by the disconnect from liturgical tradition. Second, the triple Alleluias are unique to the Paschal liturgy. The Alleluia so often taken from the Graduale Simplex is originally from the Vespers (later Lauds after 1955...) sung at the end of the Vigil. I think other forms are used as antiphons for the Paschaltide office, but this form of the Alleluia is never done outside of that season.

I would comment more on the Alleluia of the Mass of the Vigil, but I honestly don’t know enough of the three rites in, ahem, current use (pre-Pius XII, Pius XII, and the Novus Ordo) to say anything accurately.

M. Jackson Osborn

Alright, here are some suggestions, presuming that your version of Monk's alleluyas are in the key of D, as in The Hymnal 1940 -

So: the last of the three alleluyas ends on high D -

Try -
Tone II, beginning the intonation on A, which yields reciting tone of D and final cadence ending on B. This would work nicely

Or -
Tone IIIA1, beginning the intonation on A, with reciting tone of D, and final cadence ending on B. Also a good fit.

Or -
Tone V1, beginning intonation on middle D, with reciting tone of A, and final cadence ending on F#, which is the very note the alleluyas begin on. Or, V3. which would end on middle D.

Or -
Tone VIII, beginning intonation on A, with reciting tone of D, and several choices of final note: A or high D.

As for the very real problem of the triple alleluyas (which some of my colleagues here would like to sweep under the rug [if not throw under the bus]), it has been commented on sufficiently by Matthew Roth just above. I shant say more on it right now, but I'm far from silenced. Those who are addicted to these triple alleluyas are not fundamentally different from those who think that music that they have done for twenty or thirty years is 'traditional' and so forth. (Yes, yes, I know that some of these alleluyas are very old and associated with the office - which doesn't translate into a genuine mass alleluya. Also, Simplex is just that - vewy simple for those who can't [or won't] do what they ought.)

M. Jackson Osborn

Another possibility, if you have a good SATB group, would be to sing the verse to an Anglican chant in the key of D, or a closely related key, such as A. (By the way: Anglican chants can be and very often are transposed, so if a workable one you like isn't given in the key you need, think nothing of moving it around. There is nothing wrong with this; in fact, the same chant often appears in different keys in different psalters.)

Here is an easy one that I just thought up, beginning with soprano on high F# and working its way down an octave. It would flow beautifully with Monk's alleluyas -
F# | E.D |C# || B | C#.D | B.A-G | F# ||

Analysis = D: I | V63 . VI | V/VI || IV | V43 . I | IV . V-7 | I ||

Christ our passover is sacri-| ficed . for | us:|| therefore | let . us | keep . the | feast.||
OR: Christ our passover is | sacrificed . for | us: || therefore....

(With apologies! If my computer skills were comparable to most others here, I would put it into notes for you. There are many possibilities. Check the back of the 1940 if you have it.)

Too: Anglican chant can be very satisfactorily paired with genuine Gregorian mass alleluyas.

Liam

Marier's "Hymns, Psalms and Spiritual Canticles" has it all laid out for this.

Steve Collins

Here you go. I don't know if these two Monks were related, they were contemporaries. I've done it in D major, and a lower version in C major. I can also post a JPG of the congregation's response if you like.

Eric D. Williams

Holy cow, that's awesome, Steve! THANKS! :D

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