Immaculate Heart of Mary Oratory, San Jose, California.

This is my first year in the post, having succeeded to the post just after Christmas, so I can't draw on last year's list. The choir has changed much since everyone learned how to locate Wuhan China on a map, so "what you sang last year" is not meaningless but certainly more likely to be "what a small number of you sang in previous years". About half of this list (below) has never been sung at the Oratory before.

We'll sing two verses of Vexilla Regis this morning, during the procession to the altar, using an arrangement of Agincourt which I assembled some years back.

At the Offertory, having completed the Offertory antiphon, we'll sing a realization of Byrd's round Non Nobis Domine.

Next Sunday, we plan to sing Praetorius' Vexilla Regis before the blessing of the palms, and Victoria's Unus ex discipulis meis at Communion.

For Maundy Thursday, the gentlemen of the choir will sing Feroci's Dextera Domini replacing the chant antiphon.

For Good Friday, the entire choir will sing Palestrina's Adoramus te, Christe.

At the Vigil, two ladies of the choir will sing, as a duet, Rick Wheeler's "Anon" Sicut Cervus, but it will not replace the chant, since it doesn't contain the entire text.


I'm trying to vary the texture of the music (hence, the 2-part and 3-part pieces as well as the 4 part) both for the good of the choir members themselves and for the edification of the faithful.