Exsultet - What's your preference?
  • AP23AP23
    Posts: 119
    Hi everyone,

    I wanted to start this thread to ask what your favorite setting of the Exsultet / Easter Proclamation is. My favorite is the Tony Alonso one published by World Library Publications. This one is word-for-word, with a fixed rhythm.

    What's your favorite? (Please give the publisher if you know it.)
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    The version from the Missal in english (ICEL chant), or it's latin original.

    Why not use the centuries old melody that has been used for ages (literally)? Heck, many of the saints probably even heard, or even sung it.
    Thanked by 9Adam Wood jpal CHGiffen lmassery Spriggo Andrew_Malton marajoy kevinf Casavant Organist
  • ClemensRomanusClemensRomanus
    Posts: 1,023
    Same as Ben.
    Thanked by 1Adam Wood
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,466
    The Exsultet isn't a musical event, it is a textual event.

    I know, I know- the line there is a bit blurry/fuzzy, and you could make an argument that everything in the Mass is a textual event.

    But what I mean is:
    -It doesn't accompany another action, where the focus is elesewhere.
    -It isn't intended as a meditation, where it's more-or-less okay for the congregation to zone in-and-out of paying attention whilst praying.
    -It isn't something the congregation is supposed to "sing along" to.

    It is a proclamation- like a reading from scripture, or a collect, or an oration. Heck, it has the same tune as the Preface to the Eucharistic Prayer.

    It's a textual event, and the music that it is traditionally sung to serves this purpose in a way that (in my opinion) cannot be improved upon.
    Thanked by 7Ben CHGiffen lmassery Salieri Spriggo Paul F. Ford Casavant Organist
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    Besides the Missal chant, the missal chant version as set by J. Michael Thompson is beautiful when done well.
  • MarkThompson
    Posts: 768
    I was just going to mention the Thompson setting. It takes the standard chant version and adds in some drone, some organum and parallel harmonies. Not really something the world needed (I agree with the above comments), but beautiful nevertheless. You can listen to the whole thing here.
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Put my oar in for the Latin original of the Exsultet, as found in my missal and my Liber Usualis.

    It's not a "congregational participation" moment, if by that expression you mean that everyone else has to have a speaking part.


    Imagine, just for the sake of the comparison, if one couldn't attend a Shakespeare play, or even The Importance of Being Earnest without putting in lines as the actors left space for you, or spoke them with you.

  • Liam
    Posts: 5,055
    The Exsultet is actually, in its full form, an anamnesis. It is patterned after the Eucharistic prayer. (In this case, it is the wax candle that is the matter being oblated, though a sacrament is not confected thereby.) Remember this when considering the most appropriate musical setting....
  • Ralph BednarzRalph Bednarz
    Posts: 493
    I'm with Ben: The Missal chant! . I would not replace it ...well maybe with a psalm tone if the untrained clebrant insists on proclaiming it.
  • canadashcanadash
    Posts: 1,501
    Missal chant by a Deacon!
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