Any suggestions on a beatiful (and not too difficult) English setting of this psalm?

We sing at a Novus Ordo parish, so since my schola is pretty new at all this, I often use a seasonal Communion chant in any case. For Good Friday, I was planning to use again the Communion proper from Palm Sunday, Pater si. I think it fits quite well there.

We are singing the reproaches from the GR for Veneration. It is really pretty simple if you have the schola only do the Popule meus and the Hagios... let a soloist(s) do the verses.

This is the first time our schola is singing on Good Friday, and the MD asked us to do the following.


General Intercessions (followed by the Collection)
Vexilla Regis Prodeunt (schola, during collection)

Veneration; (Congregation sings English hymns)
Ecce Lignum Crucis (schola)
437, Behold the Wood (refrain only; three times)

Ecce Lignum Crucis (schola)
435, O Sacred Head, Surrounded

Ecce Lignum Crucis (schola)
438, Were You There?
614, What Wondrous Love

Adoration:
Reproaches (English)
Stabat Mater
Ave Verum Corpus
Jesus, Remember Me

Communion:
When I survey the wondrous cross
Pange Lingua (St. Thomas)

The congregation will have copies of all the music.

Resp. Psalm as in Respond and Acclaim
Gosp. Acc/Gradual Christus Factus Est
Adoration Crucem Tuam and Reproaches (Grad. Simp.)
Communion Adoro Te

congregation: Schutte “Behold the Wood” (no griping, folks—this one is quite good)
choir: Croce “In monte Oliveti”
congregation: Joncas “Take and Eat”
(either this or Taizé “There Can Be No Greater Love”....can’t recall)

Somewhere (and someday I'll remember where) I read a passage from Cardinal Ratzinger that mentioned, and seemed to encourage, the custom of abstaining from holy communion on Good Friday, which seems a noble spiritual exercise. Even if our sensibilities won't allow that, couldn't we at least abstain from communion music on this day, in commemoration of our Lord's entombment? After hyping the singing all year long, wouldn't NOT singing send a particularly powerful message on this day?

We have one large cross with a relic of the true cross in it. Everyone venerates that cross only, so it takes quite some time. The choir will sing the Stainer, "God so Loved the World," then go downstairs for veneration and stay there. A cantor will chant the "Reproaches." Communion is much shorter. The congregation will sing, "O Sacred Head," then I will play a bit - I am leaning toward "Aus tiefer Not ..." by Reger. As soon as the communion procession is over, there will be silence.

I would stay away from Were You There and anything by Schutte. Were You There is just not solemn.

I would rather do this:

Veneration:
Stabat Mater
O Sacred Head Surrounded
Perdon a Tu Pueblo, Senor (this goes on for quite some time and is actually a loosely paraphrased version of the reproaches in Spanish)
At the Name of Jesus

Communion
Sing My Tongue the Song of Triumph (Picardy)
What Wondrous Love is This

"I would stay away from Were You There and anything by Schutte. Were You There is just not solemn."

Thanks Benedictgal. I agree. I used like this song, full of emotion. Now I see it in a different level. I'll sing it at home, when I like to sing it.

I don't like "Were You There," either.

However, some of us work in real churches, with real people in the congregation who don't read musicasacra or NLM all day, and who happen to have real favorite songs that they only get to sing once a year and don't happen to be in Latin.

Obviously, "Were you there..." is a rhetorical question.
But there is nothing theologically incorrect about the song, and I would certainly argue that even from a musical standpoint it is *not* irreverent in any way. And I would say that the level of solemnity which it attains can only be judged based on things like its tempo, accompaniment, harmonizations, etc. (Not something you can make a blanket statement about.)

I wasn't aware that this thread called for song choices to be criticized/critiqued.
It would be great if someday the "trads" could be a little more positive and strive to encourage one another in the constant uphill battle of rebuilding a music program from scratch, especially keeping in mind those who are introducing things like the "Reproaches" and Latin communion chants (things which would have been unheard of at my parish just a couple years ago...)
Oh, but I forgot. Nothing is acceptable except a Solemn High Tridentine Mass. We must criticize everything less than that!

Now as for "were you there?"

I just sat through the Neville stations.

Nope. I weren't there! (and I am still wondering if God was either)

WYT is performed from beginning to end of that particlar very loose attempt at the SOTC. It really is nothing but an attempt to stir emotions as does the hymn. And think about it: textually, this piece focuses mainly on "number 1"; ME. We need to be less concerned about ME and more concerned about THEE. I think it is interesting that this piece was used to reinforce this thinking.

This is a typical Protestant approach to spirituality that many many Christians get sucked into (and most saddly has wormed it's ugly head into the Mass itself), and I speak from past experience of having had spent way to much time in those kind of services. I always thought I was doing God and his wayward world a great favor by being a part of that activity only to learn later in my life that God wished I had spent much more of that time with him in adoration of His Blessed Sacrament or in the Confessional. Truth be told, those ARE the places he is actually crucified and where he is nailed to the tree. For real.

Musically? It is the perfect marriage of the elements of melody, harmony and "trembling" that evoke the shallow resolve of sentimental affection.

So, we should stop worshipping our feelings in our music and in our self focused liturgical distortions and get back to worshipping in "spirit and in truth".

Fad gone Trad

Marajoy, I apologize for not being constructive and for being clearly on the shallow end of "civil and intelligent." You are right that the song isn't irreverent, and you are also right that the music can be evocative; it is certainly the best part of the song. I simply find the content to have little theological insight and the continuous barage of the rhetorical questions of little artistic, emotional or intellectual impact. We've all been in places where we had to sing songs that we wish we didn't have to sing.

> Communion for the faithful on Good Friday was introduced, I believe, in the 20th Century.

Yes, in Pius XII's Holy Week Reform. There is an on-going series about those reforms at The New Liturgical Movement.

The 1955 rite prescribed the singing of Psalm 22 (21). The Solesmes "Ordo Hebdomadae Sanctae" set this psalm to Tonus In directum.

Daily communion antedates daily mass. In earliest times the people took the sacrament to their homes and communicated themselves. Later communion was given from the reserved sacrament in churches on days when mass was not celebrated. In the West mass came to be celebrated every day except Good Friday Holy Saturday. Distribution of communion from the reserved sacrament continued on Good Friday. Later communion on Good Friday was restricted to the celebrant alone. The 1955 rite restored communion to the people. Jungmann favored eliminating the Good Friday communion but held that if the celebrant was to receive communion, the people should also.

Is that the lame-duck English version?

The 2002 Latin version has (para. 28 for Good Friday):
"Durante Communione cani potest psalmus 21 vel alius cantus congruus."
"During Communion Psalm 21 or another suitable chant (song) can be sung."