Good Friday suggestions for small groups
  • renapearce
    Posts: 2
    Thanks in advance for your help. I am looking for suggestions for the Good Friday liturgy, specifically the veneration of the cross. I will be singing alone and have yet to find a musical setting for the reproaches for a solo voice. Would "Sing My Tongue, the Savior's Glory" be an appropriate substitution? We are a very small community using 2-3 selections for either the veneration of communion. What others would you suggest? In previous years, a small group (2 females, 1 male) sang "Mother, Behold Your Son" after communion. I am not very fond of that song and would prefer something different. Do I need a song for after communion? I will have an accompanist though he is not very versed in the liturgy. Thanks again for your help.
  • trentonjconn
    Posts: 541
    Ideally, you shouldn't use an accompanist being that it's Good Friday. If you choose chanted repertoire, it can stand alone without instruments. I recommend the simplified reproaches as found in the Good Friday section of the Graduale Simplex. They are straightforward, easy, and can definitely be carried by one singer. For communion, just chant psalm 22!
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  • renapearce
    Posts: 2
    It is rare to have an accompanist but I don't think I have a choice because the pastor has already made the assignments. I use Respond and Acclaim when I cantor (twice a month) and I never have an accompanist. The Good Friday liturgy is the only one scheduled in English; the other liturgies in the Triduum will be bi-lingual. Our congregation is probably 80% Spanish speakers and we do not have a musical director. I am hoping to be as correct as possible with the resources I have. Pastorally, I think the congregation will be disappointed that songs like "Were You There" or "Hosea" are not used.
    I will get a copy of the Graduale Simplex. I am concerned that just one chant will not be long enough, though admittedly, I have not looked at them. Thanks for your suggestions, I appreciate you.
    Thanked by 1trentonjconn
  • a_f_hawkins
    Posts: 3,371
    Or in English to be found in By Flowing Waters by Paul F Ford. That is based on the second set of reproaches, since the verses are a simple chant it would not be difficult to improvise parts of the first set. But it is not the 2010 translation
    Or is this too difficult?
    If it is Fr Weber has two settings of all the chants here , first in Gregorian style, and then mich simplified.
    Thanked by 1Steve Q
  • Steve QSteve Q
    Posts: 119
    Jeff Ostrowski wrote some English chant settings for Good Friday including a simple Reproaches. I have used these several times a cappella. I just found it still available here:
    https://archive.ccwatershed.org/media/pdfs/13/03/02/00-52-06_0.pdf

    You could also take a look at Esguerra's Choral Graduale Simplex with Propers for Lent listed here:
    https://forum.musicasacra.com/forum/discussion/8894/the-choral-graduale-simplex-english-harmonized-satb-plainsong/p1
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Vexilla Regis?
  • DL
    Posts: 71
    Do you have to sing alone? The Missal prints about nine hundred verses of Crux fidelis/Faithful cross for the veneration. Why not do that, with some divisions of the verses for men/women/all? - it even has a chorus. The English translation is oddly bad (imho: scion/iron) but there must be decent versions in Spanish with the same metre, so you could even double the number of verses. And, as I said to someone, if you don’t know the tune when we start, you jolly well will by the time it’s done.
  • CatherineS
    Posts: 690
    And, as I said to someone, if you don’t know the tune when we start, you jolly well will by the time it’s done.


    hilarious
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