Music for Ordination
  • G
    Posts: 1,397
    Can anyone suggest texts that would be especially appropriate for the music for an ordination to the diaconate, happening during Ordinary time?
    Suggestions for specific choral pieces welcome as well, (congregational music probably to be selected by the ordinandi.)
    English more likely to be approved than Latin, choir and instrumentalists do particularly well on classical, although polyphony, (no more than 4 voices.)
    Ordinary is out of my hands.
    Any suggestions appreciated.

    (Save the Liturgy, Save the World)
  • G
    Posts: 1,397
    Meant to say, "polyphony can be handled."

    (Save the Liturgy, Save the World)
  • IanWIanW
    Posts: 756
    Have a look at Byrd's Sacerdotes Domini. It's on CPDL.
  • Jscola30
    Posts: 116
    Veni Creator, or an English translation thereof.
  • Paul F. Ford
    Posts: 857
    Here is the official list of the texts which are sung at the ordination to the diaconate. It is from the latest edition of the rite in the Roman Pontifical. In addition, a "Te Deum" after communion is always appropriate at such an occasion.

    The "Veni Creator" is NOT sung at the ordination of deacons, nor should Sacerdotes Domini be sung, as beautiful as both are. The "Veni Creator" is now sung only at the ordination of a bishop.

    Blessings,
    Paul

    Paul F. Ford, Ph.D.
    Professor of Theology and Liturgy
    St. John Seminary
    Camarillo, CA
    sung texts for Ordination of Deacons.doc
    61K
  • G
    Posts: 1,397
    Thank you all so much.

    (Save the Liturgy, Save the World)
  • G
    Posts: 1,397
    Hmmm.... can't seem to open the document, my computer says to verify the the correct name and file are given.

    Can anyone help this technidiot? TIA

    (Save the Liturgy, Save the World)
  • Paul F. Ford
    Posts: 857
    How about a PDF?
    sung texts for Ordination of Deacons.pdf
    19K
  • IanWIanW
    Posts: 756
    Paul,

    Thanks for the official list of texts. It's good to know what they are. Also, they illustrate the typical flatness of ICEL translations.
  • IanWIanW
    Posts: 756
    Consider, in contrast, the metrical version from the Scottish Psalter of 1650:

    1. How lovely is thy dwelling-place,
    O Lord of hosts, to me!
    The tabernacles of thy grace
    how pleasant, Lord, they be!
    My thirsty soul longs veh'mently,
    yea faints, thy courts to see:
    My very heart and flesh cry out,
    O living God, for thee.

    2. Behold, the sparrow findeth out
    an house wherein to rest;
    The swallow also for herself
    hath purchased a nest;
    Ev'n thine own altars, where she safe
    her young ones forth may bring,
    O thou almighty Lord of hosts,
    who art my God and King.

    3. Blessed are they in thy house that dwell,
    they ever give thee praise.
    Blessed is the man whose strength thou art,
    in whose heart are thy ways:
    Who passing thorough Baca's vale,
    therein do dig up wells;
    Also the rain that falleth down
    the pools with water fills.

    4. So they from strength unwearied go
    still forward unto strength,
    Until in Zion they appear
    before the Lord at length.
    Lord God of hosts, my prayer hear;
    O Jacob's God, give ear.
    See God our shield, look on the face
    of thine anointed dear.

    5. For in thy courts one day excels
    a thousand; rather in
    My God's house will I keep a door,
    than dwell in tents of sin.
    For God the Lord's a sun and shield:
    he'll grace and glory give;
    And will withhold no good from them
    that uprightly do live.

    6. O thou that art the Lord of hosts,
    that man is truly blest,
    Who by assured confidence
    on thee alone doth rest.
    How lovely is thy dwelling-place,
    O Lord of hosts, to me!
    The tabernacles of thy grace
    how pleasant, Lord, they be!

    I can't help but feel that, compared with its often heterodox predecessors, ICEL has all the correctness and none of the poetry.
  • Paul F. Ford
    Posts: 857
    Ian,

    If you are referring to the psalm texts, they are from the Grail 1963, not ICEL. The other texts are from the reconstituted ICEL, 2002, and have Roman confirmation.

    Blessings,
    Paul
  • IanWIanW
    Posts: 756
    Paul,

    Thanks for the correction on the original source. However, that doesn't change the leaden quality of the text, in which it's at one with so much of ICEL's output. Perhaps that's because they share some of the same cultural baggage. And while we can look to Roman confirmation for the liturgical and theological validity of our texts, it has little bearing on their literary quality. Just think of the 4/4, bounce-along, ditty-like Gloria that we've suffered from for so long.

    Best wishes,

    Ian.
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