Can I wish everyone a happy and holy Easter and once again thank John and Rachel for their hosting this forum for us.

Peter

Seconded.

So what's everyone singing/playing/hearing this Easter then?

Mine:

Maundy Thursday evening
Mass of St Thomas (Thorne)
During foot washing - Ubi caritas Taize
Anthem - O Saviour of the world (Goss)
At the start of the watch - Stay with me Taize

Good Friday liturgy
Anthem - Were you there? (adaptation of arrangement by Bob Chilcott)
Reproaches - simplified plainsong version from NEH
plus another Taize - Jesus, remember me - to finish off the Veneration of the Cross

Easter Day

6am Dawn Mass
Plainsong Exsultet
Mass of St Thomas
Anthem - Joy is come (Carter)
No voluntary - we finish with the 'Breakfast gospel' at the west door, so straight off to breakfast after disrobing!

10am Eucharist
Mass of St Thomas (again! - its our festival mass setting)
Anthem - Blessed be the God and Father (Wesley - switched to the morning for a change!)
Voluntary - Toccata from 5th (Widor)

6.30pm Evensong
Smith Responses
Psalm 114 (Bairstow)
Brewer in D
Anthem - Not unto us O Lord (Walmisley - in Anthems for Choirs 1, done mainly for the jubilant 'Hallelujah' section)
Voluntary - Carillon de Westminster (Vierne)

And on Good Friday evening probably a trip to hear St John Passion. Its always the best weekend of the year, and worth all the effort we put into it.

Happy Easter! I hope you have all hidden your easter eggs (preferably at the console, so you can find them during the services )

I just had a great Good Friday service. I turn up at the church at 10:20am ten minutes before the service is due to start, but notice as I pull into the car park there are no cars. So I go into the church and saw no sign of any service due to take place, so grab my music from the organ and go back to the car. A few minutes later I get a call from a nervous sounding minister asking where I am. I reply at the church. His reply: "Did anyone tell you its at the Presbyterian church?"

JA

Sorry!!

Joyeuses Paques - I'm 'on' for Easter morning - a chunk of Messiah - Mass of St Thomas (Thorne) - This Joyful Eastertide and suitable improvisation at the Communion and my Festival Postlude on the way out. Then off to France for a week.

A

St Paul's Birmingham.
Today, Good Friday:
2pm
Via Crucis - Liszt (with projected artwork/images)
O Mensch, bewein' dein Sünde gross BWV 622 - J.S. Bach

Easter Day:
10am
Anthem: Most Glorious Lord of Life - William H. Harris
Voluntary: Incantation pour un jour Saint - Jean Langlais
6.30pm:
Anthem: Blessed be the God and Father - Samuel Sebastian Wesley
Voluntary: Fugue (Alleluia Pascal) - Marcel Dupré

A peaceful Easter to you all.

P

Maundy Thursday evening:
Howells "Collegium Regale" Mass
Duruflé - Ubi Caritas
Whitlock - O living bread

Easter Vigil (5:00am)
Howells "Collegium Regale" (Gloria) and DHM Missa Victimae Paschali
Taverner - Dum transisset

Last Night:

Setting: Wood in the Phyridgian Mode (one of only three times a year we're allowed to divert from the congregational setting)
Foot Washing Anthem: Ubi Caritas - Durufle
Motet: Ave Verum Corpus - Byrd
Start of the Watch: Lamentations - Bairstow

Today (Good Friday)

Crux Fidelis - Palestrina
and the reproaches out of the suppliment to NEH

Sunday (Morning)
Mass of St Thomas (back to the every sunday mass *Yawn)
Christ the Lord is Risen Again - Foster
Toccata in G - Dubois

Evening - Rededication of the Organ after rebuild
Smith Responses
Psalm 114 (Bairstow) 117 (Stewart)
Stanford in B flat
Blessed be the God and Father - Wesley
Stanford in B Flat 'Te Deum'
3rd Movement from Sonata No.1 - Guilmant

I'm somewhat worried about the 'new' organ though. Still missing six stops, and the rest hideously out of tune. Hopefully the tuning at least will be sorted tomorrow...

May I join in the thanks for this wonderful forum and Easter greetings to all?

Here in Cheltenham (All Saints') we are having a fairly busy week:
Palm Sunday morning:
Ingrediente Domino - Malcolm (just before we set off on the outdoor procession)
Hosanna to the Son of David - Weelkes (at the west end of the church to greet The Cross
Setting - A New English Folk Mas (from NEH)
Motet - God so loved the world - Stainer

Evening:
We constructed a Passiontide meditation instead of our usual evensong using the Schutz The Seven Last Words from The Cross as the 'meat' in a sandwich. The 'bread' being Praise to Thee Lord Jesus and some of the Schutz Geistliche Konzerte, Die Seele Christi (ATB), Das Blut (SSB), Eile mich (S), Ehore mich (SS). We put in some passiontide hymns for the punters each proceeded by a chorale prelude; Alas my God - Ach Gott und Herr BWV 714, Ah Holy Jesus - Herzliebster Jesu BWV 1093, O sacred head - Herzlich tut mich verlangen BuxWV

Maundy Thursday:
Ubi caritas - Durufle (during the washing)
Setting - Darke in F
Motet - Ave verum - Byrd
Ps 88 to plainchant for the stripping of the altars

Good Friday:
Ps 22, vv 1-22 to plainchant
Gesualdo - O vos omnes
Reproaches - Sanders
Agnus Dei from the Phrygian Mode setting - Wood

Easter Day morning:
Mass in D, K194 - Mozart
Heac Dies - Byrd

Evening:
Responses - Rose
Pss 114 (Bairstow), 118 (ch. Whitlock)
Coll. Reg. - Wood
Christ the Lord is risen again (no time to rehearse anything else!) - Rutter
O salutaris - plainchant
Tantum ergo - Henschell

Low Sunday the choir are free!!

It's good to know what others are doing. The information can be an inspiration.

F-W
(Cameron)

RC Church of Our Lady & St Kenelm, Halesowen
Palm Sunday morning:
Hosanna to the Son of David - English plainsong setting
Responsorial Psalm - Dutson
Mass setting - English plainsong
Anthem - Hosianna dem Sonne David - Telemann
(organ only used for accompanying the hymns during Lent)

Maundy Thursday:
English plainsong mass setting, + Murray Gloria with organ 'fanfare' [I don't do improvising, so it was actually the last page of Cocker's Tuba Tune!] between the intonation and the Gloria itself. No more organ at all until Saturday night now.
Responsorial Psalm - Hodgetts
Ubi caritas - plainsong..square notes'n'all
Motet - Ave verum - Byrd
Pange Lingua

Good Friday:
Responsorial Psalm - Hodgetts
Reproaches - Victoria
Christus Factus Est - Cannicciari

Easter Vigil (same music @ Easter morning)
lots of responsorial psalms
Murray Mass setting, with another 'fanfare' after the Gloria intonation, (probably end of Vierne I Final).
Stanford - Why Seek Ye
H.Smart - Postlude

Evening
Off to St Paul's Birmingham to play Blessed Be the G&F for Mr Carr (see above). Hopefully this year he won't have to phone Mrs Contrabordun on Easter Monday afternoon to substantiate my account of why I didn't get home until 1.30am...

Happy Easter to all.

Malcolm

Here at St Stephen's Church, Canterbury we're doing (or have been doing...)

Sunday 28th March
Palm Sunday
10:30 am SUNG EUCHARIST (Choir 10:15)
Introit - Hosanna to the Son of David - Weelkes
Setting - The Hadleigh Setting - Alan Ridout
Responsorial Psalm 31 vv. 9-16
Anthem - God so loved the world - John Stainer
Hymns 511, 509, 90, 82, 86 (omit vv. 4 & 6)
Organ voluntary
06:00 pm SERVICE FOR PASSIONTIDE (Choir 5:30)

Wednesday 31st March
07:00 pm Trebles practice
07:30 pm Full practice

Thursday 1st April
Maundy Thursday
07:30 pm SUNG EUCHARIST AND STRIPPING OF THE SANCTUARY (Choir 7:15)
Gloria - Mass of St Thomas - David Thorne
Gospel Acclamations, Sanctus, Agnus Dei - The Hadleigh Setting - Alan Ridout
Taizé chant - Ubi caritas
Anthem - Ave verum corpus - William Byrd
Hymns 293 (t. 239), 297, 270, 268 (part 1; t. 202)
Psalm 22 vv. 1-21 (tone 2i)

Friday 2nd April
Good Friday
10:00 am ALL AGES SERVICE (Trebles 9:30)
Anthem - Were you there? - American Spiritual melody, arranged by Stephen Barker
Hymns 92, 375
02:00 pm LITURGY OF THE DAY (Choir 1:15, soloists 1:00)
Psalm 22 vv. 1-21 (tone 2i)
Passion - Victoria
Reproaches - Victoria
Agnus Dei - plainsong
Anthem - Crucifixus - Lotti
Hymns 92, 94, 517 (omit vv. 3-8), 82, 95

Sunday 4th April
Easter Day
06:00 am SERVICE OF LIGHT (Choir 5:45)
Setting- Mass of St Thomas - David Thorne
Exsultet part 1 - t. 'Woodlands' NEH 186
Exsultet part 2 - plainsong
Hymns 120, 110
Organ voluntary - Paraphrase on a theme from Judas Maccabeus - Alexandra Guilmant
08:00 am HOLY COMMUNION (No Choir)
Hymn 110
10:30 am FESTIVAL SUNG EUCHARIST (Choir 10:15)
Introit - This joyful Eastertide - arr. Charles Wood
Setting - The Johannesburg Service - John Bertalot
Anthem - Christ the Lord is risen again - John Rutter
Hymns 110, 117, 116, 123, 120
Organ voluntary - Sortie in E-flat - Louis Lefebure-Wely
06:00 pm FESTIVAL CHORAL EVENSONG (Choir 5:40)
Introit - This joyful Eastertide - arr. Charles Wood
Preces & Responses - William Smith
Psalm 66 vv. 1-11
Canticles - Brewer in D
Anthem - Sing choirs of heaven - Richard Shepherd
Hymns 120, 331, 117

And then we're off to Rochester Cathedral to sing Easter Saturday and Low Sunday!

Happy Easter everyone!

Steve

Mmmmm, I suspect in a few years I'll be supplying an alibi for Bordini too...

Please do not ask - my boss is an opera buff....



Happy Easter anyway.

Easter Hymn from Cav, then?

Or selections from Parsifal...

Paul

=======================


A very happy Easter to everyone.

I'm looking forward to eating my "Stig" chocolate egg.

MM

Happy Easter one and all!

That would be the first one.

And the Interlude.

Excuse me, I have to go and wash my hands again....

My Easter...

On Easter Day I was in St Sulpice and at the end of High Mass there was a most wonderful accolade from the Preist in charge, and much applause, to mark the 25th anniversary of Daniel Roth's appointment .

Later, after all the services were finished, someone (Daniel Roth?) played.... the Widor Toccata!

Perhaps its not too soon to be thinking about the 150th anniversary of the organ in 2012.

After such a sublime morning I made a huge mistake by going to St Eustache where Guillou, who will be 80 later this month, played Listz's Ad nos - I'd never heard this organ before and I would think this was the worst possible choice of music to play on it, I'm afraid it sounded complete nonsense, if Salvador Dali could have played the organ, I'm sure he would have used the same tone colours .... I think Guillou's playing has its own unique mastery, but the organ....

Oh, I nearly forgot, there was one person who clearly enjoyed every second of the Ad Nos, he was a strange fellow standing in the aisle facing towards the organ who enacted all the organ sounds.....

Peeters chorale preludes before and after Evensong (O filii et filiae and Christ ist Erstanden).

Does anyone play Peeters any more?

Not as much as I used to. At one time I played a number of the "Thirty" chorale preludes (the ones on three sets of ten) quite often but I ended up getting a bored with them and some of them seemed rather contrived. I still play somew of th bigger works on occasions, including the Flemish Rhapsody which is much neglected. I'm told by one of his former students that he wasa very good teacher.

Malcolm

I play the 'Aria' and the 'Lied to the Flowers' movement of his Lied-Symphony. I hope to learn the rest of it one day when time permits!

Speaking of Flor Peeters, his Missa Festiva was the setting for the BBC's live TV broadcast from Winchester yesterday morning. Also features Hadley's My beloved spake and at the start a modern-sounding piece with lots of Alleluias and organ interjections. Unfortunately they seem to have got their timings wrong as the last hymn got cut out midway through the first verse! Still, worth a watch, some good singing and nice organ improvisations.

...and one more:

On Saturday night the Beeb had 'Easter from Kings' on, similar idea to the Christmas version. Again lots of nice singing and some varied music interspersed with hymns and readings (not all biblical). As it focused on the whole of Holy Week there wasn't masses of Easter stuff in it - only a bit at the end and the opening hymn. There's about a minute of the Final from Vierne 1 to cover the closing credits.

It's probably my television set that's faulty, then.

Well, I enjoyed much of it. Some things weren't to my taste and the last hymn was rather too quick, but nonetheless a decent programme I feel. It might at least help show joe public that Kings do more than just sing at Christmas. We also got lots of glimpses of the organ scholars at work.

Is it going out of fashion? I was intending to build up a collection and purchased the Lent-Easter book last timeI went music shopping.
Have only used 1 during Lent and was too disorganised to prepare any more this time round, not being suffiently accomplished to be able to sight read them safely. Hope to get another couple next time, but shall not if they are not considered to be
worthwhile.

Happy Easter.

Yes they do. My Easter highlight was accompanying (on the joanna) a truly superb tenor singing the first of Vaughn Williams' Easter Mystical Songs.

Toccata Fugue and Hymn on Ave Maris Stella, nice if linked up with some suitable Tournemire, Ricercare, Vars on an original theme and Suite Modale. Don't really play the chorale based works.

AJS

Considering we're talking about Easter greetings, I have to admit I enjoyed the sounds of Easter Monday more. The season opener at our local racing circuit is often much more tuneful, and a lot less noisy. Highly tuned small capacity V8s revving to about 10000 rpm, flat 4 alfas, heavily tuned turbo'd 5's with atmospheric bypass valves mmmmm......

AJS

I've just listened, via the BBC i-Player, to parts of the Sunday Morning service from Westminster Cathedral. It's well worth a few minutes, including the last verse of the final hymn, starting at about 47.00. A clue; no descant...

The voluntary was, of course, curtailed. Even as an Archers fan, I would have been happy to have had a late start to the omnibus edition to have heard all of it.

P

Agreed, it was superb. (The last verse of "Thine be the Glory" wasn't my favourite bit, although it didn't offend me.) Some wonderful singing and some great alternation between choir and organ. The arrangement of O filii and O filiae was perhaps a bit over the top, but it was Easter Sunday!