Music for Sunday 17 April 2011

And now we arrive at the pointy end of Lent.  Over the next few days I'll be posting about music for the various Holy Week services in the Parish of Jika Jika.

Palm Sunday is one of those highlights in the year for most people.  It's probably the one time in the annual cycle where the service involves moving into the street for most parishes.  I once worked for a parish where the church didn't have sufficient space for figure-8 processions, which necessitated regular forays into the churchyard and into the street on high days.  These sorts of things are more the exception than the rule, however.  Speaking as a convinced fan of processions in general, and outdoor processions in particular, I don't think there's anywhere near enough of it.

For the uninitiated, the service on Palm Sunday consists of two parts.  The congregation gathers in a place other than the church, where palms are blessed and distributed.  The readings associated with this part of the service can be found here.  Once everyone has their palm in hand, the procession forms and makes its way to the church.  The hymns we will be using for this part of the service are as follows:

Procession hymn 1: All glory, laud and honour [Together in Song, 333]
Procession hymn 2: Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle [tune: Picardy, 497]

The second part of the service is the Mass of the day, with the reading of one of the Passion narratives.  The readings for this part of the service can be found here, and the Psalm setting here.  The service setting will be plainchant, led by the choir.  The hymns are as follows:

Sequence: O sacred head, sore wounded [339]
Offertory: Lift high the Cross [351]
Communion: Here we adore you, hidden Saviour, Lord [500]

Hymn numbers are given here for the tunes only.  Because of the variations to the services during Holy Week, the parish produces a one-off booklet for these events containing everything congregation members need for their parts, including hymns and other musical elements.  Rather than type out the versions of the words given in Together in Song (thereby creating potential copyright headaches!), we tend to use public domain versions of the hymns set for these days.  As well as saving labour, using public domain versions often puts an interesting sidelight on hymns we sing in more sanitized versions at other times of the year.