Saturday 9 January 2010

Music and Worship: Glory to God in the Highest!

In terms of music, it’s usually the hymns and worship songs that people remember most from a service. But in our services we use other forms of music as well – organ voluntaries, anthems, psalms, etc.

At the Eucharist we usually sing musical settings of three very ancient texts ‘Glory to God in the highest’, ‘Holy, holy, holy’ and ‘Lamb of God’, and in this article I’ll say a little about these and some of the music currently used for them. To begin with, do you know the significance of the words?

The opening of ‘Glory to God in the highest’ (often referred to by the first word of the Latin title, ‘Gloria’) is based on the song of the angels in Luke 2: 14. The ‘Holy, holy, holy’ (often termed ‘Sanctus’, Latin for ‘holy’) is sung just before the main part of the Eucharistic Prayer, and begins by echoing the words of the angels in Isaiah 6: 3. The words of the second part may be found in Matthew 21: 9 as part of the Palm Sunday story. ‘Lamb of God’ (or ‘Agnus Dei’) echoes the words of John the Baptist about Jesus in John 1: 29.

The musical settings of these three items at present most widely used in the parish were composed some years ago by Peter Gilks, currently [2010] Vicar of North Baddesley. At St Boniface we use them between Christmas and Trinity Sunday, the half of the year with all the most important feasts. In Lent and Advent the Gloria is omitted, but the Sanctus and Agnus are sung to ‘The Norfolk Service’ by Martin How (b. 1931) – these more contemplative settings seem to fit well the penitential seasons.

In Ordinary Time (the rest of the year) we often use the ‘New Wine Gloria’ at St Boniface. This was composed, probably in the 1990s, by David Ogden, with accompaniment by Esther Jones, and has a bouncy refrain. For the Sanctus we use a recent arrangement by Marcia Pruner and John Campbell of the American traditional melody ‘Land of Rest’. The Agnus is sung to a quiet tune composed specially for us in about 2002.

So as you can see we try to make the choice of music reflect the seasons of the church’s year. Over a period of time some of this music will need a rest, and new settings will have to be found – just as we have used and discarded other music in the past.

All the music is designed to be singable not only by choirs but by the congregations as well. Do join your voice to those of the angels.

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