FROM DR. DAVID HURD: SINGING SOLEMN MASS THIS SUMMER

The vitality and impact of liturgical worship is maintained and fortified by the interplay of those aspects which remain constant and those which change from occasion to occasion. Repetitive actions are the backbone of formative ritual and help to project and contextualize the particularities which distinguish one occasion from another. For example, while the texts of the Ordinary of the Mass (Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus, Agnus Dei) remain essentially constant from Mass to Mass, other texts including the scripture readings, the psalms, and the hymns change to illuminate the ongoing narrative of the liturgical cycle. Music is a principal agent in articulating both the fixed and the moving parts of the liturgy. Even where words remain the same, different musical settings animate them differently, revealing layers of expression otherwise unavailable. Though the texts of the Ordinary are constant, when they are presented in distinct and varied music from week to week, they may be experienced both as familiar and as unique to the occasion. While the Choir of Saint Mary’s customarily takes a summer break from the Third Sunday after Pentecost until the end of September, the song of praise will go on without interruption as it is lifted each Sunday by clergy, cantors, and the entire assembly of the faithful.

Rubrics in The Book of Common Prayer direct that, prior to the Acclamation which begins the celebration of Holy Eucharist, A hymn, psalm, or anthem may be sung. These rubrics remind us of the psalmist’s encouragement to “Be joyful in the Lord, and come before his presence with a song; enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise.” (Psalm 100:1,3). Normally at Saint Mary’s, the choir calls the assembly into worship as the ministers enter, singing what the Prayer Book would classify as “anthems;” that is, biblically-derived liturgical texts designated to be sung in worship on particular occasions. The Gregorian Missal provides a cycle of these Introits for the liturgical year, each one consisting of a psalm verse and doxology (Gloria Patri) surrounded by an Antiphon. Last summer, in the absence of the choir, we accepted the Prayer Book’s invitation to sing hymns as the ministers entered for Mass. This gave us the opportunity to sing several fine hymns designed for the beginning of the liturgy which normally would never be sung at Saint Mary’s. This summer, a cantor will sing us into the liturgy each Sunday with the appointed Gregorian Introit chant, as had been the custom prior to last summer.

During most of our yearly cycle, the choir is present and sings the Ordinary of the Mass (Gloria, Sanctus, Benedictus, Agnus Dei) to a wide variety of musical settings, each of which imparts its own distinctive shade of expression to these timelessly recurring ritual songs. This summer, for the seventeen Sundays during the choir’s hiatus, we will cycle through five different congregational settings of the Mass. These will include settings from the Episcopal hymnals of 1940 and 1982 by Healey Willan, William Mathias, Winfred Douglas’s Gregorian-based Missa Marialis, my New Plainsong, and a composite group of Nikolus Decius, Richard Proulx, and John Merberke. These settings will be familiar to many, and hopefully will be learned by others as we sing them. For the Creed this summer we will return to singing Credo III (Missa de Angelis) which was sung last summer as well as during recent Advent and Epiphany seasons.

Cantors—present and past members of the choir—will support the singing of the congregation throughout the Sunday liturgy this summer. These cantors will also sing the minor proper anthems at the Entrance, Offertory, and Communion, lead the Graduals and Gospel Acclamations, and offer vocal solos during Communion. 

As in past years, the full choir will return briefly on August 15 to sing at the evening Solemn Mass for the Feast of the Assumption. 

So, as the essential liturgical form remains constant, its structural parts flex to illuminate the particularities of times, seasons, and varying configurations of the assembly, and the song of praise continues to be sung. Alleluia!

Let us strive to heed the psalmist’s urging:

Be joyful in the Lord, all you lands; *
   serve the Lord with gladness
   and come before his presence with a song.

— David Hurd

PRAYING FOR THE CHURCH & FOR THE WORLD

We pray for an end to war and violence, remembering especially the people of Gaza, Israel, the West Bank, Lebanon, Sudan, Ukraine, Russia, Iran, the Red Sea, Myanmar, and Yemen. We pray for justice and for an end to violence and division in our neighborhood, city, and nation.

We pray for those who have asked us for our prayers, especially Leroy, Chris, Carlos, Howard, Hattie, Richard, Joyce, William, John, Robert, Hattie, Marianne, Tony, Christine, Donald, Richard, Josh, James, Dorian, Carl, Nettie, Chrissy, Jan, Mark, Andrew, Pat, Marjorie, Carole, Luis, David, Clark, Rolf, Sharon, Quincy, Robert, Randy, June, José, Manuel, Sherman, Lorilee, Chandler, Abe, Suzanne, Hardy, Giovanna, Liduvina, Margaret, and Rita; and James Phillips, Jack Crowley, James Koester, and Curtis Almquist, religious; Barbara Jean Packer and Eleanor Francis Reynolds, religious; Ignacio and Lind, deacons; and Peter, Robby, and Stephen, priests.

We pray for the repose of the souls of David Khouri, Willard Taylor, and those whose year’s mind falls on June 16: Gardner Van Reed (1917); Louise Unsold (1939); Roy Whitson Lay (1952).

A Prayer at the Beginning of the Day

Jesus of the struggle,
You never promised ease:
yours the pained heart; ours the pained hearts too.
You promised life in the hustle and bustle
of the everyday.
Meet us in this tussle
so that we may find energy
to keep going. Meet us with rest too.
You needed it;
we do too. Amen.

Ó Tuama, Pádraig. Being Here: Prayers for Curiosity, Justice, and Love. 

PLEASE JOIN US

ON SUNDAY, JUNE 16, 12:30 PM
A JUNETEENTH CELEBRATION

We invite you to join us during Coffee Hour this coming Sunday, June 16, for a special event to celebrate Juneteenth, which falls this year on Wednesday, June 19. At our event after the Solemn Mass, we will interview Angeline Butler, parish member and longtime civil rights activist about her background in the movement and her reflections on racism in the United States today. Angeline will be joined by two musicians, Amy Maden, bassist, and Tomas Janzon, guitarist. We will have special Juneteenth themed refreshments—punch and cake! The members of the group will be available for questions after the interview. We begin at 12:30 and end promptly at 2:00 PM.

The event will be streamed on Zoom for those who are not able to attend, and the link can be found here.
— The Tuesday Night Anti-Racism Discussion Group

FROM THE SAINT THÉRÈSE OF LISIEUX FLOWER GUILD

Members of the Flower Guild will be available to arrange flowers for many Sundays this summer. The following Sundays are still available: July 21 and 28; August 11, 18, and 25. August 15, The Feast of the Assumption, is also available. The customary donation requested is $250.00. This allows members of the Guild to create arrangements for the high altar and for the shrines.

It is also possible to ask the Guild to design arrangements only for the high altar. The requested donation would then be $175.00. Please contact the Parish Office to reserve a date.

For more information or to discuss volunteering with the Guild, please speak to Brendon Hunter, Grace Mudd, Marie Rosseels, or Brother Thomas Steffensen.

NEWS & NOTICES

Last week we informed the Saint Mary’s community that parishioner David Khouri had died peacefully at his home in Asbury Park, New Jersey. At 9:00 AM on Sunday, June 23, the Said Mass in the Lady Chapel will be offered for the repose of David’s soul and for the intentions of his husband, Robert Shard. All are welcome to attend the Mass.

As many members of the parish community know, our fellow parishioner, Leroy Sharer, has been ill in recent weeks. He has been undergoing testing and receiving care at New York-Presbyterian Hospital on 68th Street and at the New York-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital on William Street. On Thursday, he was back on 68th Street but expects to move on Friday to a care facility on the West Side. He is receiving good care. He has been visited by the parish’s priests, members of the parish, and some of his close friends. We will provide updates as we learn more about his condition and care. Please keep Leroy in your prayers.

Canon Alissa Newton, the Canon to the Ordinary for the Diocese of New York, was with us last Sunday. She was very busy. She preached at both Masses, taught the class at 9:45 AM and then made a related but different presentation at the end of Coffee Hour. We are very grateful to her for all that she did and especially for her encouragement, counsel, and advice.

Not so much a correction as an illustration . . . in his article in last week’s newsletter, Father Smith mentioned a motif on the chasuble of the parish’s set of vestments worn on Marian holy days—a Lily Crucifixion—that is, an image of a lily which is joined in some way with an image of a cross in order to link the Annunciation with Crucifixion, Incarnation and Atonement, to highlight the continuous flow of God’s saving action in the world. This week, we’ve received inquiries from those who cannot recall seeing the image on the chasuble. In the photo below, we see Father Matt wearing the chasuble. The orphrey is dense with symbols: stars, crosses, a rose at the bottom, a crown in the middle, and the Lily Crucifixion at chest level. It is true that the lily here is highly stylized, but it is in fact a lily from which emerges a cross. At the top, the letters A-M-R appear, which we think stand for “Ave, Maria, Regina”, “Hail, Mary, Queen.” — JRS

June is Pride Month . . . The New York City Pride March will take place on Sunday, June 30. Pre-March Reception: 1:00 PM at the Church of the Transfiguration, 1 East 29th Street between Fifth and Madison Avenues . . . Pride March—Information TBA as to where and when the diocesan group will be lining up and when the march will begin . . . There will be a Pride Evensong at the Church of Saint Luke in the Fields on Sunday, June 23, at 4:00 PM, 487 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014 . . . Parishioner Don Wright is in the process of gathering information about Pride Events. He’s available to discuss participation in some of the Pride events with those who are interested.

Away from Saint Mary’s . . . Monday, July 1, 10:00 AM, Celebrating the Life & Ministry of the Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray, the Rt. Rev. Carlye J. Hughes, preacher, Saint Thomas Episcopal Church, 1405 Bushwick Avenue, Brooklyn, New York 11207 . . . Wings of Heaven: Trinity, Morgan Dix, and the Art of Ecclesiastical Embroidery, June 2–July 2, 2024, Trinity Wall Street and Marianna Klaiman, curators.

Father Matt Jacobson will be away from the parish between the evening of Sunday, June 2, and Monday, July 8.

ABOUT THE MUSIC AT THE SOLEMN MASS ON SUNDAY, JUNE 16, THE FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

The organ prelude and postlude on Sunday are three of Four Spiritual Preludes by David Hurd, organist and music director at Saint Mary’s. Four Spiritual Preludes is a suite of pieces modeled broadly on chorale preludes of the baroque era. Each prelude presents a well-known spiritual melody in a unified texture and individual harmonic context. The first prelude of the set, Oh! What a beautiful City, was completed in February 2001 and was the last of the set to be composed. It states the spiritual melody above accompaniment in the left hand and pedal. The accompaniment patterns feature triplets and other groups of threes, representing the four sets of three gates referred to in the words of the spiritual. In the measure where the text cites twelve gates, the left hand responds by playing four triplet patterns: twelve notes for the twelve gates. This prelude may seem to have a busy urban flavor with impressions of start-and-stop traffic, and more than a few taxi horns. Go down, Moses is structured over the gradual chromatic descent of the pedal voice for the equivalent of more than two octaves. The spiritual melody is in the uppermost voice, and two additional accompanying voices converse with one another to provide a fluid if not anguished harmonization. The third prelude, Were you there, dates from 1994 and was the first of the preludes to be composed. (It will not be played.) Deep River, the postlude on Sunday, finishes the set. The melody of its chorus is largely supported by augmented triads and thirds in triplet figures. In the verse, the melody is superimposed over chords in triplet patterns. This suite of preludes was inspired by and is dedicated to distinguished Washington, DC-based organist and historian, Dr. Mickey Thomas Terry.

The Hymnal 1940 Companion contains the following entry under the heading “Fourth Communion Service”:

The various portions of this service are plainsongs which have long been associated the Feasts of the B.V.M. The present adaptation to the American liturgy was made by Winfred Douglas for the use of the Community of St. Mary, and published in 1915 under the title Missa Marialis.

Canon Charles Winfred Douglas (1867–1944) was a giant in the history of music in the Episcopal Church. A priest and member of the Committee which produced the 1916 edition of the Episcopal Hymnal, he was the principal editor and driving force behind The Hymnal 1940 which, for decades was the indisputable benchmark for American hymnals. Composer, author, musicologist, editor, historian, liturgiologist, theologian, linguist, poet, teacher (in no particular order) are some of the well-deserved attributions accorded him. Missa Marialis is an enduring example of Canon Douglas’s zeal for merging medieval plainsong with English Prayer Book texts. Its components under the heading “Fourth Communion Service” in The Hymnal 1940 were Kyrie (Mass IX), Gloria (Mass X), Sanctus (Mass IX), and Agnus Dei (Mass IX). Also included were Canon Douglas’s rendering of Credo I (which we customarily sing at Saint Mary’s during Lent) and the traditional Lord’s Prayer setting which is sung weekly at Saint Mary’s. All these settings, edited by Douglas, were retained in The Hymnal 1982. On Sunday, we sing Gloria, Sanctus, Benedictus, and Agnus Dei.

During the administration of Communion at the Solemn Mass, the cantor, Muir Ingliss, will sing a setting by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958) of The Call from George Herbert’s 1633 collection The Temple: Sacred Poems. Vaughan Williams’s setting of Herbert’s poem is the fourth of his Five Mystical Songs for baritone, chorus, and orchestra, all composed between 1906 and 1911 for texts by Herbert (1593–1633). The Call is the simplest of the Five Mystical Songs, having the melodic innocence of a folk song, yet the elegance of a strophic art song in which the third of the three stanzas ventures briefly away from the home key without abandoning the essential melodic shape of the previous stanzas. Herbert has built his poem as a prayer meditation on the “Way, Truth, and Life,” all characterizations of Jesus found in the Gospel according to Saint John (14:6).

More on Sunday’s Cantor: Muir Ingliss, a native New Yorker and graduate of Bard College, has been a member of the choir of Saint Mary’s since January of 2022. During the 23/24 season he has appeared as the soloist for New York City choral group C4’s concert centering around the life and works of poet Arthur Rimbaud, as well as in the title role of Don Giovanni with Amore Opera, the Lord Chancellor in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Iolanthe with Bronx Opera, and Count Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro with Opera Magnifico. His other recent operatic engagements include Marcello in La Bohème, Bob in The Old Maid and the Thief, Belcore in L’elisir d'amore, Alidoro in Cenerentola, Marco in Gianni Schicchi, Kendall Nesbitt in Lady in the Dark, and Musiklehrer/Truffaldino in Ariadne auf Naxos. Mr. Ingliss is also a frequent soloist in sacred music, having performed Handel's Messiah, Brahms’s Ein Deutches Requiem, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Faure’s Requiem, and Mozart’s Requiem.

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 Saint Mary’s is a vibrant Anglo-Catholic witness in the heart of NYC. With our identity in Christ and a preference for the poor, we are an inclusive, diverse community called to love God and each other for the life of the world.

This edition of The Angelus was written and edited by Father Jay Smith, except as noted. Father Matt Jacobson also edits the newsletter and is responsible for formatting and posting it on the parish website and distributing it via mail and e-mail, with the assistance of Christopher Howatt, parish administrator, and parish volunteer, Clint Best.