This is a joyful singable alleluia by Fintan O’Carroll and Christopher Walker that is widely used. At my previous parish we used a selection from one of many supplied verses that matched the verse for the week most closely.
The practice at my current practice was to sing the refrain and say the verse for that week. In an effort to get more mass parts sung through, we have been singing the verse instead. Quite often it can be fitted into the three lines pretty seamlessly, but I had had to resort to some repetition for shorter ones and a little editing for longer ones.
Since a lot of parishes use this, I was wondering if anyone had thoughts on which of the three solutions is the most practical, liturgical and pastoral – picking one of the alternate verses, saying the exact verse or adapting the verse for each week.
I have regularly used the version where you repeat some lines when they are short. I never edit the text if it is longer but just squish it in to fit with the music in that case, which indeed is sometimes a little odd. One parish I have sung at uses a chant tone for the verse but the refrain from Celtic Alleluia which works quite well too. I only use the supplied verses when they are actually the ones for the day.
Nice to hear from you Josie.
I grew up a Presbyterian, so I think everything should be metrical. If I was a little chant orientated it would solve a lot of issues I suspect. My daughter is kind enough to lead the singing for the small vigil service here in George Town, and she rightly demands things be singable. Even though the Celtic Alleluia is somewhat adaptable – you can start a long line of text early – I have excised the occasional adjective with too many syllables. I suspect I have committed worse crimes against liturgy over the years!
Thanks for your kind advice.
Geoff
I realize you originally posted this two years ago, but I thought I’d share this anyway:
The keyboard accompaniment for Gather Comprehensive, Second Edition (red book, 2004) contains chant settings for all 61 of the gospel acclamation verses in Ordinary Time, as well as a table indicating which verse corresponds to which Sunday and liturgical cycle. The translations may not be the same, but the accompaniment – which seems to have disappeared from later editions – has been helpful, as I’m not a composer.
For our Youth-Led Masses, I take the same approach to what you say you now do – I will fit the verse of the day to the Celtic Alleluia verse tune. Most of the time I can use the exact text without editing it and it works well but sometimes I will use a little bit of repetition for shorter ones and a little editing for longer ones. Sometimes, for the longer ones, this might include rejigging/reordering the phrases a little bit (especially when it comes to where “says the Lord” is positioned). Here are some examples of ones that I’ve had to edit (with Example 1 being a good example of rejigging):
Example 1 – original text:
God was in Christ, to reconcile the world to Himself; and the Good News of reconciliation He has entrusted to us.
Example 1 – edited text:
The Lord has entrusted to us / the Good News of reconciliation, / for God was in Christ / to reconcile the world to Himself.
Example 2 – original text:
Lift up your heads and see; your redemption is near at hand.
Example 2 – edited text:
Lift up your heads, / lift up your heads and see; / your redemption / is near at hand.