The Recovering Choir Director

Earlier today, Richard Rice released six Offertory settings on the MusicaSacra Forum:

Not exactly new, just the latest sifting through the archives, which gave me a chance to rework these ten year old English Offertory settings. They are all SATB a cappella, strictly common practice, in the Tudor English Anthem vein (to the best of my ability). English texts come from the Grail Psalter mostly, and include one verse each, with repeated respond. The collection includes the four Sundays of Advent and the Christmas Vigil and Midnight Masses (an odd point at which, apparently, I gave up). Some of the texts would be useful for seasonal motets, and the Ave Maria for 4th Advent might be useful generally. MIDI recordings are available on my web site.

Here is the PDF.

These settings are noteworthy because their texts are from the Mass — specifically, they are translations of the texts of the Offertory Antiphons as found in the 1974 Graduale Romanum for the Ordinary Form of the Mass.

Each one is well-crafted and moving, and will stretch the abilities of some Catholic church choirs. Other Catholic church choirs will require a severe upgrade in commitment and focus in order to do these compositions justice. In any case, to have a choir learn one or more (or all) of these for Advent and Christmas would truly do justice to the Scriptural term “sacrifice of praise”. I look forward to hearing the first recordings of these posted on the Internet.