King Charles III was crowned on 6th May 2023 in Westminster Abbey. As with the Queen’s platinum jubilee, and later with her funeral, the Bishops had asked us to pray for the king and had sent out a set of prayers. They had also asked that a Mass be celebrated for him on the Friday. Bearing this in mind, I wondered if the occasion would have any effect on the choice of music for the weekend Masses. It had for the jubilee and the Queen’s funeral as well as the weekend she died.
It was the 5th Sunday of Easter Year A so this obviously would have a bearing on the music choices.
And what did we sing?
- Sung on 6 occasions – Christ is made the sure foundation; This is my body
- Sung on 5 occasions – Christ be our light; Father I place into your hands; Hail Queen of heaven; National Anthem
- Sung on 3 occasions – Be not afraid; Bring flowers of the rarest; Do not be afraid; The church’s one foundation
Christ is made the sure foundation was a good choice for this Sunday as it made reference to the 2nd reading from 1 Peter. It served a dual purpose on this particular day, however, as it was also one of the hymns chosen for the coronation.
The National Anthem did feature but not as much as I possible expected. It was more prominent for the Queen’s jubilee.
What was really obvious, though, was the number of places who felt the need to sing a hymn to Our Lady during Mass. Fortunately, most of them were kept until the end.
And what about the rest of England?
- Sung on 16 occasions – National Anthem
- Sung on 10 occasions – This is my body
- Sung on 7 occasions – Christ be our light
- Sung on 5 occasions – As the deer pants
- Sung on 4 occasions – Do not be afraid; Father I place into your hands; Nada te turbe
- Sung on 3 occasions – Bring flowers of the rarest; Here I am Lord; In bread we bring you; Jerusalem; Praise my soul; Soul of my saviour; Thine be the glory
I think this this is really reflective of all the music sung around the country. On the one hand you have the music pertaining to the coronation in the National Anthem, Jerusalem and possibly Praise my soul which was also sung at the service. Then we have the hymns that are there because it is Eastertide like Thine be the glory and This is my body which looks towards Ascension. And, of course, we have the Marian hymns because it is May.
‘Offertory hymns’ seem to be the norm in many places though there is no requirement for a hymn at this point in the Mass to mention the offerings. In fact, the preparation of the gifts is a good place to have a hymn that really picks up on what has been heard in the Liturgy of the Word, even more so if it can reflect on what was said during the homily.
But there was one piece of music sung this week that really took me by surprise. You may remember that, in addition to prayers for the occasion of the Queen’s jubilee, the bishops suggested singing the prayer for the Queen ‘Domine, salvam fac’. I wrote about this here. This time the chant was not included in the bishops’ message but it was sung by three places that I looked at, obviously reverting to ‘Domine, salvum fac’ because we now have a king. In each case, however, it was sung by a choir rather than the congregation as a whole.
Music, Liturgy and ME 