Short lead-in: Catholics (and Episicoapaliaians, and some Lutherans) use in their services something called a "mass setting," which is a group of musical selections played week after week that relate to a certain part of the liturgy (e.g. the "Glory to God" after the first hymn, the "Christ has Died" during the pre-communion talk, the "Amen" after the pre-communion talk). (Confused Protestants, think of the Gloria Patri or the Doxology.) During the meeting of the music ministry leaders at our church a couple weeks ago, we were deciding on the five mass settings for the church year: Pentecost through the beginning of Advent, Advent, Christmas through the beginning of Lent, Lent, and Easter through Pentecost. We were working on putting together the group of songs for the Pentecost-to-Advent season, and we came to the following problems, all regarding the "Alleluja" that follows the gospel:
a) Most of the "Alleluja"s have music inappropriate for Ordinary Time -- either too peppy or too somber.
b) Of those that have appropriate music for Ordinary Time, most of them do not meet a specific directive that our priest had requested (which I won't explain, if only because I can't remember the correct verbiage).
c) Of those few "Alleluja"s that have appropriate music for Ordinary Time and meet our priest's directive, we'd already scheduled all of them for different mass settings during the year.
The solution: I was commissioned (for the grand fee of $0.00) to write an "Alleluja" that meets requirements (a) and (b). And thus I have. (The bottom of page two is what satisfies requirement (b); I'll explain upon request.) Please feel free to use it at your leisure, as long as you tell me first.
i sincerely do not know what you are doing here. are you lost? were you
looking for your delicate calico cat, and did you follow her up two flights of stairs
to this room? she is not here. she was here, yes. we gave her a warm bowl of milk, we talked with her about campaign finance reform for a time, and then she bid us good day. i believe she was
going to the post office two blocks down, but i don't quite recall.
for surely you did
not find your way from prinsiana, the least traveled site on
the internet. if you did, though, perhaps you are looking for humor. perhaps you are looking for profundity. perhaps you are looking for answers.
i'm sorry, but you shall go naught-for-three.
