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Source: (consider it) Thread: Eccles: Tenebrae
Mrs Toad
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My husband wants to organise tenebrae for Wednesday of Holy Week.

We understand that Tenebrae may have been suppressed but are trying to work out how to do it.

There are a number of sites with orders and rubrics for Tenebrae but they are from WELS Lutheran, Uniting (Oz) and Gnostic churches. I am looking for a Catholic version (may well be similar) and also your thoughts on Tenebrae.

So, please help me with rubrics, readings, your experiences, suggestions, stories of ‘how it all went wrong’ and how to do it better.

SS

[edited title for Limbo storage]

[ 08. May 2005, 19:42: Message edited by: Siegfried ]

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Here to-day, up and off to somewhere else to-morrow! Travel, change, interest, excitement! The whole world before you, and a horizon that's always changing!

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Cosmo
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Tenebrae is a stunning service and, I am ashamed to say, is often my favourite service in Holy Week. However it is very difficult to do well if you are trying to do a 'proper' Tenebrae.

If you do it on Wednesday evening then you sing the offices of Mattins and Lauds for Maundy Thursday. Matins has three groups of three set psalms (with their antiphons) and three set lessons (with their Responds) and each of these groups is called a 'Nocturn'. Lauds has five psalms with their antiphons and the Benedictus. After that the Our Father is said silently, then there is the Miserere and the final collect said by the celebrant.

The ceremonies are as follows:
A 'hearse' is used which consists of a pole supporting a triangle on which there are fifteen candles. At the beginning of Tenebrae all the candles are alight but after each psalm one candle is snuffed out. During the Benedictus, the six altar candles and the few lights in church are put out one by one and the last candle is removed from the hearse and hidden behind the altar. The Miserere is sung in darkness and the Celebrant says the collect. There is then a loud crash (symbolic of the earthquake at the death of Christ) and some places throw thirty pieces of silver down the altar steps. The lighted candle is then brought out from behind the altar and shown to the people (symbolising the unconquered soul of Christ etc) and the people then leave in absolute silence.

Wonderful isn't it?

I would say though that to do Tenebrae well takes a lot of effort and some good singers. There are harmony settings of the Tenebrae responseries as well as the plainsong settings. But Tenebrae must be sung. To try to do it by saying the words makes it incredibly boring and difficult. Also Tenebrae is one of the increasingly rare opportunities for the congregation to sit and have to do nothing except meditate and pray.

If you and your husband haven't seen a full Tenebrae before then I suggest you might want to put it on hold this year and go and a Tenebrae service and see how it is done. The two places I would suggest (and which have it on Spy Wednesday) are All Saints Margaret St and St Paul's Covent Garden.

Good luck.

Cosmo

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Degs

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saecula saeculorum you might find this useful.

It's the order for Tenebrae from the ECUSA Book of Occasional Services.

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The preest when he hath sayd and red all: he gyueth the benedyccion upon all those that be there present and then he doth tourne hym from the people retournynge thyther from whens he came.

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Anna B
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Cosmo, I must take issue with your comment that Tenebrae must be sung. I used to belong to a parish here in Connecticut which did a spoken service quite well. If I remember correctly, the congregation participated in reciting the antiphons. We drew a modest crowd.

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Bad Christian (TM)

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Nunc Dimittis
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I am with Cosmo on this. You really have to experience Tenebrae before trying to do it yourself...

This year I am scooting down to Melbourne after singing the morning service at my own parish: the Choir of St Peter's Eastern Hill are singing Tenebrae which will include three settings I wrote. I am sure they will do a stunning job!

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Mrs Toad
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Thank you very much for your responses.

Thank you for your enthusiastic reply, Cosmo. I haven't experienced it before but my husband has. He is still keen to go ahead but I will find out more from him tonight. I will let you know his plans. If it goes pear-shaped then maybe we will be at Margeret Street.

Degs, thank you for the link, I didn't find that while I was scouring the 'net.

I hope that S. Peter's Eastern Hill does your music justice, Nunc Dimittis. My Husband used to go there but is now firmly rooted in London.

This is really exciting, my vey first thread, and I will soon be a shipmate [Big Grin] .

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Here to-day, up and off to somewhere else to-morrow! Travel, change, interest, excitement! The whole world before you, and a horizon that's always changing!

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welsh dragon

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Hmmm. I wouldn't mind seeing that if it's happening in Oxford. I guess St. Mary Mags is the best bet; anyone got any firmer info?
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Archimandrite
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I say! What larks. Indeed - let us look out for it in Oxford.

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"Loyal Anglican" (Warning: General Synod may differ).

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jugular
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One of the best tenebrae services I've been to was done outdoors in a garden. Just as a general note, though, make sure you print in the order of service that there will be a loud bang. The reason I say this, is that a loud bang followed by "Shit, what was that?" is not conducive to worship.

And yes, that is based on experience. [Roll Eyes]

By the way, if you are saying the service, you can always abbreviate the wordiness of it all. Its really the symbolism that is powerful.

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We’ve got to act like a church that hasn’t already internalized the narrative of its own decline Ray Suarez

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multipara
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We at St Frank's have had Tenebrae on the Tuesday of Holy Week for some years now. It accompanies a 2nd Rite of reconciliation ( a compromise between the individual penitential rite and the General Absolution or Third Rite). There is congregational participation in prayers and hymnody, with a (visiting) choir singing appropriate music. Last year they sang Robert White's Lamentations of Jeremiah. The "thunder" was provided by the congregation drumming their heels hard on the floor after the Passion Gospel reading.

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quod scripsi, scripsi

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Degs

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quote:
Originally posted by jugular:
By the way, if you are saying the service, you can always abbreviate the wordiness of it all. Its really the symbolism that is powerful.

Why would you want to abbreviate it?

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The preest when he hath sayd and red all: he gyueth the benedyccion upon all those that be there present and then he doth tourne hym from the people retournynge thyther from whens he came.

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DitzySpike
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When Tenebrae was sung in the middle ages, I am sure the monks knew the nocturn Psalms by heart and when all the lights went off towards the end, the service of Lauds would be very familiar to them, being repeated daily.

Likewise the plainsong of the Psalms and the Responsaries.

I am afraid we do not share the same familiarity.

Skip the traditional responsaries. Repeated Taize or Iona chants work better. The Psalms should be abbreviated and certainly in large print. Minimal lighting is appropriate to the ritual. Have extended periods of silence between each nocturn and do something really dramatic right at the end. Maybe overturning the stand where you place the hearse.

And the Lamentations of Jeremiah must be chanted :-)

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Mrs Toad
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Yes, we are looking at the problems of requiring darkness and lots of words.

Security in a darkened church might be a problem, too; we’re in a rather volatile inner-city parish.

Jugular, you are soooo right. We don’t want any old ladies losing control of their faculties (another consequence of experience I am told).

We’re not willing to abbreviate any of the words. I guess that we have a lot of learning to do before then.

I’m quite looking forward to the noisy bit. Does anyone else have suggestions for the sound?

Almost a shipmate [Smile]

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Here to-day, up and off to somewhere else to-morrow! Travel, change, interest, excitement! The whole world before you, and a horizon that's always changing!

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welsh dragon

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Congrats saecula saeculorum, on 50 posts!
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Sacristan
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I recall making the "noise" two different ways. One was the rector banging on the side of his prie dieu with a piece of 2x4. That was the "bang" effect (danger, see above, although that never happened in our parish). The second method was the rector starting the noise by tapping on his stall seat with the fingers and the palm of his hand. To this was added gradually, but quickly, the tapping of a few and then more and more acolytes and choir members, with an ever-growing loudness, until all were banging at their stalls with their hands for a continuous incremental sound. It was never very loud, but very surreal.

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More abomination, more abomination

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DitzySpike
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Another important consideration would be the number of participants.
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multipara
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Here in Sydney many moons ago (1950s) the seminarians of St Patrick's College used sing the Tenebrae chants in St Mary's Cathedral. I am told that they simulated the thunder by striking their psalters three times on the stalls.

If a competent choir is available, the polyphonic settings of the Lamentations are wonderful, as are various settings of the Lessons of Tenebrae.

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quod scripsi, scripsi

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sakura
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Chorister from St Peter's Eastern Hill logging in to say that Nunc's Tenebrae responses are fantastic and that we are working hard to do them justice. Wish you could all hear the Sepulto Domino. It is spin chilling.

By the time of the Miserere when all the lights go out we choristers use hand held torches covered in blue cellophane to read our music by. it means that the congregation is in pitch darkness. very moving and effective but requiring a degree of coordination which not all choristers possess!

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Keep me as the apple of Your eye.
Hide me under the shadow of Your wings.

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multipara
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Lucky you... Nunc came and sang with us on Ash Wednesday evening for Imposition and Mass , and she mentioned the responsories then. Our next aim is to get Madame la Directrice to add them to the repertoire of St Frank's choir (aka the Paddington Cacophonic Society).

meanwhile, the run-up to Holy Week has started and nary a sign of the DTs....

cheers,

m

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Mrs Toad
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Thank you, everyone for your replies. Tenebrae has been cancelled for us now due to 'too many other things happening'. I might make it to Margaret Street.

We are looking forward to doing it next year, it really sounds like a beautiful liturgy.

I hope everyone who wants to get to Tenebrae can make it.

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welsh dragon

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I would like to go to a Tenebrae service in and arounD Oxford, if one is happening.

Does anyone have any details of a service?

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Chorister

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Don't know about Oxford, but acc to Church Times there are services of Tenebrae at St. Paul's Covent Garden, Bedford St, WC2 (Wed 16 Apr. 7.30pm,) with Allegri Miserere.
Also St. Mary's Cable Street, Good Friday, 7.30pm, responses by Victoria.

(set me thinking about vocab. for those in the know, and wondered whether anyone would turn up to hear how Victoria sings the responses and whether she is a stunner!)

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Retired, sitting back and watching others for a change.

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daisymay

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We had tenebrae last year for the first (and probably only) time. We had a Canadian locum vicar with a beautiful voice. Everyone who was there was deeply spiritually and sensationally moved.

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London
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basso

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We've traditionally done Tenebrae on Good Friday evening.

We did abbreviate it -- we didn't chant all 9 psalms (usually one or two per nocturn). Sometimes some of the responsories were spoken rather than sung.
We sang Lassus settings of several responsories.

This year, alas, we're not doing Tenebrae at all. The rector and music director have designed a "Meditation on the Passion" instead. I'll sing of course but I'd rather be doing a liturgy.

basso (who would really like to get a look at Nunc's settings)

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multipara
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Tenebrae is happening at St Frank's ( along with a 2nd Rite of reconciliation)this Tuesday at 7 pm.

A visiting choir will be singing motets by Josquin during the absolution-which means that this chorister can be part of the crowd for a change.

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quod scripsi, scripsi

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Nunc Dimittis
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If I am not having an organ lesson at that time, multipara, look for me. I'd really like to come...

Fancy a lime juice and mineral water over the way afterwards?

And thanks sakura for your kind words [Big Grin] - I am sure you will do a stirling job and am very much looking forward to hearing the settings! Especially Sepulto Domino...

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Stephen
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I think we're having a form of Tenebrae on Good Friday.I seem to remember Nancy Winningham describe such a service in the Lutheran Church.Isn't the Bible slammed shut with the words 'It is finished' at the end?

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Best Wishes
Stephen

'Be still,then, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the nations and I will be exalted in the earth' Ps46 v10

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multipara
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Nunc, I'll be looking out for you....and yes, a quick snort at the Light Brigade would be just the thing.

cheers,

m

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quod scripsi, scripsi

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LatinMan
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quote:
I seem to remember Nancy Winningham describe such a service in the Lutheran Church.Isn't the Bible slammed shut with the words 'It is finished' at the end?

About twenty years ago I attended a Tenebrae service celebrated one Good Friday in a Missouri-Synod Lutheran Church. I still have a copy of the Order of Service.

[Rummages around library/bedroom for Lutheran Hymnal and Order of Service.]

Ah yes, here it is. It was twenty-six years ago.

There was no organ prelude, and the pastor and an acolyte were vested only in black cassocks. (I don't recall if the pastor wore a stole.) The six altar candles were lit (as usual), and a "Christ Candle", a plain white candle stands in the sanctuary (used only on this occasion). IIRC, the pastor celebrated from the center of the altar.

The Invocation & Prayer

Confession of Sins: (Recited by all.) I confess to God Almighty, before the whole company of heaven, and to you, my bretheren, that I have sinned exceedingly in thought, word, and deed by my fault, by my own fault, by my own most grievous fault; wherefore I pray God almighty to have mercy on me, forgive me all my sins, and bring me to everlasting life. Amen.

Absolution: (Given by pastor.) God has promised forgiveness of sins to those who repent and turn to Him. May He keep you in His grace by the Holy Spirit, lead you to greater faith and obedience, and bring you to live with Him forever, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Hymn: "O Sacred Head, Now Wounded", Hymn 172, verses 1, 2, 8, 10 (All numbered hymns from The Lutheran Hymnal (1941))

Psalm 22, taken from Psalms for Modern Man

Anthem: "Drawn to the Cross" - Gerhard Schroth

The Sermon: "TRULY, THIS WAS THE SON OF GOD", on Matt. 27:54 Delivered from pulpit. I recall nothing of the sermon.

The Offering (Collection)

Anthem: "Behold the Savior of Mankind" - Chris. Tye

THE OFFICE OF TENEBRAE -at this point the acolyte extinguished the six altar candles after a Scripture reading, a versicle and response, and a hymn.

1) Scripture- John 18:1-14
Pastor: Christ became obedient unto death:
Congregation: Even the death of the cross.
The first candle is extinguished.
"A Lamb Goes Uncomplaining Forth", Hymn 142, verse 1

2) Scripture- John 18:15-27
Pastor: Christ became obedient unto death:
Congregation: Even the death of the cross.
The second candle is extinguished.
Jesus! and Shall It Ever Be", Hymn 346, verses 1, 3, 4

3) Scripture- John 18:28-40
Pastor: Christ became obedient unto death:
Congregation: Even the death of the cross.
The third candle is extinguished.
"O Dearest Jesus, What Law Hast Thou Broken", Hymn 143, verse 1

4) Scripture- John 19:1-16
Pastor: Christ became obedient unto death:
Congregation: Even the death of the cross.
The fourth candle is extinguished.
"O Dearest Jesus, What Law Hast Thou Broken", Hymn 143, verses 2-3

5) Scripture- John 19:17-30
Pastor: Christ became obedient unto death:
Congregation: Even the death of the cross.
The fifth candle is extinguished.
Choir: "Lamb of God, Pure and Holy" - Rotermund

6) Scripture- John 19:31-42
Pastor: Christ became obedient unto death:
Congregation: Even the death of the cross.
The sixth candle is extinguished.
"O Darkest Woe", Hymn 167, verses 1-4

The Lord's Prayer-whispered by congregation.

The Exit of the Christ Candle-the acolyte removes the Christ Candle to the sacristy. The church is now darkened except for some walkway lights in the side aisles and the back of the church.

The Closing of the Bible-slammed shut by the pastor, standing at the altar.

Organ Meditation- "The Crucifixion", a tone poem by Marcel Dupre.

The Return of the Christ Candle-the acolyte brings the Christ Candle back into the sanctuary.

The Benediction-The blessing is given by the pastor, and the Christ Candle is carried out as the pastor and acolyte recess. The congregation departs in silence.

The effect of this service was profoundly moving, especially watching the congregation leave in near silence.

I get the idea that the outline of this service was probably circulated as a resource, probably with suggested texts, Scripture readings, and music selections, which individual congregations used and adapted at their discretion. (The Lutheran Hymnal (1941) does not have specific services for the Sacred Triduum, althoug it does have the "Bidding Prayer" from the BCP, "by ancient usage...specially appointed for good Friday".)

Of particular interest to me was the Confession of Sins, which is patently an adaptation of the Confiteor of the Tridentine Mass.

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* * * + * * *
_ _ _ [o]_ _ _

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Mrs Toad
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Thank you, latinMan for your description. I'm going to keep this thread for future reference.

I am definitely going to go to Margaret Street. Is anyone else going to be there? I tend to feel like a bit of a tourist when I go for an extraordinary liturgy [Embarrassed] (despite the fact that I attended weekly for about four months).

Also, any idea what time it is? I can pop down to check but you'd save me the bother. Thank you.

I'm looking forward to this. [Smile]

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Here to-day, up and off to somewhere else to-morrow! Travel, change, interest, excitement! The whole world before you, and a horizon that's always changing!

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Stephen
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Thank you LatinMan,for that reply - it was very interesting - and also Fr.Degs for posting the ECUSA link.I don't know what form exactly our service will take but I gather there will be 15 candles involved..... [Roll Eyes]
Looking forward to it actually - it sounds quite dramatic.

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Best Wishes
Stephen

'Be still,then, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the nations and I will be exalted in the earth' Ps46 v10

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Cosmo
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Stephen, if you look at my post above it gives a fairly good description of what tenebrae consists of, including why go have fifteen candles. None of that Lutheran stuff. Just plain, honest tenebrae.

SS, I believe that Tenebrae is sung at All Saints Margaret St at 7.30pm, the same time as at St Paul's Covent Garden. Both are good. The Covent Garden one is just plainsong until the Miserere which is Allegri's. The Margaret St one has more polyphony (the Responds for example) and, I think, a better setting as there is slightly less outside noise.

Cosmo

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Stephen
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Thanks,Fr.Cosmo.....I wasn't sure whether we're having the traditional form or an alternative one.Find out soon enough,I suppose!

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Best Wishes
Stephen

'Be still,then, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the nations and I will be exalted in the earth' Ps46 v10

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ken
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I have a leaflet I picked up from Margaret St. just now.

quote:

Wednesday 16 April. 7.30pm Tenebrae for Maundy Thursday. A service of psalms and scripture readings with music by Viadana, Victoria, Anerio ands Lassus sung by the Choir of All Saints

[fixed code]

[ 14. April 2003, 20:22: Message edited by: jlg ]

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Ken

L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle.

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Mrs Toad
Shipmate
# 2883

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Thank you very much.

SS

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Here to-day, up and off to somewhere else to-morrow! Travel, change, interest, excitement! The whole world before you, and a horizon that's always changing!

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Sine Nomine*

Ship's backstabbing bastard
# 3631

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I'm trying to decide where to "do" Tenebrae tonight. Our Methodist neighbors are coming to us tonight and the psalms will be spoken, which is kind of yucky. Plus our music director told me he's on call to play the hymns. Hymns?? The whole thing sounds a bit dicey.

But even the cathedral may not be safe. I've heard rumors of liturgical dance over there.

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ken
Ship's Roundhead
# 2460

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A few minutes left in the office to decide whether or not to go straight home & spend the evening with my best beloved young daughter, or go to the service at Margaret Street & leave her to her own devices.

Does it make a difference that she is even now round at the Baptist minister's house discussing church membership?

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Ken

L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle.

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Cosmo
Shipmate
# 117

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Off to Margaret St with you.

Cosmo

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Siegfried
Ship's ferret
# 29

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Geneva Gown ON
Just a reminder...

We are saving seasonal threads like this in Limbo during the off-season, so they can be dusted off and used the next year.

Geneva Gown OFF

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Siegfried
Life is just a bowl of cherries!

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HoosierNan
Shipmate
# 91

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Thanks, Latinman. I am taking my sons to Tenebrae on Good Friday. It will be similar to what you described.

The loud noise is usually a book slammed shut, or a book dropped. The book is usually the one from which the readings have been done.

The Christ candle is taken away and then returned, to remind us that the Savior came back to us. Much silence is kept, especially at the end. It is best if people leave the building silently after the service.

Very moving.

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Elizabeth Anne

Altar Girl
# 3555

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I went to a Tenebrae at St. Tom's Fifth Ave. this afternoon. It was so wonderful, especially when all the lights were dimmed to darkness and the only light present was whatever filtered in from the stained glass windows high above...

...until the loud noise. Let's just say it sounded as if a few of the choir boys had accidentally sat on the organ: some jarring, horrrible chord. Why oh why did they use that as the loud noise?

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Born under a bad sign with a blue moon in my eyes...

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jugular
Voice of Treason
# 4174

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Don't you people know that you use garbage bin lids?

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We’ve got to act like a church that hasn’t already internalized the narrative of its own decline Ray Suarez

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dyfrig
Blue Scarfed Menace
# 15

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As it appears nowhere in the BCP, CW or in any other book commended by the House of Bishops, can someone clarify how having Tenebrae sits with reference to canon law and legally permitted services?

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"He was wrong in the long run, but then, who isn't?" - Tony Judt

Posts: 6917 | From: pob dydd Iau, am hanner dydd | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
diapason
Apprentice
# 4230

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We've done a shortened Tenebrae a couple of times with the Couperin 'Lecons de Tenebres' (sorry for the lack of cedilla). We arranged the loud noise by asking everyone via the order of service to hit the chair/pew in front with their hymn book, with the choir being given a cue and pre-warned to give it laldy. Remarkable effect!

We also don't have a 'hearse', but arranged 14 of the candles in crucifix formation up the staps towards the high altar.

This thread makes me sorry I didn't organise one this year...

I got our order (with plainchant) from RSCM, who have apparently sold their stocks of traditional plainchant publications to an American company (see http://www.beaufort.demon.co.uk/books.htm)

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Degs

Friend of dorothy
# 2824

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quote:
Originally posted by Dyfrig:
As it appears nowhere in the BCP, CW or in any other book commended by the House of Bishops, can someone clarify how having Tenebrae sits with reference to canon law and legally permitted services?

Try Canon B5:

2. The minister having the cure of souls may on occasions for which no provision is made in the BCP or by the General Synod under Canon B2 or by the Convocations, archbishops, or Ordinary under Canon B4 use forms of service considered suitable by him for those occasions and may permit another minister to use the said forms of service.

3. All variations in forms of service and all forms of service used under this Canon shall be reverent and seemly and shall be neither contrary to, nor indicative of any departure from, the doctrine of the CofE in any essential matter.

I think Tenebrae fits the bill!!

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The preest when he hath sayd and red all: he gyueth the benedyccion upon all those that be there present and then he doth tourne hym from the people retournynge thyther from whens he came.

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Sine Nomine*

Ship's backstabbing bastard
# 3631

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So I went to Tenebrae at my own church last night. We had our Methodist friends with us, and in their honor we replaced some of the psalms with hymns because, as the order of service informed us, that is in the Methodist tradition of Tenebrae. Other psalms were replaced with contemporary poems, which puzzled me since I had foolishly thought the psalms themselves were poetry. Oh well. Whatever. Anything for a quiet life.

Then we stand up to sing "O sacred head" which is printed in the Order of Service and due to a printing screw up, the second half of all the verses were missing, and they hadn't given out hymnals. Sine, of course, doesn't leave home without his hymnal, so he got to do solos on the second half of all the verses.

The piece de resistance, however, was the acolyte going brain dead at the end and extinguishing the last candle instead of removing it. So the clergy marches out. Most of the congo follows, while a few of us stand around muttering under our breath. As I said to our rector on the way out "Oops! Guess there's no resurrection this year."

But still better than the cathedral, where I am given to understand each psalm was "interpreted" by liturgical dancers.

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Nunc Dimittis
Seamstress of Sound
# 848

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I am off to Tenebrae tonight in Melbourne at St Peters... Wish them (and me) all the best; I always feel nervous at premieres...
Posts: 9515 | From: Delta Quadrant | Registered: Jul 2001  |  IP: Logged
Mrs Toad
Shipmate
# 2883

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I hpe everything went well, Nunc.

Well, I got to Margaret Street. The music was beautiful (of course), absolutely everything was sung including the readings. We had some Victoria, Lassus, Ingegneri, Viadana, Anerio and the rest of the responds were Faburduns.

The hearse had fifteen holders for candles but only eleven were used. Two candles were extinguished at each Psalm. This doesn't sound right to me, maybe they ran out of candles (in that place, yeah right).

Lights
I was a bit disappointed that the main lights in the church, though dimmed, remained on until the benedictus. I think it was because we had sheets with all the words on and might have wanted to read them.

The choir went to the back of the church before the Benedictus so there was a little light from there but that was all apart from the six tall candles on the high alter. I thought that some fool had forgotten to extinguish them before the liturgy began, but during the Benedictus they were slowly extinguished one-by-one until there was just the one candle burning.

Candle
I got a big scare when the candle was hidden under the alter. The server lifted the corner of the frontal and assorted other cloths and slipped the naked flame through the gap. I was waiting for the altar to become a ball of fire.

The Miserere (Victoria) was sung in complete darkness.

Loud noise
The earthquake sounded like someone’s fist on a wooden board. It gave me such a shock, even after chanting in my head “I know it’s going to be now, here it comes, right now, here it is, now…” I think there’s a sermon in that.

At the end there was a pause with just the one candle and whatever light the street lamps spared for us (I liked to think it was the moon – more romantic), then snap, many lights near the door came on to illuminate the bearers of collection plates as we had been handed sheets saying

quote:
“The Vicar and Churchwardens invite generous offerings at the retiring collection this evening. The expense incurred at this additional Holy Week service is considerable but we nevertheless hope to maintain the tradition we have revived.”
I was accosted on my way out so I paid up. It makes sense with such an expensive choir but it did spoil the effect a bit.

I enjoyed the liturgy and will definitely try to go again. Thank you for persuading me to go.

Ken, did you make it?

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Here to-day, up and off to somewhere else to-morrow! Travel, change, interest, excitement! The whole world before you, and a horizon that's always changing!

Posts: 136 | From: London | Registered: May 2002  |  IP: Logged
Hooker's Trick

Admin Emeritus and Guardian of the Gin
# 89

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The Tricks dutifully wandered down to St Paul's K Street to sample this Lenten offering.

Plain chant singing of psalms and reading sung to a very dull tone by the rector who looked as if he had broken his Lenten fast a bit early and hit the gin in the sacristy (he was extremely red-faced). By the way, what ought the clergy wear at Tenebrae? I suppose I expected that he would wear a scarf as for the Offices, but in fact he made do with cassock and cotta.

The verdict is that it was so boring I could poke my eyes out with a crucifix, and La Trick suggested that we sneak out the aisle door.

We decide that we are of insufficiently exalted churchmanship to appreciate having St Augustine's wise words chaunted to us by candlelight, and are much better off sticking with the Daily Offices.

Posts: 6735 | From: Gin Lane | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Stephen
Shipmate
# 40

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Well it wasn't the traditional Tenebrae,but I felt it was nonetheless effective.It was a bit like alt.worship in parts - Edward Green would have liked it(!) methinks - with candles of all shapes and sizes on the altar.There weren't all that amny of us - about 20 of us in the St.Anne Chapel but it is new to us.
The service consisted of hymns,readings (mainly Biblical altho' there was one by RS Thomas ) and psalms.The candles were put out 2 at a time apart from the one.The last reading was an excerpt from the Easter sermon of St.John Chrysostom after which the big Bible on the altar was slammed soundly shut and slammed equally as loudly on to the altar.
There are no prizes for guessing who was delegated that particular duty.....

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Best Wishes
Stephen

'Be still,then, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the nations and I will be exalted in the earth' Ps46 v10

Posts: 3954 | From: Alto C Clef Country | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged



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