Chamber music/soloist
In between choral works and hymns provided by the Diocesan
Choir and Diocesan Schola, there is space for seven pieces of chamber music.
These can be instrumental or vocal soloists, or groups of instrumentalists
and/or vocalists. If you have experience performing high-quality chamber music,
we welcome you to audition for one of those seven slots.
Each individual or group will need to select a piece of
authentic sacred music related to the virtue of hope. It doesn’t necessarily
need to have the word “hope” in the title, but it should be related to one of
the following major themes:
1. Christ Led
How God’s fulfilled promises and Covenants from the past can
provide a basis for hope.
Example: the hymn ‘O God, Our Help in Ages Past’
1. O God, our help in
ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home.
A poetic rendering of Psalm 90, ‘O God, Our Help in Ages
Past’ spends the majority of its time meditating on God’s action in the past,
as well as the timelessness and consistency of God’s action. And yet, in both
the first and last verses, reference is made to God as “our hope for years to
come.” Therefore, this hymn brings out the various ways in which the
steadfastness of God’s leadership throughout the centuries and millennia serves
as a firm foundation for our hope.
2. Christ Fed
How the ways in which we are fed by God in the present,
including in the Most Holy Eucharist,
help sustain our hope.
Example: The Lord’s My Shepherd (a setting of Psalm 23)
4. My table Thou hast furnished
In presence of my foes;
My head Thou dost with oil anoint,
And my cup overflows.
Psalm 23 is such a psalm of hope, especially in the face of
hardship or tough times. There’s a reason why it is such a popular responsorial
psalm for Funeral Masses. There are also sacramental overtones, with various
poetic translations bringing out the Eucharistic imagery as well as references
to other sacraments such at Baptism (where our heads were first anointed with
oil). Therefore, the 23rd Psalm provides a wonderful little catechesis on and
reminder of the ways in which the sacramental life helps to sustain our hope
even in the midst of the tragedies of this life.
3. Hope Filled
How we can be filled with hope as we look towards the
future.
Example: Pilgrims of Hope (Official Hymn for the Jubilee
Year)
Refrain: Like a flame my hope is burning,
May my song arise to You:
Source of life that has no ending,
On life’s path I trust in You.
Focused on the path we must tread in this life, ‘Pilgrims of
Hope’ does not keep its eye affixed on the ground but looks into the future
along the pilgrim path that lies ahead of each of us, not with dread or
foreboding, but with joy, hope, and a song.
