Lent in general: “Jesus Walked This Lonesome Valley” and Proulx’s Lenten acclamation “Glory to You, O Word of God…” (I play the descant the last time through and it makes is sound so beautiful. I love Proulx’s liturgical music.)
Holy Thursday: “Let us Break Bread Together” and “Tantum Ergo” (the “St. Thomas” melody is my favorite)
For Good Friday: “O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden” and “Where you there” (I do play trumpet at this mass, but I always mute, except for the gospel acclamation, because it heralds the Gospel)
Vigil and Morning: “Großer Gott”, “At the Lamb’s High Feast”, “Alleluia, Christ is Risen” by Tony Alonzo (the choir and organist, which are usually two separate groups at my “home” parishes (as opposed to my “college” parish) will mix the contemporary and traditional versions and I play the trumpet part (Duh…) at a beautiful meditative tempo), and “Alleluia, Let Us Rejoice” by Haas, but only when the organist plays it (I usually play the refrain on trumpet).
I tend to dislike the many settings of Beethoven’s “Hymn to Joy” (with the notable exceptions of the original Symphony No. 9, and Mahler’s beefed-up orchestration), and have never been able to connect with monophonic chant, or even the low-quality keyboard accompaniments to chant (which never seem to be in the right mode, I might add…).
