Who sang/chanted the Exsultet at your vigil Mass? (Or was it skipped completely?)

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Lepanto said:
Iā€™m almost afraid to askā€¦if it was sung/chanted, was it met with applause afterwards?
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Absolutely not.

After the Vigil the organist played the organ for about 5 minutes. That was applauded. But at the abbey, chanting is common, even ordinary weekday Masses are entirely chanted (except for the intercessions). So people are used to it and donā€™t applaud.
 
The cantor (me) chanted it without accompaniment. It was the very first time I ever had to do it and I was nervous as all get-out. I prayed to God that Iā€™d do a good job. I practiced it I donā€™t know how many times to make sure my voice was proper for the chanting, that the flow of the chant was correct, that I could be understood and to be sure I was reading the notes right. (After about 20 measures or so, the notes start to look all the same.)
 
Lepanto said:
Iā€™m almost afraid to askā€¦if it was sung/chanted, was it met with applause afterwards?
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Oh, gosh, no, but I think the parish is used to chanting. Individual parishioners will usually approach you after mass to thank you, but not applause.
 
Mine was horrible. Although our music director has a beautiful voice and would have done the real Exultet beautifully, my pastor gave her a badly paraphrased and horrible renditition of the Exultet. :mad: It featured bongo drums and disjointed music. :eek::eek::eek: The paraphrase was not only horrible, it was illicit. I was grateful that I was able to at least listen to the real Exultet twice, the one from the Vatican (Latin šŸ‘) and the second from the National Shrine.
 
benedictgal said:
Mine was horrible. Although our music director has a beautiful voice and would have done the real Exultet beautifully, my pastor gave her a badly paraphrased and horrible renditition of the Exultet. :mad: It featured bongo drums and disjointed music. :eek::eek::eek: The paraphrase was not only horrible, it was illicit. I was grateful that I was able to at least listen to the real Exultet twice, the one from the Vatican (Latin šŸ‘) and the second from the National Shrine.
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The holiest night of the year, and they STILL feel like they have to ad-lib it. That is so sad. Youā€™d think that on at least ONE night theyā€™d be able to put their egos and politically-charged notions on hold and dip into the well of the rich treasury of traditional liturgy.
 
Lepanto said:
Iā€™m almost afraid to askā€¦if it was sung/chanted, was it met with applause afterwards?
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Good grief, NO. It was beautiful, but not a concert. Since our Vigil is in three languages, the pastor chose the Spanish translation because he said that the English translation was ā€œclunkyā€. It doesnā€™t translate as well into English as it does into Spanish or Italian. Itā€™s still beautiful in any language.

Br. JR, OSF šŸ™‚
 
benedictgal said:
Mine was horrible. Although our music director has a beautiful voice and would have done the real Exultet beautifully, my pastor gave her a badly paraphrased and horrible renditition of the Exultet. :mad: It featured bongo drums and disjointed music. :eek::eek::eek: The paraphrase was not only horrible, it was illicit. I was grateful that I was able to at least listen to the real Exultet twice, the one from the Vatican (Latin šŸ‘) and the second from the National Shrine.
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Iā€™m sorry, but I just canā€™t imagine the Exultet with bongo drums, in any language. I didnā€™t even know that there are more than one English translation or was this a paraphrase, literally?

Fraternally in the Risen Lord,

Br. JR, OSF šŸ™‚
 
Ours was done my our Music Director, with the Pastor doing his parts. She did a wonderful job. I have always enjoyed when she cantors because she is very reverent and you can just see she really believes what she is singing. šŸ‘
 
JReducation said:
Iā€™m sorry, but I just canā€™t imagine the Exultet with bongo drums, in any language. I didnā€™t even know that there are more than one English translation or was this a paraphrase, literally?

Fraternally in the Risen Lord,

Br. JR, OSF šŸ™‚
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I wish I could have taped it, but, it would have been too traumatic to relive. It was just awful. I checked with both the USCCB and the Archdiocese of Portland (homebase of OCP, which published this aberration) and both said that it is ilicit.

Now, I can understand legitimately using drums in missionary lands for the indigenous peoples, but, here? People were actually tapping their feet.

I almost drove off when I saw the bongo drums, but, since were one of the very few with a late starting time, it made no sense to leave. I just had to go to my happy place (Rome) during the entire time.
 
benedictgal said:
I wish I could have taped it, but, it would have been too traumatic to relive. It was just awful. I checked with both the USCCB and the Archdiocese of Portland (homebase of OCP, which published this aberration) and both said that it is ilicit.

Now, I can understand legitimately using drums in missionary lands for the indigenous peoples, but, here? People were actually tapping their feet.

I almost drove off when I saw the bongo drums, but, since were one of the very few with a late starting time, it made no sense to leave. I just had to go to my happy place (Rome) during the entire time.
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<>

In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the stone rolls back tonightā€¦

Sigh. That would have been startling.
 
One of the deacons did the Exultet a capella. It was wonderful. The Readings also had some singing parts done by a cantor. I couldnā€™t understand her though. She had no volume and too much vibrato.
 
benedictgal said:
I almost drove off when I saw the bongo drums, ā€¦
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Two observations:
  1. Yeah, this Exsultet sounds like an abomination. šŸ˜¦
  2. Havenā€™t you been complaining about this bongo-Exsultet for weeks now? Did it really take you by surprise?
 
I sang it at my parish, probably for the last time. My friend is to be ordained a deacon before next year. I have already informed him that it is his job. I used the English chant straight from the Sacramentary.
 
Lepanto said:
You can relive some of your trauma by listening to a clip of it here, BG. šŸ˜ƒ

ocp.org/compositions/1697
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The little bit that I heard did not hae bongo drums, but it sounded very strange. Even when I was in the missions in the Amazon, it was sung without instruments. The only difference was that it was sung a little faster than we do it, but itā€™s the same melody that we use, just a different tempo. But the Colorados (the name of the natives) have a tendency to put a quick tempo into everyhing they sing. It doesnā€™t sound right to them if itā€™s too slow. They claim that it does not sound reverent, because you sound lazy. But they donā€™t change the melody of the Exultet.

Fraternally in the Risen Lord,

Br. JR, OSF šŸ™‚
 
Lepanto said:
You can relive some of your trauma by listening to a clip of it here, BG. šŸ˜ƒ

ocp.org/compositions/1697
Click to expand...
Ah, OCP. So nice of them to put clips of all their pieces, like Alleluia Ch-Ch, on the web for people to mock.

And it prompted me to see if I could find the setting my church did, which was a highly awesome setting of the Roman chant for two cantors with SATB choir in ison and organum. Here it is! (Well, a 30-second mp3 when you click on ā€œlistenā€).
 
MarkThompson said:
Two observations:
  1. Yeah, this Exsultet sounds like an abomination. šŸ˜¦
  2. Havenā€™t you been complaining about this bongo-Exsultet for weeks now? Did it really take you by surprise?
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We would only have one drum. This time, we had an entire kit and it was also used to accompany the Gloria (which was a badly paraphrased bilingual version from our friends at OCP).

I told the chair of our new liturgy committee several weeks ago that this should not have been done. But, to no avail. :mad:
 
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