Kindling the New Fire
St. Paul's Episcopal Church (K Street)—Washington, D.C.
April 15, 2006
First Lesson: Genesis 1:1—2:2
Psalm 33:8—11, Anglican chant by Edwin G. Monk
Second Lesson: Genesis 22:1—18
Psalm 33:13—14, 20—21, Anglican chant by Edward Elgar
Third Lesson: Exodus 14:10—15:1
Canticle: Cantemus Domino, Tone VIII, with verses in falsobordone by Francis Burgess
Fourth Lesson: Isaiah 55:1—11
Psalm 43:2—3, 6—7, Anglican chant by H. Walford Davies
Fifth Lesson: Ezekiel 37:1-14
Psalm 30:1, 3, 12—13, Anglican chant by Michael Nicholas
Anthem: Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Sicut cervus
Antiphon: Asperges me, Domine, hyssopo, Mode VII
Mass setting: Healey Willan, Missa de Sancta Maria Magdalena
Psalm 114, Tonus Peregrinus, sung congregationally
Easter Acclamations: Joseph Noyon, arr. Gerre Hancock
Offertory Motet: attrib. Josquin Desprèz, Regina coeli
Offertory Hymn: Unser Herrscher
Communion Motet: Andrea Gabrieli, Maria Magdalena et altera Maria
Ablutions Hymn: Ellacombe
Recessional Hymn: St. Albinus
Voluntary: William Boyce, arr. Chuck Seipp, Trumpet Voluntary in B-flat
Wow, we just made it through the Easter Vigil at St. Paul's K Street. It was just six minutes shy of three hours!
The church was packed! How many Vigils have I sung in the past where there were more people in the altar party and choir than in the congregation? I showed up half an hour before the service thinking I'd be able to snap a few photos and stake out a good place to sit so I could both see the choir and be accessible for my friend John who was driving down from Baltimore as soon as he finished playing services at his parish up there, but when I walked into the church, the nave was already full and practically all of the seats were either occupied or being reserved. Ultimately, they would have to set up several rows of folding chairs in the narthex.
When the service started at 9 p.m., the first thing they did was kindle the New Fire of Easter. Now, most churches do this by using a cigarette lighter to light a candle lighter with which to light the Pascal Candle; not so at St. Paul's! They used a sparker and kindled a bonfire back in the narthex! That's a picture of it up at the top of this post. Once the flames died down a little bit, they used coals from the fire to light the charcoal in the incense thurible and then lit candles from the flames of the bonfire.
The new curate served as deacon and chanted the Exultet and the Gospel. It occurred to me that they don't seem to teach chanting to divinity students at Yale.
The whole first hour and a half of the service (the lessons and the baptisms) was done essentially in darkness. The congregation had candles to use during parts of the service, but we sat for the lessons, psalms, and collects in darkness. Finally, at the Gloria, they turned the lights on!
Speaking of the Gloria, they had parishioners bring bells to ring during the Gloria. It was weird.
Oh, during the lessons, I was absolutely appalled when one of the readers went up to the lectern wearing this great big, round, straw, daytime hat! I couldn't tell with the candlelight, but I sure hope she wasn't also wearing white before Memorial Day! Shockingly, I also saw two other women in the congregation in day hats, though theirs were more of the modified pork pie shape.
In addition to the full-form Exultet, they also chanted a lengthy Litany of Saints during the baptismal procession to the font in the narthex.
The Noyon Easter Acclamations were a trip! There's this loud congregational chorus that actually has a lot of high Fs and even a big high G! Gs were not in my contract tonight, especially with no warning and no warm-up.
Once we got to the Mass, the organ was joined by a brass quartet and tympanist.
The choir had a ton of music to sing tonight. I thought they particularly shined on the Anglican chants during the Lessons portion of the service. The Palestrina was particularly nice. The Desprèz during the offertory started out fine, but it had a few internal rough notes and then by the ending cadences they lost tuning and I was involuntarily turning my hand in my conductor's "tuning knob motion" trying to help them out (now, mind you, this is a very professional choir, so all "problems" are relative and I'm very very perfectionistic).
Once again the church looked like they'd had a professional floral designer in to do the arrangements. Interestingly enough, though, I didn't see a single Easter lily in the entire building! You can see the altar, above. Here are some pictures of some of the arrangements on the tops of the columns in the nave and one of some green callas by the pulpit.
I should have gotten a picture of the baptistery in the back of the narthex, but the priests were standing there greeting people after the marathon, uh, er, I mean service. It was decorated in branches of flowering trees such as cherry and dogwood. The chapel was done in greenery and bare branches:
After the service, John and I went up to the dining room in the parish hall for the post-Vigil reception. As usual, no one talked to us. The place was interestingly decorated with pastel crepe paper streamers everywhere and columns of lighted streamers over each of the three food buffet tables which were laden with cheeses (mostly big wheels of brie), rollups, meatballs, deviled eggs, shrimp (enough to repopulate the Gulf of Mexico), crudités, dips (we found some freshly made guacamole so they must have given the servants carte blanche to cook), cookies, miniature cream puffs and probably other things we missed. And, as is traditional with most Episcopal churches, there was a big wine table with sparkling cider and Freixenet Spanish cava sparkling wine (they kept shooting corks all over the dining room!). We didn't stay long, or even get drunk for a change, since John had to drive back to Baltimore and get ready to play all the services in the morning. He'll certainly get a workout: he's doing the Gigout "Grand Choeur Dialogue" (which I love!) with brass for his postludes tomorrow!
Hope everyone has a happy Easter!
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