Different sounds make it…well…different.

Like most of you, I planned and played a ‘whole lotta music’ during the Triduum and Easter Sunday. While it is always a bit of a task to choose the music for every part of the liturgies, it is equally challenging to put together the musicians who will provide the arrangements…the sound…of every piece.


I like variety as much as possible. Even during college recitals I would get bored and fall asleep when it was too much of the same thing (i.e. all piano, all guitar, all soprano, etc.) even if the performance was great. I just wanted to hear different sounds from time to time. (Maybe that’s why I can’t seem to get through an entire album in one listening!) ANYway, I tried to apply that as much as possible to the different liturgies.


For the most part, the music for Holy Thursday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday was arranged for a contemporary band. We had drums, bass guitar, acoustic guitar, piano, synth, and singers/choir. In addition, a trumpet, flute and violin on Holy Thursday and Holy Saturday added a nice change to the sound from time to time. With all of these musicians ‘at the ready’ it would have been easy to just tell them to play every song from beginning to end. Instead, the challenge…the fun…was to arrange each piece a little differently as need for the liturgical moment. One piece would start with piano, one with piano and violin, another with a full band. It just depended on what was called for by the moment in the liturgy.


Different sounds make it interesting. Different sounds add variety. Different sounds make it, well, different. When the assembly can predict exactly what they’re going to hear at the beginning of every song, the ‘surprise’ is left out. We don’t often hear violin in our parish (unfortunately) so when we started “Our Blessing Cup” by Marty Haugen on Holy Thursday for the Responsorial Psalm with violin and piano, you could almost sense the assembly’s surprise and delight. A well-executed soprano duet on verses 2 and 3 really enhanced it further, along with the addition of the bass guitar and choir (on the refrain only). We kept it light, which was a nice contrast to the Haas ‘Glory to God’ we had sung just moments earlier in all its ‘glory’ with full band and voices!


Many of you, I’m sure, use organ a lot more than I. It’s not the main, driving instrument at our parish. Piano is the norm. However, for Holy Thursday I really wanted to use the organ to create just the right tone for the transfer of the Eucharist. After choosing the right registration, I started playing “Pange Lingua Gloriosi” and it was a welcome change from the instrumentation we had been using up to that point. A solo voice cantored while the assembly joined in beautifully.


My main reason for choosing this subject for this week’s blog is that I’ve never heard so many comments about a single service before, namely the “Holy Thursday” liturgy. People couldn’t stop talking about the use of the violin throughout and the organ during “Pange Lingua.” It was different, it was special, and it was extremely musical. By adding some instruments, creatively arranging each piece, and begin sensitive to each moment, it really seemed like we truly “set the tone” for the music of the Triduum this year.