Wednesday, 4 April 2012

Exsultet (Praeconium Paschale) - Resources

There are already plenty of resources available online to assist deacons, priests and cantors in preparing to sing the Exsultet in English from the 2010 Roman Missal. 

One method which I consider may be helpful is to listen to the Latin original (from the 2002 Missale Romanum) to get a feel for how it should sound in practice (given that the 2010 English version is closely based on the beautiful Latin tone).  And here is a great recording from the Easter Vigil at St. Peter's last year, presumably taken from the 2002 MR:


You can follow along by downloading this Latin version from the 1970 Missale Romanum (I haven't compared it to the 2002 version - there may be some minor differences). 

Then, you can practice by downloading the English 2010 version of the Exsultet in sqaure notation (this has apparently been prepared by a parish in Birmingham, UK, and was brought to my attention via the Chant Cafe).  Alternatively, download the Exsultet in modern notation exactly as it appears in the CTS Roman Missal by clicking here - this resource is made available by the Liturgy Office of England & Wales on the Roman Missal UK website.  You can find other reosurces for the Holy week liturgies there too.