A new recording of the Easter Procamation
Last month, Lucy Grace Burnett and I sang the Great Litany for you. Now, in anticipation of the Great Vigil of Easter, we’ve done the same for the Exsultet. This recording uses the text of the ACNA’s Book of Common Prayer (2019) and the music from The Altar Book of the ACNA. Use this recording to practice the Exsultet or simply to listen and pray.
About the Exsultet
The Exsultet or Easter Proclamation (from the Latin Praeconium Paschale) is a hymn of praise sung or said during the Service of Light in the Great Vigil of Easter. After the Paschal Candle is lit and brought into the darkened church, the deacon or other appointed person sings the Exsultet before the Paschal Candle.
The exact origin of the Exsultet is unknown. The earliest known manuscripts date to the seventh century, but it could be as old as the fourth or fifth century. Its use became widespread in the Roman church from the ninth century onward.
Within Anglicanism, the Exsultet (and the Great Vigil in general) fell out of use during the Reformation. The Liturgical Movement of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries brought about renewed interest in ancient liturgy, eventually leading the Episcopal Church in the United States to include the Vigil in The Book of Common Prayer (1979). It was retained in the ACNA’s 2019 prayerbook and is now used in many Anglican parishes.
How to Sing the Exsultet
Unlike the Great Litany, the Exsultet is only used only once per year. You can find instructions for its liturgical implementation on page 583 of the BCP 2019.
Remembering the general rule that when interpreting rubrics in the prayerbook, the first option given is always the preferred option, it’s most appropriate for the deacon to sing the Exsultet. If no deacon is available, or if your parish’s deacon isn’t quite comfortable singing, a priest or cantor may sing it. In my parish, I (a lay cantor) have been the one to do it in recent years.
In the version given in The Altar Book of the ACNA, you might notice the staff has only four lines instead of the typical five, and there’s a little “c” shape instead of a normal key signature. This is simplified Gregorian chant notation. The “c” is a do clef, meaning that the third line from the bottom is do (or the tonic) in movable solfège. In this recording, I chose B♭ as the tonic, but you can pick whatever key feels most comfortable for you.
From here, you can interpret the remaining notes as if they were in the major key of whatever tonic you picked: assuming you went with B♭, the space above B♭/ do would be C / re, the note below would be A / ti, et cetera.
Sing the words at a moderate, steady pace. Avoid being too rigid or metrononic with the rhythm, but also try to avoid rushing through or overextending certain words and phrases; it should feel more like rhythmic music than a natural speaking pace.
Above all else, sing exultantly. Throw your voice to the back of the room, no matter how big the room is. Imagine you’re Aslan singing the world into being. Have some fun.
Additional Resources
As I did with the Litany, I’ve put together a little package of graphics for the Exsultet which you can drag and drop into your bulletins or slides. In my parish’s bulletins, I include only the text for the portions not sung by the people, which is the vast majority of the hymn. The music is written out fully for the portions when the people sing.
In case you don’t already have it, I’ve also included a full PDF version of the Exsultet in the package as well.
Click here to view and download resources for the Exsultet.
A blessed Holy Week and a joyful Eastertide to you!