Chant Café

for the concluding piece of Martin Baker’s live concert on BBC 3.

Messiaen’s great cycle of nine meditations on Christ’s birth, La Nativité du Seigneur, forms the core of the recital. It was written when Messiaen was 27, during the summer of 1935 while he was in residence at Grenoble near the French Alps. Messiaen wrote that in addition to theology, the movements were inspired by the mountains, as well as the stained glass windows in medieval cathedrals.

A few years ago there were relatively few videos available of the great liturgical chants, so that if you wanted to demonstrate the flow of a chant to a learning schola, it was sometimes hard to find what you needed.

Since then there has been a happy explosion of chant music available, in all sorts of voicings and with varying interpretations, such that listening itself is an enjoyable way of thinking and learning about the chant.

Here are a few very different versions of the Introit of the Day, Ad te levavi, as we begin our annual time of waiting for the Lord. To you have I lifted up my soul. My God, in you I trust, let me not be put to shame and let not my enemies laugh over me, because all those who wait for you shall not be put to shame.

I had a pretty fun night tonight at St. Peter’s Basilica. The choir at my University, the Angelicum, was invited to join with other university choirs of Rome for First Vespers of the First Sunday of Advent. We acted as part of the “people’s choir” that mostly provides support for the congregational singing. It was a fascinating experience, a once-in-a-lifetime kind of event for me. We had our own conductor, and although I never caught his name (words in Italian go by so very quickly!) he was really excellent. We were a large group from all over the globe, both geographically and musically speaking, and somehow he made us a chant schola in a very short time. He insisted on artistry as well. It was a real pleasure to work with him and with all those involved.

It was especially nice for me to have the chance to conduct the Salve Regina tonight at the end of the Rosary that preceded Vespers. Here we are at the end of the Year of Faith. And such a year it has been! So just before the new year began in earnest with the Holy Father’s “Deus in audiutorium meum,” we all sang one last Auld Lang Syne to invoke the help of the Lady who has kept her merciful eyes turned upon us this whole time.

Looking forward to the New Liturgical Year and all that the Lord has in store for His Church. Buon anno! Buon Avvento a tutti!

Live radio broadcasts of organ recitals are something of a rarity and this is one you should try not to miss. Martin Baker will be giving a recital at Westminster Cathedral tomorrow evening (Sunday) which will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 3. The programme begins with the opening movement of Dupré’s Passion Symphony, ‘The world awaiting the Saviour’. The symphony was first conceived as an improvisation on the mighty Wanamaker Organ in Philadelphia. Each of the four movements was based on a plainchant theme, this first movement being based on the Christmas hymn ‘Jesu redemptor omnium’. After an opening of relentless hammering chords and irregular rhythms, representing the world before Christ, the Gregorian melody emerges to instil calm, before the turbulent opening returns, threatening to engulf the plainchant. However, the hymn wins out, closing the work in a spectacular toccata with the melody triumphant in a prominent canon between manuals and pedals. Following the improvisation in Philadelphia, Dupré wrote the piece down and gave its first performance as a written composition at Westminster Cathedral in 1924. Martin Baker’s recital continues with J.S. Bach’s Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, based on an Advent Chorale, and closes with Messiaen’s set of nine Christmas Meditations, La Nativité du Seigneur, written in 1935. Tune in if you can – I don’t know if BBC Radio 3 is available over the internet outside the UK, but the programme begins tomorrow evening, Sunday 1 December at 8.00pm GMT. If you are in London, you might like to hear it live at the Cathedral. Admission is free, see the poster for details.

Fr. Dwight Longenecker’s megapost is here.

Captator olim piscium