If you have been curious about what’s going on at the NPM. This is very much worth watching if you want to what’s going on in the great shift we are living through. Obviously these are not chant partisans but they have some fascinating insights.
Monastic Chant Forum at Quarr Abbey
One of the sad realities of life is that we cannot always do everything we eagerly want to do. This was my feeling earlier this month regarding the Monastic Chant Forum at Quarr Abbey, on the Isle of Wight.
Having stayed at Quarr and its neighboring St. Cecilia’s throughout last Lent, I can only imagine how the great Quarr church must have resounded with the music of this choir of talented chanters, both monastics and lay.
More photos are available on this photostream.
A firsthand account from one of the participants is available here.
On the Feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola
St. Ignatius originally frowned on music, both liturgical and extra-liturgical. He wanted the Society of Jesus to focus on doctrine and teaching. Then he came to see the value of the arts in evangelization, first in Europe and then in the New World.
Wherever the Jesuits (and other orders) traveled, they brought music. They taught the building of instruments and singing in harmony. The Guidonian hand adorned the wall at Mission San Antonio in California. Hymns and sequences were liberally composed in vernacular languages. Choirs and orchestras flourished. And doctrine was taught through song.
What could be a better remembrance of this power of music than a clip from “The Mission”?
Go and play some music for the unconverted in your own corner of the world. Who knows what the results might be?
Not sure about this analogy
Speaking at the NPM, Rita Ferrone urged conventioneers to keep looking ahead:
“We’ve come a long way the past 50 years,” she said, but cautioned them to “remember Lot’s wife,” who was turned into a pillar of salt for looking back at the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Is this really a good way to think about this past? As Catholics? Hmmm. In fact, this attitude seems like a direct contradiction to the whole sacred music framework. It was not a good thing when the past was (temporarily) destroyed, and the past was no Sodom.
Maybe my interpretation of her remark is wrong.
How Irresistible Is this?
Often called the musical equivalent of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Trent codices have dramatically broadened our understanding of Renaissance music. Much has been written about this collection of fifteenth-century music manuscripts, most of which were discovered in the Cathedral at Trent, but none of the seven codices–generally called Trent 87 through Trent 93–has ever been published in its entirety. Thus Rebecca Gerber’s edition of Trent 88, which took more than a decade to prepare, will be the first to appear. As such, this volume is a landmark in the publication of early music.
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Illustrations from Trent 88 follow p. xi.
Part One: Introduction
I The Origins of Trent 88
II Paleographical Description of the Manuscript
Gathering Structure, Watermarks, and Dating
The Scribes
The Notation of the Music and Text
III The Repertory
The Masses
The Propers
The Hymns
The Antiphons
The Sequences
The Magnificats and Cantios
The Motets
Contexts for the Masses
The Composers
Related Sources
Part Two: Concordance and Commentary
IV List of Sources and Bibliography
A. Manuscripts of Polyphonic Music
B. Early Printed Sources
C. Literature and Modern Editions
D. Sound Recordings
E. Abbreviations of Frequently Cited Works
V Commentaries on the Individual Compositions
Part Three: The Edition
Editorial Principles
The Transcriptions:
Acknowledgments
Illustrations from Trent 88 follow p. xi.
Part One: Introduction
I The Origins of Trent 88
II Paleographical Description of the Manuscript
Gathering Structure, Watermarks, and Dating
The Scribes
The Notation of the Music and Text
III The Repertory
The Masses
The Propers
The Hymns
The Antiphons
The Sequences
The Magnificats and Cantios
The Motets
Contexts for the Masses
The Composers
Related Sources
Part Two: Concordance and Commentary
IV List of Sources and Bibliography
A. Manuscripts of Polyphonic Music
B. Early Printed Sources
C. Literature and Modern Editions
D. Sound Recordings
E. Abbreviations of Frequently Cited Works
V Commentaries on the Individual Compositions
Part Three: The Edition
Editorial Principles
The Transcriptions:
1. [Missa] Veterem hominem
2. Sanctus [Hainricus] Collis
3. Stella celi extirpavit [Guillaume le Rouge?]
4. Os iusti
5. [Magnificat] Jo[hannes] Gayus
6. Gaudeat ecclesia/O Iesu perpetua [Johannes de Quadris]
7. Missa Dueil angoisseus [John Bedingham]
8. Agnus dei
9. Ego dormio
10. Imperatrix angelorum [Guillaume Du Fay]
11. [Missa] Caput Duffay [recte Anonymous]
12. [Missa] Fuit homo missus a deo
13. Composite mass [Anonymous and Gilles Binchois]
14. [Missa de beata virgine] [John Bedingham]
15. Composite mass
16. Salve regina
17. Alleluia. Ora pro nobis
18. Sanctus
19. O quam luce glorifica
20. O pulcherrima mulierum
21. Salve virgo, mater pia [Walter Frye]
22. [Te deum laudamus]
23. Dies est letitie/Der Tag der ist so freudenreich
24. [Magnificat]
25. [Missa] Se tu t’en marias
26. Puisque m’amour [John] Dumstable
27. [Missa] Puisque m’amour
28. Et in terra pascale
29. [Missa] Se la face ay pale [Guillaume Du Fay]
30. O edle Frucht/Martinus Abrahe
31. Missa Pax vobis ego sum
32. [Missa de Sancto Spiritu] [Anonymous and Guillaume Du Fay]
33. Missa de Sancta Trinitate
34. [Missa de Sancto Andrea]
35. [Missa] de Sancta Cruce
36. Missa Sancti Johannis baptiste
37. [Missa] de Angelis
38. Missa Sancti Georgii [et in natale unius martiris non pontificis] [Anonymous and Guillaume Du Fay]
39. [Missa de Nativitate]
40. Missa Sancti Mauritii et sociorum eius [et in natale plurimorum martirum]
41. [Missa Sancti Anthonii abbatis]
42. [Missa Sancti Anthonii de Padua] [Anonymous and Guillaume Du Fay]
43. Gaudeamus omnes
44. [Missa Sancti Francisci] [Anonymous and Guillaume Du Fay]
45. [Missa Sancti Stephani]
46. Salve regina
47. Audi filia
48. Eterne rerum conditor/Dueil angoisseus [Gilles Binchois]
49. O sidus Hispanie
50. O proles Hispanie [Guillaume Du Fay]
51. Agwillare habeth standiff
52. [Missa Sancti Sebastiani]
53. Grates nunc omnes
54. Pucelle
55. [Missa Paschalis]
56. Magnificat
57. [Christe redemptor omnium]
58. Regina celi letare
59. Vidi aquam
60. Salve festa dies
61. Urbs beata Ierusalem
62. Kyrie pascale
63. Kyrie de apostolis
64. [Magnificat]
65. Iesu nostra redemptio
66. O lux beata trinitas
67. Veni redemptor gentium
68. Veni creator spiritus
69. Pange lingua
70. Festum nunc celebre
71. Vita sanctorum
72. Quem terra pontus ethera
73. Gaude visceribus
74. Ave maris stella
75. Gaude visceribus
76. Deus tuorum militum
77. Omnes superni ordines
78. Exultet celum laudibus
79. Iste confessor
80. Iste confessor
81. Resonet in laudibus
82. Magnificat primi toni
83. Dies est letitie
84. [Magnificat]
85. Te deum laudamus
86. Ave Iesu Christe
87. Christus surrexit
88. [Magnificat] tertii toni
89. Advenisti desiderabilis/Advenit nobis desiderabilis
90. Felix namque es
91. Beata viscera
92. [Missa sine nomine]
93. Sanctus–Agnus dei [Flemmik]
94. Puer natus est
95. [Missa Le serviteur]
96. Missa Ayo visto lo mappamundi Johannes Cornago
97. Gaude Maria/Meditatio cordis mei [Johannes Cornago?]
98. [Missa] Caput Jo[hannes] Okeghem
99. [Missa Rozel im Garten]
1. O florens rosa Jo[hannes] Touront
101. [Missa] O admirabile [beati Gregorii] Simon de Insula
102. [Textless]
103. [Magnificat]
104. Magnificat
105. [O pellegrina, o luce]
106. [Missa Ad fugam reservatam] Standley
107. Kyrie de beata virgine [Bourgois?]
108. Gloria Spiritus et alme [Bourgois]
109. Ave regina celorum [Guillaume Du Fay]
110. Quam pulchra es
111. Qualis est dilectus meus
112. Tota pulchra es
113. Tota pulchra es [John Plummer?]
114. A solis ortus cardine
115. Discubuit Iesus
116. Advenisti. Venisti nostras
117. [Magnificat]
118. Alleluia. Dulcis mater
119. Verbum bonum et suave
120. [Mittit ad virginem]
121. Magnificat
122. Magnificat
123. Magnificat
124. Magnificat
125. Magnificat
126. [Magnificat]
127. Pange lingua [Johannes] Touront
128. [Missa de beata virgine]
129. Salve sancta parens
130. Resurrexi
131. Kyrie pascale
132. Christ ist erstanden
133. Kyrie de apostolis
134. Kyrie de martyribus
135. [Missa] O rosa bella
136. Gloria
137. Christe redemptor omnium
138. [Missa] Grüne Linden
139. Gloria [Guillaume Du Fay]
140. Deus tuorum militum [Guillaume Du Fay]
141. O sacrum convivium
142. [Missa] Esclave puist il devenir
143. [Missa] Spiritus almus P[etrus] de Domarto
144. Gaude mater [Antoine Busnoys]
145. [Missa] Le serviteur Jo[hannes] Okeghem [recte Guillaume Faugues]
Whose “Pop Music”?
Watching the closing Mass of World Youth Day, I actually enjoyed the “Brazilian-ness” of it all. The music, the arms waving, the waves on the beach, and the remarkable silence of 3 million people when they were told to meditate. (Try that last item in your local parish!)
And I could also imagine the complaints about the music, summarized as “Arggh, more pop music!” Then it occurred to me that the music (which reminded me strongly of Barry Manilow) wasn’t pop music at all to those young people.
Heck, it’s music from before they were born; it’s their parents’ music. Popular music has gone way further down the road since the 1980s – think hip-hop, techno-pop, trance music, rap, etc.. And if these 80’s stylings are the music you’ve heard in church all your life, it’s not “pop music,” it’s downright traditional church music.
[Cue “I Write the Songs.”]
Hipper Worship Bands: Not the Answer
CNN religion blogs an interesting piece on why millennials are leaving church and what NOT to do about it.
Time and again, the assumption among Christian leaders, and evangelical leaders in particular, is that the key to drawing twenty-somethings back to church is simply to make a few style updates
– edgier music, more casual services, a coffee shop in the fellowship hall, a pastor who wears skinny jeans, an updated Web site that includes online giving.But here’s the thing: Having been advertised to our whole lives, we millennials have highly sensitive BS meters, and we’re not easily impressed with consumerism or performances….
Many of us, myself included, are finding ourselves increasingly drawn to high church traditions – Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, the Episcopal Church, etc. – precisely because the ancient forms of liturgy seem so unpretentious, so unconcerned with being “cool,” and we find that refreshingly authentic.