Jenny Donelson at the forum draws attention to the Gramophone list of the best choirs (none in the U.S.!). I must say that I find the list pretty much in keeping with my own sense of this.
She also points to this interesting comment from the story:
Susanna Beiser: “It’s not necessarily some vague Britishness’ either, that makes their choirs so good. I think it’s worth pointing out that it’s the Church of England. The Anglicans rule choral music. The Catholics, on the other hand, to whom much of the repertoire rightfully belongs, have not sustained their music traditions as well, and their choirs mostly sound bad when they’re not doing some guitar mass or something. But even before Vatican II, I don’t think they were keeping up. From what I hear, the Church of England is in terrible shape, attendance-wise, and now with the move by a growing number of conservative Anglicans to reconcile with Rome, the choral tradition may end up being the primary contribution of 500 years of English Protestantism.”
We are almost (technically at least) into the carol singing season. Now I know that many of you will have been O Christmas Tree-ing to the point of praying for death for weeks now, but in England we have a tradition of carols quite unlike many of those that find popular acclaim.
Many of our carols are not the happy “yeah, Jesus is born of a babe in Bethlehem” type, but foretell of the passion and suffering in years hence. One of the most famous of these is the Coventry carol. First written in the 16th Century, it is part of a mystery play called the Pageant of the Shearmen and Tailors and depicts part of Matthew’s Gospel and the Massacre of the Innocents, in which Herod orders the murder of all male children under the age of two on hearing of the birth of the Messiah.
The lyrics themselves are first thought to have originated from around 1534, written down by playwright and poet Kenneth Croo and the melody is slightly older. The story is told from the perspective of the maidens of Jerusalem on hearing of the birth of Christ and their hope that he escape. As the oldest surviving manuscript (of the time) was lost in the 18th Century, some of the meaning of the translations has been lost to time and is cause of speculation, the meaning of “And ever morne and may For thi parting Neither say nor singe” is somewhat unclear for example, but that doesn’t detract from the aesthetic of the piece. The harmony is a prime example of the picardy third, or the use of a major chord of the tonic at the end of a musical sentence that is either modal or in a minor key, and this device was quite common in creating a “medieval” sound.
Another of the traditional carols that come from a play setting of the gospel story is the Shropshire Carol, recently re-arranged by Stephen Cleobury. The lyrics are again from the perspective of the women of Jerusalem foretelling the sorrow of Mary as Christ is Crucified and the carol consists of a dialogue between the soprano/treble narrator and the bass Christus leaving John as his beloved disciple to care for his mother as he dies on the cross.
Perhaps one of the most famous, as it is sung quite often in the Kings College Cambridge Carol service and arranged by David Wilcocks is I saw three ships, which tells the tale of ships sailing into the Dead Sea with pilgrims on their way to Bethlehem to find the relics of the magi in the 12th Century. The Sussex Carol is also worth a mention, though it is considerably less pensive than some of its place-named companions I do enjoy it immensely.
If you have never discovered these carols before they are well worth a look and make a fine antidote to some of this season’s more saccharine music
On the night before Christmas we sing of the birth of the Saviour, but who should have been the first to gaze on this wonder? Certainly the Holy Family of Our Lady and St Joseph but also the Ox and the Cattle present in the stable. Many visual depictions of this scene include the stars and the angels standing guard over that most precious of new-born sons.
The piece of music that depicts that moment is the motet O Magnum Mysterium, translated as
O most awesome mystery and sacrament divine and most wondrous: that animals should look and see the Lord a babe newborn beside them in a manger laid. O how truly blessed is the Virgin whose womb was worthy to bear and bring forth the Lord Christ Jesus. Alleluia!
Composers have set this text in many ways, but recently it has been composed in a number of ethereal motets. The text itself is taken from the Matins of Christmas Day but has become a setting more commonly heard at Midnight mass and I have to confess that while the liturgical purist may not agree with me, I actually like it in that context. Perhaps the more commonly known settings are those of Byrd and Palestrina, but last year the setting everyone was doing was Morten Laurisden’s with it making an appearance at Carols from Kings College Cambridge, and both Westminster Abbey and Cathedral.
Laurisden was the composer in residence during the tenure of Paul Salumanovic at the Los Angeles Master Chorale. It’s worth noting that some of who I consider the best amongst contemporary American Composers, Leo Nestor, Laurisden, and Julian Wachner, all have had an association with Mr Salumanovic somewhere down the line, and all have developed in their style this ethereal resonance in their writing that builds and resolves tensions with subtly, and dissonant clashes that one could imagine the likes of Bruckner (himself a master at evoking a certain liturgical mood using similar devices) being quite taken aback with.
I can only leave it for more accomplished musicologists than myself to consider this piece in detail, suffice to say if I had to imagine the choirs of angels above the manger I could do worse than let myself become lost in Laurisden’s work of awe and wonder. I leave you with the choir of Westminster Cathedral singing it as the offertory motet at Midnight Mass last year and in doing so, I wish you all a joyful, peaceful, and blessing filled Christmas and new year.
Congratulations to Jeffrey Ostrowski who sang this entire Graduale alone for this video and did an amazing job at it. Doing something like this is exceedingly difficult. I’ve variously attempted even short communion chants and never been happy with the results of the recording.
Benedictus Dominus is sung at the Baptism of Our Lord, ordinary form. Yes, you read that right. Check the Gregorian Missal if you don’t believe me.
The irony is ever present, especially at this time of year: Catholic music is being heard in concert halls and in Protestant Christmas specials but not in the Catholic Church (for the most part, in any case). Here is a nice note underscoring the point.
Many of us with choral experience in pre-council times have found little of the church music in the vernacular since then inspiring in any way. That said, as a child I was exposed to some dreadful Marian hymns. Lent was my favorite musical season since we sang “O Sacred Head.” Who can resist Bach even when you have no clue who he is? I salute your most active ministry in promoting our cultural heritage. It’s definitely an uphill battle as it is for all classical music. It’s very difficult to recruit members who are not seniors for a traditional church choir. Compounding the problem is often a lack of funds to enable hiring of professionaly trained directors and accompanists.
I have been singing with a fine concert choir for over 40 years and am always inspired by the religious music we perform. For the same reason I’m privileged to join a local Presbyterian church choir for their concerts with organ and orchestra. I quite realize how blessed I’ve been to have been continually inspired by so many great composers. It’s just sad that it has taken place outside my church rather than in it.
I believe that this is starting to change, however.
The Knights of Columbus Council 14829 in Scranton is offering a one day informational seminar Saturday, February 19, 2011 featuring an introduction to the extraordinary form of the Mass, according to the 1962 Roman Missal. The seminar will be held at St. Michael the Archangel Church, 1703 Jackson Street, Scranton, from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM. The presentation will begin with an explanation and overview of the traditional Latin Mass by Father Justin Nolan, FSSP, of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, followed by a question and answer period. A “sung” Mass, or Missa Cantata, will follow at 11:30. After lunch, Father Nolan will provide two additional presentations for a more in depth understanding of the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite.
The seminar’s objective is to provide an educational, interactive, friendly and prayerful experience to inquirers of the traditional Latin Mass through talks on history, theology, and spirituality. The day includes participation in a Missa Cantata with Gregorian Chant and other forms of sacred music.
The seminar is free, including lunch, and open to the public. Interest in the traditional Latin Mass has grown in recent years, especially since July 2007 when Pope Benedict XVI issued the Motu Proprio, Summorum Pontificum, permitting priests to freely celebrate the older liturgy.
One of the Pope’s objectives in issuing the Motu Proprio was to clarify that the Traditional Latin Mass and the Novus Ordo Missae, or new Mass, are part of the “same rite.” Like his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI has made unity a major goal of his pontificate. The Church, he said, must make “every effort” to achieve unity, adding: “Let us generously open our hearts and make room for everything that the faith itself allows.”
For more information, please email knights14829@gmail.com or call the rectory at St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church at 570-961-1205.
Geoffrey Clarfield has a wonderful article in the National Post today about 20th century scholarship that reinforces an ancient supposition that Gregorian chant grows out of Jewish cantillation.
Clarfield provides a great account of the core argument, but we do need to remember that the idea of a connection between Jewish and Christian chant is hardly a 20th century one. In fact, in the 20th century and even very recently, many people tried to debunk the idea, with the hope of severing the attachment of Catholics to chant. Even today, we read flippant comments to the effect that Gregorian chant is mostly a 19th-century innovation. If it is just another form of art music, why bother with it?
What Clarfield shows is that the chant is integral to Christian worship as it evolved from the Jewish tradition. He is also right to draw attention to the parallels between various forms of chant. The discovery of the relationship between the present chant and the singing of the early Church is yet another case in which the tradition knew more than the scholars, and the best scholars end up discovering the truth of tradition.
This oral tradition of synagogue cantillation has survived unbroken among the Jewish people for more than 2,000 years and still flourishes today. Over the centuries communities in Spain, Eastern Europe and as far away as Iraq, Persia, Yemen and Uzbekistan have developed their own unique styles of cantillation. One would think that after 2,000 years there would be no more “family resemblance” of a musical nature among these traditions. But there is.
At the start of the 20th century, communities from all over the Islamic and Western world began immigrating to the land of Israel, which had become a mandated protectorate of Great Britain after the First World War. A European-born Jewish musicologist by the name of Idelsohn made it his life’s work to record and compare the full range of cantillation of these newly ingathered communities of Jews in their homeland. Apart from the great service of musical preservation that he carried out for the Jewish people, and for the national archives of the future state of Israel, he also conducted the first comparative studies. He found that despite the relative historical separation and isolation of Jewish Diaspora communities, much of their traditional repertoires had similar melodic motives, especially when chanting the Psalms.
In 1938, a young Jew by the name of Eric Werner was allowed to come to New York as a refugee from Hitler’s Germany. He was by then already a well-known musician and composer and one of Europe’s finest musicologists. During that acme of European anti-Semitism, he asked himself a most counter-intuitive question. Was Gregorian Chant based on the cantillation of the Jewish synagogue?
He spent more than a decade trying to answer that question. In 1959 he published his landmark study on the relations between Jewish cantillation and Gregorian chant. It was called The Sacred Bridge and in it he argued that Gregorian chant was indeed a direct descendant of Jewish synagogue music. He never discovered a definitive medieval or early Christian text that bluntly announced that Christian cantillation was based on Jewish cantillation, but that is not how new religions develop. They adopt and adapt, and the evidence for adoption is circumstantial and comparative.
The Sacred Bridge was published in 1959. In 1974 Werner published an updated second edition with more data.
