Sacred Miscellany

Why Latin Hymns? Why Not!

Jeffrey Tucker has penned a nice essay on this topic over at The New Liturgical Movement (which has had a non-surgical face lift and is nicer to read and navigate).

Give it a read and enjoy the rest of the site, always full of liturgical eye candy.

 

Memorable Aria Title

“Their land brought forth frogs” by G. F. Handel

Yes, that will get their attention when they peruse the program for your alto voice recital. I’d never heard of this aria from Israel in Egypt until it turned up in an elderly volume of Handel songs that crossed my path. The accompaniment is a dotted rhythm suitable for things that hop.

And trust me, the lyrics go downhill from there when “He gave their cattle over to the pestilence.”

But it will get their attention.

Flying Under False Colors

Crux fidelis by Venantius Fortunatus (6th century) is one of the great treasures of the Church for both its text and chant. Designated for the Veneration of the Cross on Good Friday, its refrain is poignant, hopeful and restrained:

Crux fidelis, inter omnes arbor una nobilis:
nulla silva talem profert,
fronde, flore, germine.
Dulce lignum,
Dulces clavos,
dulce pondus sustinet.

Faithful cross,
above all other,
the one noble tree.
None in foliage, nor in blossom,
nor in fruit offers more:
sweetest wood and sweetest iron,
sweetest weight is hung on thee!

Good Friday is the saddest day of the year for me liturgically because the splendid texts and chant available to the universal Church are routinely replaced with banal hymonody of the 1980s and African-American spirituals.  The result is a bath of emotionalism.

When asked recently if I knew Crux fidelis, you can imagine my delight.  Then I learned that we weren’t talking about the chant at all.  Instead I was presented with a hymn of Steve Warner of the Notre Dame Folk Choir. There is nothing in common between these pieces except the first two words. False colors.

Here’s a nice YouTube of the real Crux fidelis.  If you want to practice with this recording, you can find the chant (with translation) over at the St. Cecilia Schola.

Vespers of the Blessed Virgin Mary, March 27, 2009

If you’re wandering the streets of St. Augustine, Florida tomorrow evening, why not join the St. Augustine Schola Cantorae for Vespers at the Shrine Chapel of La Leche?

Starting at 6 p.m. with the Angelus, we’ll sing Vespers in Latin and English, with the service lasting about 30 minutes.  A nice start to the weekend.

In pious tradition, the appearance of Our Lord to Our Lady after his Resurrection was commemorated on March 27th (based on the calculation of the crucifixion taking place on March 25th). While there is no mention of this in Scripture, many of the Church Fathers believed in this first appearance to the Virgin, including St. Ambrose (340-397) who stated: "Mary therefore saw the Resurrection of the Lord; she was the first who saw it and believed. Mary Magdalen too saw it, though she still wavered.”

While there are various impossibilities about the date, Spanish pasos include a resurrected Christ and a rejoicing Mother.

Entertaining Sampler Album

Jade Music – a label featuring sacred music, including St. Michael’s Abbey – is having a super special this week as an Amazon mp3 download – 99 works for 99 cents!

This is the address at Amazon.  I don’t normally push commercial labels, but some of the best artists – St. Michael’s, Divna, the Benedictines of Silos and many others are in their catalogue.  And there is some Debussy there as well.

A great introduction to some groups you may not know or some you’ve forgotten. I’m a great fan of sampler albums, having discovered many lovely pieces and composers despite myself.

And why not?

Annunciation with Ensemble Organum

Happy Annunciation – Today Our Salvation Began!

Today is the beginning of our salvation,
The revelation of the eternal mystery!
The Son of God becomes the Son of the Virgin
As Gabriel announces the coming of Grace.
Together with him let us cry to the Theotokos:
Rejoice, O Full of Grace,
The Lord is with You!

- Troparion for the Feast of the Annunciation

Feeling like singing an antiphon or two?  Sub Tuum has them.

Rejoice!

Kudos for St. Cecilia

Why not go over to Amy Welborn’s blog on Beliefnet where you can read all the lovely things she said about the St. Cecilia Schola and my dear friends Jeffrey Tucker and Arlene Oost-Zinner?

They obviously did a smash-up job in Birmingham.

Right now I will take a few moments to be grateful for all the wonderful friends – Jeffrey, Arlene, and Amy – that have come to me from the world of Catholic chant and Internet communications.  Who would have ever thought ….?

Such riches we all can share.

What I Saw (or didn’t see) at the Concert, Part 2

Put the text in your program – even if it’s English.  There were several songs that I could only catch random words and consequently missed the point.  And I felt cheated.  Having the text in the program notes would have permitted me to look over the text quickly before the song began.  Then I could have really enjoyed the combination of words and music.

Getting ready to do a program right now myself brought this point to mind.  For small groups (or probably even large ones), programs are an unmitigated pain in the neck.  They take time, require word processing, lay out and editing that have absolutely nothing to do with music, and they cost time, frustration and money to produce.  And folks throw them out, leave them behind, or use the margins to write grocery lists during your performance.

Be that as it may, put the text in your programs.  Thank you.

What I Saw at the Concert

I attended a lovely concert last weekend by a small (9 voices) women's vocal ensemble.  The musical choices were interesting and the auditioned singers had charming voices. However, their appearance was utterly distracting.

Yes, they were wearing all black - but all "different blacks."  The light reflected in various ways on various fabrics.  Singers come in all shapes and sizes.  And some of the choices for concert dress had been less than felicitous.  The eye wandered from one singer to another.

You’re probably thinking - “Well, I guess she’s just appointed herself chief of the concert-dress police.”  No.  I was horrified because my own ensemble probably looks the same way.  What one of my singers called “the Italian widows.”

I’ve dithered about this issue here before.  This was a salutary call to action.  If you hang out in a choir loft, half a city block away from the congregation, that’s another kettle of fish.  If you stand front and center, you should look as though you think the music you sing, whether it’s Gregorian chant or Dixieland, is worth a good appearance.  And a good appearance for an ensemble is basically uniform dress that unifies the group’s appearance and minimizes visual distraction. 

You should look as good as you sound.  Both you and the music deserve it.