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Sunday, August 14, 2011


From CCWatershed, "August 15 being The Feast of St. Mary the Virgin."


Free Responsorial Psalm • VIGIL of the Assumption, ABC from Corpus Christi Watershed on Vimeo.

St. Noël Chabanel Responsorial Psalm Project
--------------------------------
R. Lord, go up to the place of your rest, you and the ark of your holiness.
Behold, we heard of it in Ephrathah;
we found it in the fields of Jaar.
Let us enter his dwelling,
let us worship at his footstool.
R. Lord, go up to the place of your rest, you and the ark of your holiness.
May your priests be clothed with justice;
let your faithful ones shout merrily for joy.
For the sake of David your servant,
reject not the plea of your anointed.
R. Lord, go up to the place of your rest, you and the ark of your holiness.
For the LORD has chosen Zion;
he prefers her for her dwelling.
"Zion is my resting place forever;
in her will I dwell, for I prefer her."
R. Lord, go up to the place of your rest, you and the ark of your holiness.

Listen to today's Festal Eucharist at St. Thomas Fifth Avenue. Or celebrate at St. Mary the Virgin on Monday, August 15th.

(The image above is from the St. Thomas website, and is described as "A sculpture in wood of Mother and Child near the altar of the Chantry Chapel. The scultpure is Spanish in origin, carved in the fourteenth century and polychromed in the sixteenth century. )

Monday, August 8, 2011

The LLBP has a page, with links to mp3s, of the orders for Lauds, Noonday Prayer, Vespers, and Compline (as well as Vigils, which I'm not including here) at their website; I'm copying the page below only, so that you can use it as an example for praying the Offices.  Remember that the mp3s linked below are housed on the LLPB site; they are doing all the work, not me!  Check out their site, by all means; there's a lot of great stuff over there.

As you can see, they've put in separate audio files for Lent and for the rest of the year; it's to avoid the alleluias!  And there is a separate Eastertide Benedicamus also.  I've added, in green and in parentheses, the place where the Psalms go in the offices.  

The Order of Vigils


The Order of Morning Prayer

(The Psalms)
The Lection
The Responsory (see Propers for Praying the Hours-Weekday)
The Hymn (see Propers for Praying the Hours-Weekday)
The Canticle with Versicle (see Propers for Praying the Hours-Weekday)
The Prayers:  Kyrie, the Lord's Prayer, the Sufferages, the Salutation--option.
The Benedicamus outside of Eastertide/ in Eastertide
The Benediction

The Order of Midday (Midmorning, Midafternoon) Prayer

(The Psalms)
The Hymn at Prime (Before midmorning), at Terce (midmorning), at Sext (midday), at None (midafternoon).
The Lection
The Responsory (see Propers for Praying the Hours-Weekday)
The Prayers:  Kyrie, the Lord's Prayer, the Salutation--option,
        Versicle, Da Pacem, Versicle, Collect for the day of the week at Sext (see Propers for Praying the Hours-Weekday).
The Benedicamus outside of Eastertide/ in Eastertide
The Benediction

The Order of Evening Prayer (Vespers)

The Opening Versicles--Alleluia or Praise to Thee, O Christ for Lententide
(The Psalms)
The Lection
The Responsory (see Propers for Praying the Hours-Weekday)
The Hymn (see Propers for Praying the Hours-Weekday)
The Canticle with Versicle (see Propers for Praying the Hours-Weekday)
The Prayers:  Kyrie, the Lord's Prayer, the Sufferages, the Salutation--option.
The Benedicamus outside of Eastertide/ in Eastertide
The Benediction

The Order of Night Prayer (Compline)

The Psalmody (Psalm 4, Psalm 91, Psalm 134)
The Gospel Canticle with Versicle and Antiphon on Sundays & Feasts or on Weekdays

Friday, August 5, 2011

Saint Thomas Church - Worship - Worship Calendar

Highlights for the Week of July 31 -August 6

The Girls' Course

In 2005, music directors in the New York area expressed interest in joining together to form a chorister experience of the highest caliber for girls. The Saint Thomas Choir School was delighted to offer space, resources and experience to the endeavor. Since then, the Choir School has proudly taken full ownership of the course and developed a schedule and musical standard parallel to that of the boys during the academic terms. In 2008, the course expanded to nine days. In 2011, the Course begins on Saturday, July 30th.

On Sunday, July 31, the girls will be in attendance in the pews with the congregation as the Gentlemen of the Choir sing the 11am Choral Eucharist for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost. Then, things quickly transition over to the girls, who sing at two special summertime weekday Choral Evensongs at 5:30pm--Tuesday, August 2 and Thurday, August 4. Then, on Sunday, August 7, for the Feast of the Transfiguration, the girls will sing alongside the Gentlemen of the Choir at 11am. Over the years, they have been led by two distinguished organists and directors of music: Sarah Baldock, who directed the girls last year and the year before, and Sarah MacDonald, who was last with us for the course in 2008 and returns to direct this year. Both hold prestigious positions in the United Kingdom and are mentors and role models in every way for the young women who participate in the course. Additional information about Sarah MacDonald, as well as her music notes for each service, can be found by clicking on the individual dates of the services above. All four choral services will be webcast live and then available on-demand if you are unable to attend in person.

The Feast of the Transfiguration

You’ll notice on the schedule on the worship calendar that “The Transfiguration” is listed on both Saturday, August 6 and Sunday, August 7. The actual feast date in August 6. However, whenever a major feast day falls on a Saturday or Monday, we often translate it over to the adjoining Sunday so that the maximum number of people can celebrate it. So, in effect, this year we celebrate it twice. When you combine it with the fact that the Last Sunday after the Epiphany is also a celebration of the Transfiguration (the epiphany season being a series of epiphanies about Christ), we're actually celebrating it three times this year!

If you love music, do come on Sunday at 11am. However, if you are unable to come on Sunday, or if you prefer shorter, simpler forms of worship, consider coming on Saturday at 12:10pm or on Sunday morning at 8am. Either way, the Transfiguration is a glorious feast day, revealing Jesus as Christ, the Messiah.
There are several excellent sermons regarding the Transfiguration in the sermon archive on our website. Among them, consider reading (or listening to):


The Glory of God (2011) by Fr Daniels
Love We Can Hardly Bear to See (2010) by Fr Austin
A Sermon for the Last Sunday after the Epiphany (2009) by Fr Stafford
The Transfigured Cross (2006) by Fr Mead
A Glimpse into Glory (2005) by Fr Mead

Lovely to hear girls from that choir - I know some of them this year - and they are good, too.

The responses on Tuesday - MacDonald? - are gorgeous! Haven't listened to Thursday yet; will get back to you.

Monday, August 1, 2011

A nice find at Google Books tonight: "THE CANTICLES AT EVENSONG, TOGETHER WITH THE OFFICE RESPONSES AND A TABLE OF PSALM-TONES: EDITED BY THE REVEREND CHARLES WINFRED DOUGLAS BACHELOR OF MUSIC CANON OF FOND DU LAC." - (The Saint Dunstan Edition)

Here's the link to the book itself, which was published in 1915 (and cost 50 cents).

Below is an iFrame that contains the first page of the Psalm Tone chart; you can scroll through it from this post.



From the Intro:
The following Table of Psalm-tones has been compiled with the purpose of providing greater melodic wealth than is afforded by the Sarum Tonale, while retaining the greater part of the latter in its accustomed order as a basis. To this end, traditional Continental mediations have been added in the forms presented by the Vatican Antiphoner; together with supplementary endings, among which all save the third ending of the fourth Tone are of ancient use, either in England or on the Continent. This exception is a slight modification (made by the Benedictines of Solesmes) of an ancient ending. The additional mediations are distinguished in the Table by the letters B and C; and the solemn mediations for Magnificat by the letter S. Wherever more than a single mediation is given for a Tone, the Sarum form is marked by the letter A. As the numbering of the Sarum endings adopted in recent English Psalters has become widely familiar, it is retained: the additional endings either being substituted for certain of the Sarum set that are practically never used; or else assigned further numbers after the complete enumeration of the Sarum group.

There are more notes at the link. Winfred Douglas is well-known in the Anglican world for his efforts at renewing the chant tradition; here's a bit about him at Cyberhymnal.
While at Syr­a­cuse Un­i­ver­si­ty, Doug­las sang at St. Paul’s Epis­co­pal Ca­thed­ral. He earned his Ba­che­lor of Mu­sic de­gree from Sy­ra­cuse in 1891, then took Ho­ly Or­ders. He moved to Ev­er­green, Col­o­ra­do, for health rea­sons, and be­came an Epis­co­pal priest in 1899. He ed­it­ed the Epis­co­pal New Hymn­al in 1918, and helped de­vel­op the 1940 Epis­co­pal hymn­al as well.

The monastic orders began to revive in England only during the mid-19th Century, fully 300 years after the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII. Winfed Douglas was instrumental in renewing the chant tradition. Here's something about him from the website of the Community of St. Mary East, an Episcopal monastic order from New York:
When the Rev. Canon C. Winfred Douglas became the choirmaster for the Community in 1906, he introduced a new edition of A Manual of Plain Song(4) to the choir, and later his own St. Dunstan Psalter(5). Prior to assuming his new position, he spent time in England, France, and Germany studying early church music. What he always valued most was the course in plainsong given by the Benedictine monks, who, exiled from their home monastery at Solesmes, had taken up residence at Quarr Abbey in the Isle of Wight. In an article for The Catholic Choirmaster published in March 1926, Canon Douglas explained his reasoning for welcoming the opportunity to be choirmaster for the Community of St. Mary.
"Parish Churches are too subject to changing policies with changing rectors for much hope of permanent stability in a musical tradition. It seemed to the writer that seminaries and schools, with their comparatively fixed policies, and above all, religious orders, offered the best field for constructive work... St. Mary's Convent and the group of institutions clustered around it seemed an admirable field for the establishment of a Plainsong tradition."(6)

The transition from modern notation, measured rhythm and polyphonic settings tothe Solesmes method of unison, equi-measured square notation chant presented quite an adjustment for the Sisters. Canon Douglas' patience and skill had them singing

Compline in ten days and the other simple offices over the next weeks. The school girls also learned the chant with the Sisters. Over the years many alumnae returned to Peekskill to sing at major liturgical feasts in St. Mary's Chapel.

The Night Office was first recited in May 1874 from the Neale edition of the Sarum Office(7). On March 12, 1916, a shortened form of the Benedictine Night Hours was introduced(8), and a revision of this came into use Pentecost, June 13, 1943. At Tenebrae and on great feasts such as Christmas, Purification, and Easter, the Night Office was sung in full, adapted from monastic melodies in use in the Latin with local variances since at least the tenth century.