O Nata Lux

Via Saturday Chorale, a beautiful polyphonic setting of the hymn for Lauds at the August 6 Feast of the Transfiguration. A short quote from the composer, Guy Forbes, acts as preface to the video (which is actually just audio!):

When I decided to set the O Nata Lux text to music, I consciously decided to take a different approach to the text than some composers of late. I focused on the idea of "light born of light" rather than something more akin to the "mystery of birth." The opening material of the piece is therefore, in a sense, a depiction of light breaking upon the world in a vibrant, visible way. The following section, "dinare clemens supplicum," has the melodic material divided between several parts. The idea here is that although we come together to ask God that our praises and prayers be deemed worthy and accepted, we make these requests as individuals. The picture, if you will, is of a group standing before God with each individually making his/her request, but with all echoing the thoughts and prayers of the others. – Guy Forbes.



The Louisville Cardinal Singers sing Guy Forbes' "O Nata Lux" which is elegantly lined with full, lush chords. This was sung at the New Music Festival at the University of Louisville in November, 2010.

Here are the words in Latin, with English translation:

O nata lux de lumine,
Jesu redemptor saeculi,
Dignare clemens supplicum
Laudes preces que sumere.

Qui carne quondam contegi
Dignatus es pro perditis.
Nos membra confer effici,
Tui beati corporis.

O Light born of Light,
Jesus, redeemer of the world,
with loving-kindness deign to receive
suppliant praise and prayer.

Thou who once deigned to be clothed in flesh
for the sake of the lost,
grant us to be members
of thy blessed body.

O Sacrum Convivium IV

This hymn in praise of the Blessed Sacrament seems to give rise to very beautiful polyphonic compositions - and this piece by the Lithuanian composer Vytautas Miskinis is no exception.



This comes from the YouTube page:

The Stanford Chamber Chorale, under the direction of Stephen M. Sano, performs "O Sacrum Convivium" by Lithuanian composer Vytautas Miskinis (b. 1954). The video is taken from the Chorale's fall 2011 concert, "There is Sweet Music Here," on December 3, 2011 in Stanford Memorial Church. For more information on the Chorale, please visit our website: http://chorale.stanford.edu/

And here again is the lovely text, from Wikipedia:

O Sacrum Convivium is a Latin prose text honoring the Blessed Sacrament. It was written by Saint Thomas Aquinas. It was included in the Latin Catholic liturgy as an antiphon on the feast of Corpus Christi. Its sentiments express the profound mystery of the Eucharistic miracle: "O sacred banquet at which Christ is consumed, the memory of his Passion is recalled, our souls are filled with grace, and the pledge of future glory is given to us."

Original Latin (punctuation from Liber Usualis):

O sacrum convivium!
in quo Christus sumitur:
recolitur memoria passionis ejus:
mens impletur gratia:
et futurae gloriae nobis pignus datur.
Alleluia.

Translation of original Latin:

O sacred banquet!
in which Christ is received,
the memory of his Passion is renewed,
the mind is filled with grace,
and a pledge of future glory to us is given.
Alleluia.

HT Saturday Chorale.

Sederunt principes (Pérotin)

Wow.  From the YouTube page:

Sederunt principes - Pérotin (1160?-1230)
Rearranged by New York Polyphony and Lizzie Ball

Recorded live at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Times Square, New York City.

Sederunt principes is the proper Introit for the Feast of St. Stephen (December 26); the text comes from various verses (23 and 86, and then Verse 1) of Psalm 119:

Sederunt principes,et adversum me loquebantur; et iniqui persecuti sunt me; adjuva me, Domine Deus meus, quia servus tuus exercebatur in tuis justificationibus. Ps. Beati immaculati in via, qui ambulant in lege Domini. V. Gloria Patri.

Princes sat, and spoke against me; and sinners persecuted me: help me, O Lord my God, for thy servant hath practised thy commandments. Ps. Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. V. Glory, &c.

A little more about this piece, from Wikipedia:

Pérotin composed organa, the earliest type of polyphonic music; previous European music, such as Gregorian and other types of chant, had been monophonic. He pioneered the styles of organum triplum and organum quadruplum (three and four-part polyphony); in fact his Sederunt principes and Viderunt omnes are among only a few organa quadrupla known.

A prominent feature of his compositional style was to take a simple, well-known melody and stretch it out in time, so that each syllable was hundreds of seconds long, and then use each note of the melody (the tenor, Latin for "holder", or cantus firmus) as the basis for rhythmically complex, interweaving lines above it. The result was that one or more vocal parts sang free, quickly moving lines ("discants") over the chant below, which was extended to become a slowly shifting drone.

Exaudi, Domine (The Introit for the 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time)

Here's an mp3 of the introit from JoguesChant, and this is how they translate the Latin:

Hearken, O Lord, unto my voice which has called out to you; deign to be my help, forsake me not, do not despise me, O God my Saviour. The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?

Here's the score:

Interestingly, the Benedictines of Brazil note that the text is taken from Psalm 27, verses 7-9 and then 1 - exactly as was the Introit for the Seventh Sunday of Easter, just a few weeks ago.  This one is slightly different, though; the Benedictines call the Easter 7 Introit Exaudi, Domine... tibi dixit, and they call this one Exaudi, Domine....adiutor, because the texts differ in their middle sections - but they are very much alike.

The whole thing is mysterious, to me! I'm trying to do some quick figuring, wondering why this happened - but I've come up with nothing so far. Easter 7 is the Sunday following the Ascension, and this one is the 3rd Sunday after Pentecost - and so?   Well, maybe something will come to me.

The traditional Introit for today was Respice in me, taken from Psalm 25, verses 16, 18, and then 1-2.  Here's the mp3 for that one, from ReneGoupil, and there chant score and translation below:

Look upon me and have mercy on me, O Lord; for I am abandoned and destitute; consider my abjection and my labour, and forgive me all my sins, my dear God. Unto you, O Lord, have I lifted up my soul; O my God, I trust in you; let me not be put to shame.

The RCL Gospel reading is Mark 4:26-34 - the parables of the scattered seed and the mustard seed:

Jesus said, "The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come."

He also said, "With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade."

With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples.

 Robert Farrar Capon writes, in "Kingdom, Grace, Judgment: Paradox, Outrage, and Vindication in the Parables of Jesus," about the parable of the growing seed:

First and foremost, [the parable] ties the imagery [of seed] expressly, within the parable itself, to the kingdom: "The kingdom of God," Jesus says, "is as if a man should cast seed upon the ground." Note the strength, even the extravagance, of the comparison: the kingdom is presented as the very thing sown. The kingdom is not the result of the sowing of something quite different from itself (in which it would be contained only virtually, as a plant is contained in a seed); rather, the kingdom as such is present, in all its power, right from the start. Moreover, by the very force of the imagery of sowing, the seed is clearly to be understood as having been sownin this world, squarely in the midst of every human and even every earthly condition.  This emphasis on the kingdom as a worldly, not just an otherworldly piece of business was already clear in the Sower; but Jesus' repetition of it here as well as later makes me want to underscore it.

....

The kingdom Jesus proclaims is at hand, planted here, at work in this world.  The Word sown is none other than God himself incarnate.  By his death and resurrection at Jerusalem in A.D. 29, he reconciles everything, everywhere, to himself - whether they be things on earth or things in heaven.  And at the end, when he makes all things new, he makes not just a new heaven but a new earth - a glorified re-creation of nothing less than his old stamping ground.  The Bible's last chapters proclaim a heaven and earth more inextricably intertwined than ever.  Whatever else the "New Jerusalem" may signify, it says plainly that the final "heaven" will be as earthy as the eschatological earth will be heavenly - and that that's the way it is going to be forever.

The (Episcopal Church) collect for today is this one:

Keep, O Lord, your household the Church in your steadfast faith and love, that through your grace we may proclaim your truth with boldness, and minister your justice with compassion; for the sake of our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

 Hatchett's Commentary says this:

This collect is new, but the preamble includes quotations from the collects for the fifth Sunday after the Epiphany, the second Sunday after Trinity, and the twenty-second Sunday after Trinity in earlier Prayer Books.  The prayer was drafted by the Rev. Dr. Massey H. Shepherd, Jr.  It portrays the church's misssion to the world - a ministry of proclamation of the gospel and of social concern and action.  In order that we may fulfill this mission we pray that the church might be kept in God's steadfast faith and love.

 

"Evelyn Underhill – Call to the Inner Life"

From Interrupting the Silence; Evelyn Underhill died on June 15, 1941.

Sometime around 1931 Evelyn Underhill wrote a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cosmo Gordon Lang (1928-1942), about the inner life of the clergy. Her concern was that the multiplicity of the clergy’s duties had diminished some priests’ grounding in a life of prayer.

Underhill’s concerns are as relevant today, perhaps more so, as they were when she wrote the letter. However, we should not limit her concerns and proposals to only the clergy. They are equally applicable to the laity. The life of the Church and the life of humanity, lay or ordained, must begin within and arise out of a life of prayer.

The following are excerpts from her letter:

• “Call the clergy as a whole, solemnly and insistently to a greater interiority and cultivation of the personal life of prayer.”
• “The real failures, difficulties and weaknesses of the Church are spiritual and can only be remedied by spiritual effort and sacrifice, and that her deepest need is a renewal, first in the clergy and through them in the laity; of the great Christian tradition of the inner life.”
• “A disciplined priesthood of theocentric souls.”
• “We look to the clergy to help and direct our spiritual growth. We are seldom satisfied because with a few noble exceptions they are so lacking in spiritual realism, so ignorant of the laws and experiences of the life of prayer. Their Christianity as a whole is humanitarian rather than theocentric.”
• “God is the interesting thing about religion, and people are hungry for God. But only a priest whose life is soaked in prayer, sacrifice, and love can, by his own spirit of adoring worship, help us to apprehend Him.”
• “However difficult and apparently unrewarding, care for the interior spirit is the first duty of every priest. Divine renewal can only come through those whose roots are in the world of prayer.”
• “We instantly recognize those services and sermons that are the outward expression of the priest’s interior adherence to God and the selfless love of souls.”
• “I know that recovering the ordered interior life of prayer and meditation will be very difficult for clergy immersed increasingly in routine work. It will mean for many a complete rearrangement of values and a reduction of social activities. They will not do it unless they are made to feel its crucial importance.”

Here's the Collect for the celebration of Evelyn Underhill's day, from Lesser Feasts and Fasts

O God, Origin, Sustainer, and End of all creatures: Grant that your Church, taught by your  servant Evelyn Underhill, guarded evermore by your power and guided by your Spirit into the light of truth, may continually offer to you all glory and thanksgiving, and attain with your saints to the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have promised us by our Savior Jesus Christ; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Anglican Chant XIX: Psalm 57

From the YouTube page:

Anglican Chant Setting Sung during Choral Evensong at Trinity Cathedral (Episcopal) in Cleveland, Ohio May 19, 2010 Trinity Chamber Singers. Horst Buchholz, Choirmaster Nicole Keller, Organist.  May 19, 2010.

This choir is good - I like them more each time I hear them - and this is a really nice setting. I can't figure out why nobody ever includes the chant composer, though! It's bizarre. Can anybody help?  [EDIT:  Scott, as usual, can:  "They're chanting from the Anglican Chant Psalter published by Church Hymnal Corp., edited by Alec Wyton. The chant is No. 126 in that book, a single chant in D major by Frederick A. Gore Ouseley (1825-1889). They're starting with v. 6 of the psalm; the first five verses of the psalm are set to a D minor version of the same chant (same contours to the lines, but altered to make it minor). Something similar is done with the other setting for this psalm, two versions of a single chant by Purcell, a minor version and its parallel major." Thanks again, Scott!]



NOT the Coverdale Psalter this time, but beautiful anyway! They're singing verses 6-11 only fomr the Psalm; here's the whole thing, though:

Psalm 57 Miserere mei, Deus

1 Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful, for I have taken refuge in you; *
in the shadow of your wings will I take refuge until this time of trouble has gone by.

2 I will call upon the Most High God, *
the God who maintains my cause.

3 He will send from heaven and save me; he will confound those who trample upon me; *
God will send forth his love and his faithfulness.

4 I lie in the midst of lions that devour the people; *
their teeth are spears and arrows, their tongue a sharp sword.

5 They have laid a net for my feet, and I am bowed low; *
they have dug a pit before me, but have fallen into it themselves.

6 Exalt yourself above the heavens, O God, *
and your glory over all the earth.

7 My heart is firmly fixed, O God, my heart is fixed; *
I will sing and make melody.

8 Wake up, my spirit; awake, lute and harp; *
I myself will waken the dawn.

9 I will confess you among the peoples, O LORD; *
I will sing praise to you among the nations.

10 For your loving-kindness is greater than the heavens, *
and your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.

11 Exalt yourself above the heavens, O God, *
and your glory over all the earth.

Anglican Chant XVIII: Psalm 69 (Save Me, O God), Choir of Gloucester Cathedral

From the YouTube page:

The Choir of Gloucester Cathedral, under the direction of John Sanders, sing the sixty-ninth Psalm to an Anglican chant for choir and organ. In Psalm 69 ('Salvum Me Fac'), a gutting yet beautiful psalm of despair, the psalmist, having sunk deep into the mire of emotional and spiritual anguish, cries out to God for deliverance from his sorrow.

[ Text: ]

Save me, O God; for the waters are come in, even unto my soul.I stick fast in the deep mire, where no ground is; I am come into deep waters, so that the floods run over me. I am weary of crying; my throat is dry; my sight faileth me for waiting so long upon my God.

They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head; they that are mine enemies, and would destroy me guiltless, are mighty. I paid them the things that I never took.

God, thou knowest my simpleness, and my faults are not hid from thee. Let not them that trust in thee, O Lord GOD of hosts, be ashamed for my cause; let not those that seek thee be confounded through me, O Lord God of Israel.

And why? for thy sake have I suffered reproof; shame hath covered my face. I am become a stranger unto my brethren, even an alien unto my mother's children. For the zeal of thine house hath even eaten me; and the rebukes of them that rebuked thee are fallen upon me.

I wept, and chastened myself with fasting, and that was turned to my reproof.I put on sackcloth also, and they jested upon me. They that sit in the gate speak against me, and the drunkards make songs upon me.

But, LORD, I make my prayer unto thee in an acceptable time. Hear me, O God, in the multitude of thy mercy, even in the truth of thy salvation: take me out of the mire, that I sink not; O let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters. Let not the water-flood drown me, neither let the deep swallow me up; and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me. Hear me, O LORD, for thy loving-kindness is comfortable; turn thee unto me according to the multitude of thy mercies. And hide not thy face from thy servant; for I am in trouble: O haste thee, and hear me. Draw nigh unto my soul, and save it; O deliver me, because of mine enemies.

Thou hast known my reproach, my shame, and my dishonour: mine adversaries are all in thy sight. Reproach hath broken my heart; I am full of heaviness: I looked for some to have pity on me, but there was no man, neither found I any to comfort me. They gave me gall to eat; and when I was thirsty they gave me vinegar to drink.

Let their table be made a snare to take themselves withal; and let the things that should have been for their wealth be unto them an occasion of falling. Let their eyes be blinded, that they see not; and ever bow thou down their backs.Pour out thine indignation upon them, and let thy wrathful displeasure take hold of them. Let their habitation be void, and no man to dwell in their tents.

For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten; and they talk how they may vex them whom thou hast wounded. Let them fall from one wickedness to another, and not come into thy righteousness. Let them be wiped out of the book of the living, and not be written among the righteous.

As for me, when I am poor and in heaviness, thy help, O God, shall lift me up. I will praise the Name of God with a song, and magnify it with thanksgiving. This also shall please the LORD better than a bullock that hath horns and hoofs.

The humble shall consider this, and be glad: seek ye after God, and your soul shall live. For the LORD heareth the poor, and despiseth not his prisoners. Let heaven and earth praise him: the sea, and all that moveth therein.

For God will save Sion, and build the cities of Judah, that men may dwell there, and have it in possession.The posterity also of his servants shall inherit it; and they that love his Name shall dwell therein.

Nothing at the page about the composer; will post if I get that information (help, Scott!).  [EDIT:  A commenter notes that the composer(s) are J. Barnby and Charles Hylton Stewart.  Many thanks to him or her!]