Requiem (Victoria)

In memory of those who've lost their lives in the Philippines this week. Many thanks to this good young choral group for recording and webcasting this beautiful music.




From the YouTube page:

Officium defunctorum
(sex vocibus, in obitu et obsequiis sacrae imperatricis, Madrid, 1605)
by Tomás Luis de Victoria (c. 1548-1611)

Performed by University of North Texas Collegium Singers, directed by Richard Sparks.

Soloists: Laurissa Backlin, Julianna Emanski, Fiona Gillespie, sopranos; Holly Dalrymple (chant incipits); Fabiana Gonzalez, Rachael Hardy, Alyssa Narum, altos; Tucker Bilodeau, Aaron Harp, tenors; Christopher Jackson, bass.

00:50 - Taedet animam meam
04:15 - Introitus
09:45 - Kyrie
12:07 - Graduale
14:45 - Offertorium
18:15 - Sanctus y Benedictus
21:18 - Agnus Dei
24:00 - Communio
27:30 - Motet: Versa est in luctum
30:41 - Libera me

Performance from program "Victoria Requiem" as part of Early Music America's Young Performers Festival June 6, 2012, 2:30 PM, St. Mark's Episcopal Church (Berkeley, CA).

UNT Collegium Singers
Cantus 1 -- Laurissa Backlin, Julianna Emanski, Fiona Gillespie
Cantus 2 -- Holly Dalrymple, Fabiana Gonzalez, Oneyda Padierna
Altus -- Rachael Hardy, Alyssa Narum
Tenor 1 -- Tucker Bilodeau, Aaron Harp
Tenor 2 -- Bradley King, Jonathan Sauceda
Bass -- Christopher Jackson, Nathaniel Mattingly

Performance from program "Victoria Requiem" as part of Early Music America's Young Performers Festival June 6, 2012, 2:30 PM, St. Mark's Episcopal Church (Berkeley, CA).

About this piece, from Wikipedia:

Officium Defunctorum is a musical setting of the Office of the Dead composed by the Spanish Renaissance composer Tomás Luis de Victoria in 1603. It includes settings of the movements of the Requiem Mass, accounting for about 26 minutes of the 42 minute composition, and the work is sometimes referred to as Victoria's Requiem.

History

Officium Defunctorum was composed for the funeral of the Dowager Empress Maria, sister of Philip II of Spain, daughter of Charles V, wife of Maximilian II and mother of two emperors; it was dedicated to Princess Margaret for “the obsequies of your most revered mother”.^[1] The Empress Maria died on February 26, 1603 and the great obsequies were performed on April 22 and 23. Victoria was employed as personal chaplain to the Empress Maria from 1586 to the time of her death.

Victoria published eleven volumes of his music during his lifetime, representing the majority of his compositional output. Officium Defunctorum, the only work to be published by itself, was the eleventh volume and the last work Victoria published. The date of publication, 1605, is often included with the title to differentiate the Officium Defunctorum from Victoria's other setting of the Requiem Mass (in 1583, Victoria composed and published a book of Masses (Reprinted in 1592) including a Missa pro defunctis for four-part choir).

Structure

Officium Defunctorum is scored for six-part SSATTB chorus. It includes an entire Office of the Dead: in addition to a Requiem Mass, Victoria sets an extra-liturgical funeral motet, a lesson that belongs to Matins (scored for only SATB and not always included in concert performances), and the ceremony of Absolution which follows the Mass. Polyphonic sections are separated by unaccompanied chant incipits Victoria printed himself. The Soprano II usually carries the cantus firmus, though "it very often disappears into the surrounding part-writing since the chant does not move as slowly as most cantus firmus parts and the polyphony does not generally move very fast."^[2] The sections of the work are as follows:

• Taedet animam meam

Second Lesson of Matins (Job 10:1-7)

• Missa Pro Defunctis (Mass for the Dead)

With the Council of Trent, the liturgy of the Requiem Mass was standardized. Victoria sets all of the Requiem Mass sections except the Dies Irae sequence.

• Introit
• Kyrie
• Gradual
• Offertory
• Sanctus
• Agnus Dei
• Communion
  

• Versa est in luctum cithara mea (Funeral motet)

• The Absolution: Responsory
  

  • Libera me
  • Kyrie

  
  

All Souls' Day: Requiem Op. 9 (Durufle)

Requiem ( Op. 9):
I. Introit: Requiem aeternam 00:00
II. Kyrie 03:25
III. Domine Jesus Christe 06:57
IV. Sanctus 15:00
V. Pie Jesu 17:41
VI. Agnus Dei 22:00
VII. Lux Aeterna 25:39
VIII. Libera me 29:43
IX. In paradisum 35:10

Durufle, Maurice (1902-86) -composer
Cecilia Bartoli -mezzosoprano
Bryn Terfel -bass-baritone
Myung-Whun Chung -conductor
Coro e Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia

The Requiem, op. 9, by Maurice Duruflé was commissioned in 1947 by the French music publisher Durand and is written in memory of the composer's father. The work is for SATB choir with mezzo-soprano and baritone soloists. It exists in three orchestrations: one for organ alone, one for organ with string orchestra and optional trumpets, harp and timpani, and one for organ and full orchestra.

At the time of commission, Duruflé was working on an organ suite using themes from Gregorian chants. He incorporated his sketches for that work into the Requiem, which uses numerous themes from the Gregorian "Mass for the Dead." Nearly all the thematic material in the work comes from chant.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Requiem_...)

Buy the CD here: http://www.amazon.com/Faur%C3%A9-Duru..

Here's another version, from King's College Cambridge. (It seems the video above cannot be accessed via mobile, for some reason.)

Monastero San Benedetto, Norcia Italy: Requiem

Here's another monastic community - that's a link to their blog - that posts daily audio files of their masses and of the Divine Office; they are Benedictines in Norcia, Italy.  Here's a 2-minute video about their community; they talk about chant but unfortunately don't include any here. 





Today's Mass - "AD MISSAM DE FERIA II : 2 SEP 2013" - is a Requiem, apparently; here's the mp3 of that.  Beautiful.

"Requiem Mass in Honor of Mary Berry"

From The Chant Café:

A Solemn Requiem Mass (in the Extraordinary Form) will be Offered for Dr. Mary Berry (Mother Thomas More, C.N.D.) on May 3, 2013 at 12.15 pm, and sung by the Choir & Choristers of St Stephen the First Martyr, Sacramento, California on the fifth anniversary of her death.

Dr. Mary Berry was an English Augustinian nun - and a musicologist and prominent scholar of chant.  Here's her Wikipedia entry:

Mary Berry, CBE (in religion Sister Thomas More 29 June 1917 – 1 May 2008) was an Augustinian canoness and noted choral conductor and musicologist. She was an authority on the performance of Gregorian chant.

Berry studied at Girton College, Cambridge with Thurston Dart as well going to Paris to study with Nadia Boulanger. In 1970 she received her doctorate from Cambridge after submitting a thesis on the performance of plainsong in the late Middle Ages and the 16th century, and afterwards became a Fellow at Newnham College.

In 1975 Berry founded the Schola Gregoriana of Cambridge for the study and performance of Gregorian chant. The Cantors of the Schola are a group of young, largely professional singers and have performed and recorded extensively under her direction, often working from primary sources. The Schola was one of the first ensembles to perform (and certainly the first to record) music from the Winchester troper after research by Mary Berry and others made the music accessible from the manuscripts.

Berry travelled widely to promote the teaching and singing of Gregorian chant, and organised and participated in many workshops and courses, including Spode Music Week, of which she was a patron. She was a particularly keen advocate for the use of Gregorian chant in its proper liturgical context. Her two introductory books, Plainchant for everyone and Cantors: A collection of Gregorian chants, encourage people to learn the chant, and are often recommended to beginners in the field.

In 2000 she was awarded the Papal Cross Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice, and in the 2002 New Year Honours she was appointed CBE.

New Liturgical Movement posted about her funeral five years ago, here.

Missa pro Defunctis: Libera Me

This is the Gregorian Responsory Libera Me, here sung by the Schola Bellarmina:



Libera me is sung at both the Office of the Dead and at the absolution of the dead after the Requiem mass, before the burial.  Here's the text:

Líbera me, Dómine, de morte ætérna, in die illa treménda:
Quando cœli movéndi sunt et terra.
Dum véneris iudicáre sæculum per ignem.
Tremens factus sum ego, et tímeo, dum discússio vénerit, atque ventúra ira.
Quando cœli movendi sunt et terra.
Dies illa, dies iræ, calamitátis et misériæ, dies magna et amára valde.
Dum véneris iudicáre sæculum per ignem.
Réquiem ætérnam dona eis, Dómine: et lux perpétua lúceat eis.

Deliver me, O Lord, from death eternal on that fearful day,
When the heavens and the earth shall be moved,
When thou shalt come to judge the world by fire.
I am made to tremble, and I fear, till the judgment be upon us, and the coming wrath,
When the heavens and the earth shall be moved.
That day, day of wrath, calamity, and misery, day of great and exceeding bitterness,
When thou shalt come to judge the world by fire.
Rest eternal grant unto them, O Lord: and let light perpetual shine upon them.

Here's the chant score, courtesy of MusicaSacra:

 
Here's more about Libera Me:

Libera Me is begun by a cantor, who sings the versicles alone, and the responses are sung by the choir. The text is written in the first person singular, "Deliver me, O Lord, from eternal death on that fearful day," a dramatic substitution in which the choir speaks for the dead person.

In the traditional Office, Libera Me is also said on All Souls' Day (2 November) and whenever all three nocturns of Matins of the Dead are recited. On other occasions, the ninth responsory of Matins for the Dead begins with "Libera me", but continues with a different text (Domine, de viis inferni, etc.).

Here's the Libera Me from Gabriel Fauré's Requiem, sung on All Souls' Day 2011 at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Times Sq. NY:




Here are links to posts on this blog, for all the movements of the Requiem mass:

• Missa pro Defunctis: Requiem aeternam (Introitus)
• Missa pro Defunctis: Requiem aeternam (Introitus) and Kyrie Eleison
• Missa pro Defunctis: Requiem aeternam (Graduale)
• Missa pro Defunctis: Absolve, Domine (Tractus)
• Missa pro Defunctis: Sicut Cervus (An alternate Tract)
• Missa pro Defunctis: Dies irae (Sequentia)
• Missa pro Defunctis: Domine Jesu Christe (Offertorium)
• Missa pro Defunctis: Sanctus and Agnus Dei
• Missa pro Defunctis: Communio
• Missa pro Defunctis: Libera Me
• Missa pro defunctis: In Paradisum

Missa pro defunctis: In Paradisum

In Paradisum is the final chant of the Requiem mass, an antiphon sung as the body is being carried out of the church to be buried.  Here it's sung by the Alfred Deller Consort.



Here's the text:

In paradisum deducant te Angeli; in tuo adventu suscipiant te martyres, et perducant te in civitatem sanctam Ierusalem. Chorus angelorum te suscipiat, et cum Lazaro quondam paupere æternam habeas requiem.

May angels lead you into paradise; upon your arrival, may the martyrs receive you and lead you to the holy city of Jerusalem. May the ranks of angels receive you, and with Lazarus, once a poor man, may you have eternal rest.

Here's the full  chant score:

More about In Paradisum:

The Gregorian melody for In paradisum is in the Mixolydian mode. The special nature of this mode — with its lowered seventh degree, which makes it different from the modern major mode — is heard twice in this melody at cadences on the words Chorus Angelorum and quondam paupere. The melodic highpoint of In paradisum comes on the name of Lazarus, the poor beggar in the Bible who went to heaven while a rich man went to hell.

Here's the In Paradisum from Gabriel Fauré's Requiem, sung on All Souls' Day 2011 at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Times Sq. NY:




Here are links to posts on this blog, for all the movements of the Requiem mass:

• Missa pro Defunctis: Requiem aeternam (Introitus)
• Missa pro Defunctis: Requiem aeternam (Introitus) and Kyrie Eleison
• Missa pro Defunctis: Requiem aeternam (Graduale)
• Missa pro Defunctis: Absolve, Domine (Tractus)
• Missa pro Defunctis: Sicut Cervus (An alternate Tract)
• Missa pro Defunctis: Dies irae (Sequentia)
• Missa pro Defunctis: Domine Jesu Christe (Offertorium)
• Missa pro Defunctis: Sanctus and Agnus Dei
• Missa pro Defunctis: Communio
• Missa pro Defunctis: Libera Me
• Missa pro defunctis: In Paradisum

For All Souls' Day: Messe de Requiem, Gabriel Fauré

From the YouTube page, this is:

The first movement from Gabriel Fauré's Messe de Requiem. Performed at the Solemn Mass on All Souls' Day, 2nd November 2011. The choir of the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, New York City, James Kennerley, Organist and Music Director. This version is an excellent arrangement by David Hill for organ, violin, 'cello and harp accompaniment. It is published by Novello.

All the videos are here, on James Kennerly's YouTube page; here they are, too, each linked below:

1. Introït
2. Offertoire
3. Sanctus
4. Pie Jesu
5. Agnus Dei & Lux Aeterna
6. Libera me
7. In Paradisum

Here's more about the Fauré Requiem.  The movements are in the following order (links below to Wikipedia articles about each item):

• I. Introït et Kyrie (D minor)
• II. Offertoire (B minor)
• III. Sanctus (E flat major)
• IV. Pie Jesu (B flat major)
• V. Agnus Dei et Lux Aeterna (F major)
• VI. Libera me (D minor)
• VII. In Paradisum (D major)

Here's more about Requiem masses on this blog.  And here's the complete All Souls Days Office.

Abschied von Otto von Habsburg - Die berühmte Anklopfzeremonie

"Farewell to Otto von Habsburg - The famous 'knocking ceremony'."



According to Ludwig von Mises Institute, here is what's being done and said on the video:

AFTER A requiem at Vienna’s St Stephen’s Cathedral, the funeral party entered Vienna’s Capuchin Friary (Kapuzinerkirche) after the following “knocking” ceremony.

FIRST KNOCK

Capuchin Friar : “Who desires admission?”

Leader of funeral party: “Otto of Austria, former Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary, Prince Royal of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia, of Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia, Galicia, Lodomeria and Illyria; Grand Duke of Tuscany and Cracow; Duke of Lorraine, Salzburg, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola and Bukowina; Grand Prince of Transylvania, Margrave of Moravia; Duke of Upper and Lower Silesia, Modena, Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla, of Osweicim and Zator, of Teschen, Friaul, Dubrovnik and Zadar; Princely Count of Habsburg and Tyrol, of Kyburg, Gorizia and Gradisca; Prince of Trento and Brixen; Margrave of Upper and Lower Lusatia and Istria: Count of Hohenems, Feldkirch, Bregenz, Sonnenburg; Lord of Trieste, Kotor and Windic March; Grand Voivod of the Voivodship of Serbia”

Friar : “We do not know him!”

SECOND KNOCK

Friar : “Who desires admission?”

Leader : “Dr Otto von Habsburg; President and Honorary President of the Pan-European Union; Member and Father of the House of the European Parliament; Holder of honorary doctorates from countless universities and freeman of many communities in Central Europe; Member of numerous noble academies and institutes; Bearer of high and highest awards, decorations and honours of church and state made to him in recognition of his decade-long struggle for the freedom of peoples, for right and justice.”

Friar: “We do not know him!”

THIRD KNOCK

Friar : “Who desires admission?”

Leader : “Otto — a mortal, sinful man!”

Friar: “Let him be admitted."

Which is just perfect, I think.

The funeral took place on July 17, I believe. Otto von Habsburg was the last Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary from 1916 - when he was 4 years old - until the empire was dissolved in 1918. According to Wikipedia:

Otto was active on the Austrian and European political stage from the 1930s, both by promoting the cause of Habsburg restoration as well as an early proponent of European integration—being thoroughly disgusted with nationalism—and a fierce opponent of Nazism and communism. He has been described as one of the leaders of the Austrian anti-Nazi resistance. After the 1938 Anschluss, monarchists were severely persecuted in Austria, and—sentenced to death by the Nazis—Otto fled to the United States, with a visa issued by Aristides de Sousa Mendes.

The Requiem Mass, by Michael Haydn, is online, too; it begins here, with the Introit:

Requiem in c-moll
Missa pro defuncto Archiepiscopo Sigismondo
Michael Haydn (1737 — 1806)
Domchor & Domorchester St. Stephan
Hans Haselböck, Orgel
Leitung: Domkapellmeister Markus Landerer
Sopran: Tünde Szabóki
Alt: Alice Rath
Tenor: Gernot Heinrich
Bass: Günter Haumer
Orgel beim Requiem: Anne Marie Dragosits