"A Mass For Recusants With Propers for Corpus Christi"

There's an interesting post at Saturday Chorale (a great site new to me) about this William Byrd mass.  It includes a setting of the mass ordinary - and polyphonic settings of the propers for Corpus Christi. Here's the video itself (45 minutes long):



Here's the opening of the post at Saturday Chorale, explaining the circumstances in which Byrd lived and wrote this mass:

William Byrd was a brave and stubborn man, a devout Catholic in a country whose government and people were becoming more and more Protestant he was able to use his position as a favourite of Elizabeth I to mitigate the worst of the punishments meted out to him and his family as recusants. Notwithstanding Elizabeth I's protection Byrd's home was often subjected to raids during which it and its inhabitants were searched for compromising Catholic materials, had such been found Byrd would at the very least have faced crippling fines and could well have faced imprisonment or even being put to death. Given these circumstances it took courage to set any Latin texts whatsoever. Byrd however went well beyond merely setting Latin religious texts. With the stubborn heroism that seems to have been one of his defining characteristics Byrd not only set but published three settings of the Mass between 1593 and 1595.

Here's a note at the YouTube page, listing all the music on the video:

The music in this video consists of Byrd's five part Mass and (some of) the Propers for Corpus Christi. The music in the video consists of:

1 Cibavit eos
2 Kyrie
3 Gloria
4 Oculi omnium
5 Lauda Sion salvatorem
6 Credo
7 Sacerdotes Domini
8a Sanctus
8b Benedictus
9 Quotiescunque manducabitis
10 Agnus Dei
11 Processional Hymn, Pange lingua gloriosi

The blogger provides a PDF at the post, too, with texts for all the above. A wonderful post! And there's much more to read there - so, go.

O Sacrum Convivium III

Here's Thomas Tallis' version of this Eucharistic hymn, sung by the Choir of St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.



Here's Olivier Messaien's setting (which the choir at St. Mary the Virgin sang this morning at the Feast of the Body & Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi); this is The Cambridge Singers, with John Rutter conducting:



The text was written by St. Thomas Aquinas in the 13th Century; below are the Latin and English words.

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

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 to us. Alleluia.

Here, Psallentes sings the Gregorian antiphon, and they include this note: "The antiphon O sacrum convivium, from a sixteenth century Turnhout processionale (Flanders, ca. 1550)."



And here's Giovanni Viannini's Ambrosian chant version:



This is from the YouTube page:

O Sacrum convivium, Inno, Sallenda ambrosiana, nella liturgia della chiesa milanese, Studio del canto ambrosiano; Giovanni Vianini, Schola Gregoriana Mediolanensis, 02 70.104.245, www.cantoambrosiano.com, Milano, Italia

Cibavit eos and Factus est Dominus protector meus

Cibavit eos

Cibavit eos ("He fed them") is the Introit for The Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ (AKA Corpus Christi, which is celebrated variously on its day - June 7th, this year - or this Sunday, June 10). Here it is sung by the Schola Gregoriana Aurea Luce:



Here's a translation of this from JoguesChant; here's the mp3 from their site:

He fed them with the finest of wheat, alleluia; and with honey from the rock he satisfied them, alleluia, alleluia. Rejoice in honour of God our helper; shout for joy to the God of Jacob.

The text comes from Psalm 81; here's the score, from the Liber Usualis:



William Byrd set this Introit; the names of the singers are given at the start of the video, but otherwise there's no information about it:





Factus est Dominus protector meus

However, Corpus Christi is not feast day in the Episcopal Church; in fact, it's not on our calendar at all. This Sunday is simply the Second Sunday after Pentecost (and June 10 is the feast day of Ephrem the Syrian); interestingly, the Extraordinary Form presents it as the Second Sunday after Pentecost, noting that the day is optionally celebrated as the "External Solemnity of Corpus Christi" - and is "only an option if there is a procession."

The Introit for the Second Sunday after Pentecost is Factus est Dominus protector meus" ("The Lord has become my protector"). Here's a lovely mp3 recording, from Renegoupil, and below is the chant score and translation.

The Lord has become my protector; he has brought me forth into free and open spaces; he delivered me because he was well pleased with me. I will love you always, O Lord my strength; the Lord is my support, my refuge and my deliverer.

The text comes from Psalm 18. The introductory note to this Psalm reads "For the director of music. Of David the servant of the Lord. He sang to the Lord the words of this song when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul."

Here's a helpful post titled "Learning to sing the Introit for 8th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Factus est Dominus" from the website of the St Mary Magdalen Choir, Brighton.

One interesting thing about this Introit is that it's also the Introit for the "Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time" - which sometimes happens before Lent! So the chant propers for this Sunday are sometimes sung as part of the "Ordinary Time" that comes after the Feast of the Epiphany - and sometimes as part of the "Ordinary Time" that comes after the Feast of Pentecost. I think I'll go back and take a look at all of them, to see how that works out in practice!

Another interesting thing is that I find very few English translations of this Psalm that use the word "Protector" anywhere; most use other, much more interesting words: "my deliverer"; "my rock"; "my shield"; "the horn of my salvation"; "my stronghold." So I'll be interested to take a look at that as well.

The Collect for the Second Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 5) is this one:

O God, from whom all good proceeds: Grant that by your inspiration we may think those things that are right, and by your merciful guiding may do them; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Hatchett's Commentary says, about this collect, that:

Earlier Prayer Books and the Sarum missal appointed this collect for the fifth Sunday after Easter, but it has been replaced there with one more appropriate to the Easter season. The Gelasian sacramentary (no. 556) and the supplement to the Gregorian (no. 1123) both contain the collect for the fourth Sunday after the Easter octave. The opening of the petition, prior to this edition, read "Grant to us they humble servants, that by thy holy inspiration we may think those things that are good." The word "good" in this context was subject to misinterpretation; "right" restores the original Latin connotation.

Worship

From Evelyn Underhill's Worship, 1936:

The painted cave of those prehistoric worshippers of an unknown God who were "simple-minded enough to give of their best to the supra-sensible powers," the Pagan temple, the Christian cathedral, are all expressions of the same fundamental human need to incoporate, make visible, the spirit of worship; to lavish skill, labour, and wealth on this most apparently "useless" of all the activities of man. So, too, the ritual chant, with its accompaniment of ceremonial movement and manual acts, is found to exert a stablizing influence at every level of his religious life. And when this costly and explicit embodiment is lacking, or is rejected where once possessed, and the Godward life of the community is not given some sensible and institutional expression within the social complex, worship seldom develops its full richness and power. It remains thin, abstract, and notional: a tendency, an attitude, a general aspiration, moving alongside human life, rather than in it.

It is true that worship, when thus embodied, loses - or seems to lose - something of its purity; but only then can it take up and use man's various powers and capacities, turning the whole creature towards the Eternal, and thus entering the texture of his natural as well as his supernatural life. Certainly, it is here that we encounter the greatest of the dangers that accompany its long history; the danger that form will smother spirit, ritual action take the place of spontaneous prayer, the outward and visible sign obscure the inward grace. But the risk is one which man is bound to take. He is not "pure" spirit, and is not capable of "pure" spiritual acts. Even though in his worship he moves out towards absolutes, and in and through that worship absolutes are revealed to his soul, it is at his own peril that leaves the world of sense behind, in his approach to the God Who created and informs it. This humbling truth must govern all his responses to Reality.

Evensong at Grace Church, NYC

The Grace Church (this one) Choir of Men & Boys sings Evensong, courtesy of On-Demand Worship on the Episcopal Church website. Haven't listened to it through yet, so I'm not sure what evening; tell me in the comments, once you've heard the collect and the readings! [EDIT: Never mind. This video is only about 15 minutes long, so it must just be excerpts. But it's Psalm 114; that'll tell us something!}



If you click "Channel" on the right side of the video, you can listen to other worship-service videos from, it looks like, a variety of different parishes.

The Corpus Christi Carol: The faucon hath born my mak away

Here's English composer Geoffrey Burgon's setting of this song; this piece was written in 2001, but the carol itself is about 500 years old (see below).  It's beautiful.  The Feast of Corpus Christi is tomorrow, June 7.



Here are the words, and below that, the entire Wikipedia entry for this topic.

Lulley, lully, lulley, lully,
The faucon hath born my mak away.

He bare hym up, he bare hym down,
He bare hym into an orchard brown.

In that orchard ther was an hall,
That was hanged with purpill and pall.

And in that hall ther was a bede,
Hit was hangid with gold so rede.

And yn that bede ther lythe a knyght,
His wowndes bledyng day and nyght.

By that bedes side ther kneleth a may,
And she wepeth both nyght and day.

And by that bedes side ther stondith a ston,
"Corpus Christi" wretyn theron.

Some word meanings:

faucon: falcon
mak: mate, love
bare: bore, carried
purpill: purple (the royal color)
pall: a funeral pall, a cloth spread over a coffin
bede: bed
rede: red
lythe: lieth, lies
wowndes: wounds
bledyng: bleeding
kneleth: kneeleth, kneels
may: maid, maiden
wepeth: weepeth, weeps
stondith: standeth, stands
ston: stone
Corpus Christi: body of Christ (Latin)
wretyn: written


From Wikipedia:

Corpus Christi Carol is a Middle or Early Modern English hymn (or carol), first found by an apprentice grocer named Richard Hill in a manuscript written around 1504. The original writer of the carol remains anonymous.

The structure of the carol is seven stanzas, each with rhyming couplets. The use of seven stanzas possibly has religious significance. Seven is a number that is considered perfect, which would make sense as Christ is mentioned in the seventh stanza. The tense changes in the fifth stanza from past to present continuous.

One theory about the meaning of the carol is that it is concerned with the legend of the Holy Grail. In Arthurian traditions of the Grail story, the Fisher King is the knight who is the Grail's protector, and whose legs are perpetually wounded.^[1]When he is wounded his kingdom suffers and becomes a wasteland. This would explain the reference to "an orchard brown".

The text may be an allegory in which the crucified is described as a wounded knight. The bleeding knight could be Christ who bleeds for the sins of humanity endlessly. Christ is most probably represented as a knight as he is battling sin and evil by his continual pain. The "orchard brown" to which the knight was conveyed becomes, in this reading, the "orchard" of wooden crosses that covered the hill of Golgotha/Calvary where Christ - along with many others - was Crucified, while the "hall... hanged with purpill and pall" could be a representation of the tomb in which Christ was placed after Crucifixion. This allegorical interpretation would tie in with the seven stanzas possibly representing the Seven Deadly Sins. The maiden who is by the knight's side could be Mary. There is religious symbolism throughout the carol. The falcon may have several possible meanings. It may be that, as a bird of prey, it represents those who killed Christ and sent him to heaven. It may also represent a new beginning and freedom, which Christ gained on his death. The colours in the carol are also significant. The purple and gold are signs of wealth, although these were also colours that referred to the Church due to its wealth. The pall (black velvet) probably refers to death.

One recent interpretation is that it was composed about the execution of Anne Boleyn, wife of Henry VIII, whose badge was a falcon. However, since Anne Boleyn was killed in 1536 and the earliest copy carol yet found is from 1504, this is most unlikely.

Some information about the song's use in music history:

Peter Warlock have used the carol in composition and applied it to those that died at war in 1919.

Benjamin Britten used it in the fifth variation of "A Boy Was Born" (Choral Variations For Mixed Voices), Opus 3, in 1933.

John Gerrish wrote an arrangement for it in 1957, titled "The Falcon."

Ian Read's English Neo-folk band Fire + Ice, performs a version of this song on their 1992 album Gilded by the Sun

Singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley included his interpretation of Britten's work on his debut 1994 album, Grace. About his version Buckley said, "The 'Carol' is a fairytale about a falcon who takes the beloved of the singer to an orchard. The singer goes looking for her and arrives at a chamber where his beloved lies next to a bleeding knight and a tomb with Christ's body in it."^[2]

Scottish singer-songwriter Archie Fisher performs a version of this song, 'Looly, Looly', on his album 'Will Ye Gang, Love' (1994)

It has been set for unaccompanied choir by Norwegian composer Trond Kverno in 1995.

The carol is featured in The Choirboys's album, The Choirboys, released in 2005.

In 2007 it was sung in Season 1, Episode 2 of the drama on Showtime, The Tudors.

New Zealand soprano Hayley Westenra sings this on her album "Winter Magic", released in November 2009.

The Chapel choir of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge recorded a choral version of the Corpus Christi Carol on their 2009 album, Ave Virgo.^[3]

English guitarist Jeff Beck performs his interpretation on his 2010 album, Emotion & Commotion. In the album liner notes, Beck states that Jeff Buckley inspired his cover of this piece: "When I heard Jeff Buckley's album, the simplicity and the beauty of the way he sounded amazed me."

Here's the Jeff Buckley version:



Here's the Corpus Christi Office.

A Matins Invitatory for Trinity: Deum verum

Sung by Psallentes, a great Belgian chant group:



Below is the full text of the Matins Invitatory, from Breviary.net.  [EDIT:  That site requires registration and asks for a subscription fee now, but Divinum Officium will give you the text for Trinity Matins; just enter 5-26-2013 for this year's date of Trinity Sunday.]

Deum verum, unum in Trinitáte, et Trinitátem in Unitáte, * Veníte, adorémus.	Very God, One in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity, * O come, let us worship.
Deum verum, unum in Trinitáte, et Trinitátem in Unitáte, * Veníte, adorémus.	Very God, One in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity, * O come, let us worship.
Psalmus 94. Venite, exsultemus Domino	Psalm 94. Venite, exsultemus Domino
Veníte, exsultémus Dómino, jubilémus Deo, salutári nostro : præoccupémus fáciem ejus in confessióne, et in psalmis jubilémus ei.	O come, let us sing unto the Lord ; let us heartily rejoice in the God of our salvation.  Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving ; and shew ourselves glad in him with psalms.
Deum verum, unum in Trinitáte, et Trinitátem in Unitáte, * Veníte, adorémus.	Very God, One in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity, * O come, let us worship.
Quóniam Deus magnus Dóminus, et Rex magnus super omnes deos : quóniam non repéllet Dóminus plebem suam : quia in manu ejus sunt omnes fines terræ, et altitúdines móntium ipse cónspicit.	For the Lord is a great God ; and a great King above all gods:  For the Lord will not cast off his people:  In his hand are all the corners of the earth, and the strength of the hills is his also.
Veníte, adorémus.	O come, let us worship.
In the following verse of the Psalm, at the words veníte, adorémus, et procidámus ante Deum (O come, let us worship and fall down, and kneel before the Lord our Maker) all genuflect.
Quóniam ipsíus est mare, et ipse fecit illud, et áridam fundavérunt manus ejus : veníte, adorémus, et procidámus ante Deum : plorémus coram Dómino, qui fecit nos, quia ipse est Dóminus Deus noster ; nos autem pópulus ejus, et oves páscuæ ejus.	The sea is his and he made it ; and his hands prepared the dry land.  O come, let us worship and fall down, and kneel before the Lord our Maker: For he is the Lord our God ; and we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Deum verum, unum in Trinitáte, et Trinitátem in Unitáte, * Veníte, adorémus.	Very God, One in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity, * O come, let us worship.
Hódie, si vocem ejus audiéritis, nolíte obduráre corda vestra, sicut in exacerbatióne, secúndum diem tentatiónis in desérto : ubi tentavérunt me patres vestri, probavérunt et vidérunt ópera mea.	Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness ; when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works.
Veníte, adorémus.	O come, let us worship.
Quadragínta annis próximus fui generatióni huic, et dixi : Semper hi errant corde ; ipsi vero non cognovérunt vias meas : quibus jurávi in ira mea : Si introíbunt in réquiem meam.	Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their hearts, for they have not known my ways:  unto whom I sware in my wrath, that they should not enter into my rest.
Deum verum, unum in Trinitáte, et Trinitátem in Unitáte, * Veníte, adorémus.	Very God, One in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity, * O come, let us worship.
Glória Patri, et Fílio, et Spirítui Sancto.  Sicut erat in princípio, et nunc, et semper,  et in sæcula sæculórum.  Amen.	Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost:  as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.  Amen.
Veníte, adorémus.	O come, let us worship.
Deum verum, unum in Trinitáte, et Trinitátem in Unitáte, * Veníte, adorémus.	Very God, One in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity, * O come, let us worship.
Hymnus Summæ Parens cleméntiæ, Mundi regis qui máchinam, Uníus et substántiæ, Trinúsque persónis Deus : Da déxteram surgéntibus, Exsúrgat et mens sóbria, Flagrans et in laudem Dei Grates repéndet débitas. Deo Patri sit glória, Natóque Patris único, Cum Spíritu Paráclito, In sempitérna sæcula.  Amen.	The Hymn O God of mercy passing thought, Who hast the world contrived and wrought ; In might, essential Unity, In Persons, blessed Trinity : Uplift us with thine arm of might, And let our hearts rise pure and bright, And, ardent in God's praises, pay The thanks we owe him every day. Glory to thee, O Father, Lord, And to thy Sole-begotten Word, Both with the Holy Spirit One While everlasting ages run.  Amen.
As soon as the introductory part of Matins is finished, there is begun The First Nocturn.  The Psalms with their Antiphons are those of the Common of the Blessed Virgin Mary, as given below.

The hymn listed above is not included on the video, and does not appear in  Hymn melodies for the whole year, from the Sarum service-books as one of the Sarum Trinity Office hymns (see this last link for the Sarum hymns).  TPL describes Summæ Parens cleméntiæ this way:

The author of this 7th century hymn is unknown. In the Roman Breviary this hymn is used at Saturday Matins during Ordinary Time. In the Liturgia Horarum the hymn is used on the first and third weeks of the Psalter for the Office of the Readings during Ordinary Time.

The Te Deum is sung at the end of Matins - and often at the Mass on the day, too.  Here's a Solemn Te Deum, sung by "Monks of the one of the Abbeys of the Solesmes Congregation," it says at the YouTube page.

Here's a post on the Te Deum.   And here is the Latin, and the English translation from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer:

Te Deum laudamus:
te Dominum confitemur.
Te aeternum Patrem
omnis terra veneratur.
Tibi omnes Angeli;
tibi caeli et universae Potestates;
Tibi Cherubim et Seraphim
incessabili voce proclamant:
Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Dominus
Deus Sabaoth.
Pleni sunt caeli et terra
maiestatis gloriae tuae.
Te gloriosus Apostolorum chorus,
Te Prophetarum laudabilis numerus,
Te Martyrum candidatus laudat exercitus.
Te per orbem terrarum
sancta confitetur Ecclesia,
Patrem immensae maiestatis:
Venerandum tuum verum et unicum Filium;
Sanctum quoque Paraclitum Spiritum.
Tu Rex gloriae, Christe.
Tu Patris sempiternus es Filius.
Tu ad liberandum suscepturus hominem,
non horruisti Virginis uterum.
Tu, devicto mortis aculeo, aperuisti
credentibus regna caelorum.
Tu ad dexteram Dei sedes, in gloria Patris.
Iudex crederis esse venturus.
Te ergo quaesumus, tuis famulis subveni:
quos pretioso sanguine redemisti.
Aeterna fac cum sanctis tuis in gloria numerari.
Salvum fac populum tuum,
Domine, et benedic hereditati tuae.
Et rege eos, et extolle illos usque in aeternum.
Per singulos dies benedicimus te;
Et laudamus Nomen tuum in saeculum, et in saeculum saeculi.
Dignare, Domine, die isto sine peccato nos custodire.
Miserere nostri domine, miserere nostri.
Fiat misericordia tua,
Domine, super nos, quemadmodum speravimus in te.
In te, Domine, speravi:
non confundar in aeternum.

We praise thee, O God
we acknowledge thee to be the Lord
All the earth doth worship thee
the Father everlasting.
To thee all the angels cry aloud
the heavens and all the powers therein.
To thee cherubim and seraphim do continually cry
Holy, Holy, Holy,
Lord God of Sabaoth; heaven and earth
are full of the majesty of thy glory.
The glorious company of apostles praise thee.
The goodly fellowship of the prophets praise thee.
The noble army of martyrs praise thee.
The Holy Church
throughout all the world doth acknowledge thee;
the father of an infinite majesty;
thine honourable true and only Son;
also the Holy Ghost the comforter.
Thou art the King of Glory, O Christ.
Thou art the everlasting Son of the Father.
When thou tookest upon thee to deliver man,
thou didst not abhor the Virgin's womb.
When thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death,
thou didst open the kingdom of heaven to all believers.
Thou sittest at the hand of God in glory of the Father.
We believe that Thou shalt come to be our Judge.
We therefore pray thee, help thy servants,
whom thou hast redeemed with thy precious blood.
Make them numbered with thy saints in glory everlasting
O Lord save thy people
and bless thine heritage.
Govern them and lift them up for ever.
Day by day we magnify thee;
and worship thy name, ever world without end.
Vouchsafe, O Lord to keep us this day without sin.
O Lord, have mercy upon us, have mercy upon us.
O Lord, let thy mercy lighten upon us, as our trust is in thee.
O Lord in thee have I trusted let me not be confounded.

Here's the Stanford Te Deum in C, sung by the Westminster Abbey Choir:



And at that point, we can't leave out W.A. Mozart's Te Deum in C, either, can we?