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.
(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. )
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.
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):
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)
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.
The Feast of the Transfiguration is on August 6 each year; here's the Gradual, Speciosus forma, in a video from Gloria.TV: "Gradual Speciosus forma and Alleluia Candor est lucis of the Feast of the Transfiguration, sung at the St Catherine's Trust Summer School 2010":
The text comes from Psalm 45:3, 2; here's the Latin and English from this page, which I believe belongs to somebody posting the chant propers for the Extraordinary Form.
Speciosus forma prae filiis hominum: diffusa est gratia in labiis tuis. V.: Eructavit cor meum verbum bonum: dico ego opera mea Regi. Alleluia, alleluia. V.: Candor est lucis aeternae, speculum sine macula, et imago bonitatis illius. Alleluia.
Thou art beautiful above the sons of men: grace is poured abroad in Thy lips. V.: My heart hath uttered a good word. I speak my works to the King. Alleluia, alleluia. V.(Wisd. 7. 26). He is the brightest of eternal light, the unspotted mirror, and the image of His goodness. Alleluia.
Here's the chant score:
I've written about the Alleluia, Candor est lucis before; here's the chant score for that one:
And those words, in Latin and English; the text comes from Wisdom 7:26:
Candor est lucis aetérnae, spéculum sine macula, et imago bonitátis illíus. Allelúia.
For she is the brightness of eternal light, and the unspotted mirror of God's majesty, and the image of his goodness.
Here's something interesting I found while Googling for this post: a hymn setting, I think, in Dutch, of Psalm 45:
That particular YouTuber has lots of vids of similar Psalm settings at his/her home page.
One problem with Psalm 45 is that some translations seem to think that what's seen as Verse 1 in others is actually an instruction for the musicians. So there's some variation in citing verses for this one!
If you're interested, somebody has posted Olivier Messiaen's entire work, La Transfiguration de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ at YouTube. Here are the first two movements (I believe) from the piece, in the video below:
Here's the content - sort of a "program notes" - from that YouTube page; as you can see, one of the movements is called Candor est lucis aeternae :
La Transfiguration de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ, for 100 voices, piano, cello, flute, clarinet, xylorimba, vibraphone, marimba & orchestra (1965-1969)
Premier Septénaire I. Récit évangélique II. Configuratum corpori claritatis suae III. Christus Jesus, splendor Patris IV. Récit évangélique V. Quam dilecta tabernacula tua VI. Candor est lucis aeternae VII. Choral de la Sainte Montagne
Deuxième Septénaire VIII. Récit évangélique IX. Perfecte conscious illius perfectae generationis X. Adoptionem filiorum perfectam XI. Récit évangélique XII. Terribilis est locus iste XIII. Tota Trinitas apparuit XIV. Choral de la Lumière de Gloire
Yvonne Loriod, piano Arturo Muruzabal, violoncelle Martine van der Loo, flute Harmen de Boer, clarinette Peter Prommel, marimba Ruud Stotÿn, vibraphone Henk de Vlieger, xylorimba Ludwig van Gijsegem, ténor Reiner Holthaus, baryton
Koor van de Brt Bruxelles Groot Omroepkoor & Radio Symfonie Orkest Hilversum Reinbert de Leeuw
La Transfiguration was the first of Messiaen's works to use sacred words as its text, drawing from the bible and the missal on the subject of Christ's transfiguration. It is not a dramatic work, but a liturgical one, meant, as Paul Griffiths notes, to show a story rather than to tell it. It is scored for a large choir and orchestra, with a duration of about ninety minutes. This work hearkens back to Messiaen's music of several decades earlier: gone are the harsher twelve-note constructions of the later works, replaced by a return to diatonicism, modes, 'loose' triadic harmony, and metrical freedom. The piece consists of fourteen movements, divided into two sets of seven (more of Messiaen's theological symbolism). Typically, there is also the incorporation of birdsong into the melodic framework, and it is important to note that, according to Griffiths, more than a decade later there is more species of birdsong in La Transfiguration than in the Catalogue des Oiseaux of 1958. There is also perhaps a recollection of Debussy through the use of the whole-tone scale. Ultimately, this work exemplifies Messiaen's tendency to compose music intended to be appreciated not in terms of its formal connectedness and continuity, but rather moment by moment. [Allmusic.com]
Art by Marc Chagall
Here's a mosaic in the upper part of the Fransiscan Church of the Transfiguration in Mount Tabor, Israel; Mt. Tabor is traditionally identified as the "Mount of the Transfiguration":
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
A hymn set by Lassus, "alternatim, with verses for four, three and five voices," as Howard noted a few years ago. This is the first time I've seen it online:
This was once an office hymn for today, the Feast of St. Mary Magdalen, along with Nardi Maria pythici. These lyrics seem to conflate Magdalen (in her recasting during the Middle Ages as a "woman of ill repute," something found nowhere in Scripture) with Lazarus' and Martha's sister Mary:
Lauda mater ecclesia Lauda Christi clementiam, Quae septem purgat vitia Per septiformem gratiam.
Maria, soror Lazari, Quae tot commisit crimina, Ab ipsa fauce tartari Redit ad vitae limina.
Post fluxae carnis scandala Fit ex lebete phiala In vas translata gloriae De vase contumeliae.
Aegra currit ad medicum Vas ferens aromaticum Et a morbo multiplici Verbo curatur medici.
Surgentem cum victoria Iesum videt ab inferis, Prima meretur gaudia, Quae plus ardebat ceteris.
Uni Deo sit gloria Pro multiformi gratia, Qui culpas et supplicia Remittit et dat praemia. Amen.
Praise, mother church, Praise the clemency of Christ, Which purges the seven sins Through his sevenfold grace.
Mary, the sister of Lazarus, Who committed many sins, Returned from the maw of hell To the gate of life.
After the offences of her frail flesh, This lowly jug becomes a sacred dish, Transformed into a vessel of glory From one of contempt.
Sick, she runs to the physician, Bearing a jar of perfume, And is cured of her many ills By the doctor’s word.
She sees Jesus rising victorious From the infernal depths, Thus earning that first joy Which burns brightly beyond all others.
Glory be to the one God For his endless grace Which pardons sin, remits penance And grants rewards. Amen.
I've just finished reading that Gregory the Great was the first to conflate various Marys in the Gospels! That's the 6th Century, folks; apparently one Mary was the same as the next, even to some Popes.
It's a little disturbing, actually, that so little was thought of these women that nobody seemed able to keep them lined up in their identities - or to stop making up facts about them.
Well, it's a beautiful piece of music, anyway.
Below are some paintings of Magdalen, from the 15th and 16th centuries. You can see how feverish the imaginations of those who couldn't be bothered enough to work out that their renderings had nothing to do with the actual stories told! El Greco's "Penitent Magdalen" (the whore, of course, c. 1585); Weyden's "The Magdalen Reading" (c. 1435), and Caravaggio's "Martha and Mary Magdalene" (or "Martha reproving Mary" - the reverse of what actually happens at Bethany, and the wrong Mary anyway!) from about 1599.
R. Lord, go up to the place of your rest, you and the ark of your holiness.
