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Cantica sacra

exploring the rich legacy of sacred singing

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  • Music in our liturgy
    • Music through the Church Year
    • Hymns
    • Psalms
      • Psalms by number
      • Psalms by tone
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    • Psalm chants
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  • Glossary
  • About
  • Music in our liturgy
    • Music through the Church Year
    • Hymns
    • Psalms
      • Psalms by number
      • Psalms by tone
      • Chant tutorials
    • Canticles
  • Texts
  • Composers
  • Poets
  • Read, learn, etc.
    • Psalm chants
    • Essays
    • Education
    • Notable repertoire
    • Recording reviews
    • Interviews
  • Glossary

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New or recently updated

Propers and Psalms for the week of Easter Sunday are here.

The recordings of hymns made in our “Choir in Quarantine” series are all available on this page.

Interview with Thomas Forrest Kelly on the history of musical notation

“The Christian Singer from the Gospels to the Gothic Cathedrals” — a series of six lectures by Christopher Page

“Music, Imagination, and Experience in the Medieval World” — a series of six lectures by Christopher Page

Interview with Christopher Page on The Christian West and Its Singers: The First Thousand Years

William Byrd’s setting of the Te Deum adorns this familiar text with a kaleidoscopic sequence of sound.

Poets & Translators whose words we sing

St. Ambrose (339-397)

John Keble (1792-1866)

John Mason Neale (1818-1866)

Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830-1894)

F. Bland Tucker (1895-1984)

Charles Wesley (1707-1788)

Recent Posts

  • Mar 30, 2021 J. S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion: An introduction
  • Feb 20, 2021 A Psalm for Lent
  • Feb 13, 2021 Music for Quinquagesima
  • Feb 06, 2021 A hymn for Sexagesima
  • Jan 30, 2021 A hymn for Septuagesima
  • Jan 26, 2021 St. Polycarp’s suffering,
    in poetry and music

About our hymns

“Deck thyself, my soul, with gladness” originally featured six stanzas that we don’t now sing . . .

Charles Wesley’s triumphant “Hail the day that sees him rise” is one of many triumphant hymns to celebrate the Ascension

This mid-19th-century hymn was written to defend the Creed’s claims about the Church

This hymn was written as musical partner for the reading of I Corinthians 13.

 

Singing Psalm 47

There are many references to the elements of music in this Psalm: clapping, singing, melody, a merry noise, and the sound of a trump(et). That proliferation of musical allusions may account for the large number of settings of this Psalm to music.

MORE . . .

The wonder of Thomas Tallis

One of the greatest composers in the early years of Anglicanism navigated the changes in ecclesiastical life with remarkable poise and creativity.

MORE . . .

William Byrd’s Te Deum

Our parish typically sings this great ancient hymn to Anglican chant. Most of the many settings of this text are in Latin, but one of the greatest in English is by William Byrd.

MORE . . .

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