We know very little about St. Cecilia’s life, other than the fact that it ended in martyrdom, probably in the early to mid-third century. Many stories associate her with singing — in acts of prayer as a young woman and in the face of her torturers. In the middle ages, she was named the patron saint of music and of Church musicians. In works of art and literature that extol the mysterious, cosmic power of music — connecting earthly with celestial music — St. Cecilia is often referenced. John Dryden’s “An Ode for St. Cecilia’s Day, 1687,” for example, is about the creative power of music, not about St. Cecilia, although she…
-
-
Recommended recording: Mendelssohn Church music
Felix Mendelssohn was born into a prominent Jewish family in 1809. His grandfather, Moses Mendelssohn, was one of the most prominent Jewish intellectuals of the Enlightenment. But in 1816, Felix and his three siblings were all baptized into the Christian faith at his parents request by a Reformed Protestant minister in Berlin. As a young man, Felix would later disclose that he had become a follower of the Prussian Protestant theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher. Neither his baptism nor his numerous compositions of Christian sacred music were mere formalities. The best-known of his sacred choral works are the larger, longer, concert-sized works, especially the oratorio Elijah (1846). But there are many shorter…
-
Music for Trinity 25 (November 18, 2018)
Although the Pilgrims never planned it so, our national harvest festival (some of us still call it Thanksgiving) occurs near the end of the Church’s liturgical year. Families and friends typically gather together at this time in a faint, secular echo of our Eucharistic feast, which in turn anticipates the great wedding feast ushered in with the second advent of our Lord. The music in our worship this Sunday resonates with Thanksgiving and anticipates Advent. Our processional hymn, “We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing,” has often been sung at Thanksgiving as a national hymn, the “We” taken to mean “America.” It is important to remember that the “We”…
-
Recommended recording: Selected works by Monteverdi
On Trinity 24, our choir sang the Sanctus, Benedictus, and Agnus Dei from a Mass by Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) published in 1641 (see here for more about the historical significance of Monteverdi’s work). The Messa da Capella a quattro voci is a relatively late work by Monteverdi, and it demonstrates how he was able to write music that sustained the rich polyphonic textures of previous generations of composers (employing the “Stile antico”) even as he pioneered the innovative musical techniques of the early Baroque. This Mass was part of a collection called Selva morale e spirituale, “A moral and spiritual forest.” In the words of conductor Harry Christophers, “It is jam packed…
-
Music for Trinity 24 (November 11, 2018)
During Communion on Sunday, we will sing a familiar hymn text to a not so familiar tune. The bulletin will feature an insert with the music to “O Food to Pilgrims given.” You may recognize the words as almost exactly the same as hymn #192 in our Hymnal, “O Food of men wayfaring.” The story of the two different tunes and the slightly different texts is told here. The music sung by the choir during the Offertory and during Communion is from a 1641 setting of the Mass by Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643). This page offers more information about this work, and this article presents a introduction to the significance of…
-
Recommended recording: Hail, gladdening Light
Originally released in 1991, this collection of 23 short pieces is sub-titled “Music of the English Church,” as the pieces have become standards in the choral repertoire within the Anglican tradition. Some of the pieces, however, were originally written for use in the Roman Catholic rite, some for use in a domestic setting (back in the good old days when people gathered to sing multi-part music together rather than watch TV). The performers are the reliable Cambridge Singers, a choir of 28 or so voices assembled by conductor/composer John Rutter from former members of the many Cambridge chapel choirs. The composers represented date from the early 16th century (John Taverner,…
-
Music for Trinity 23 (November 4, 2018)
The Collect for this Sunday speaks of God as our refuge, an image referenced in our opening hymn, Charles Wesley’s “Jesus, Lover of my soul.” Originally titled “On Temptation” — since sin and temptation are the foes from which the believer is most urgently seeking refuge — this hymn was first published in 1740, about two years after Wesley’s conversion experience. The words of the opening lines were sometimes regarded as too intimate for public worship, so, in the nineteenth century, some hymnal editors altered the text to describe God’s love less vividly. Our sermon hymn, “O God of earth and altar,” with its prophetic text by G. K. Chesterton, first…
-
Music for All Saints Day (November 1, 2018)
Our opening hymn in this service is “For all the saints,” one of the most popular hymns written by Ralph Vaughan Williams. (His work on the editing of the The English Hymnal, published in 1906, was discussed in an article I wrote that was published in Touchstone in November/December 2017.) The Offertory proper for this feast day is from the deuterocanonical book of Wisdom 3:1-2a, 3b. “The souls of the just are in the hand of God, and the torment of death shall not touch them. In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die; but they are in peace.” The Latin rendering of this text has been set to music by many composers:…
-
Music for SS. Simon & Jude (Trinity 22, October 28, 2018)
This year, the 22nd Sunday after Trinity falls on the feast-day of St. Simon and St. Jude. The Collect for the day: “O ALMIGHTY God, who hast built thy Church upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the head corner-stone; Grant us so to be joined together in unity of spirit by their doctrine, that we may be made an holy temple acceptable unto thee; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.” Our Offertory Anthem on this Sunday is “Blessed are those that be undefiled,” a setting of the first six verses of Psalm 119 by Thomas Tallis (1505-1585). The Communion Motet for this Sunday is…