The Hermeneutic of Continuity

A wonderful rendition of Cardinal Wiseman's classic hymn to pray for the Holy Father. Unfortunately, as is common, the fifth verse is omitted. Here are the words: For like the sparks of unseen fire, That speak along the magic wire, From home to home, from heart to heart, These words of countless children dart : “ God bless our Pope,” &c. In Wiseman's day, the "magic wire" was the newly-invented telegraph. The verse can apply just as fittingly to the internet, I think. On Sunday, my organist and quite a few of the choir will be at the Mass for the Beatification of Cardinal Newman so I think we will be reduced to Low Mass. Whatever happens, we will certainly be singing "God bless our Pope" after Mass. If anyone has difficulty finding the words or the organ score, here is a nice clean jpeg that I prepared. It will print clearly on A4 size paper (go to this Flickr page and download the large size) (Printing it out just now, I made the mistake o...

To my lasting regret, my formal musical education (piano lessons) ended when I was about 12 years old. When I was a student in Rome I did learn three chords on the guitar fairly quickly and can still strum out about half a dozen. The purpose of learning to twang a guitar was to offer some useful input to the class of five year olds that I taught while in Rome. Half of them spoke Italian and half spoke English so singing to them was an important weapon in my pedagogical armoury. Thanks to negotiating that derisory learning curve, I can play just about anything in the "20th Century Folk Hymnal" or "Songs in the Spirit", books which formed part of my liturgical music experience while at the seminary in the 70s and early 80s. There was a time when I played the piano or organ with much the same technique, (using a book with the melody and the guitar chords in it) in the absence of anyone who could do so with a modicum of competence. My "like riding a bicycle...

Here is a flash mob with a difference. Over 30 members of the The Opera Company of Philadelphia burst into the "Brindisi" of La Traviata at the Reading Terminal Market Italian Festival. A fun video for a summer afternoon. H/T The Deacon's Bench

Each year, the Faith Movement invites a guest speaker to the Summer Session to give a lecture outside the chosen theme for the conference, and to bring something new to the experience of the young people gathered at Woldingham. Today we were privileged to have James MacMillan as our guest speaker. The Gloria , Sanctus , Memorial Acclamation and Agnus Dei for the Papal Masses at Bellahouston Park and Cofton Park will be his new compositions. (The Kyrie is to be Gregorian Chant - although the Mass he has composed has a Kyrie so that it can be used in parishes.) I understand also that there is to be a setting of the antiphon Tu es Petrus composed by James for the entrance of the Holy Father and before the Introit of the Papal Mass at Westminster Cathedral. During his talk, James referred to the words of Pope John Paul II in his 1999 letter to artists: Even beyond its typically religious expressions, true art has a close affinity with the world of faith, so that, even in situation...

This week the Faith Summer Session is taking place at Woldingham School in Surrey. As usual, there is a large group of students from all around the UK, together with priests and a significant proportion of the seminarians from British dioeceses. The theme for the talks this year is The Church: I am with you always". I spoke this morning on the Church as our living link with Christ. We have a guest speaker each year and I was delighted to hear that James MacMillan will be addressing us tomorrow. We're planning to have a bloggers' photo... As well as the principal purpose of working to give young people a sound understanding of the Catholic faith, the Summer Session of the Faith Movement is always a great opportunity for networking. I have already been able to catch up with many friends and tomorrow is the guest day which will see a number of others, especially families joining us for the afternoon. I see that Fr Zuhlsdorf is also at a networking thingy over at La Cr...

I thought I had better leave it a day or so before posting yet another piece of ancient chant. Today we have Alleluia Dies Sanctificatus , sung by the Ensemble Organum , directed by Marcel Peres. Here is the text and translation: Alleluia Dies sanctificatus illuxit nobis venite gentes, et adorate Dominum qui hodie descendit lux magna super terram. Alleluia Alleluia The sanctified day has shone upon us: come, peoples and adore the Lord who today came down, the great light upon the earth. Alleluia This is billed as chant from the particular Churches of Rome in the 7th century. The beginning of the chant give the immediate impression of something from the middle East. As the verse continues, there is an unmistakeably Roman character stamped upon it. It is fascinating to think that perhaps this is something like the music that St Gregory the Great promoted as the particular liturgical music of the Roman Church. Without wishing to denigrate in any way the achievement of Solesm...

We seem to be on a musical "roll" so here is an amazing medieval chant, Crucem Sanctam Subiit . Catholic of Thule asked about other recordings in the style of the Stunning Kyrie Cunctipotens . The very helpful Chris responded: That’s a style called Organum and my favorite singers of it are Ensemble Organum conducted by Marcel Perez. They are on iTunes and that particular Kyrie is exactly the same as the one they sing on the album Ecole Notre Dame: Messe Du Jour De Noël . That’s not their best album (the Kyrie is the best song by far) but their chants of the templars is amazing! It’s on YouTube as well. Media Vita in Morte Sumus is not on there, but it’s my favorite chant by them. I love, love love this style so I simply had to answer your question... hopefully you can spread the word to Father Finigan, but if not oh well! Here is the Facebook page for Ensemble Organum , and here is their discography .

While looking up material for the post I wrote yesterday about the Abbaye de Notre-Dame de l'Annonciation and their recording contract with Decca, my interest was piqued by the subtitle of the CD "Chant from Avignon." Later this month, Fr Briggs and I will be travelling down by Eurostar and TGV to stay in Avignon for a few days. I thought that it might be possible to find the  Abbaye de Notre-Dame  and go to hear the nuns singing Vespers. Looking them up, I felt rather silly. We have already planned to take a day out to visit Le Barroux ; and in fact, the nuns are next door to the Abbaye Sainte-Madeleine and they celebrate the Liturgy according to the usus antiquior . That detail slipped past many of those who wrote about their deal with Decca. Here is my translation of the text at the Barroux website concerning the nuns: The community of Benedictine nuns of Our Lady of the Annunciation was born in 1979. Four young girls were gathered around Mother Elizabeth and,...

You may have heard the news of the forthcoming release of Voices: Chant from Avignon which is to be released on 8 November by Decca Records (here is a link to the  Track List .) The above photo shows Dickon Stainer, Managing Director of Decca, passing the contract through the grille in the parlour of the Abbaye de Notre-Dame de l'Annonciation in France. You may also have seen the promo video which is good. I chose another video which I'll post tomorrow. If you haven't heard the news, you can look up any one of the 546 stories currently listed on Google News or read any of the 1390 results from the blog search . (The YouTube video has had 38,755 views since it was uploaded last Sunday.) Unfortunately given the massive interest in the new CD, and the fact that most journalists mention the fact that Decca also publishes the songs of someone called "Lady GaGa", it is not a good idea to try to find pictures of the Abbey or the nuns on Google Images. In an excel...

Via the excellent messainlatino.it , this video shows the schola Exsurge Domine , a young group of singers who got together to provide the music for the usus antiquior Mass celebrated every Sunday and Holyday at the Basilica of the Holy Cross in Cagliari by Monsignor Dante Usai. Their style recovers some of the connection between the western and byzantine traditions of chant and reminds me of the schola which sang at the Masses I celebrated in Estonia last year. Here they are rehearsing the singing of Kyrie "Cunctipotens" of Mass IV.

Rich Mastrogiacomo is a third year seminarian studying for the sacred Priesthood in Rome. He has a great love for music and now writes popular style melodies and songs for Our Lord. For more details, see his "About" page at the blog " That Most Holy Heart ". One project that Rich has been engaged on recently is setting background music to some of the words of Archbishop Fulton Sheen. The one in which Archbishop Sheen speaks of The Hour of Testing is quite inspiring.

Sometimes people ask for a simple explanation of the difference between sacred music which is suitable for the liturgy, and secular music which is not. This video is an excellent attempt to promote music worthy of the Sacred Liturgy. I found this over at Corpus Christi Watershed located at Corpus Christi, Texas, where you can also find some three part polyphonic motets, newly composed by Kevin Allen.

The celebrated Italian singer, Andrea Bocelli, tells a "little story" which makes a forceful point. He ends with a short and jolly song which his children enjoy.

Catholic musicians have "gathered to blog about liturgy and life" at The Chant Café , a new initiative from the Church Music Association of America . Readers may recognise contributor Jeffrey Tucker of NLM , Scott Turkington, and our own Nick Gale of Gregorian Chant in the UK . One of the concerns of the musicians in the Café is to liberate sacred music "from the prisons of obscurity and copyright." See the post Music Liberated by Colloquium XX for a packet of music including several items not freely available before.

When they are played like this. The video shows Yvonne Helkenberg playing Recuerdos de la Alhambra by Francisco Tárrega (1852-1909) You can see more videos of Yvonne Helkenberg playing the guitar at the YouTube channel of guitaryh .

On the way up to the Parish Church in Lourdes, I spotted this shop which sells everything to equip you for a happy-clappy Mass: guitars, bongo drums and even harmonicas. (The tambourines were only 8 Euro and it was very tempting to get one.) I was going to photoshop it with the header board "Musée du Rite Nouveau" but that might be a little unfair.

Many thanks indeed to Jeffrey Tucker at NLM for posting a YouTube video of the second part of the Salve Regina by Nicola Antonio Porpora (1686-1768). By way of reply, here is the first part: For all of you interested in liturgical music, don't miss the recently posted Fall 2009 edition of the journal Sacred Music .

The Annual High Mass and One-day Conference of CIEL UK will be on Saturday 29 May at the London Oratory. There will be solemn High Mass at 11am. (The photo above is from last year's Mass, taken by Brother Edward of the London Oratory.) In a departure from previous annual Masses, the Mass setting will be Gregorian chant rather than polyphony. It is also hoped to include a motet composed by James MacMillan. The choir will be directed by Patrick Patrick Russill, the highly distinguished Director of Music at the London Oratory. The Conference will then take place at 2.30pm in St Wilfrid’s Hall at the Oratory, chaired by Lord Gill. (Entry £5.) The speakers are Dr James MacMillan CBE, and the Very Rev Richard Duffield. I wrote recently about an excellent address given by James MacMillan to the Thomas More Institute. His lecture at the CIEL Conference is sure to be of great interest as he is speaking about Liturgical Music pre- and post-Vatican II. Fr Duffield, Provost of the Bir...

Roxanna Panufnik has composed a new setting based on the Missa de Angelis , with her own distinctive harmonisation. The work will be premiered by the Schola of the London Oratory School with Lee Ward as Director and David Terry playing the organ. The setting is accompanied by a brass octet which includes a piccolo trumpet doubled by the principal player. Here is an extract from the press information giving some details of the musical characteristics of the setting: As with many of Roxanna Panufnik’s works she brings the text to life vividly in her own harmonic voice. Abounding are echo effects, vocal and instrumental portamenti, uneven groupings of notes, juxtapositioning of major and minor triads and regularly shifting metre. All combine to give the piece an ethereal quality with translucent, shimmering effects at times (the piccolo trumpet in the final Kyrie, for example extends the full unison choral texture with heavy lower brass to create an unusual warmth and celestial feel, ec...

ICEL has posted texts and music for the ordinary of the new translation of the Roman Missal. These include "Credo 1" and "Credo 3" settings, the tones for the readings and so on. It would be a good development if the introduction of the new translations was accompanied by a move to sing the Mass rather than sing at the Mass, and for the scriptural texts of the various antiphons to begin to take the place of the random hymns that have replaced them.