When Augustus reigned alone upon earth, the many kingdoms of men came to an end, * and when Thou wast made man of the pure Virgin, the many gods of idolatry were destroyed. * The cities of the world passed under one single rule, and the nations came to believe in one sovereign Godhead. * The peoples were enrolled by the decree of Caesar, and we, the faithful, were enrolled in the Name of the Godhead, when Thou, our God, wast made man. * Great is Thy mercy: glory to Thee!
In the recording, this hymn is sung in alternation with the original Greek text, changing over at the places marked with an asterisk.
At Vespers of Christmas Eve in the Byzantine Rite, and again at Vespers on December 30th, the first service of the Leave-taking of the feast, this text is sung at the end of the stikhera, the first set of proper hymns. (In Byzantine terminology, “hymn” is the generic word for a wide variety of compositions used in many different ways, similar in form to Roman Office antiphons, but generally much longer.) It was written by one of the most famous composers of Byzantine liturgical poetry, a nun named Kassiani (or Kassia), who lived in the ninth century. Many of her hymns are extant, and still used in the Byzantine Rite to this day; she is one of the very first composers whose original scores are known and useable. I have previously described the charming legend about her most famous piece, a hymn which is sung on Great and Holy (i.e. Spy) Wednesday about the woman who anointed Christ’s feet.
An icon of Kassiani, holding a scroll on which are written the first words of her famous hymn for Holy Wednesday. (Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons, date and artist unknown.)
The Roman Martyrology’s entry for Christmas Eve gives several dates based in sacred history for the year of Christ’s coming “according to the flesh”: 5199 from the creation of the world, 2957 from Noah’s flood, etc. But it also gives three secular dates, one Greek (the 194th Olympiad) and two Roman: “in the 752nd year from the founding of the city of Rome; in the 42nd year of the rule of Octavian Augustus, when all the world was united in peace.” These entries reflect the idea that the achievements of Greek culture, and the peace and stability created by the Roman Empire, served in God’s providence to prepare the world for the arrival of the Savior and the preaching of the Gospel.
The same idea is expressed in Kassiani’s hymn, but there is some interesting historical context related to it to be kept in mind. In the 8th century, the Byzantine emperors had, not for the first time, invented a heresy and attempted to impose it upon their subjects, turning persecutor against their fellow Christians. The essence of this heresy, iconoclasm, was the idea that the veneration of sacred images constituted a form of idolatry. But it also rejected the honor which the Church pays to the Saints, and prayers for their intercession, claiming, just as many protestants do today, that these amount to a kind of polytheism.
The iconoclast heresy was formally condemned by the Seventh Ecumenical Council, the second to be held at Nicaea, in 787. Kassiani was born in Constantinople ca. 805/10; when she was still very young, the heresy was revived by the emperor Leo V in 814, and lasted for nearly 30 more years. Kassiani herself was once presented as a possible bride to the last iconoclast emperor, Theophilus, and later scourged for her opposition to the heresy under his rule.
In light of this, an interesting point emerges regarding the words of the hymn given above as “the many gods of idolatry were destroyed.” A strictly literal translation would be “the polytheism of the idols has been made of no effect.” The perfect tense of the verb “katērgētai” conveys the idea that the result is complete and lasting until the present. (The same is true of the word “kekharitōmenē” in the Gospel of St Luke, which we know in English as “full of grace.”) There are many other ways this could have been said, but Kassiani very cleverly chose a word which states that with the revelation of the Incarnation, idolatry was not merely defeated, but permanently deprived of its power, and therefore, the Church has nothing to fear from the use of sacred images.
An icon of the Nativity by an anonymous Cretan painter, second half of the 15th century.
The hymn in Church Slavonic.
Аѵгусту единоначальствующу на земли, многоначалїе человѣкωвъ преста; и Тебѣ вочеловѣчшусѧ ωт Чистыѧ, многобожїѧ ідωлωвъ оупразднисѧ, подъ единѣмъ царствомъ мїрскимъ гради быша, и во Едино Владычество Божества ꙗзыцы вѣроваша. Написашесѧ людїе повелѣниїмъ кесаревымъ, написахомсѧ вѣрнїи, Именемъ Божества, Тебе вочеловѣчшагосѧ Бога нашегω. Велїѧ Твоѧ милость, Господи, слава Тебѣ.
And a Greek version in traditional liturgical chant.
Since Christmas fell on a Sunday this year, the Mass and Office of the Sunday within the octave of Christmas are transferred to December 30th. Here is William Durandus’ commentary on the Mass, from the 14th chapter of book six of his Rationale Divinorum Officium.
On the Sunday which falls within the octave of the Lord’s birth, the Mass is sung of the Nativity; whence the Introit is “Dum medium silentium tenerent omnia.”
Introitus (Sap. 18) Dum medium silentium tenérent omnia, et nox in suo cursu medium iter habéret, omnípotens Sermo tuus, Dómine, de caelis a regálibus sédibus venit. Ps 92 Dóminus regnávit, decórem indútus est: indútus est Dóminus fortitúdinem, et præcinxit se. Gloria Patri ... Sicut erat... Dum médium siléntium...
Introit (Wisdom 18) When a profound stillness compassed all things, and the night in its swift course was half-spent, Thy almighty Word, o Lord, came down from heaven’s royal throne. Ps. 92 The Lord hath reigned, he is clothed in splendor; robed is the Lord with strength, and hath girt himself. Glory be... As it was in the beginning... When a profound stillness...
The silence is threefold, namely, of ignorance, of despair, and of glory. The silence of ignorance was before the Law, because they knew not their sins, and therefore they did not cry out to the Lord; for death reigned from Adam until Moses (Rom. 5, 14). But after the Law was given for the knowledge of sin, for a long time they kept the Law, but at the last, they despaired, namely, when “all (had) gone aside (and) become unprofitable together.” (Ps. 13, 3). Then was the silence of despair. But after Christ came, the silence was broken, whence all cry out the praises of God. The silence of glory will come, when all our desire is fulfilled. In the silence of despair the Lord will come, so that the salvation of the human race may be attributed to Him who is the true healer. …
There follows “the night”, that is, the devil, “in his course had the middle way”, i.e. the common way, for all were going down into hell together; “Thy almighty word”, that is, Thy son, “Lord” and Father, who is called the Word of the Father, because He was born through Him, came from the royal seats to seek (men) and make them kings. Or literally, “When all things had the middle, that is common silence, from the night, namely, when all things are silent, and the night was in the midst of its course, Thy almighty Word (came) form the royal seats” because the Lord was born in the night. …
The Graduale is “Thou art beautiful (above the sons of men; Ps. 44)” because He is immune from all sin, and full of all virtues; for as the Apostle says, “in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead corporeally” (Col. 2, 9), … according to grace (divinity) is in the Saints, but by way of union it is in Christ, and therefore, “grace is poured forth upon thy lips (Ps. 44, 3).” Grace, since never did a man speak thus (Jo, 7, 46) is poured forth, I say, because the law of clemency is on his tongue (Prov. 31, 26), as when he said, “Woman … doth none condemn thee? … neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more.” (Jo. 8, 1-11). The Gospel (Luke 2, 33-40) likewise pertains to His Birth… “His father, putative, of course, and Mother were wondering at the things which were being said about him, namely, by the shepherds.
There follows in the Gospel the prophecy of Simeon “ Behold (this child) is set for the fall”, that is, of unbelievers, “and for the resurrection of many”, that is, of the faithful, “and for a sign which shall be contradicted…”
Again, the introit Dum medium is the voice of the primitive Church, in which it recalls the birth of the Lord, the fruit of which it preaches in the Epistle, because we have passed from servitude to adoption … but in the Postcommunion, “Take up the boy”, the time of the flight is invoked, when the Lord went down into Egypt, and mystically, this looks to the adoption of the gentile nations, because the Lord passed from Judea to the nations, that he might adopt them as heirs.
The FSSP’s International Seminary of St Peter, located in Wigratzbad, Germany, will soon be releasing a recording in both chant and polyphony of Christmas Matins, which is traditionally sung before the Midnight Mass of Christmas. The YouTube channel of the distributor, DeMontfort Music, published this trailer a few days ago; you can find more information about the recording, which will be available as of next Tuesday, on their website: https://www.demontfortmusic.com/sancta-nox-christmas-matins-from-bavaria.
SACRED TREASURES OF CHRISTMAS is a new recording from the boys of the London Oratory Schola, directed by Charles Cole.
The Schola is one of the top boys’ choirs in the world and sings at the London Oratory. The boys, aged 8-18, are all pupils at The London Oratory School.
The choir’s director, Charles Cole, said: “We are delighted to present our newest album which we recorded earlier this year. ‘Sacred Treasures of Christmas’ focuses on some of the most iconic polyphonic works written for the Christmas liturgy. These motets, rendered so beautifully by the greatest masters of the Renaissance, capture the awe, mystery and effusive joy of the Nativity.”
Sacred Treasures of Christmas, a sequence of music for Christmas, Epiphany and Candlemas, continues the ‘Sacred Treasures’ series, an anthology of sacred repertoire drawn from the liturgical motets which the boys sing at the London Oratory.
Mr Cole continued: “Through these recordings, the Schola seeks to bring to a wider audience the music which adorns the liturgies at the London Oratory. These motets have an important function within the liturgy and are not solely beautiful works of art to be appreciated in a removed context such as a museum or art gallery. Their sacred purpose, the way they are experienced by the boys who sing them, and the manner in which they are heard at the Oratory, are before all else within the liturgical context.”
The motets on the new album celebrate the Nativity itself, before moving on to the Feast of the Epiphany and the Adoration of the Magi, and concluding with the Purification of the Virgin.
Amongst the composers represented are Victoria, Guerrero, Palestrina, Lassus, Clemens, Sheppard and Tallis.
Simon Perry, Director of Hyperion Records said: “We are absolutely thrilled to welcome the internationally renowned London Oratory Schola to Hyperion. ‘Sacred Treasures of Christmas’ is an outstandingly beautiful album which we are delighted to release alongside ‘Sacred Treasures of Spain’.”
Sacred Treasures of Christmas, on the Hyperion label, is available from:
Preorder from the CMAA Online Shop here: PREORDER NOW
Our thanks once again to one of our frequent guest contributors, Roseanne Sullivan, for sharing with us this article on one of the great English Catholic composers, William Byrd. It was originally published in the Christmas 2019 edition of The Latin Mass Magazine, and is reproduced here with their kind permission, in a slightly edited form.
In honor of the season, this article takes a comparative look at the circumstances in which two of composer William Byrd’s works for Christmastide were created. The first piece is an English carol from a songbook that Byrd dedicated to Queen Elizabeth I’s chancellor. The second is his polyphonic setting of a Christmas day Mass from a collection that he published late in his life, which he dedicated to a baron who secretly held prohibited Catholic Masses in his home.
A medallion portrait traditionally said to be of William Byrd by Gerard Vandergucht, ca. 1750, based on an original by Nicola Francesco Haym. No authentic contemporary likeness of the composer exists. (Public domainimage from Wikimedia Commons.)
William Byrd (1543-1623), as you know, was a brilliant English Catholic composer, whose music is still treasured and often performed today during traditional Latin Masses—and also in Ordinary Form Masses that in some places are reverently celebrated in Latin. For example, the Saint Ann Choir of Palo Alto, California, directed by Stanford Musicology Professor and New Liturgical Movement publisher, William P. Mahrt, often sings Byrd Masses on feast days, and motets composed by him on Sundays throughout the year at Ordinary Form Latin Masses. Saint Mary’s Church in Norwalk, Connecticut, sings Byrd Masses at their regularly scheduled Mass in both the Ordinary Form and Extraordinary Form Masses. Even the volunteer choir at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Oratory that I attend in San José, which is dedicated to the Extraordinary Form, sings Byrd’s “Mass for Three Voices” at traditional Latin High Masses on special occasions, and frequently sings his Ave Verum Corpus and other motets by him at Sunday Masses.
Byrd led a paradoxical life, to say the least. He was a Catholic who worked for Protestant Queen Elizabeth as a court composer and musician, and was prominent among Elizabeth’s Protestant courtiers. But he also composed music that he and his harried Catholic co-religionists would sing at Masses, which they were forced to celebrate covertly in fear of a knock at the door, imprisonment, steep fines, and even death. It’s almost miraculous that he kept his job and his life.
As Dr Kerry McCarthy, a scholar and singer of Gregorian chant and Renaissance polyphony, noted in her highly readable 2013 biography titled Byrd, he was born at “an unusually volatile moment in English history.” (All quotations in this article are from this work.) The year of his birth, 1540, was the year that King Henry VIII “finished dismantling the monasteries and convents.” Monastic libraries were looted and their books used for scrap paper and even as toilet paper, so totally despised were the ancient liturgies and music of the Catholic Church. “1540 was the year the workshop of Hans Holbein produced the iconic ‘Rome portrait’ of the forty-nine-year-old Henry VIII, glowering at the viewer with fists clenched, the massive canvas (94 by 53 inches) barely able to contain his bulk.”
The ruins of Fountains Abbey near Aldfield in North Yorkshire, one of the largest and most important Cistercian abbeys in England until the dissolution of the monasteries in 1539. This view shows the abbey church from within the ruins of the former infirmary. (Image from Wikimedia Commons by DrMoschi, CC BY-SA 4.0)
It is hard to deny the obvious similarity between the attitude of destruction of traditional Catholic liturgy and music that was in progress when Byrd was born and the widespread disdain and neglect on the part of many since the Second Vatican Council for the beautiful Gregorian chant and polyphonic music that had evolved as an intrinsic part of the Mass and the Divine Office over the centuries.
“[Byrd] was as well known in his day as any court poet or playwright, and just as close to the centers of power. A monumental painting made in 1604, illustrates the point nicely.” Although he is not pictured, Byrd had close ties to many portrayed in this painting. “At a distance of more than four hundred years, the atmosphere of luxury, gravity, and political tension is still palpable in this painting. That was the world in which Byrd’s music was created and performed.”
During his youth, the traditional Latin Mass was banned outright, replaced with a stripped down English service. “What had taken place daily at every pre-Reformation altar, from the humblest parish church to the greatest cathedral, was now a rare and dangerous luxury.”
As court composer, William Byrd published a wide variety of music. Protestants at that time allowed polyphonic settings of Psalm texts, so most of the religious works he published were motets that set Psalm texts in Latin or English. He also published religious songs in English.
Byrd not-so-subtly thumbed his nose at the Protestant majority by his choice of texts, many of which were about throwing off oppressors and pleading for God to rescue (an allegorical) Jerusalem. Some were ‘gallows texts’—Psalm verses that were well known among Catholics as the last words of priests martyred during the persecution of the Church in England during the Reformation.
“Lullaby,” a Christmas Carol
In 1588, Byrd published an elegant songbook, Psalms, Sonnets and Songs; according to McCarthy, this may have been part of an attempt to reestablish his reputation at court. “He spent most of the decade under constant suspicion of illegal Catholic activities.” The title page reads in part “Songs very rare and newly composed are here published for the recreation of all such as delight in music, by William Byrd, one of the gentlemen of the Queen’s Majesty’s honorable Chapel. With the privilege of the royal majesty.”
Fortunately for Byrd’s reputation, the songbook was a great success, and his English Christmas carol from that songbook, “Lullaby, My Sweet Little Baby,” became an enduring favorite. The Earl of Worcester wrote fourteen years later, in 1602, that “we are frolic [joyful] here in court ... Irish tunes are at the time more pleasing, but in winter Lullaby, an old song of Mr. Byrd’s, will be more in request, as I think.”
Remembering Byrd’s earlier thinly-disguised protests in the texts of his Psalm settings, it is tempting to see a similar vein in the “Lullaby,” with this line, “O woe and woeful heavy day when wretches have their will!”, and a prediction that even though the wicked king sought to kill the King (Jesus), the Son of God would reign, “whom tyrants none can kill.”
Lullaby, My Sweet Little Baby: Lyrics
1. My sweet little Baby, what meanest Thou to cry?
Be still, my blessed Babe, though cause Thou hast to mourn,
Whose blood most innocent to shed the cruel king has sworn;
And lo, alas! behold what slaughter he doth make,
Shedding the blood of infants all, sweet Saviour, for Thy sake.
A King, a King is born, they say, which King this king would kill.
Refrain: O woe and woeful heavy day when wretches have their will! Lulla, la-lulla, lulla, lullaby.
2. Three kings this King of kings to see are come from far,
To each unknown, with offerings great, by guiding of a star;
And shepherds heard the song which angels bright did sing.
Giving all glory unto God for coming of this King,
Which must be made away — King Herod would Him kill. Refrain.
3. Lo, lo, my little Babe, be still, lament no more:
From fury Thou shalt step aside, help have we still in store;
We heavenly warning have some other soil to seek;
From death must fly the Lord of life, as lamb both mild and meek;
Thus must my Babe obey the king that would Him kill. Refrain.
4. But thou shalt live and reign, as sibyls hath foresaid,
As all the prophets prophesy, whose mother, yet a maid
And perfect virgin pure, with her breasts shall upbread
Both God and man that all hath made, the Son of heavenly seed,
Whom caitiffs none can ‘tray, whom tyrants none can kill. Refrain.
Third Mass of Christmas Day, Puer Natus Est
In 1607, nineteen years after “Lullaby,” and about a decade after he published his still-famous settings for the Ordinary of the Mass, Byrd published his polyphonic setting of the Latin propers for the Third Mass of Christmas Day, Puer Natus Est. This was included along with various Christmas motets in the second volume of Gradualia, a large collection of his settings of the Propers for major feasts, published in two volumes in 1605 and 1607.
McCarthy noted that Byrd’s version of the Introit Puer Natus Est was unique among his compositions for the following reasons. In Gregorian chant, multiple singers sing the same melody together at exactly the same pitch. When polyphonic music developed with multiple voice lines, Gregorian chant was used as a single cantus firmus (a “fixed song”) around which multi-voiced improvisation were developed. Byrd departed from that cantus firmus tradition in most of his polyphonic compositions, using melodies from sources other than chant, with one exception, the Puer Natus Est Mass.
The Introit begins by quoting the Gregorian chant for the day (Puer natus est nobis/A child is born for us) in three of the four voices. “This gesture seems to have been a brief nod to the old tradition of chant-based polyphonic Mass Propers, something that Byrd never took up again in quite the same way.”
The following bit of history gives a vivid glimpse into the risks Byrd and his fellow Catholics were taking. In 1605, after publication of the first part of the Gradualia, a French traveler named Charles de Ligny wrote home that he had attended a musical evening during which Byrd played the organ and other musical instruments, together with the Jesuit Henry Garnett, some other Jesuits, and English gentlemen. De Ligny was arrested and briefly thrown into Newgate prison “on account of certain papistical books written by William Byrd” that he carried, the partbooks of the first Gradualia. In spite of being the composer of those papistical books, Byrd narrowly avoided imprisonment through the indulgence of Queen Elizabeth, and continued to live free until he died in 1623.
Byrd had retired from the court to live in Essex by the time he published Gradualia, and he worshipped with, played for, and composed sacred music for a gathering of Catholics in the nearby home of Baron John Petre. In the dedication of his second Gradualia to Petre, he wrote that the music had “proceeded from his house, most generous to me and mine.”
Byrd somehow managed to get the necessary approvals for printing the Gradualia from no less a Protestant personage than Richard Bancroft, the Anglican Bishop of London. According to McCarthy, the bishop who approved the printing apparently did so because he thought the Propers would contribute to dissension among Catholics.
Perhaps partly due to the danger of discovery that he envisioned for singers of his Propers, Byrd kept the individual pieces short. “His elegant little offertories and communions—some of them are barely a minute long—could hardly be further removed from the leisurely Latin motets.”
“When he described his settings of the Mass Proper in his 1605 preface, he called them ‘notes as a garland to adorn certain holy and delightful phrases of the Christian rite.’”
Catholic to the End
In spite of all the associated risks, Byrd increasingly used his talents to serve the Catholic liturgy over the same years when almost the entire English population was abandoning the ancient Faith. Almost certainly, he had his own end in mind. In the will he signed in 1622, the year before he died, Byrd wrote this prayer, “that I may live and die a true and perfect member” of the “holy Catholic Church, without which I believe there is no salvation for me.”
Here is the schedule for the liturgies of the Christmas season which will be sung by the Palo Alto-based St Ann Choir: the Masses will be celebrated at St Thomas Aquinas Church, located at 751 Waverly St at Homer, the Vespers at St Ann Chapel, located at 541 Melville at Tasso. The Masses are in Latin in the Ordinary Form, with all the Propers sung in Gregorian Chant and with the polyphonic Masses listed below.
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 24: CHRISTMAS EVE
11:30 p.m. - Organ music and carols
12:00 - Midnight Mass (Dominus dixit ad me)
Tomás Luis de Victoria, Missa O Magnum Mysterium
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 25: CHRISTMAS DAY
12:00 noon - Sung Mass for Christmas Day (Puer natus est)
William Byrd, Mass for Four Voices
TUESDAY DECEMBER 31: NEW YEAR’S EVE
8:00 p.m. First Vespers of the New Year (at St Ann Chapel)
Music by Josquin de Prez, Guillaume Du Fay, Jean Mouton, and more
NEW YEAR’S DAY, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 1: SOLEMNITY OF MARY
12:00 noon - Cristóbal de Morales, Missa Caça
SUNDAY, JANUARY 5: EPIPHANY
12:00 noon - Tomás Luis de Victoria, Missa Quarti Toni
SUNDAY, JANUARY 12: THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST
12:00 noon - Francisco Guerrero, Missa Iste Sanctus
One of the most haunting of all Christmas-season carols is the “Coventry Carol,” whose text, melody, and harmony come from a medieval play, the sixteenth-century Pageant of the Shearmen and Tailors.
In 2010, I wrote an arrangement of this carol for unaccompanied SATB choir. While retaining the basic structure, the arrangement uses counterpoint, polytonality, and sustained notes to lend the work a heightened intensity. I also added an ostinato line from the Preface of the Mass for the Dead—vita mutatur, non tollitur, “life is changed, not destroyed”—and a final invocation of the Holy Innocents, orate pro nobis, Amen.
The performance in the video, sung by the Ecclesia Choir, took place at St. John Cantius in Chicago on June 25, 2017, under the direction of Deacon Timothy Woods.
The Coventry Carol
Lully, lullay, Thou little tiny Child,
By, by, lully, lullay.
Vita mutatur, non tollitur.
1. O sisters too,
How may we do,
For to preserve this day
This poor youngling
For whom we do sing
By, bye, lully, lullay?
2. Herod, the king,
In his raging,
Charged he hath this day
His men of might,
in his own sight,
All young children to slay.
3.That woe is me,
Poor child, for thee!
And ever morn and day,
For thy parting
Neither say nor sing,
By, by, lully, lullay.
In Bethlehem features unaccompanied sacred vocal music sung by five ladies in high school and college. Formed at the parish of Sacred Heart of Jesus in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the Schola Sancta Caecilia has been singing for the Extraordinary Form Mass since 2012. While the members are young, their approach to the music is very mature. This CD, recorded at the Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic church, features hymns and chant for the seasons of Advent and Christmas.
For blend, balance, intonation and sheer beauty the Schola Sancta Caecilia is a group to watch carefully. A true musical gem from the Great Lakes State.
[Kurt Poterack, Adjunct Professor of Music Director, Choir and Schola Gregoriana Christendom College]
Another wonderful CD by the Schola Sancta Caecilia. A full array of genres from chant to folk melodies are performed with a stark beauty that stands as a welcome alternative to the typical Christmas fare heard on the radio. These young women have provided us a beautiful album that should find its way onto everyone's shelf.
[Heath Morber, Director of Music, St. John's Catholic Newman Center Champaign, IL]
The Schola continues to grow and change, as Director Stephanie Pestana attends Michigan State University, two members leave for religious life at the Community of St. John and the Benedictines of Mary, and new members from the parish join to fill the ranks. CDs and downloads are available now on CDBaby, iTunes and Amazon. All proceeds from the sale of the CD will go to the Sacred Heart of Jesus music program. A short video of the recording session for “In Bethlehem” is available below:
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