We are very glad to share this announcement from the shrine of St Martin of Tours in Louisville, Kentucky, of a new album of sacred music sung by their choir.
The Shrine of St Martin of Tours in downtown Louisville, Kentucky, is known for many blessed things, and especially for the beautiful liturgies celebrated within its walls and the quality of sacred music that resounds there to lift hearts to heaven and glorify God. The sacred music is led by the Choir of St Martin of Tours, a semi-professional choir comprising both volunteers and section leaders.
Thanks to the generosity of a member of the Shrine, this past year the Choir produced their first professionally recorded album, O Great Mystery, featuring several motets for the Advent and Christmas seasons as well as William Byrd’s Mass for Four Voices.
The album was recorded in the gorgeous acoustic of the Shrine, which features a six-second reverb. All of the music on the album was carefully prepared over several weeks, and regularly performed for Holy Mass both in the Ordinary Form and in the Extraordinary Form over the Advent and Christmas seasons.
We hope you will consider listening to the album on your preferred streaming service! The links are included below.
St Joseph College Seminary, the minor seminary of the diocese of Charlotte, North Carolina, has lately released a new set of recordings titled “Maria Mater Nostra – Music to Honor Our Lady,” a collection of fourteen pieces sung and played by the seminary choir and the Daughters of the Virgin Mary, a local religious community. The pieces include four settings of the Ave Maria, the Angelus, the Ave, Maris Stella, two Magnificats, the Regina Caeli and the Salve, Regina; the final piece, Salve, Pater Salvatoris, is a song in honor of the seminary’s patron. Here are some selections from the seminary choir’s YouTube channel; the album is also available via iTunes and Spotify.
A polyphonic Magnificat sung by the seminarians.
Ave Maris Stella, sung by the Daughters of the Virgin Mary.
The seminary’s own hymn for St Joseph. (The first part of this is a late medieval hymn; the last two strophes in this version were composed by the seminary’s Latin teacher, Dr Nancy Llewellyn.)
This was also the last recording project of the seminary’s previous music director, Thomas Savoy, who passed away very unexpectedly last October, a month before his 67th birthday, while the final editing of the recording was still going on. He had worked in sacred music since he was a child, and served for many years as the head of music at the cathedral of Albany, New York. In 2012, he moved to Charlotte to begin working at the church of St Thomas Aquinas, where he built a superb choral tradition, and then became full time music director at the seminary in January of 2022. The seminary recently put out this video about him, and the new Marian album is dedicated to his memory.
I had the great honor of Tom’s friendship for all too brief a period, the last seven months of his life; he was a gracious, hilariously funny, and generous man, and is sorely missed by many. Please offer a prayer for his eternal repose, and for the peace and consolation of his wife and children, and their many, many friends.
The organ heard in the recording, which was made in the seminary chapel.
We begin our Tenebrae photopost with the mighty Schola Sainte-Cécile, and so I take the opportunity to remind our listeners that the services which they sing at the church of St Eugène in Paris are live-streamed on their Youtube channel, and posted for viewing immediately after. Videos of their three Tenebrae services are included below; we also have links to recordings of the three Tenebraes at Trinità dei Pellegrini in Rome.
For many centuries, Tenebrae was one of the most popular parts of Holy Week, and even today, it is no secret that many churches throughout the world which would not touch the EF Missal with a barge-pole nevertheless do some kind of service during the Triduum based on the customs of Tenebrae, while ignoring the official text of the Liturgy of the Hours completely. In connection with this, there is a great story in Mons. Pierre Batiffol’s History of the Roman Breviary. In the early 16th century, a decadent era of the Church’s life in several ways, the canons of Saragossa Cathedral in Spain decided to sing Maundy Thursday Tenebrae according to the form of the infamous Quiñones Breviary. (The original edition of this monstrosity was basically a Bible-study, and did not include any responsories at Matins.) This caused a riot among the faithful, who “made an uproar in the cathedral itself, and went near to making an auto-da-fé of the canons and their new breviary.” They were not far from the kingdom.
As we approach the Advent and Christmas seasons, we remind New Liturgical Movement readers of the CD Lux Fulgebit: The Mass at Dawn of Christmas Day. Produced by the Schola Cantorum of St Mary’s Church in Norwalk, Connecticut, it offers a little-known Mass setting, Christe Jesu, by William Raser; this is possibly the only recording of the 16th Century work, and has with it motets by Ferrabosco, Byrd, and Lambe.
Done in context from the opening bell, the recording includes the Gregorian propers, as well as the lessons of the Mass, Collects, and Preface. The CD includes liner notes explaining the music and the composers; until November 28, it is on sale for only $15, and may be ordered on-line at www.stmarynorwalk.net/cd.
The Fraternity of St Peter has made a new recording of the Requiem Mass, along with the Subvenite, the In Paradisum, some of the responsories of the Office of the Dead, et al. It has just been made available for purchase today; click here for information on the website of Demontfort Music.
From De Montfort’s website: “Requiem, the debut major-label release by The Fraternity, was recorded by two of the top talents working in classical music today: multiple Grammy Award-winning producer Christopher Alder and engineer Brad Michel, also a Grammy winner. The executive producers of Requiem are Kevin and Monica Fitzgibbons of De Montfort Music, which has helped cultivate a new audience for ancient choral music by developing several chart-topping albums of chant. ... Requiem is a uniquely curated presentation, comprising 20 tracks of sublime melody, mostly monophonic Gregorian chant but concluding with the lush sound of polyphonic motets by the great 16th-century Italian composer Palestrina and a less well-remembered 18th-century composer, Giovanni Battista Martini, one of Mozart’s teachers.
... The text of the Mass – beginning with ‘Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine’ (Grant them eternal rest, O Lord) – is spiritually uplifting, meant to convey souls to a particular vision of the beyond; the effect of the music is far-reaching and timeless, bound to touch the deepest emotions of any human heart.
Fr. Garrick Huang, co-music director of The Fraternity and a singer on Requiem, reflected on the roots of Gregorian chant, saying: ‘The style of chant that we sing go all the way back to ancient Rome, but it even has its sources, as certain people believe, in Jerusalem, with certain melodies Middle Eastern in origin. Rome has been cosmopolitan for centuries, of course, so it has always been a crossroads of many cultures. So there are even some sounds that we could say come from the East (Byzantine), or even different parts of the eastern empire.’ Fr. Huang points out that for monks down through the centuries, it was never enough to simply recite the sacred texts: ‘We sing them, because it has always been part of human nature to express love and joy, despair and sadness – the gamut of emotions – in song. That said, the Requiem chant is not a performance for us. We say that we ‘sing’ the Requiem, but it’s more that we’re praying the Requiem.’
Christopher Alder, who has worked with some of the greatest classical singers of the past 30 years, echoes this idea that the words and melodies of the Requiem chant are deep inside the members of The Fraternity. ‘This community has obviously put a lot of emphasis on concentrated musical training in their education of young men to become priests,’ he says. ‘They know this material intimately, as it rolls out of them as if it were poetry that one has recited countless times. They know it by heart, in every sense of the term because the text is being simultaneously believed and sung at the highest level.’ Fr. Zachary Akers, music director of The Fraternity and a singer on Requiem, explains the relationship of the words to the melodies by noting, ‘I’ve heard it said that the music is meant to ‘clothe’ the texts.’ Although most people may only know the Requiem via the celebrated version by Mozart, the composer was himself inspired by the somber beauty and unadorned profundity of Gregorian chant, taking it as an emotional-aesthetic standard. Fr. Akers explains: ‘In this album we are hearing this type of music that was around long before Mozart, approaching the beginning of sacred music.’ ”
The Schola Cantorum of St Mary’s Church in Norwalk, Connecticut, and the St Cecilia Society announce the release of the CD Lux Fulgebit, a recording of the Christmas Mass at Dawn, featuring the premiere recording of the 16th century English composer William Rasar’s Mass Christe Jesu. The Schola is under the direction of St Mary’s organist and choir master David Hughes.
Taking its title from the first words of the Introit of the Mass at Dawn, the CD includes motets by William Byrd, Alfonso Ferrabosco, and Walter Lambe. The entire CD presents a Mass “in context,” including all the Gregorian propers, as well as the Scripture lessons, Preface, Collect and Post-Communion.
“Not only is this the first recording made by the St Mary’s Schola Cantorum, to our knowledge it is the only William Rasar composition ever recorded. If not for the manuscript of his Mass, this gifted composer might have been lost to history. In addition, the Propers for the Mass at Dawn of Christmas Day are beautiful but not frequently recorded, and we believe they deserve a wider audience.
“Pre-Reformation English composers are widely recognized as having produced extraordinary music,” said Charles Weaver, associate director of music at St Mary’s and a Schola musician. “The Tallis Scholars and other ensembles, for example, have popularized music from English composers such as John Taverner and Robert Fairfax. We believe Rasar’s Mass deserves to be ranked among pieces by the great composers of this period.”
The Schola: Front row -- Elizabeth Baber Weaver and Judith Malafronte.
Back Row -- Terrence Fay, Charles Weaver, David Hughes and Richard Dobbins.
The cover art of Lux Fulgetbit.
Lux Fulgebit captures the musical splendor of the traditionally-oriented liturgical life at St Mary’s, recognized as a leading parish in renewing the worship of the Church. The Schola Cantorum is the heart of a multi-faceted sacred music program at the parish, that includes a children’s choir, adult volunteer choir and Spanish-speaking ensemble. All are geared toward enhancing the many Masses at the church, done in English, Latin and Spanish, and all at the High Altar, facing East.
St Mary’s pastor, the Rev. Richard G. Cipolla, believes the recording will not only be appreciated by those who are music lovers, but help open up the traditional form of the Roman Rite to those who might not be familiar.
“One of the most important ways of restoring beauty to the Mass is through the use of music. The music of the Mass must be sacred music, not merely religious music, because the Mass is the icon of the worship of God in heaven. At St Mary’s, we offer Mass adorned with music written specifically for it by some of the greatest composers in history. Lux Fulgebit will help more people experience the beauty of Rasar’s music and the ancient and venerable Tridentine Rite.”
The St Mary’s Schola Cantorum is a professional ensemble of five talented musicians, proficient in singing the most complex polyphony in the canon of Western sacred music: soprano Elizabeth Baber Weaver, mezzo-soprano Judith Malafronte, countertenor Terrence Fay, tenor Richard Dobbins and bass Charles Weaver. The St Cecilia Society is the support organization tasked with funding the program, and is under the chairmanship of Thomas B. Heckel.
The release of Lux Fulgebit was celebrated Sunday, April 23, with a reception at the church. It can be purchased by logging onto the church’s website, www.stmarynorwalk.net/cd, and through Amazon.com and iTunes. The package includes a complete text of the Mass in English and Latin.
For some years, Massachusetts-based hymn expert Peter Meggison has been working to keep classic devotional hymns alive by commissioning new recordings of them. Having made over a dozen sessions with choirs and small ensembles, he distributes the songs on CDs and on the web. Most of the music on the site is from the era 1850-1950, and represents popular hymns sung at Catholic Masses and devotions in America and England.
This summer he collaborated with conductor and organist Michael Olbash to offer something different. Instead of late-Victorian hymns in English, the aim was to present a once-familiar sound from the traditional Mass itself: the sound of the Latin chants of the Requiem Mass, sung with organ accompaniment. A choir of 11 met for an afternoon in St. John Church in Clinton, Massachusetts in June to perform the music, and it is now available on the project’s website.
The recording begins with the Subvenite, which is sung as the body is brought into the church, and concludes with the Libera me, the ninth responsory of the Office of the Dead, which is sung as the coffin is sprinkled with holy water and incensed before being taken to the cemetery, the ceremony known as the Absolution. Between them are all of the Gregorian parts of the Mass, the regular antiphons, plus the Kyrie, Sanctus and Agnus dei. The choir is a strong group of men’s voices, really giving a very nice example of how Gregorian chant can and should be done, with a sober organ accompaniment (written by Achille Bragers) that works very nicely with, and never overpowers, the choir. (Cross-posted from Chant Café.)
Yesterday I just happened to stumble across a chant website called Gregoriana, the work of Mr Marek Klein from Slovakia. Among various other activities, one section of the site is called the Graduale Project, in which he proposes to make available recordings of literally everything in the Graduale Triplex. This project has been going on for a few years now; the most recent update (embedded below) was posted only 3 days ago. These will certainly be very helpful to scholas who want to learn some of the more elaborate parts of the chant repertoire.
Mr Klein describes the project thus: “The performing of Gregorian chant is different with every singer, and it is impossible to consider any way of performing as the only correct one. Neither do I consider my way of singing as the only correct one or the best one. I am also aware that the chants of the Graduale (the main part of them) are not meant to be sung by (a) soloist, but by ... a schola. I hope, however, that in spite of these drawbacks, my recordings will find their audience and that they can become a helpful resource for someone — a resource, which I was looking for without success at the time of my beginnings.”
His youtube channel “GradualeProject” has a dozens of videos posted to it, going back three years. Here is the most recent, the Gradual Ecce quam bonum from the 22nd Sunday after Pentecost.
This video nicely displays two very different approaches to singing chant. The first is using the traditional edition and the traditional approach. The second uses the new edition of the Graduale Novum (which is not an official book) and the so-called rhetorical method of singing chant. I think this might be the first video I've seen to directly compare the two. No doubt that partisans of one approach over the other will say that the singing is not as it should be, and, truly, this is an extreme example of the rhetorical approach in action. Still, there is enough here to get the sense. My strong sense is that these days, people can learn from both approaches with the understanding that there is not now nor has there ever been one true way to sing chant to which everyone is somehow obligated to conform. We have testimony from a millennium ago that diversity has always prevailed. The universality of chant derives not from an implacable rhythmic structure but from its text, tonal structure, beauty, and purpose. h/t euoeae
I was recently privileged to receive a number of review copies of the fine work of JAV Recordings, a small, homegrown CD production company with a special flair for the king of instruments, the organ. You may well ask what makes these organ recordings different from all the others? It's hard to swing a thurible in a religious goods store and not hit Original Organ Pieces The Whole World Loves to Play on Their Original Organs--it's between Gregorian Bubblebath and Three More Hits by the Six Irish Tenors. But that's a sad East German Trabant 1.1 puffing alongside JAV's luxury cars. This little company can hold its own against the big professional classical labels in terms of quality.
And JAV has produced what can only be called a musicological Rolls-Royce this year, just in time for Christmas. This massive, handsomely-packaged two-disk album takes as its framework the majestic organ-and-choral Messe Solennelle of Louis Vierne (1870-1937), the famed organist so associated with the Parisian church of Saint-Sulpice and its splendid choral tradition. Not only does it place the composition in its intended context--a full-fledged Easter mass, complete with chants, tolling bells, sung prayers and even a bit of atmospheric ambient noise--but was recorded at Saint-Sulpice itself, with Daniel Roth, the current titular organist at the keyboard. (There is a lot of music between these two CDs. This is the only recording of this mass that has been produced in this fashion. The result is musical and spiritual time-travel.
Louis Vierne began his musical life as a student of Charles Widor, the Paris Conservatoire's organ teacher and himself at one time organist at St.-Sulpice. He soon became Widor's deputy at the grand orgue of Saint-Sulpice, and in time became the titular organist at Notre-Dame in 1900. His Messe Solennelle, squarely in the tradition of Saint-Sulpice in general and Widor in particular, premiered at St. Sulpice on the feast of the Immaculate Conception, 1901, with Widor at the pedals of the principal organ and Vierne playing the orgue-de-choeur.
Vierne's mass was not, and was never intended to be, a concert mass; indeed, it was one of the most common mass-settings heard in French parishes. By returning it to this context, it becomes once again a living, breathing work. The music is handled by distinguished cast: the Choeur d'Oratorio de Paris, a 90-voice ensemble with a broad and distinguished background from sacred works to Beethoven, does the heavy lifting, with the chants taken by the Choeur Gregorien de Paris, a smaller, more intimate group which frequently sings in a liturgical context at Val-de-Grace. The group's female sopranos (substituting for the boys' voices of Vierne's time) do particularly marvelous things with the organ-and-choir alternating verses of the Victimae Paschali sung in the authentic Parisian manner. The abovementioned Daniel Roth, as well as the award-winning Eric Lebrun of Saint-Antoine des Quinze Vingts on the choir organ, and a group of talented soloists handling the parts of priest, deacon and subdeacon, round out the ensemble.
The mass's musical surroundings are surprisingly varied, yet harmonious, complementing and expanding the texture of Vierne's setting. Particularly splendid are the organ various improvisations on set liturgical melodies by Roth and Lebrun, which vary from the reverent and soothing (Le matin de Paques, which has an appropriately burbling, luminous tone to complement the Vidi Aquam) to the joyously playful (an improvisation on Haec Dies) and even thunderously grand (one following Terra tremuit, as to be expected), as contextually appropriate. "[T]o be an organist meant you were also an improvisor," as the album notes tell us, and it is glorious to see this unique skill at work here on this CD. As one would expect with Vierne, there are those glorious blow-your-speakers-out moments like the dramatic, thundering beginning of the Kyrie (known to my chorister friends as the "Make Yourself Sorry for Your Sins" Kyrie with good reason) but only where the text and action of the mystery of the Mass demands it, showing both the genius of Vierne and of his interpreters in this recording. One is led into these moments of drama carefully and with a sense of dramatic anticipation. It is particularly striking to see the majestic terror of the Kyrie shift suddenly to the majestic joy of the Gloria, with only a brief chanted incipit to separate them. When one compares these grandiose moments with the quieter, suitably introspective Benedictus with its sparing use of the organ and slow etherial movement (building steadily towards its concluding cry of "Hosanna!"), Vierne's range is nothing short of astonishing.
The chants accompanying the mass are sung in the style of Solesmes (whose reform had begun long before, in 1889), partially for practical reasons, lest the older, slower style of singing dominate the CD with its drawn-out length. The sinuous, sung chants are accompanied by the organ in a very discrete way that, while it may rankle some purists, does represent the local practice between 1899 and 1937, and complements the context quite successfully. There is much to be said for the recognition and preservation of such regional practices, especially when they grew out of such a well-developed local tradition as Saint-Sulpice possessed. (And, amusingly, there is even one instance of extremely-tuneful low-grade liturgical abuse appropriate to the period--the insertion of Vierne's wonderful Tantum Ergo, Op. 2, after the Communion Verse.)The practice of singing the Sequence ad alternim with organ-improvised versions mentioned above still continues today.
Yet the recording does not represent a static period in history: Vierne lived himself in a period of change and experiment in the realm of liturgical music. His musical career straddled the (well-intentioned but, let's face it, occasionally ham-fisted) musical reforms of Pius X, the Solesmnes reform, and Niedermeyer's rediscovery of early music. As in Vierne's day, several choice older pieces are also included, at the appropriate points in the mass: a polyphonic setting of the Alleluia by Gallus and the motet Jubilate Deo by one of the Gabrielis. This, combined with the free improvisations by Roth covering the Canon and parts of the Communion make this experience truly alive and more than a simple act of archaeological wish-fulfilment.
I am a bit of an early-music reconstruction junkie--what else can be said about someone who owns recreations of liturgies at Bach's church in Leipzig, Vespers at the Saxon court of the 1660s, a reconstruction of a Lutheran service circa 1620, and the Easter, Christmas and Coronation masses of San Marco in Venice? Some musical buffs may complain such works can reduce the sacred liturgy to Society for Creative Anachronism-style extravaganzas, but I think they are essential to restoring fine art to its place in the sacred liturgy, and reminding us that there is precious little beauty that cannot be traced, somehow, back to the font of the holy mass. Not to mention, as an aesthetic experience, the contrast of the various chants and readings brilliantly set off the mass parts, which otherwise would have seemed like an hour of unending crescendi. The interplay of textures, styles, and differing liturgical elements make the centerpiece of this album seem all the more rich and remarkable.
This is a good moment to mention the sixty-page booklet that is bound into the packaging, which looks to have been quite an elaborate project in itself. Not only does it include several learned essays, it also discusses in-depth the liturgical context of the mass setting itself, and that of the recording, as well as including the text of the entire Tridentine liturgy as it would have been undertaken in this context down to the words of the silent Canon. Vignette photos of the liturgical action, specially-commissioned for the album, accompany them (and with a moment of Catholic Where's Waldo, see if you can recognize the celebrant--he's been seen on The New Liturgical Movement quite a few times in the past!) I hope some cerebral musicologist will discover this album and remember on flipping through these pages, that there would have been no Vierne Mass had it not been for the God it is written in praise of, and the liturgy that sings those praises.
JAV Records, incidentally, is helmed by a gentleman, a friend of mine, who believes very strongly in the Latin Liturgy, and of the importance of beauty in its celebration, and it shows. The man knows his stuff. Classical music is an unforgiving field to try to make money in--even the big labels and stores often don't fare well, as the closure of the legendary Tower Records some years ago reminds us. That a small label like JAV would lavish such effort on its albums shows what a labor of love this is, and that the liturgy is at the heart of that love.
The liturgical context of this album reminds us that the liturgical experiences of the past four- or five-hundred years are by no means a static, uniform golden age, but had their unique and peculiar delights (and occasionally their abuses--Venetian clergy could be fined for interrupting the music at mass with their prayers!). This is not mere nostalgia. There is much for the professional musician and liturgist to learn from here, or even the humble parish priest dreaming of bigger and better things. The amateur will also find everything to his liking here, and may discover a little more about a corner of historic church music--and about the beauty of holiness--that he did not know. This CD is a truly one-of-a-kind monument to both Vierne's oeuvre, and to all the imagination and hard work that went into its production.
This might be the least sung of all the Gregorian Glorias, though many regard it as the most beautiful even given its melodic complexities and difficulties. I can't say that I've personally ever sung it or heard it on any recording, though I agree it is stunning in many ways.
The Sacred Music Colloquium featured a huge range of music for Mass. One Mass was set aside for the women's choir of St. John Cantius to prepare so that the colloquium choirs could have a break. I'm linking here my favorite piece from their Mass ordinary. It is a Gloria from the Mass in E-Flat, Op. 15, by Josef Rheinberger (1839-1901).
From my reading of 19th and early 20th century Catholic classics, this piece might have been a choir pick for a cathedral in preconciliar days. I like it very much, despite the slight hints that date it a bit (dated in a way that, e.g. Josquin or Victoria or Byrd are not).
Rheinberger was not of the sentimental Caecilian school and, in fact, was a critic of self-conscious anachronism in liturgical music. He was a serious guy, and his music always made the "white list," and for good reason. It is not what I would put at the top of the list of the "treasury" but it is worthy music and it is a great thing that Cantius is preserving its use in a liturgical setting.
This recording is from the closing Mass of the Sacred Music Colloquium, the Alleluia for the 13th Sunday of the Year, sung by the intermediate women's choir directed by Arlene Oost-Zinner with the verse sung by Mary Ann Carr. The liturgical function of the Alleuia centers on the expression of joy toward the reading of the Gospel, and this setting embodies that perfectly. Mary Ann in particular here revealed new things in her interpretation of the verse -- with free rhythm and attention to ornaments that can only be sung by a soloist, ornaments she worked on in the days prior under coaching by William Mahrt. It was one of the more striking musical moments of the week.
That much-talked-about Requiem Mass by Joan Brudieu (ca.1520-1591) is now online in full. Listen for the heartbeat underneath the polyphonic structure on top, beautifully crafted by the choir under the direction of Wilko Brouwers. The same Mass has Dies Irae sung in octave alternation. Much more here. In fact, it is an entire evening of thrilling listening.
Here is a recording of a motet, Let Thy Merciful Ears, by Thomas Mudd, from the first Mass of the Colloquium, sung by all attendees with about 5 mins of rehearsal on the night when everyone arrived. Editions at CPDL
Antiphon: "The Lord is the strength of His people, and the protector of the salvation of His anointed: save, O Lord, thy people, and bless Thine inheritance, and rule them forever."
Verse 1: "Unto thee will I cry, O Lord: O my God, be not Though silent to me, lest if Thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit."
Verse 2: "My heart hath said to thee: My face hath sought thee. They face O Lord, willI seek. Turn not away they face from me."
Verse 3: "I believe to see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living. Expect the Lord: and let thy heart take courage: and wait thou for the Lord."
Chant settings by Fr. Samuel F. Weber, OSB, of the Institute of Sacred Music, St. Louis, MO)
If you love new music for Mass, sacred music in the style recommended by the Second Vatican Council, you will adore this amazing piece: Requiem by Pedro de Escobar. The only thing is that it was written in the 15th century by this marvelous but little-known Portuguese composer. The first publication of the Mass comes from Fidelio Musica of Spain or you can write Antonio Ruiz at aruiz@fideliomusica.org.
I've been wanting to link this for years but it only now appears on Youtube. It is Guillaume de Machaut's Kyrie from Messe de Nostre Dame, which is popularly called the first full-scale, multi-part composition, probably written in the 1370s. It is truly dazzling, and not entirely unapproachable, though it probably requires professionals. Here is the sheet music.
I don't usually blog the pieces that our own choir is doing, mainly because it seems excessively solipsistic, but I was so touched at how this piece by Henry Purcell went that I figure there is a point to drawing your attention to it. It was written for the funeral of Queen Mary, but it's general use is very apparent. It is not entirely difficult but it is stunningly effective. Here is the sheet music.
