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.
This past June, The Ecclesia Choir under the direction of Timothy Woods gave a concert of my sacred choral music at St. John Cantius Catholic Church in Chicago. It was a splendid and memorable occasion, one for which I am very grateful to Our Lord, Our Lady, St. Cecilia, the singers, the canons at the church, and all who attended.
We made a professional recording of the final rehearsal as well as the concert and are planning to release a CD from these materials, but the project will naturally take some time to complete. In the mean time, my son has combined some of the recordings with scrolling scores or video footage, and these I wanted to share with NLM readers, along with some remarks about what I was intending to do with each particular piece of music.
Lord, Dost Thou Wash My Feet?
Lord, dost thou wash my feet? Jesus answered and said: If I wash not thy feet, thou hast no part in me. He came therefore unto Simon Peter, and Peter said unto him: Lord, dost thou wash my feet? Jesus answered and said: If I wash not thy feet, thou hast no part in me. What I do, thou knowest not now: but thou shalt know hereafter. Lord, dost thou wash my feet? Jesus answered and said: If I wash not thy feet, thou hast no part in me. (John 13, vv. 6, 7, 8)
This is the third of a set of seven Mandatum Antiphons (antiphons for the washing of the feet on Maundy Thursday), composed in 2010 and dedicated to Arvo Pärt on the occasion of his 75th birthday. The score was sent to Maestro Pärt in Estonia by his agent at Universal Edition in Vienna, and Pärt did me the great honor of calling me on the telephone to accept the dedication and to thank me for the music.
In this antiphon, I want to express the shock and dismay of Peter when the Lord stoops to wash his feet. In a way reminiscent of his initial reaction to Jesus, "Lord, depart from me, for I am a sinful man," it is almost as if Peter is saying: "Lord, depart from me, for I am your servant, not your master." The difficult emotions through which Peter is going are expressed by the uncertain, conflicted, and clashing harmonies. The response of Jesus is authoritative and unwavering, expressed in ringing consonant chords. In the antiphon as given by the Church, Peter asks three times, "Lord, dost Thou wash my feet?" (as Jesus was to ask him three times after the resurrection, "Peter, lovest thou Me?"), each time with a greater intensity, as if to say: "Are you really quite serious about this footwashing?"
Christus natus
Christus natus est nobis: venite, adoremus.
Hodie lumen mundi, hodie Salvator Israel natus est nobis.
Illi clamemus: Qui natus es de Virgine, miserere nobis.
Christus natus est nobis: venite, adoremus. Alleluia.
(Christ is born unto us: come, let us adore.
Today the light of the world, today the Savior of Israel is born unto us.
To Him let us cry out: Thou who wast born of the Virgin, have mercy on us.
Christ is born unto us: come, let us adore. Alleluia.)
This Christmas motet was commissioned by Heath Morber for the Choirs of St. John's Catholic Newman Center Chapel at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The Latin text is drawn from Dom Gueranger's The Liturgical Year and is derived from old Gallican sources. As befits a song of joy, the pace is fleet and the mood is festal, with a contrasting turn at "miserere nobis" before the return of the opening theme, which is now presented with elaboration and syncopation. I listen a great deal to Giovanni Gabrieli and I'm sure he was an influence at some points.
The Coventry Carol
The haunting melody of the Coventry Carol has long been a favorite for arrangers of choral music. In this arrangement, I bring out the eeriness of the juxtaposition of a lullaby with the lamentation over the slaughtered infants by using polytonality and some "false relations." During the verses, the lower voices are chanting "vita mutatur, non tollitur," from the Preface of the Mass of the Dead. At the end, while the sopranos and basses sing "Amen," the inner voices sing "Orate pro nobis."
My Jesus, Mercy
King of creation,
purest oblation:
Thy Body torn for me,
Thy Blood poured out for me,
Jesus, my Savior, My Jesus, mercy.
Jesus, my Savior, My Jesus, mercy.
Priest interceding,
wounds ever pleading,
Lamb slain before all time,
Love stronger than all crime:
Jesus, my Ransom, My Jesus, mercy.
Jesus, my Ransom, My Jesus, mercy.
Good Shepherd, guide me,
safe refuge, hide me,
True Prophet, Light from Light,
Shine through my inward sight:
Jesus, my Glory, My Jesus, mercy.
Jesus, my Glory, My Jesus, mercy.
I fall before Thee,
Christ, I adore Thee,
Be Thou my sovereign Lord,
Be Thou my sure reward:
Jesus, my Treasure, Joy without measure.
Jesus, my Treasure, Joy without measure.
This hymn is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Roy Horton, my composition teacher and choirmaster from 1985-1989. I wrote both the lyrics and the music. One never fully knows why a piece takes on the form it does, but it may be that the fact that Dr. Horton was a Methodist who loved four-part hymnody and who often spoke of the beauty of this repertoire prompted me to remember him with a work of that kind.
Another performance of this piece, by the Scottish ensemble Cantiones Sacrae, may be found here, with a scrolling score.
My YouTube channel has a number of other performances of choral music as well as of the Wyoming Catholic College Choir and (why not?) lute music -- but I can take no credit for the lute music.
In addition to rescuing the forgotten treasures of our Catholic musical tradition from the dust-heap of history, our regular contributor Dr Peter Kwasniewski somehow finds the time to make his own original contribution to it, in the midst of his teaching and writing. His collection of Sacred Choral Works was published by Corpus Christ Watershed in 2014, a treasure-trove of choral music in Latin and English, written in an accessible style.
Recently some new videos of a number of pieces in the collection have been put up at YouTube, and we are happy to share them with NLM readers. We have also decided to add this title to the sidebar of recommended books, in the category Other Liturgical Books, along with his Missal for Young Catholics, and the reprints of Roman Guardini’s Sacred Signs, and the Cantus Mariales about which he wrote on Monday. Here are the videos:
Among his many other talents, Dr Peter Kwasniewski, who has made so many valuable contributions to this site over the last year and half, also composes sacred music of many different kinds. Complete information on the book itself, a number of audio samples of the compositions being performed, and ordering information are available at the website of Corpus Christi Watershed; the publication is also complemented by three full-length CDs containing recordings of nearly every piece, performed by Matthew Curtis of ChoralTracks. These recordings are intended primarily as aids in repertoire selection, and to assist in the learning of the pieces; links to purchase are given on the CCW page linked above.
Peter recently gave an interview to the Cardinal Newman Society about the book, which you can read in the entirety by clicking here. Here are some excerpts.
Could you tell us about your book Sacred Choral Works? What was the primary motivation behind it?
This new book, Sacred Choral Works, brings together my choral compositions from a 23-year period, that is, from 1990 to 2013. There are a total of 91 pieces—some are short psalm responses or Gospel acclamations for Mass, others are more extensive and demanding motets suitable for Offertory or Communion. To give a sense of the variety, the book includes several settings of the Mass Ordinary, doxologies, psalms, Marian pieces, six versions of the Tantum Ergo, an O Salutaris in English and in Latin, a number of English strophic hymns, Christmas, Lenten, and Easter music, a set of Holy Thursday antiphons for the washing of the feet, and three settings of the Reproaches for Good Friday. ...
Having sung many of these pieces with my own choirs over the years, I decided to publish Sacred Choral Works for choirs around the country that might be looking for beautiful and liturgically useful new music to add to their repertoires.There’s a vast amount of great choral literature—one could never exhaust it in many lifetimes—but, for one thing, much of it is extremely challenging, and, for another, I believe there’s an important place for fresh compositions that are nevertheless in profound continuity with the Catholic tradition.
How did your experiences as a student at Thomas Aquinas College (TAC) and The Catholic University of America (CUA), as well as teaching at several Catholic colleges, form you and impact your work?
From my high school years on, music has been a tremendous passion for me, and as I delve ever more deeply into the sphere of sacred music, my wonder and delight continue to grow. Thanks to a wonderful composition and conducting teacher I was blessed to study with in high school (it was an all-boys Benedictine school in New Jersey), I began to compose in a serious way around the age of 18, and by the time I was helping [to] direct the choir at Thomas Aquinas College, I’d written a number of Mass settings and motets, which had their first performances there.
It would be impossible for me to exaggerate the value for my musical life of all that I learned and experienced at TAC and later CUA. Although the primary goods I gained from both schools were academic or intellectual (and, of course, lifelong friendships), their environments were so full of vibrant cultural activity, particularly in service of the worthy celebration of the liturgy, that I simply couldn’t have grown the way I did without those special places. ...
What is the importance of sacred liturgy and its music?
... To me, it is quite simple: Our Lord Jesus Christ chose to give Himself and His divine life to us through the perpetual hymn of praise offered up by His Church and through the seven sacraments —above all, the Most Holy Eucharist, in which the Lord renews His perfect sacrifice to the Father and gives us Himself as our nourishment. We cannot have the Body and Blood of Jesus unless we have the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. And if we are aware of the stupendous magnitude, the awesome, holy, divine, immortal, life-creating mysteries we are adoring and receiving in this Sacrifice, how could we not yearn to give to the Lord all that we can and the very best that we can—all that is within our hearts, of course, but also the “externals”: the most beautiful works of art, be it the church itself and its furnishings, the vestments and vessels, the ceremonies, the music? All should be noble, uplifting, harmonious, in a sacred style, in continuity with the Church’s tradition, pointing unambiguously to the transcendent, the heavenly, the eternal. This is what Catholics have always done (or at least aspired to do) until recent decades of amnesia, and we must hope, pray, and work to recover this supernatural common sense, if I may so call it. ...
What do you hope people will gain from Sacred Choral Works?
Naturally, I hope people will find in its pages well-crafted music that will enhance their choral repertoire for Mass and other devotions. The publisher and I took great pains with the beauty and clarity of the layout, providing translations of all Latin texts and organizing the pieces in a useful way—in the Table of Contents, by liturgical season or genre, and on the back cover, in alphabetical order for quick reference. ...
Do you have any other comments you would like to add?
The Catholic world has been much agitated by the scandalous nature of what occurred recently at the Extraordinary Synod. Believe it or not, there is a real connection between this scandal and the devastation that was visited upon the liturgy and its music after the Second Vatican Council. The common denominator is accommodationism—the belief that it is the Church’s responsibility to adapt herself to modern man, to adopt his ways of speaking, thinking, acting. This is a colossal dead end, whether in liturgy or in morality. The Church’s role is to preach the truth of the Gospel to sinners (i.e. all of us), and convert us to the Gospel, so that we are the ones who must change, who must be conformed to Christ. ...
