In the Roman tradition, the feast kept on February 2nd was always known as the Purification of the Virgin Mary. Of course, it also commemorates the presentation of the Lord in the temple, which is why liturgical commentators of the Middle Ages such as our dear friend William Durandus often referred to it as a “double feast”. The Roman Office for it was always a mixture of parts proper to the feast, and others drawn from the common Office of the Virgin Mary, with the three hymns taken from the latter. But there were other traditions which mixed these elements differently; for example, in the use of Liège, the hymn for Lauds of Christmas, A solis ortus cardine, was sung at both Vespers.
Many medieval Uses have a hymn for Vespers, Quod chorus vatum, which was written by the Blessed Rabanus Maurus (780 ca. - 856), whose feast day is today. Among them is the Use of Sarum, (along with those of the Carmelites and Premonstratensians), which is why we have this lovely setting in alternating chant and polyphony by the famous English composer Thomas Tallis (1505-85). In the post-Conciliar Liturgy of the Hours, it was by some miracle incorporated into the feast without any of the usual cack-handed mangling of the text. The English translation below is the Anglican priest Thomas Alexander Lacey (1853-1913), and very cleverly keeps the meter of the original. The individual lines are too long for the side-by-side tables which I normally use for hymns.
Quod chorus vatum venerandus olim, Spiritu Sancto cecinit repletus, In Dei factum genitrice constat Esse Maria.
Hæc Deum cæli Dominumque terræ Virgo concepit peperitque virgo, Atque post partum meruit manere Inviolata.
Quem senex Iustus Simeon in ulnis In domo sumpsit Domini, gavisus: Ob quod optatum meruit videre Lumine Christum.
Tu libens votis, petimus, precantum Regis æterni genitrix, faveto, Clara quæ cæli renitens Olympi Regna petisti.
Sit Deo nostro decus et potestas, Sit salus perpes, sit honor perennis, Qui poli summa residet in arce, Trinus et Unus. Amen.
All prophets hail thee, from of old announcing, By the inbreathèd Spirit of the Father, God’s Mother, bringing prophecies to fullness, Mary the maiden.
Thou the true Virgin Mother of the Highest, Bearing incarnate God in awed obedience, Meekly acceptest for a sinless offspring Purification.
In the high temple Simeon receives thee, Takes to his bent arms with a holy rapture That promised Saviour, vision of redemption, Christ long awaited.
Now the fair realm of Paradise attaining, And to thy Son’s throne, Mother of the Eternal, Raisèd all glorious, yet in earth’s devotion Join with us always.
Glory and worship to the Lord of all things Pay we unresting, who alone adorèd, Father and Son and Spirit, in the highest Reigneth eternal. Amen.
The ancient corpus of Matins responsories that accompanies the readings from the book of Tobias, Judith and Esther in the last weeks of September includes one that is actually not Biblical at all, although the verse with which it is sung comes from the book of Judith. (It is repeated on some of the weekdays, including today.)
R. Tribulationes civitatum audivimus quas passae sunt, et defecimus; timor et hebetudo mentis cecidit super nos et super liberos nostros: ipsi montes nolunt recipere fugam nostram; * Domine, miserere. V. Peccavimus cum patribus nostris, injuste egimus, iniquitatem fecimus. Domine, miserere.
R. We have heard of the tribulations of the cities which they have suffered, and we have grown faint; fear and dullness of mind have fallen upon us and upon our children; the very mountains will not receive our flight; o Lord, have mercy. V. We have sinned with our fathers we have done unjustly, we have committed iniquity; o Lord, have mercy.
Folio 98v of the Antiphonary of Compiègne, also known as the antiphonary of Charles the Bald, 860-77 AD, with the texts of three antiphons from the book of Job, six responsories and three antiphons from the book of the Tobias, and the first two from the book of Judith, the second of which is Tribulationes civitatum; all of these are used in the month of September. (Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des Manuscrits, Latin 17436) – The original corpus for Tobias included only these six responsories, which cover the first two nocturns of Sunday Matins; responsories for the third nocturn, including Tribulationes civitatum, were usually supplied from those assigned to other books.
This was beautifully set as a motet by the composer William Byrd, but with modifications to the text, which is no longer structured as a responsory. The words “Domine, ad te sunt oculi nostri, ne pereamus” are inserted from one of the responsories of the following month which accompany the books of the Maccabees, and the last part is completely changed, also borrowed in part from one of the Maccabee responsories. Tribulationes civitatum audivimus quas passae sunt, et defecimus; Domine, ad te sunt oculi nostri, ne pereamus; timor et hebetudo mentis cecidit super nos et super liberos nostros: ipsi montes nolunt recipere fugam nostram; Domine, miserere. Nos enim pro peccatis nostris haec patimur; aperi oculos tuos, Domine, et vide afflictionem nostram. (We have heard of the tribulations of the cities which they have suffered, and we have grown faint; o Lord, to Thee do we look, lest we perish; fear and dullness of mind have fallen upon us and upon our children; the very mountains will not receive our flight; o Lord, have mercy; for we suffer these things for our sins, open Thy eyes, o Lord, and see our affliction.)
This is one of three works known collectively as ‘the Jerusalem motets’, written by the Catholic Byrd in response to the intensification of anti-Catholic persecution in England under Queen Elizabeth I. The “city” in each case is the Catholic Church, and the pleas to the Lord for mercy are made collectively, in the plural, which it to say, on behalf of all the persecuted. The second motet is purely Biblical, taken from Isaiah 64, 9-10.
Ne irascaris, Domine, satis, et ne ultra memineris iniquitatis nostrae; ecce, respice, populus tuus omnes nos. Civitas Sancti tui facta est deserta, Sion deserta facta est, Jerusalem desolata est. – Be not very angry, O Lord, and remember no longer our iniquity: behold, see, we are all thy people. The city of thy sanctuary is become a desert, Sion is made a desert, Jerusalem is desolate.
The third, Vide, Domine, has only a few words taken directly from a liturgical text, “veni, Domine, et noli tardare”, from one of the responsories of Advent.
Vide, Domine, afflictionem nostram, et in tempore maligno ne derelinquas nos. Plusquam Hierusalem facta est deserta civitas electa; gaudium cordis nostri conversum est in luctum, et jocunditas nostra in amaritudinem conversa est; sed veni, Domine, et noli tardare, et revoca dispersos in civitatem tuam. Da nobis, Domine, pacem tuam diu desideratam, pax sanctissima, et miserere populi tui gementis et flentis, Domine. Deus noster. – See our affliction, o Lord, and do not forsake us in the evil time. More than Jerusalem, the chosen city hath become desert; the joy of our heart is turned to mourning, and our delight to bitterness; but come, o Lord, and tarry not, and recall the scattered ones into thy city. Grant us, O Lord, thy peace, long desired, (o most holy peace), and have mercy on thy mourning, weeping people, o Lord our God.
Byrd’s collaborator Thomas Tallis was a generation older; having grown up in the Catholic Church before the many woes inflicted upon it by the impiety and avarice of the English monarchs, he remained a Catholic all his life. From the liturgical texts of the same period, he drew the words of one of the most famous motets of all time, very much on the same theme, the Spem in alium for forty voices. In the Office, it is sung as a responsory with the book of Esther in the last week of September, but it is another ecclesiastical composition, not an exact citation of any Biblical text.
Spem in alium nunquam habui praeter in te, Deus Israel, qui irasceris et propitius eris, et omnia peccata hominum in tribulatione dimittis. Domine Deus, creator caeli et terrae, respice humilitatem nostram. – I have never had hope in any other but in Thee, o God of Israel, who grow wroth, and art merciful, and forgivest all the sins of men in (their) tribulation. O Lord God, creator of heaven and earth, look upon our lowliness.
On Wednesday, April 5th, beginning at 8:00 pm, St Martin of Tours Catholic Church and Our Lady and St John Catholic Church will host a Tenebrae service at the parish of St Martin, located in downtown Louisville, Kentucky, at 639 South Shelby Street. The music, sung by the choir of St Martin of Tours, will include Thomas Tallis’ setting of the Lamentations of Jeremiah and the motet Christus Factus Est by Anton Bruckner.
The ancient corpus of Matins responsories that accompanies the readings from the book of Tobias this week includes one that is actually not Biblical at all, although the verse with which it is sung comes from the book of Judith. (It is repeated on some of the weekdays, including today.)
R. Tribulationes civitatum audivimus quas passae sunt, et defecimus; timor et hebetudo mentis cecidit super nos et super liberos nostros: ipsi montes nolunt recipere fugam nostram; * Domine, miserere. V. Peccavimus cum patribus nostris, injuste egimus, iniquitatem fecimus. Domine, miserere.
R. We have heard of the tribulations of the cities which they have suffered, and we have grown faint; fear and dullness of mind have fallen upon us and upon our children; the very mountains will not receive our flight; o Lord, have mercy. V. We have sinned with our fathers we have done unjustly, we have committed iniquity; o Lord, have mercy.
Folio 98v of the Antiphonary of Compiègne, also known as the antiphonary of Charles the Bald, 860-77 AD, with the texts of three antiphons from the book of Job, six responsories and three antiphons from the book of the Tobias, and the first two from the book of Judith, the second of which is Tribulationes civitatum; all of these are used in the month of September. (Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des Manuscrits, Latin 17436) – The original corpus for Tobias included only these six responsories, which cover the first two nocturns of Sunday Matins; responsories for the third nocturn, including Tribulationes civitatum, were usually supplied from those assigned to other books.
This was beautifully set as a motet by the composer William Byrd, but with modifications to the text, which is no longer structured as a responsory. The words “Domine, ad te sunt oculi nostri, ne pereamus” are inserted from one of the responsories of the following month which accompany the books of the Maccabees, and the last part is completely changed, also borrowed in part from one of the Maccabee responsories. Tribulationes civitatum audivimus quas passae sunt, et defecimus; Domine, ad te sunt oculi nostri, ne pereamus; timor et hebetudo mentis cecidit super nos et super liberos nostros: ipsi montes nolunt recipere fugam nostram; Domine, miserere. Nos enim pro peccatis nostris haec patimur; aperi oculos tuos, Domine, et vide afflictionem nostram. (We have heard of the tribulations of the cities which they have suffered, and we have grown faint; o Lord, to Thee do we look, lest we perish; fear and dullness of mind have fallen upon us and upon our children; the very mountains will not receive our flight; o Lord, have mercy; for we suffer these things for our sins, open Thy eyes, o Lord, and see our affliction.)
This is one of three works known collectively as ‘the Jerusalem motets’, written by the Catholic Byrd in response to the intensification of anti-Catholic persecution in England under Queen Elizabeth I. The “city” in each case is the Catholic Church, and the pleas to the Lord for mercy are made collectively, in the plural, which it to say, on behalf of all the persecuted. The second motet is purely Biblical, taken from Isaiah 64, 9-10.
Ne irascaris, Domine, satis, et ne ultra memineris iniquitatis nostrae; ecce, respice, populus tuus omnes nos. Civitas Sancti tui facta est deserta, Sion deserta facta est, Jerusalem desolata est. – Be not very angry, O Lord, and remember no longer our iniquity: behold, see, we are all thy people. The city of thy sanctuary is become a desert, Sion is made a desert, Jerusalem is desolate.
The third, Vide, Domine, has only a few words taken directly from a liturgical text, “veni, Domine, et noli tardare”, from one of the responsories of Advent.
Vide, Domine, afflictionem nostram, et in tempore maligno ne derelinquas nos. Plusquam Hierusalem facta est deserta civitas electa; gaudium cordis nostri conversum est in luctum, et jocunditas nostra in amaritudinem conversa est; sed veni, Domine, et noli tardare, et revoca dispersos in civitatem tuam. Da nobis, Domine, pacem tuam diu desideratam, pax sanctissima, et miserere populi tui gementis et flentis, Domine. Deus noster. – See our affliction, o Lord, and do not forsake us in the evil time. More than Jerusalem, the chosen city hath become desert; the joy of our heart is turned to mourning, and our delight to bitterness; but come, o Lord, and tarry not, and recall the scattered ones into thy city. Grant us, O Lord, thy peace, long desired, (o most holy peace), and have mercy on thy mourning, weeping people, o Lord our God.
Byrd’s collaborator Thomas Tallis was a generation older; having grown up in the Catholic Church before the many woes inflicted upon it by the impiety and avarice of the English monarchs, he remained a Catholic all his life. From the liturgical texts of the same period, he drew the words of one of the most famous motets of all time, very much on the same theme, the Spem in alium for forty voices. In the Office, it is sung as a responsory with the book of Esther in the last week of September, but it is another ecclesiastical composition, not an exact citation of any Biblical text.
Spem in alium nunquam habui praeter in te, Deus Israel, qui irasceris et propitius eris, et omnia peccata hominum in tribulatione dimittis. Domine Deus, creator caeli et terrae, respice humilitatem nostram. – I have never had hope in any other but in Thee, o God of Israel, who grow wroth, and art merciful, and forgivest all the sins of men in (their) tribulation. O Lord God, creator of heaven and earth, look upon our lowliness.
A priest friend of mine noted that today’s first reading in the OF lectionary, 1 Kings (3 Kings in the Vulgate) 8, 22-23 and 27-30, includes the words that form one of Tallis’ English motets. “Hear the voice and prayer of thy servants, that they make before thee this day. That thine eyes may be open toward this house night and day, ever toward this place, of which thou hast said, ‘My Name shall be there.’ And when thou hearest have mercy on them.” This would make an especially good choice for the feast of the dedication of a church, since these words come from the prayer which Solomon offers at the dedication of the temple in Jerusalem.
quare Notes: The Sacred Music Podcast is back after a winter hiatus, and we’ve got some great episodes available for you in season 3. Episode 7, “Modality in Gregorian Chant” with Dr. William Mahrt, offers tools for analyzing Gregorian chant, especially with a mind to unlocking the meaning of the text as it is set in the music.
In episode 8, an interview with Dr Francis Brancaleone, we look at a model institution for sacred music education, the Pius X School of Liturgical Music at Manhattanville College.
The brilliant Renaissance scholar Dr Kerry McCarthy offers us a view of Reformation-era liturgical changes in England through the lens of the composer Thomas Tallis in episode 9.
Russophiles will enjoy episode 10’s discussion, with Dr. Richard Fountain, of Russian bell ringing and chant, and their impact on the compositions of Sergei Rachmaninoff.
Loquebantur variis linguis Apostoli, alleluia, magnalia Dei, alleluia. V. Repleti sunt omnes Spiritu Sancto, et coeperunt loqui. Magnalia Dei. Gloria Patri. Alleluia. ~ R. The Apostles spoke in various tongues, alleluia, the wondrous works of God, alleluia. V. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and begant to speak of the wondrous works of God. Glory be. Alleluja. (The responsory at First Vespers of Pentecost in the Use of Sarum.)
As in almost every medieval Use of the Roman Rite, that of Sarum regularly sang one of the responsories of Matins between the chapter and hymn at First Vespers. Because of its prominence in the English liturgy, it was set by Thomas Tallis in polyphony; here is a really magnificent recording of his version by The Sixteen, conducted by Harry Christophers.
Palestrina also put his hand to it, with equally marvelous results; this version follows the Roman Breviary, where it is sung at Matins of Pentecost Tuesday; after “the wonderful works of God” are added the words “prout Spiritus Sanctus dabat eloqui illis, alleluja. – just as the Holy Spirit gave them to speak forth.” (This recording is also by The Sixteen.)
The ancient corpus of Matins responsories that accompanies the readings from the book of Tobias this week includes one that is actually not Biblical at all, although the verse with which it is sung comes from the book of Judith. (It is repeated on some of the weekdays, including today.)
R. Tribulationes civitatum audivimus quas passae sunt, et defecimus; timor et hebetudo mentis cecidit super nos et super liberos nostros: ipsi montes nolunt recipere fugam nostram; * Domine, miserere. V. Peccavimus cum patribus nostris, injuste egimus, iniquitatem fecimus. Domine, miserere.
R. We have heard of the tribulations of the cities which they have suffered, and we have grown faint; fear and dullness of mind have fallen upon us and upon our children; the very mountains will not receive our flight; o Lord, have mercy. V. We have sinned with our fathers we have done unjustly, we have committed iniquity; o Lord, have mercy.
Folio 98v of the Antiphonary of Compiègne, also known as the antiphonary of Charles the Bald, 860-77 AD, with the texts of three antiphons from the book of Job, six responsories and three antiphons from the book of the Tobias, and the first two from the book of Judith, the second of which is Tribulationes civitatum; all of these are used in the month of September. (Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des Manuscrits, Latin 17436) – The original corpus for Tobias included only these six responsories, which cover the first two nocturns of Sunday Matins; responsories for the third nocturn, including Tribulationes civitatum, were usually supplied from those assigned to other books.
This was beautifully set as a motet by the composer William Byrd, but with modifications to the text, which is no longer structured as a responsory. The words “Domine, ad te sunt oculi nostri, ne pereamus” are inserted from one of the responsories of the following month which accompany the books of the Maccabees, and the last part is completely changed, also borrowed in part from one of the Maccabee responsories. Tribulationes civitatum audivimus quas passae sunt, et defecimus; Domine, ad te sunt oculi nostri, ne pereamus; timor et hebetudo mentis cecidit super nos et super liberos nostros: ipsi montes nolunt recipere fugam nostram; Domine, miserere. Nos enim pro peccatis nostris haec patimur; aperi oculos tuos, Domine, et vide afflictionem nostram. (We have heard of the tribulations of the cities which they have suffered, and we have grown faint; o Lord, to Thee do we look, lest we perish; fear and dullness of mind have fallen upon us and upon our children; the very mountains will not receive our flight; o Lord, have mercy; for we suffer these things for our sins, open Thy eyes, o Lord, and see our affliction.)
This is one of three works known collectively as ‘the Jerusalem motets’, written by the Catholic Byrd in response to the intensification of anti-Catholic persecution in England under Queen Elizabeth I. The “city” in each case is the Catholic Church, and the pleas to the Lord for mercy are made collectively, in the plural, which it to say, on behalf of all the persecuted. The second motet is purely Biblical, taken from Isaiah 64, 9-10.
Ne irascaris, Domine, satis, et ne ultra memineris iniquitatis nostrae; ecce, respice, populus tuus omnes nos. Civitas Sancti tui facta est deserta, Sion deserta facta est, Jerusalem desolata est. – Be not very angry, O Lord, and remember no longer our iniquity: behold, see, we are all thy people. The city of thy sanctuary is become a desert, Sion is made a desert, Jerusalem is desolate.
The third, Vide, Domine, has only a few words taken directly from a liturgical text, “veni, Domine, et noli tardare”, from one of the responsories of Advent.
Vide, Domine, afflictionem nostram, et in tempore maligno ne derelinquas nos. Plusquam Hierusalem facta est deserta civitas electa; gaudium cordis nostri conversum est in luctum, et jocunditas nostra in amaritudinem conversa est; sed veni, Domine, et noli tardare, et revoca dispersos in civitatem tuam. Da nobis, Domine, pacem tuam diu desideratam, pax sanctissima, et miserere populi tui gementis et flentis, Domine. Deus noster. – See our affliction, o Lord, and do not forsake us in the evil time. More than Jerusalem, the chosen city hath become desert; the joy of our heart is turned to mourning, and our delight to bitterness; but come, o Lord, and tarry not, and recall the scattered ones into thy city. Grant us, O Lord, thy peace, long desired, (o most holy peace), and have mercy on thy mourning, weeping people, o Lord our God.
Byrd’s collaborator Thomas Tallis was a generation older; having grown up in the Catholic Church before the many woes inflicted upon it by the impiety and avarice of the English monarchs, he remained a Catholic all his life. From the liturgical texts of the same period, he drew the words of one of the most famous motets of all time, very much on the same theme, the Spem in alium for forty voices. In the Office, it is sung as a responsory with the book of Esther in the last week of September, but it is another ecclesiastical composition, not an exact citation of any Biblical text.
Spem in alium nunquam habui praeter in te, Deus Israel, qui irasceris et propitius eris, et omnia peccata hominum in tribulatione dimittis. Domine Deus, creator caeli et terrae, respice humilitatem nostram. – I have never had hope in any other but in Thee, o God of Israel, who grow wroth, and art merciful, and forgivest all the sins of men in (their) tribulation. O Lord God, creator of heaven and earth, look upon our lowliness.
On this octave day of the Assumption, we may meditate with profit on a remarkable medieval poem to Our Lady, "Ave rosa sine spinis," which (in typically clever and pious fashion) takes the words of the angelic salutation and weaves the remaining words around them:
1 AVE rosa sine spinis,
Te quam Pater in divinis
Majestate sublimavit,
Et ab omni vae servavit.
2 MARIA stella dicta maris,
Tu a Nato illustraris
Luce clara deitatis,
Qua praefulges cunctis datis.
3 GRATIA PLENA te perfecit
Spiritus Sanctus dum te fecit
Vas divinae bonitatis
Et totius pietatis.
4 DOMINUS TECUM: miro pacto
Verbo in te carne facto
Opere trini conditoris:
o quam dulce vas amoris.
5 BENEDICTA IN MULIERIBUS:
Hoc testatur omnis tribus;
Coeli dicunt te beatam
Et super omnes exaltatam.
6 ET BENEDICTUS FRUCTUS VENTRIS TUI,
Quo nos semper dona frui
Per praegustum hic aeternum
Et post mortem in aeternum:
7 Hunc, Virgo, salutis sensum,
Tuae laudis gratum pensum,
Conde tuo sinu pia,
Clemens sume, O Maria. Amen.
As I studied this text, I was struck by the way in which everything it says about the Blessed Virgin Mary applies analogously to the traditional liturgies (Eastern and Western) of the Church.
1. HAIL, Rose without thorns, thou whom the Father by His majesty in heaven hast elevated and preserved from all woe.
The organically developed liturgies of the Church deserve our veneration; they are splendid roses, beautiful in their symmetry, lushness, color, and fragrance of holiness, without the thorns of rationalism, utilitarianism, anthropocentrism, and other baneful ideologies.
2. MARY, known as the Star of the Sea, thou art illuminated by thy Son with the bright light of divinity, by which thou shinest bright with all thy gifts.
Over the rising and falling waves of tempestuous centuries, the liturgy has been like a fixed star, immutable in its apostolic essence but growing, expanding, in its expression of that sacred core, so that the light of Christ may shine forth ever more clearly and illuminate the world. This shining is undisturbed by the caliginous machinations of committees.
3. FULL OF GRACE: the Holy Spirit perfected thee when He made thee into a vessel of divine goodness and of all mercy.
The Holy Spirit is the principal agent of genuine liturgy and its gradual development from age to age. By His gentle brooding the Church's worship of God is perfected as a vessel of divine goodness and of all mercy, precluding the acceptance of radical rupture. How privileged we are to drink from this pellucid font! 4. THE LORD IS WITH THEE: the Word became flesh in thee in a wondrous way by the action of the Creator who is Three in One: O, how sweet is the vessel of love!
Through the liturgy, the Word becomes flesh in our midst, and O, how sweet is the pure vessel of this Eucharistic love! As with Mary, the traditional liturgy echoes and magnifies the Word of the Lord, without human compromise, without omitting the hard sayings, without deflecting adoration from the Real Presence and the mystery of the sovereign Sacrifice.
5. BLESSED ART THOU AMONGST WOMEN: all peoples bear witness to this. The heavens call thee blessed and high above all others.
How blessed among women is the Virgin in whom the Lord has done great things -- the marvel of His Incarnation! Blessed, too, among prayers, high above all others, is the solemn, objective, and rational worship of the Church's traditional liturgy, which exalts those who partake of it by lifting them above the private limits, idiosyncracies, and opinions of their age or place. All missionized peoples once bore witness to this universal blessing. May God grant it to be so in a future age.
6. AND BLESSED IS THE FRUIT OF THY WOMB: grant that we may enjoy Him always, as a foretaste here, and after death, eternally.
Per ipsum, et cum ipso, et in ipso . . . Our Lord Jesus Christ, Eternal High Priest, Victim, Altar, Thou givest Thyself to us in Holy Communion as the price of our redemption, the food of our pilgrimage, the earnest and foretaste of our eternal bliss! Canst Thou do anything more for us that Thou hast not already done? Thou art far more generous with us than we could ever deserve. We owe it to Thee to be faithful stewards of Thy manifold gifts, beginning and ending with the sacred liturgy, lest we be found unworthy servants who squandered Thy treasury.
7. O merciful virgin Mary, lay up in the holy refuge of thy Heart and mercifully receive this disposition to salvation and the pleasing duty of thy praise. Amen.
For us, the liturgy is a holy refuge, the heart of our Catholic life, where we raise up to God the sacrifice of praise and fulfill our vows to the Lord. By the Virgin's prayers may He graciously accept our oblation, which we offer in union with all the saints of the Catholic Church across the ages.
* * *
At least two composers set this poem to music: Ludwig Senfl (1486-1542), who set verses 1-6, and the much better known Thomas Tallis (c. 1505-1585), whose set all seven verses in a magnificent meditation that lasts some eleven minutes:
Yesterday I searched through my collection of recordings at home to see if I could find some Ascensiontide music to share with my family in the evening. I was surprised at how little specific music I could find, but I did come across two magnificent pieces: Thomas Tallis's office hymn Jam Christus astra ascenderat (which is more a Pentecost hymn but opens with a great reference to the mystery of the Ascension itself) and Gerald Finzi's anthem "God is Gone Up."
So, as we await in prayer the promised Paraclete, here are two beautiful (and very different!) musical meditations.
A translation:
Now Christ had ascended to the stars,
returning whence he had come,
having promised the Father's gift
that he would grant them the Holy Spirit.
The solemn day was approaching
which blessed time is marked
by the mystical seven-times-seven
rotation of the world.
During the third hour,
suddenly the whole world resounds,
and as the apostles pray,
announces the coming of the Lord.
Therefore from the light of the Father
there comes a beautiful and loving fire
which infuses the hearts of the faithful in Christ
with warmth of his word.
These consecrated hearts
you thus replenished with your grace;
forgive now our sins
and give us peaceful times.
Praise be to the Father with the Son,
together with the Holy Paraclete,
and may the son send to us
the grace of the Holy Spirit.
Towards the end of Henry VIII's reign, composers began to produce choral settings of Office responsories and hymns. Precise dates are difficult to establish, but the senior composers associated with these developments seem to have been John Taverner (d. 1545), whose musical employment (but not necessarily his activity as a composer) evidently came to an end in the later 1530s, and John Redford, who died in 1547. The new fashion was continued mainly by two younger composers: Thomas Tallis, by whom we have seven hymn settings and nine responsories, and John Sheppard, with about seventeen hymns and twenty responsories. …
Tallis's approach to composing hymns and responsories is methodical but inventive. The hymns are essentially settings of the original plainchant melodies. When sung entirely in plainchant, hymns were performed alternatim, the two sides of the choir singing alternate verses to the same melody. Tallis preserves this alternatim structure by setting only the even-numbered verses and usually also the doxology in polyphony, leaving the other verses to be sung to the original chant. …
It is easy to underestimate the craftsmanship and ingenuity of these hymn settings. They are all in five voices, with the plainchant in the top voice, but the variety that Tallis can achieve despite what might be considered a mechanical approach is quite astonishing. … Jam Christus astra ascenderat demonstrates another kind of unobtrusive craftsmanship: in the first two verses Tallis works the plainchant in canon in the treble and contratenor, while in the third the chant sails over an independent imitative texture that becomes ever more tightly argued as it proceeds.
* * *
"God is Gone Up," an anthem composed in 1951 by Gerald Finzi (1901-1956), sets to music a poem by Edward Taylor (1646?-1729):
God is gone up with a triumphant shout:
The Lord with sounding Trumpets' melodies:
Sing Praise, sing Praise, sing Praise, sing Praises out,
Unto our King sing praise seraphic-wise!
Lift up your Heads, ye lasting Doors, they sing,
And let the King of Glory enter in.
Methinks I see Heaven's sparkling courtiers fly,
In flakes of Glory down him to attend,
And hear Heart-cramping notes of Melody
Surround his Chariot as it did ascend;
Mixing their Music, making ev'ry string
More to enravish as they this tune sing.
Here is a very nice recording of Tallis's "If Ye Love Me" from the English Mass on the first day of the Sacred Music Colloquium. The composition is among the first pieces of polyphony a new choir sings in our time, but no less ingenious for its familiarity.
Joseph Sargent writes in Sacred Music (135.2) that this piece was written to respond to the edict from Edward VI that there shall be "a plain and distinct note for every syllable one: they shall sing them and none other."
I can only imagine what a composer like Tallis (!) would have said upon receiving that news from on high! Nonetheless, invention was the child of this necessity, and some marvelous music resulted, this piece as a prime example.
And speaking of English, here is the recessional from the same Mass: When Morning Gilds the Skies. Stay around for the organ postlude.
