CELEBRATION OF MASS AND OTHER LITURGIES IS SUSPENDED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.
ENJOY READING ABOUT AND LISTENING TO WORKS THAT YOU OTHERWISE WOULD HAVE HEARD SUNG BY OUR SCHOLA CANTORUM ON MARCH 15, 2020.
11:30am Mass, Choral Prelude, “Restless is the Heart” - Bernadette Farrell (b. 1956)
This motet, by the British Catholic composer Bernadette Farrell, is a setting of the following texts: a prayer attributed to St. Augustine and select verses from Psalm 90. The motet has become a popular selection for Catholic funerals and Remembrance Services because of the emphasis on finding rest in God and on the transitory nature of life. Augustine’s prayer is dramatized by the Samaritan woman’s interaction with Christ at the well, as depicted in today’s Gospel. Christ promises that her longing will be satisfied when she discovers and drinks from the source of the life-giving water that will never run dry.
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10am Mass, Kyrie eleison from Missa Quarti Toni, Tomas Luis de Victoria (1548 – 1611)
Although the Spanish counter-reformation composer, Victoria, wrote numerous Mass settings based on chants, secular tunes, and even his own compositions, this Mass setting uses original motivic elements. The name – Quarti Toni (meaning, fourth tone) comes from the ecclesiastical modes of chant, of which the Hypo-Phrygian scale (B, C, D, E, F, G, A) is the fourth mode. The flatted second degree of the scale in this mode makes the tonality uniquely dark. The haunting character of this mode is heard throughout this setting of the Kyrie.
10am Mass Preparation of the Gifts and Communion Motet, “Sicut Cervus/Sitivit Anima Mea” - G. P. da Palestrina (1524 – 1594)
This arrangement of the first verse of Psalm 42, demonstrates the post-Trent musical style of the Italian Renaissance composer, Palestrina. It was published in 1584 in the Second Book of Four Voice Motets. “As the deer longs for living waters, so my soul thirsts for you, O God.” The imagery of the deer longing for a running stream is presented as a reflection on today’s Gospel. The second part of this motet, which is not often sung, sets verses 2 and 3 from Psalm 42 and continues the idea expressed in the Communion Antiphon of the water of Christ which satisfies. “My soul thirsts for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my meat day and night, they continually say to me, ‘Where is your God?’”
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11:30am Mass Preparation of the Gifts, “There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy” - Ken Berg (b. 1955)
Two themes in today’s scriptures are called to mind in this relatively modern hymn tune setting paired with a text by the prolific nineteenth century English poet, Frederick Faber. The text speaks of the immeasurable mercy of God and likens it to the “wideness of the sea.” That same bountiful mercy is revealed in the Gospel for this Sunday. Jesus approaches the woman at the well with compassion and offers her life-giving water that will never be exhausted. This Sunday, the Schola will sing only four of the original thirteen stanzas of this poem found in Faber’s Hymns (London, 1862). This hymn is a staple of Christian worship but is most often sung to the Dutch folk tune “In Babilone.” Calvin Hampton (1938 -1984) took up the challenge to create a fresh rendering of the hymn, composing a new tune with an undulating accompaniment that effectively evokes the movement of waves at sea. The tune name St. Helena is given in honor of a community of Episcopalian women active in his parish church (Calvary Episcopal, Gramercy Park, NYC) called the Order of St. Helena. Ken Berg, of Birmingham, AL, composed the choral setting heard in today’s liturgy.
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11:30am Mass Communion Motet, “Like as the Hart” - Herbert Howells (1892 – 1983)
This motet is the most famous of Howells’ Four Anthems published in 1943 and has become a standard of English choral repertoire of the twentieth century. His rich and lush harmonic palate subtly expresses these first two verses of Psalm 42: the longing and thirsting of the deer—or ‘hart’ as it was translated in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer—with its double-entendre alludes to our own ‘hearts.’ The anthem is in a ternary form with verses 1 and 2 of the psalm depicting the thirsting soul that longs for God and wonders when it will be satisfied. The second section of the anthem speaks of the soul considering its own sadness and despair. The first section is then brought back with a descant characteristic of Howells, accompanying the primary motive. The setting of the final word God is most poignant, as the peaceful E major sonority is pierced repeatedly by a flatted 6th, evoking a sense of transformation, until the final cadential progression reinforces the celestial E major in a faint foreshadowing of the soul’s home in heaven.
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