First Sunday of Lent

Choral Highlights for

Prelude 11:30am Mass, Call to Remembrance – Richard Farrant (c. 1525-1580)

Richard Farrant was a Tudor-era English composer at residence in the Chapel Royal and later organist at St’ George’s Chapel, Windsor. Several motets which had been attributed to him have since been assigned to other composers by historians and musicologists. This motet is considered to be genuinely his. The text is taken from the 25th Psalm and begs God to remember his acts of mercy in the past, and to be merciful to us now. The music is frequently motivic and oscillates between f-minor and its mediant relation – A-flat major. While the piece begins in a minor key, the concluding cadence shifts to a major tonality, advancing confidence in the promise of God’s grace and mercy. At today’s Mass the theme of the motet repeats and reinforces Paul’s Letter to the Romans, our second reading: “For everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.”

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Preparation of the Gifts Motet 10am Mass, "Scapulis Suis" – G. P. da Palestrina (1525-1594)

“The Lord will overshadow you with his pinions, and you will find refuge under his wings. His faithfulness will encompass you with a shield.” Psalm 91, verse 4-5. The First Sunday of Lent is unique in that the text for both the Offertory and Communion chants use the identical verses of Psalm 91. And in Year C of the Lectionary cycle Psalm 91 is the source for the responsorial psalm for this Sunday. This unusual concurrence is even more noteworthy as it is the same citation used by the devil in today’s Gospel as Jesus is tempted to test God’s constancy and steadfastness. G.P. da Palestrina was an Italian Renaissance composer of principally sacred music and the best-known 16th century representative of the Roman School of musical composition. He had a lasting influence on the development of church music, and his work has often been considered the epitome of the genre. His setting is taken from the collection Offertoria Totuis Anni from 1593. This polyphonic motet uses lengthy phrasal imitation and weakened cadential arrangements, creating an uninterrupted effect through the text.

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Preparation of the Gifts Motet 11:30am Mass, "Hide Not Thou Thy Face" – Richard Farrant (c. 1525-1580)

Richard Farrant was a 16th century English composer, and member of the Chapel Royal for twelve years before becoming organist for St. George’s Chapel, Windsor. This motet quotes verses of Psalm 27 and is set in a declamatory/homophonic style (in which the text is sung at the same moment in all parts.) The text pleads that God might reveal his merciful face toward us, even as we lay bare ours sin and selfishness and admit to our unworthiness.
 
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Communion Motet 11:30am Mass, "Scapulis Suis" – Robert Kreutz (1922-1996)

Robert Kreutz was a 20th century American composer of mostly liturgical music. Mr. Kreutz studied composition at the American Conservatory in Chicago and at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is best known for his hymn collaboration with Omer Westendorf in their “Gift of Finest Wheat,” composed for the Eucharistic Congress in Philadelphia during the US Bicentennial celebration in 1976. Kreutz sets these two verses of Psalm 91 in a modern aesthetic with expressive word painting as in the opening gesture where voices are successively layered, one upon the other, as feathers are layered in a bird’s wing.

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Post-Communion 10:00am Mass, Scapulis Suis – Orlando di Lasso (1532-1594)

Lasso (Lassus in Latin and French) was a late polyphonic composer in the Franco-Netherlandish style. His musical career took him throughout Europe - from Spanish Hainaut (Belgium), to Italy where he was Chapel master for St. John Lateran (Rome), and finally the court of Bavaria in Munich where he died. His compositional output included madrigals, lieder, chansons, and motets, in addition to a vast sacred repertoire. His setting of today’s antiphon, typical of the style, utilizes imitation, motivic call - response between the voice parts, and hints of modality, all common features of this renaissance composer.

Post-Communion 11:30am Mass, Lord, For thy Tender Mercies Sake – Richard Farrant (c. 1525-1580)

Richard Farrant was a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal until 1564 when he left to become Choirmaster at St George’s Chapel, Windsor. He is best known for this motet and two others - “Call to Remembrance” and “Hide Not Thou Thy Face From Us,” both printed in a collection of sacred choral works edited by John Barnard in 1641 in London. The form of this motet – a binary structure, repeated with a final Amen (added by another composer), was also favored by Thomas Tallis, a contemporary of Farrant’s. The text of this setting was from Henry Bull’s “Christian Prayers and Holy Meditations,” (1566) a collection that also contained “Call to Remembrance.” We offer this motet today as an appropriate prayer to begin our 40 day Lenten observance, asking that God “give us grace to amend our sinful lives,” so that we may “walk with a perfect heart both now, and forevermore.”

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