The Schola Cantorum focuses on Mary’s role as Theotokos (God-bearer) in this week’s choral music for the fourth Sunday of Advent, featuring the works of Palestrina, Rachmaninoff and Thomas Crecquillon.
10am Mass Preparation of the Gifts, “Ave Maria” - G. P. da Palestrina (1525 – 1594)
This motet, in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, was written for five voices by Palestrina and published in 1575. Much like the Crecquillan, sung by the Schola in the 11:30am mass today, Palestrina employs imitative polyphony at the head motive. Palestrina crafted many settings of the text “Ave Maria”, but in this instance he based the music on the Offertory chant, “Ave Maria” for the fourth Sunday of Advent. The motet ends on an uplifting and serene major chord, leaving us with a renewed understanding of the spotlessness that God has given the Virgin Mary, on the text, “blessed is the fruit of your womb,” Jesus.
To hear a version, click below.
11:30am Mass Preparation of the Gifts “Johannes est Nomen eius” - Thomas Crecquillan (1505 – 1557)
Thomas Crecquillan was a major European renaissance composer who was a musician in the court of Emperor Charles V. The title of this motet, “John is his name,” directly addresses a key figure in the story of Jesus’s birth. John the Baptist, born of the Virgin Mary’s cousin, Elizabeth, to prepare the way for Jesus’ entrance into the world. The motet begins in an imitative structure, with each voice beginning as the previous entrance, then spurring into a sprinkling of joyous moments within a surprisingly light choral density for five voices. The motet ends with a light-hearted Alleluia section, featuring cross relations and continuous imitation between each voice.
To hear a version, click below.
11:30am Mass Communion Motet, “Bogoróditse Dyévo” Sergei Rachmaninoff - (1873 – 1943)
Russian nationalist, twentieth century composer, Rachmaninoff, set the Marian text, Bogoróditse Dyévo ráduisya (translating to, “Rejoice, Virgin Mother of God”) in 1915. Bogoróditse Dyévo is the sixth movement in Rachmaninoff’s Russian Orthodox All-Night Vigil. The full work was premiered by the Moscow Synodal Choir, an ensemble which was later banned because of the general prohibition on all religious music by the Marxist party who rose to power in Russian during the twentieth century. The piece is simple yet climactic in structure, rising to a hope-filled fortissimo dynamic at “yáko Spása rodilá yesí dush náshikh,” which translates “for you have borne the Saviour of our souls.”
To hear a version, click below.