music
Susan Boyle – Her Inspiring Story
January 4, 2010
Book Review: Susan Boyle – The Woman I Was Born to Be: My Story
In 2009 a short, frumpy-looking, forty-seven year old, single, shy Scottish woman with what appears to be an anxiety disorder took the world by storm in a very good way. Among pop music lovers, who has not seen Susan Boyle’s first audition for Britain’s Got Talent on YouTube?
After the first few notes you could hear a pin drop as this frizzy-haired lady’s strong, glorious voice mesmerized listeners. Eyes that rolled when she declared she wanted to be like Elaine Paige widened in wonder only seconds later when she opened her mouth and the first true, beautiful sounds engulfed a sea of hostile listeners. Susan Boyle became an international celebrity literally overnight as the video of that evening went viral on YouTube.
Susan tells the story of how she was born with oxygen deprivation that doctors said would make her slow at learning. However, to the delight of her loving family, she was found to have no issues with learning or intelligence level. She had plenty of trouble in school, though.
From the descriptions in her book, some kind of anxiety disorder affected her ability to do well on exams and shaped her coping behaviors. In any case, her classmates were not kind to her and this exacerbated her extreme shyness. However, accompanying that shyness is a feisty spirit that has brought Susan to her current celebrity.
“Baby Steps” Are a Key to Success
One thing you can clearly see when reading her story is that her apparent instant success was the result of many “baby steps” - a phrase she uses to describe how she overcame self-doubt and fear on her path to stardom - a path she did not know she was on – many times in her life.
What I was especially glad to learn was that Susan is a devout, practicing Catholic with deep devotion to Our Lady. She mentions trips to Lourdes with her family and visits to Knock in Ireland. Love of the Faith is in her DNA through the parents God gave her and she often turned to Our Lady for help as she moved forward little by little.
Three Things Worth Noting About Susan Boyle
First, Susan’s journey to musical fame started privately in her bedroom as a child when she found refuge from bullying in song. Later, a neighborhood pub where she started singing for fun in her early twenties became the next “baby step” in her career. Over the years she was active in local talent groups and competitions, honing her skills while not believing or understanding how good she really was. She was developing her talent from the very beginning without realizing it. Susan crushes the myth of “overnight success.”
Second, she lived with her family all of her life, and had no sense of purpose although she had a desire to do good for others. Shortly before she died, her mother admonished Susan to “do something with your life.” Today she is following that admonition with a sense of purpose and determination, aware and awed at how God is using her to bring people together through her voice.
Third, Susan Boyle is a source of hope and inspiration to many people because she has overcome many emotional difficulties and is continuing to learn to cope better with life’s demands. She did not come from a wealthy, well-placed family, but from ordinary people. She did not have a lot of advantages as some great in their fields have had. She was not drop-dead gorgeous. She did not have any friends as a child and few as an adult. Moreover, she was made fun of by others throughout the years, yet she stepped forward to share with the world the gift God has given her. She shows herself as fully human with all her foibles in a way that people of all ages can identify with, but especially those afflicted with mental and emotional issues. Susan’s life is a message: it’s never too late to discover why God put you on this earth.
I highly recommend this book to everyone. It’s a beautiful story of God’s love for a simple person, told with humor and openness. Be sure to have a hanky nearby because parts of it are very touching.
Click on the link at the top to purchase this book new or used.
R. Now and forever. Amen.
(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)
Sunday Snippets – A Catholic Carnival
December 19, 2010
Welcome to another edition of Sunday Snippets hosted by RAnn at This That and the Other Thing. Visit her to catch up on other Catholic bloggers’ posts for the week.
Sometimes God gives us Christmas early in the generosity of others. I wrote about it at A Triple Good Day.
For quick meditations on the beautiful O Antiphons, I posted links to my short thoughts on each one from last year. You can access them all from this post. Also you will find here Zoltan Kodaly’s beautiful Veni, Veni Emmanuel.
Out of the mouths of babes: a little boy was standing in line at the mall to see Santa. He looked at his mom and asked: “Where’s the line to see Jesus?” Out of this innocent question came a beautiful song in country western style that’s had over 1.2 million hits since it went up November 28.
My Christmas greetings to everyone will be posted in a day or so, so please drop by to see my custom-designed card.
Thank you for visiting and
R. Now and forever. Amen.
(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)
Sabbath Moments
December 18, 2010
Colleen at Thoughts on Grace hosts this meme, which stands for those special moments when we are with God. Be sure to visit her to read about others’ Sabbath Moments, too.
This week I spent time reading Father Lovasik’s book The Hidden Power of Kindness: A Practical Handbook for Souls Who Dare to Transform the World, One Deed at a Time. It is good, practical spiritual advice for today’s problems.
We made a day trip to Kansas City to the dental school to finish the work being done so I got to thank God for the improvements. On the way there I finished the book I was reading on Japan, still mulling over the difficulties in evangelizing in their culture and wishing I could go live there for awhile.
Lastly, I wrote a post with links to short meditations on the O Antiphons. I’d like to invite readers to visit the post and follow the links for a few Sabbath Moments every day between December 17-23. This post also has a video of Zoltan Kodaly’s beautiful Veni, Veni Emmanuel which is a real Sabbath Moment to listen to.
Thank you for stopping by and God bless you.
R. Now and forever. Amen.
(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)
O Antiphons
December 16, 2010
Tomorrow we begin the wonderful O Antiphons, chanted before and after the Magnificat at Vespers. Last Advent I posted the antiphon for each day with a short commentary. Please join me in using these links every day to pray the O Antiphons again this year.
December 17: O Sapientia – O Wisdom
December 19: O Radix Jesse – O Root of Jesse
December 20: O Clavis David – O Key of David
December 21: O Rising Dawn – O Oriens
December 22: O Rex Gentium – O King of the Gentiles
Most Catholics are familiar with the Advent hymn “O come, O come Emmanuel”. The O Antiphons are the source of this hymn. Here is the great Hungarian composer, Zoltan Kodaly’s rendering of the Gregorian chant with polyphony by L’Accorche-Choeur, Ensemble vocal Fribourg. Wouldn’t you love to hear this at your parish?
Thank you for stopping by and God bless you.
R. Now and forever. Amen.
(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)
Why Do You Write?
November 22, 2010
St. Cecelia - 19th century stained glass window from Stationers' Hall, London
Today is the feast of St. Cecelia, the early Roman martyr who proved very difficult to kill. She is the patron saint of musicians. Music was a big part of my life for many years and St. Cecelia was always there in the background for me. She was one of the first women saints I was introduced to as a child and has always been special to me.
Life changes, though, and rather than creating or making music, I now just indulge in my appreciation of it. Writing has become the dominant skill I use most often, but would you believe it, I really don’t like to write. It takes too much discipline and I’m lazy. I’d rather discuss or talk than write.
What a terrible thing for a blogger to confess! Seriously, I think of myself as a teacher, a trainer, an encourager, an information broker, and a perpetual student, but not a writer.
Although I’ve written two short business books, a weekly newspaper column for a business paper, many training manuals and programs, a monthly newsletter since 1999, and other stuff I’ve forgotten about, writing for me is a means to an end, not an end in itself. Perhaps that’s why I don’t think of myself as a writer even though I spend a lot of time thinking about writing when I’m not writing.
So why do I do it almost every day? Because I am driven to do what Pope John Paul II asked of Catholics – to use the new media to evangelize the world and writing is the only way I can do this now in my life.
Gone are my days of public speaking, conducting training, leading choirs and teaching children, although I still sometimes fantasize about giving talks on Catholic subjects. No sense in looking back nor in wishing for that which cannot be. Better to make the most of what is possible with Christ as the center of everything.
Faithful Christians evangelize within the unique context of their past and present, their talents, learning, behavior, their physical and mental capabilities. We are all called to do this and writing now has become my avenue of reaching out to others to share God’s love of all. Most especially sharing how I suffer with joy since there is so much suffering in this world and there is no point in wasting any of it by failing to use it as a way to come closer to God.
What about you? Why do you write?
If you are a blogger or some other kind of writer, why not write a post on this subject and link back here or leave a comment?
Thanks for visiting and God bless you.
R. Now and forever. Amen.
(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)
Story of Henryk Gorecki’s “Beatus Vir”
November 15, 2010
“Hear, O Lord, my prayer: give ear to my supplication in Thy truth: hear me in Thy justice.”(Psalm 143:1)
I stretched forth my hands to Thee: my soul is as earth without water unto Thee. Hear me speedily, O Lord: my spirit hath fainted away. Turn not away Thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit. Cause me to hear Thy mercy in the morning; for in Thee have I hoped. Make the way known to me wherein I should walk: for I have lifted up my soul to Thee. Deliver me from my enemies, O Lord, to Thee have I fled: teach me to do Thy will, for Thou art my God. Thy good spirit shall lead me into the right land.” (Psalm 143: 6-10)
“Make Thy face to shine upon Thy servant; save me in Thy mercy.” (Psalm 31: 16)
“Let my prayer come in before thee: incline Thy ear to my petition.” (Psalm 88: 2)
“May God bless us: and all the ends of the earth fear Him.” (Psalm 67: 7)
“O taste, and see that the Lord is sweet: blessed is the man that hopeth in him.” (Psalm 34:8)
Beatus Vir, subtitled Psalm for baritone, large mixed chorus and grand orchestra, is Gorecki’s masterwork commissioned by Cardinal Wojtyla in 1977 in honor of the 900th anniversary of the martyrdom of St. Stanislaus, bishop of Krakow.
Not long after his election to the papacy, Pope John Paul II planned his first pilgrimage to Poland. The Communist rulers hated and feared him, and when they heard the news that he was coming home to, among other things, celebrate St. Stanislaus in a large public venue with a commissioned orchestral work, the significance was not lost on them.
St. Stanislaus in his life and death – assassinated by King Boleslaw in 1079 – symbolized for the Communists the age old opposition of state and Church, an opposition alive and well between the Party and the Church in 1970s Poland. Everybody saw it, and try as they might, the oppressors could not conquer the spirit of the largely Catholic Polish people.
Pope John Paul II was the 20th century’s stand-in for St. Stanislaus in the eyes of the Soviets. Whether they would admit it or not, the story of St. Stanislaus was a metaphor for the Pope they hated. The Psalm verses above served as the basis for the libretto, every one of them a rebuke to the Communist Party and all worldly governments who put greed and power above God.
Gorecki himself was a target of increased persecution by the Party when he resigned his post in 1979, but they could not make such a world famous composer disappear. In true totalitarian fashion they did the next best thing: they suppressed his name in all documents and newspapers relating to musical events in Poland. Suddenly he did not exist as far as public notice was concerned, but this did not discourage nor deter the composer from fulfilling his commission.
When Gorecki no longer had the responsibility and aggravation of leadership at the State Higher School of Music in Katowice, he was free to work intensely and quickly on Beatus Vir. The premier was set for June 9, 1979 and took place in Krakow with Gorecki conducting the Krakow Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir. Pope John Paul II praised it highly while on the same trip condemning Poland’s Soviet leaders.
Gorecki joins the famous Estonian composer Arvo Pärt and English composer John Tavener in a category called “holy minimalism” or “mystic minimalism”, referring to simple texture, tonality, and repetitive melodies of religious orientation, drawing inspiration from Renaissance and medieval music, and Eastern Orthodox chant. All three of these composers, although of different nationalities and not influencing one another’s works, arrived at their approach to religious music as a consequence of apparently deep spiritual lives – two Orthodox and one Catholic whose compositions represent the longing of the soul for God.
Here is the middle section of Beatus Vir presented by the Polish Radio Choir, the Silesian Philharmonic Choir and the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra with baritone Andrzej Dobber.
Henryk Gorecki and Pope John Paul II
November 15, 2010
Our Lady of Czestochowa
Pope John Paul II and composer Henryk Gorecki had much in common. Both were Poles, both lost their mothers at young ages, both resisted and thwarted the Communists oppressing their country, both experienced deeply the anguish of World War II and the Holocaust, both became great because of strength of character and moral authority.
Cardinal Wojtyla’s motto, Totus Tuus, spoke of his great love for the Blessed Mother both personally and as a Pole. She is intimately tied to the Polish people whose devotion to her is unexcelled by any other nation. They weave Mary into the tapestry of their daily, ordinary life, their spiritual life, their family life. Shrines to Our Lady dot the countryside along the many pilgrim paths.
Certainly as boys who had lost their mothers early in life, Mary as tender mother held a special place in the hearts of Gorecki and Wojtyla. When he became Pope John Paul II, Wojtyla kept this motto and love of the Blessed Mother for the rest of his days, a counterpoint to those in the Church who strove to scrub her from notice.
Gorecki’s life and the Pope’s life intersected at several points, their relationship speaking of a high regard for one another. The first notable event was the commissioning of Beatus vir by Cardinal Wojtyla for the celebration of the 900th anniversary of the martyrdom of St. Stanislas, bishop of Krakow, who was assassinated by King Boleslaw I over sins the King didn’t want to give up. I will write more about this in my next post on Gorecki.
Pope John Paul II traveled to Poland several times. For the 1987 pilgrimage to his native land, the Pope’s friend Gorecki composed the hauntingly beautiful Totus Tuus in the his honor. Written for mixed choir, Gorecki immortalized in music the Pope’s life theme:
Totus tuus sum Maria,
Mater nostri Redemptoris.
Virgo Dei, virgo pia
Mater mundi Salvatoris.
Totus tuus sum, Maria!I am completely yours, Mary,
Mother of our Redeemer.
Virgin Mother of God, loving virgin,
Mother of the Saviour of the world.
I am completely yours, Mary!
Here is the Choir of New College, Oxford delivering the work in its entirety.
R. Now and forever. Amen.
(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)
Henryk Gorecki, 1933-2010, RIP
November 15, 2010
Patriots come in all sizes and shapes, in good health and infirmities, from all classes and occupations. What they have in common is love of country, a fine sense of justice, and resolute determination to prevail against tyranny.
November 12, 2010, God took to Himself a great Polish composer, Henryk Gorecki, who died of a lung infection in his home town of Katowice, located in beautiful Silesia of southern Poland. Gorecki had a long career as teacher, composer, and patriot, resisting the Communist government continuously over the years.
In 1975 Gorecki became Professor of Composition at the State Higher School of Music in Katowice where he became extremely aggravated at Communist interference with the academy. He continually battled the Party, protecting the staff, students and the school itself from political pressures until he finally resigned in 1979 in protest over the government’s refusal to allow Pope John Paul II to visit Katowice.
This was not the end of his resistance, though, but the beginning of a new way of fighting the Communist Party. Gorecki founded the Catholic Intellectuals Club and remained a thorn in the side of the government through the 1980s while remaining an active but not prolific composer.
Although Gorecki began his career in the dissonant style of modernism, he, abandoned this approach to composition and began to turn out extraordinarily beautiful, ethereal works that sound like the soul straining for God. He, like Bela Bartok of Hungary, returned to his country’s folk roots for inspiration, and turned out one-of-a-kind compositions inspired by significant events or themes.
To me, the prevailing art, music, architecture, and literature of the western “intelligencia” of the 20th century expresses man’s hopeless self-centeredness and his subsequent disintegration in a falling away from a right relationship with God. As a devout Catholic, Gorecki did not remain a slave to the screeching dissonance and mad explosions of modern music that sound like a hellish and never-ending train wreck, but rather carved his own way into expressing beauty in sound. The harmony of a Christ-centered life produced works of passion and transcendent beauty that the Iron Curtain could not contain.
Westerners – and indeed the whole world – fell in love with Gorecki through his Third Symphony, composed in 1976. Also known as “The Symphony of Sorrowful Songs”, this three part work for orchestra and soprano links three themes of universal suffering.
Movement I’s libretto comes from a 15th century lament. Movement II’s libretto gives voice to a prayer invoking the protection of the Blessed Virgin, written on the wall of a Nazi prison cell in Zakopane by eighteen-year-old Helena Blazusiak, who was held there at the time. Movement III’s libretto contains the words of a Polish folk song – the cry of a Silesian mother looking for her son who was killed in the Silesian uprising.
Gorecki never again composed in this style, leaving the symphony a unique jewel among many gems. Perhaps he thought it was enough to give the frenetic world one hymn of mourning, a statement of grief, a pause in the disharmony of death, a stopping point for introspection that only music can provide.
I love Gorecki’s approach to his life’s work. In a 1994 interview he said:
I do not choose my listeners. What I mean is, I never write for my listeners. I think about my audience, but I am not writing for them. I have something to tell them, but the audience must also put a certain effort into it. But I never wrote for an audience and never will write for because you have to give the listener something and he has to make an effort in order to understand certain things. If I were thinking of my audience and one likes this, one likes that, one likes another thing, I would never know what to write. Let every listener choose that which interests him. I have nothing against one person liking Mozart or Shostakovich or Leonard Bernstein, but doesn’t like Górecki. That’s fine with me. I, too, like certain things.
Gorecki’s Miserere, which he boldly composed for a large choir in response to police brutality against the Solidarity movement, is sung here by the 130 person Choir of the Silesian Philharmonic Orchestra. The visuals are paintings by artist Józef Stolorz, a fellow Silesian who also suffered under the Communist regime.
R. Now and forever. Amen.
(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)
Pie Jesu Domine
November 7, 2010
Since we are celebrating the Poor Souls in Purgatory throughout the month of November, I want to bring you a very beautiful prayer the Church offers on their behalf.
Many contemporary artists have recorded well-executed renditions of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s aria, Pie Jesu. However, many people don’t realize that this Latin prayer is more than a pretty aria. It is the final verse of the great Dies Irae, the sequence from the Requiem Mass. No prayer of the Catholic sacred liturgy has been set to music more often over the centuries than the Dies Irae.
I have a somewhat respectable collection of Requiem Masses that I like to listen to, composed by various greats from the 13th century on, but at the top of my favorites is Gabriel Fauré’s.
Fauré in his later years was widely acknowledged as the leading French composer of his day. He was deeply gifted with an ability to compose art songs, sacred choral music, piano, orchestral and organ works. For many years he was the organist for the famous Church of the Madeleine and head of the Paris Conservatory. So for those who have heard only Webber’s composition, I offer you the pure voice of a boy soprano from Kings College Chapel Choir, Cambridge, singing this masterpiece of an exceptional 19-20th century composer.
Johnny Cash and Psalm 39
October 9, 2010
In today’s post on Praying the Psalms I wrote meditations on Psalm 39. Along about verse 13 I had one of those head-slapping moments as the words, “I am a poor, wayfaring stranger…” echoed in my mind. We learned this spiritual based on Psalm 39 when I was in grade school and I’ve always loved it.
Here is Johnny Cash, eminently qualified from his personal life as well as his musical talent, to sing this great hymn. I wonder, do school children today learn this kind of music?
R. Now and forever. Amen.
(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)
Sabbath Moments
August 7, 2010
Sabbath Moments are those times when we rest in the Lord, rather than doing, although sometimes when we are doing something we are recollected in God and it becomes a Sabbath Moment. Hosted by Colleen at Thoughts on Grace, we get together weekly to share and learn from each other ways to be close to God in this busy world.
This week I was praying the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary when the thoughts and images of Jesus being abandoned by His disciples over His statements on eating His flesh and drinking His blood came to mind. This had nothing to do with the Glorious Mysteries, but I went with it anyway. St. Peter’s response to the question Jesus put to His apostles (John 6: 68-70) at this turn in His ministry kept pulling at me,
“Will you also go away?” Simon Peter therefore answered, “Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast words of everlasting life, and we have come to believe and to know that Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Thou hast words, indeed. What are these words of everlasting life the Savior speaks? Word after word came to me:
Go and sin no more. (John 8:11)
Whose faith when he saw, he said: Man, thy sins are forgiven thee. (Lk. 5: 20)
I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father, but by me. (John 14: 6)
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. (Matt. 11: 29)
Then Jesus said to his disciples: If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. (Matt. 16: 24)
I am the bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the desert, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven; that if any man eat of it, he may not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever; and the bread that I will give, is my flesh, for the life of the world. (John 6: 48-51)
Suffer children to come to me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Amen, I say to you: Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a child, shall not enter into it. (Lk. 18: 16-17)
…every one that exalteth himself, shall be humbled; and he that humbleth himself, shall be exalted. (Lk. 14: 11)
Philip, he that seeth me seeth the Father also. (John 14: 9)
Many more thoughts came to me and forced me to examine my conscience as to my faithfulness to His word. I thought of the bumper stickers that were so common some years ago and which one hardly sees any more: “Jesus is the Answer.” He is indeed the answer to every question of any importance, and He has told us exactly what to do to be with Him forever. Throughout the week I returned to St. Peter’s great confession for many more Sabbath Moments. “Lord, indeed, to whom shall I go? Thou hast the words of everlasting life.”
A second Sabbath Moment: These musings reminded me of the great aria from Handel’s Messiah, “Come Unto Him” which contains the words, “and learn of Him for He is meek and lowly of heart.” It is the soprano aria that comes after the contralto aria “He shall feed His flock.” When I was a parish choir director we sang the first for the Communion hymn at midnight Mass with organ and violin. From the choir loft, of course, in the back of church as this was not a performance! The whole choir sang in unison “He shall feed His flock” and the violin took the place of the soprano aria, “Come unto Him.” The beauty and reverence of that night stays with me to this day.
St. Ephrem, Harp of the Holy Ghost
June 18, 2010
I was born in the way of Truth: Though my childhood was unaware of the greatness of the benefit, I knew it when trial came.
Today is the feast of St. Ephrem, the Prophet of the Syrians, Harp of the Holy Ghost, Father of Hymnody, Mary’s Own Singer, and other grand titles including Doctor of the Church. He lived from around 306-373 and we are very fortunate to still have large remnants of his writings.
You might think that anything he wrote so long ago be would be old-fashioned or irrelevant to today’s world, but like all the Doctors of the Church, St. Ephrem’s writings get down to the simplicity and truth of life as found in sacred Scripture. Here is part of a poem he wrote:
There lie those who improved their complexions,
And artfully disguised their faces;
There lie those who painted their eyelids,
And the worm corrodes their eyes…
There lie those who were enemies,
And their bones are mingled together.
The scroll St. Ephrem holds in the icon above says: “Take thou refuge in God, who passes not away nor is changed.” He wrote about the Holy Eucharist, Penance, the primacy of Peter, about the Blessed Virgin and the sufferings of Christ.
St. Ephrem is known as “The Deacon of Edessa” and is the only male Doctor of the Church who was not ordained a priest or bishop. He lived for some time as a hermit and wrote many poems illustrating the doctrines of Christianity. This beautiful work from the Nativity series gives words to Mary:
The babe that I carry carries me, saith Mary, and He has lowered His wings, and taken and placed me between His pinions, and mounted into the air; and a promise has been given me that height and depth shall be my Son’s… [O Lord Jesus,] In her virginity Eve put on the leaves of shame: Thy Mother put on in her virginity the Garment of Glory that suffices for all. She gave the little vest of the body to Him that covers all.
Blessed is she in whose heart and mind Thou wast! A King’s palace she was by Thee, O Son of the King, and a Holy of Holies by Thee, O High Priest!
St. Ephrem organized choirs of women and taught them verses to replace the heretical hymns of Bardesanes, a Syrian writer of the early 3rd century who had written 150 of them, while keeping the music. Today many of the hymns of St. Ephrem are part of the Syrian liturgy.
Pope Benedict XV proclaimed him a Doctor of the Church on October 5, 1920.
Below is a YouTube recording of John Tavener’s Ikon of the Nativity taken from St. Ephrem’s Nativity hymns. Tavener is a convert to the Orthodox Church and has written a great deal of music for its liturgy that I think is utterly heavenly. You can also find a recording of a Maronite choir singing St. Ephrem’s Hymn of Light. Unfortunately, embedding is impossible. Just type in “Hymns of St. Ephrem” and it will come up.
Given the deplorable and sometimes heretical hymns foisted upon Catholics since the 1960s, perhaps it would be wise to call on the patronage of St. Ephrem in the restoration of the sacred liturgy.
Good Friday Reproaches – Victoria
April 1, 2010
Tomás Luis de Victoria
The most spiritually impressive part of the Good Friday sacred liturgy for me as a child were the Reproaches, chanted during the adoration of the cross. This is not to say the chanting of the Passion and the Great Intercessions were not equally impressive, but the music and words of the Reproaches took the prayers of the liturgy to a much higher level for me.
As I was always in the choir from first grade on, the Gregorian chant is well engraved in my brain. However, some great composers have also written music for the Reproaches. Tomás Luis de Victoria and Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina are two well-known names representing the kind of music the fathers of Vatican Council II wanted to preserve.
The Reproaches, otherwise known as the Improperia or Popule Meus are twelve in number. I had intended to post each one with some commentary, but the death of my Mother last week intervened so the project will have to wait until next year.
Today I have the best partial recording (the first three Reproaches) I could find of Victoria’s composition with choir and cantor. Two choirs are traditionally used to sing alternately in Greek first and then in Latin the words most people today associate with the Chaplet of Divine Mercy and which are repeated throughout the Reproaches: O holy God! O holy mighty One! O holy immortal One, have mercy upon us! As was often done by composers of his time, Victoria alternated Gregorian chant with polyphony.
For those who are too ill to attend the traditional Good Friday liturgy, listening to Victoria’s Improperia and following along in a missal is a good option if you are able. In fact, carving out time to read the entire Good Friday liturgy and meditating on it would bring many graces to those who wish to join with Mary, the holy women, and John spiritually at the foot of the cross on this day.
A little about the composer: Victoria (c. 1548 – 27 August 1611) was one of the most important composers of the Renaissance along with Palestrina and Orlando de Lassus. He is a glory of Spain, having written music for many feasts including Marian solemnities. Victoria was ordained a priest in 1574 and served the Church in both Italy and Spain in various capacities. He died in 1611 and was buried at the Monasterio de las Descalzas de Santa Clara at Madrid but his grave unfortunately remains unidentified.
Last week I posted Popule Meus by Jose Angel Lamas which is also very beautiful and appropriate for the sacred liturgy.
Popule Meus – Reproaches of Good Friday
March 21, 2010
Crucifixion, c. 1450 Panel, Andrea del Castagno (b. 1423, Castagno, d. 1457, Firenze) National Gallery, London
Between now and Good Friday I’ll be posting about the Reproaches. While Gregorian chant is the major musical form in the Latin liturgy, many compositions of the Popule Meus from the Reproaches have been written by great composers the world over. Today I want to introduce readers to an exceptionally beautiful composition by Jose Angel Lamas.
Knowledge of composers from Latin and South America is uncommon in North America, but thanks to YouTube, their music is now available. Jose Angel Lamas is one such composer. He only lived to be 39 and the composition here is his most important and well known.
Lamas was born in Caracas, Venezuela on August 2, 1775 and died there December 10, 1814. He was buried in St. Paul’s Church but when it was torn down to build the Teatro Municipal de Caracas his bones were never found. The composer lived during the colonial-provincial period and dedicated his life to religious music, being a member of the Cathedral orchestra. This piece, Popule Meus, was composed in 1801 and premiered at the Caracas Cathedral.
I could not find a recording of this at Amazon so unfortunately, I can’t put this in my store. The sadness of the Popule Meus exudes not only from the melodic line, but from the silences that punctuate the composition and the choral vs. solo voices. Enjoy.
Dvorák’s Stabat Mater
March 8, 2010
Many great composers have set to music the beautiful Stabat Mater hymn Catholics are so familiar with because of the Stations of the Cross. Probably none had a greater appreciation of the grief of Our Lady than Antonin Dvorák. On September 19th, 1875 his infant daughter Josefa died. On August 13, 1877 his eleven-month-old daughter died in a household accident. Within a month his son Otakar contracted small pox and died on September 8, the composer’s 36th birthday.
By November 13, 1877 the composer had completed the work, but its first performance was not done until December 23, 1880. The piece brought Dvorák such popularity he was besieged for autographs wherever he went, a sign that he wrote in a universal language everyone can understand. I highly recommend this very moving work for Lenten listening if you are into classical music.
Dvorak: Stabat Mater
About the Stabat Mater: this well known 13th century text was most likely composed by the great Franciscan, Jacapone da Todi or otherwise known, Jacapone Benedetti (1228-1306).
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