Tag Archives: Magnificat

Candlemas: its Stories & its Songs

02 Saturday Feb 2013

Posted by in Feasts, Marian Hymnology

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Putti, by Raphaël

Putti (Chérubins), by Raphaël

Marian Antiphons

Today, 2 February 2013, we are entering the Marian year’s second season, the first takes us from Advent to Candlemas (la Chandeleur), once an observed feast commemorating the presentation of the child Jesus at the Temple. The second lasts until Good Friday.

In other words, as of today the Marian song is the Ave Regina Cælorum. From the beginning of Advent until today, it had been the Alma Redemptoris Mater. Several composers have set the words of the Alma Redemptoris Mater to music and the same is true of the Ave Regina Cælorum. 

In the Church of England, today, Candlemas, is the end of the Epiphany season which follows the Christmas season.

The “Nunc dimittis” or Canticle of Simeon

Also sung today is the Nunc dimittis (“Now you dismiss…,” Luke 2:29–32), The Song of Simeon or Canticle of Simeon). Simeon had been promised he would see Jesus and did.  A canticle is a song of praise. In this respect, the Nunc Dimittis resembles the Magnificat, or Canticle of Mary. Mary sang the Magnificat when she heard her cousin Elizabeth was with child. To listen to the Nunc Dimittis and read its story, simply click on one of the links below:

Groundhog Day

Moreover, today is also Groundhog Day. Punxutawney Phil has not seen his shadow which means that we are nearing spring. (See the Washington Post.) So, humans have always situated their feasts when a change occurs in the weather. We go from season to season and the following year, we also go from season to season and this continues year after year.

The Labours of the Months

Remember Jean de France’s Très Riches Heures. (See Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry).  It’s a Book of Hours, but it is also a calendar. The Très Riches Heures has a large illuminated (enluminures) page for each month of the year illustrating the Labours of the Months. With Jean de France, there was another motive. In the background of each page, we see one of his castles.

Greek poet Hesiod, who is believed to have been active between 750 and 650 BCE, wrote Works and Days, a book Wikipedia describes as a farmer’s almanac. In Works and Days, he is teaching his brother Perses about the agricultural arts. (See Works and Days.)

Although we are leaving the first Marian season, I am including both the Alma Redemptoris Mater and the Ave Regina Cælorum.

—ooo—  

During Canonical Hours, the Antiphon (antienne) is a liturgical chant that precedes and follows a Psalm or a Canticle. In a Mass, it is also a chant to which a choir or the congregation respond with a refrain. It is therefore a call and response chant. The following links take one to Notre-Dame de Paris:

Sources and Resources

Hesiod’s Works and Days is an online publication.

—ooo—

Posts on Marian Hymnology & More

composer: Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (3 February 1525 or 2 February 1526 – 2 February 1594)
piece: Alma Redemptoris Mater
performers: Cappella Gregoriana (Tokyo, Japan)
From First Vespers of Christmas until the Presentation
piece: Ave Regina Cælorum
performers: Philippe Jaroussky (French countertenor, b. 13 February 1978)
Marie-Nicole Lemieux (Quebec contralto, b. 26 June 1975)
From the Presentation of the Lord through Good Friday
 
Raffael_027© Micheline Walker
2 February 2013
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A Christmas Offering, cont’d: Hymns to Mary

27 Thursday Dec 2012

Posted by in Art, Feasts, Marian Hymnology

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Le Nouveau-né, by Georges de la Tour

Le Nouveau-né (The Newborn), by Georges de La Tour (1593-1652)

Georges de La Tour (13 March 1593 – 30 January 1652)

—ooo—

Last year, on Christmas day, I wrote the following post:

A Christmas Offering: Hymns to Mary

We were at Notre-Dame de Paris (NDP), listening to Marian hymns, but Notre-Dame no longer provides the internet with recordings of its liturgical music. However, we have the music it used to provide.

Basic Marian Hymnology: Notre-Dame de Paris

To put it in a nutshell, Marian music consists of approximately 32 hymns (general term), the most important of which are the four antiphons listed below.  At Notre-Dame de Paris, where we are nevertheless traveling, four other Marian hymns are sung daily, one of which is a canticle (cantique in French) or song of praise: the Magnificat.  When Mary heard that her cousin Elizabeth was pregnant, she sang the Magnificat.  Elizabeth’s child was John the Baptist.

The other Marian hymns sung at Notre-Dame are the Hail Mary or Ave Maria, the Angelus and the Ave Maris Stella.  The Angelus is explained at NDP, but not performed.  Every hymn is translated into English.

—ooo—

Antiphons

An antiphon is a call and respond song.  It resembles a refrain.  That is an over-simplification, but a first step.

  • Salve Regina
  • Regina Cæli
  • Alma Redemptoris mater
  • Ave Regina Cælorum

Canticles

A canticle is a song of praise such as the Nunc Dimittis.

Marian Hymnology

As stated above, altogether, there are approximately 32 Marian hymns, including the four Antiphons.  However, to these we must add the works of composers who have written oratorios, cantatas, motets and have also set Marian texts to other musical forms.  These may contain music composed for Christmas, the birth of Christ, where Mary is a central character.  To my knowledge, there is no oratorio honoring the Virgin, except segments of larger works.  Examples are J. S. Bach‘s Magnificat (from the Chrismas Oratorio) and parts of Händel’s Messiah.

Beyond Notre-Dame’s Daily Marian Hymns

The Oratorio

Given the Catholic Church’s devotion to Mary Mother of God, large musical works are likely to incorporate music to the Virgin.  Oratorios are among large compositions and could be described as long cantatas.  However, they resemble operas.  Oratorios require an orchestra and a choir.  Moreover, they may contain solos or, at times, multi-voice compositions that are not sung by the choir, but by four soloists.

At one point in the history of music, polyphony included more than the four voices we are accustomed to: soprano, alto, tenor, bass or SATB.  We are not discussing such works, many of which are madrigals.  We will focus instead on famous Oratorios associated with the birth, life and death of Christ and usually performed during the Christmas season or at Easter.

The Cantata

A cantata (from the Latin cantare: to sing) is a shorter and less complex work than the oratorio.  It dates back to the early 1600s, which are the years the first operas were composed.  Originally, only one person sang the cantata; it was monophonic.  In this regard, it resembled early madrigals.  But as the madrigal evolved into a multi-voice composition or polyphony, so did cantatas.  We tend to associate cantatas with J. S. Bach who composed approximately 200, one of which, number 142, is entitled the Christmas Cantata: “Uns ist ein Kind geboren” (Unto us a Child is born) is a lovely cantata.

Tampereen Kamarimusiikkiseura (Tampere Chamber Music Society) (Finland)


The Motet

According to late 13th-century theorist Johannes de Grocheio (c. 1255 – c. 1320) motets are “not intended for the vulgar who do not understand its finer points and derive no pleasure from hearing it: it is meant for educated people and those who look for refinement in art.”

 
 20047-594
© Micheline Walker
27 December 2012
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From the Magnificat to the Stabat Mater

06 Friday Apr 2012

Posted by in Music

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Pietà (detail), William-Adophe Bouguereau, 1876

The Stabat Mater is a hymn expressing the sorrow of Mary as her son, Jesus of Nazareth, is being crucified and then taken down from the Crucifix, the descent.

According to Wikipedia, the Stabat Mater usually refers to a 13th-century Catholic hymn to Mary, the first Stabat Mater, variously attributed to the Franciscan Jacopone da Todi and to Innocent III.

The Stabat Mater is associated with the Magnificat, one of several canticles sung at Vespers.  We are therefore moving from antiphons (antiennes) to canticles (cantiques).  Moreover, with the Magnificat, we are travelling back to the earliest days of Marian hymnology.  The Magnificat is an ancient canticle.

From Antiphons to Canticles

Canticles are hymns sung during the Canonical Hours.  Seven find their origin in the Old Testament and are sung at Lauds. Three, however are contained in the Gospel according to Luke.  I will list the three borrowing from Wikipedia.  We have

Virgin with Child, Claude-Louis Vassé (1722) © NDP
Claude-Louis Vassé (Paris: 1717 – 1772)
 

At Notre-Dame de Paris the Magnificat is sung every day before the four Marian antiphons and after the Ave Maria (Hail Mary) and the Angelus.

The Magnificat is Mary’s song of praise upon learning that her cousin Elizabeth, Zachary’s wife, is with child.  She will be the mother of St John the Baptist.  This event is recorded as The Visitation.  As for Mary, she has been visited by the archangel Gabriel and knows she is bearing the Saviour: The Annunciation.

In fact, all three New Testament canticles tell the story of the birth of John the Baptist and that of Jesus.  Zachary is the father of John the Baptist and at the moment of the Presentation of Jesus to the Temple, Simeon recognizes the Saviour in the baby Jesus.  But, combined with the Stabat Mater, the Canticles also tell a story of death and rebirth.  The two are juxtaposed as they express the perpetual cycle of birth and death, a cycle akin to that of the Four Seasons, spring eternal, celebrated by composer Antonio Vivaldi (1678 – 1741).

Handel’s Messiah: the Cycle

Also expressing the link between the Nativity, starting with the Annunciation, and Easter is Handel‘s Messiah, an oratorio.  It is performed at Christmas and at Easter, the latter feast being, to my knowledge the more important of the two.  I will not discuss the Messiah in this post.  Basically, we are dealing with songs, albeit liturgical songs, the exception being JS Bach’s Magnificat, a substantial work.

In an earlier blog, I wrote about Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (4 January 1710 – 16 March 1736).  Pergolesi composed a beautiful Magnificat and a masterful Stabat Mater, as well as other liturgical pieces. Although he died at the age of 26, he had already written several masterpieces. The above link, his name, takes the reader to my post, but for information on the composer, organist and violinist, I would suggest you click on Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (Wikipedia). It is not insignicant that among his compositions, there should be both a Magnificat, a canticle, and the Stabat Mater.

With respect to the Marian hymns, to view the complete list, antiphons, canticles and other hymns, please click on Hymns to Mary.  The words Marian hymnology constitute an ‘umbrella’ term encompassing all the music dedicated to the Blessed Virgin.

For the text of the Stabat Mater, Latin and English, click on Stabat Mater. To read the English text of the Magnificat, click on Magnificat.

You will find below several pieces of Marian sacred music.  There is little for me to add, the language of tones being more expressive than national languages.  So I will leave you to listen and perhaps to marvel at the place given Mary in the arts and in music.  You will hear canticles, psalms, parts of the Mass, etc.  Moreover, I have listed, at the bottom of the page, all my posts on the subject of Marian hymnology in sacred music.

 
 

Pietà,by Michelangelo(1498–1499)

  • © Micheline Walker
  • April 6th, 2012
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A Christmas Offering: Hymns to Mary

25 Sunday Dec 2011

Posted by in Feasts, Liturgy, Marian Hymnology

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raphael1

 
Raphael’s Sistine Chapel tapestries to head to Victoria and Albert museum
The Gardian (UK), Marc Brown
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (6 April or 28 March 1483 – April 6, 1520; aged 37)
Mary[i]
 

Marian hymnology and the development of polyphony

Not only is Marian hymnology an immense domain, but it is also an integral part of the story of polyphony. For instance, in the Middle Ages, as polyphonic music was developing, monophonic hymns were sometimes transformed into Motets, a popular polyphonic form. Monks sung and still sing the four Marian Antiphons during the Canonical Hours and do so in Gregorian Chant, hence monophonically, but composers have drawn inspiration in Mariology. The Ave Maria is my best example. This explains the inclusion, in my last post, of polyphonic versions of the four Marian antiphons: Handel, Vivaldi, Mozart…

The Hymns to Mary

There are about 32 songs celebrating the Virgin and these contain the four antiphons. All are listed in Wikipedia, so I will provide the required link: Hymns to Mary.

It is not possible to enter into a discussion of all Marian hymns. For the purposes of this blog, I have therefore chosen to focus on the four prayers that are included in the daily liturgy of Notre-Dame de Paris. The Notre-Dame website is particularly informative. However, services at Notre-Dame are more numerous than in ordinary Parish churches. Some Christians attend Mass daily, but most do so only on Sunday and on Feast days.

Antiphons and Prayers

At Notre-Dame de Paris, Marian hymnology includes the antiphons, named antiphonies, but daily liturgy also comprises four prayers to Mary: the Hail Mary  (Ave Maria), the Angelus, the Magnificat and the Ave Maris Stella. These are canticles (cantiques), not psalms. I have listed them chronologically and all four are recited or chanted before the antiphons or antiennes. I will therefore confine this presentation to the Ave Maria, the Angelus, the Magnificat and the Ave Maris Stella.

 

1. The Ave Maria or Hail Mary

The Hail Mary or Ave Maria is a prayer composed by Eudes de Sully who was the archbishop of Paris between 1196 and 1208.  Eudes composed the Hail Mary by adding a conclusion to the Marian antiphons “sung during the Annunciation and Visitation festivals.” The text is based on the words spoken to Mary by the archangel Gabriel.

2. The Angelus (Wikipedia)

The Angelus is a prayer introduced by Saint Bonaventure, a disciple of Saint Francis of Assisi (born Giovanni Francesco di Bernardone (1181/1182 – 1226) and a professor of theology in Paris from 1248 to 1257. Saint Bonaventure was also a friend of Saint Thomas Aquinas. He included the Angélus in the services of Franciscan monks when he became general minister of the Friars Minor, in 1257. The Angélus was sung in praise of the “Incarnation of the Son of God three times a day.”At Notre-Dame, the Angélus is recited each morning before the first mass and it is also recited at noon.

3. The Magnificat 

The Magnificat was sung by Mary to her cousin Elizabeth after Elizabeth told Mary she was bearing a child, Saint John the Baptist, at a rather late age. As for Mary, the archangel Gabriel had announced to her that she would bear and give birth to Jesus, the Son of God. The text of the Magnificat “uses the words of several Old Testament songs.” It is a Thanksgiving or Action de Grâces hymn sung at Notre-Dame in Vespers services. The Magnificat could be the earliest Marian hymn.

4. The Ave Maris Stella (FR-Wikipedia)

The Ave Maris Stella (Mary Star of the Sea) is probably, after the Magnificat, the oldest hymn dedicated to Mary. It has been attributed to Bernard de Clairvaux, but it may date back to Saint Venantius Fortunatus (530 – 609) who lived in the sixth century, or to Paulus Diaconus (Paul le Diacre or Paul the Deacon) who lived in the eighth century. The Ave Maris Stella contains seven (7) stanzas, 24-syllable each. Guillaume Dufay (c. 1397– 1474) wrote an Ave Maris Stella. (Wikipedia)

It is unlikely that prayers and hymns to Mary I have mentioned constitute a complete répertoire of Marian hymnology. Some undoubtedly belonged to an oral tradition and are lost. In other words, many were not written down, nor were they notated (music).  Notation, as we saw in another blog, starts, quite primitively, with Guido of Arezzo, the author of the Micrologus.

—ooo—

It would be my opinion that what an examination of Marian hymnology reveals, first and foremost, is the degree to which Christians worship the mother of God. The word “intercession” may well hold the key to this phenomenon. Mary is viewed as kind and motherly. She is therefore considered more likely to hear one’s prayers and convey them to a sterner God the Father and to Jesus of Nazareth, the son of God.

All the great medieval Cathedrals of Europe are dedicated to the Virgin Mary, an eloquent tribute to Mary’s presence in the mind of most Christians.

(Please click on the title to see the video or hear the music.)

 

[i] “Mary”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 26 Dec. 2012
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/367422/Mary>.

Ave Maris Stella
Raphael‘s The Alba Madonna, c. 1510

© Micheline Walker
25 December 2011
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Liturgy as a Musical Form

15 Thursday Dec 2011

Posted by in Liturgy, Music

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codex-calixtinus

Liturgy as a Musical Form

I often encounter persons who tell me they love a certain piece of Christian liturgical music, but feel embarrassed because they are atheists, agnostics, Muslims, Buddhists, etc. We should note, therefore, that Sacred Music is not only liturgical, but that it is also, and officially, a musical form.

The Daily Liturgy

The Canonical Hours: Daily Liturgy

As we have seen in an earlier blog, Benedictine and other monks observe the Canonical Hours, thereby following the directives of Benedict of Nursia, the father of monasticism. But monks also celebrate Mass, the more important service of daily liturgy.

The Canonical Hours could be defined as a Vigil. During his agony, at Gethsemane, as he was about to be taken by the Romans and later crucified, Jesus was alone. One of his disciples had betrayed him and now everyone slept. Therefore, monks have long kept Hours.

The Mass: Daily Liturgy

Mass (liturgy)* is the central service of the Church and it commemorates the Last Supper, or the last time Jesus and his disciples broke bread and drank wine together. This explains why Mass is also called the sacrament of the Eucharist. The priest and the faithful take communion in remembrance of the Last Supper. Praticing Christians, Catholics at any rate, do not usually observe the Hours, except Vespers, occasionally. But they attend Mass every Sunday and on feast days, such as Christmas.

*or Mass (musical form); Mass (liturgy)

The Catholic Mass

The Ordinary of the Mass: Permanent Components

There are as many masses as there are days in the year, if not more, but all contain the Ordinary of the Mass. The Ordinary of the Mass is not variable and it comprises the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei, Ite missa est. The Ite missa est (Mass is finished) is sometimes replaced in Requiem Masses, Masses for the dead or Masses commemorating the dead. Mozart’s Requiem is considered one of the foremost examples of the genre.

The Proper of the Mass: Moveable Components

There is also a Proper of the Mass, which is variable. For example, Christmas Mass differs from Easter Mass. Moreover Masses are said in honour of apostles, martyrs, saints, archangels, etc. So the Proper of the Mass changes accordingly. The Proper contains the Introit, Gradual, Alleluia or Tract, Sequence, Offertory, Communion. These components are added to the Ordinary of the Mass.

The Accentus ecclesiasticus: more Moveable Components

Also variable are those parts of the liturgy which the priest, the deacon, the subdeacon, or the acolyte sing. These are the Collect, Epistle, Gospel, Secret, Preface, Canon and the Postcommunion.

The http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postcommunion was probably introduced by Andreas Ornithoparchus in his Musicæ Activæ Micrologus, Leipzig, 1517. Parts sung by the entire choir (mass ordinary, hymns, psalms, alleluia) form the concentus.

Mass is incorporated in the Liber usualis, but masses are usually the main content of the Missal.

The Nativity: Simeon’s Song of Praise at the Consecration of the firstborn son by Aert de Gelder, c. 1700-1710

The Four Seasons: Soltices and Equinoxes

Although the moveable parts of the Mass can be used to honour an apostle, a martyr, a saint, or serve some other purpose, the liturgical calendar also corresponds to the seasons or, more precisely, the solstices and the equinoxes, as we have seen in earlier blogs. But let us repeat that, traditionally, Christmas has been celebrated near the longest night of the year. In 2011, the winter solstice was on December 22nd.

As for Easter, the most important celebration of the liturgical year, traditionally, it has been celebrated near the vernal equinox, when night and day are the same length. The summer solstice, the longest day, is St. John’s Day, celebrated on the 24th of June. As for the autumn equinox, it used be called Michaelmas, but Michaelmas has disappeared. However, on September 29th, Christians still celebrate the feast of Michael the Archangel.

In order words, nature has been the mold in which feasts were, metaphorically speaking, poured. This eased the transition between “paganism” and Christianity. Roman Saturnaliæ and the Greek kômos (comedy) were replaced by Christmas.

—ooo—

To sum up, although Sacred Music is liturgical, it is also a musical form. As a musical form it contains the daily liturgy, i. e. the Mass and the Canonical Hours, but it also includes oratorios (Handel’s Messiah), motets, cantatas, canticles, for the Virgin Mary especially, such as the Magnificat and the Ave Maria, and other forms or genres.

Sacred music has in fact proven an enduring musical form. John Rutter composed the music that was sung at the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton and is also the composer of a Requiem, as is Andrew Lloyd Webber, or Baron Lloyd-Webber.

Moreover, the story of sacred music is also the story of polyphony “music in which voices sing together in independent parts”[i] in which it resembles the story of the Madrigal, to which composers kept adding voices.

This blog is now rather long, so I will end it. But I will include several musical examples from which you can choose.  

—ooo—

The Lacrimosa and the Piu Jesu are part of a Requiem Mass. Here is a description of a Nunc dimittis (a song of praise).

(Click on title to hear music.)

_________________________

[i] J. P. Burkholder, D. J. Grout and Claude V. Palisca, A History of Western Music, 7th edition (New York and London: W. W. Norton & Company), p. 87.

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© Micheline Walker
15 December 2011
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Music for the Très Riches Heures and the Book of Kells

19 Saturday Nov 2011

Posted by in Art, Music

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Hildegard 
Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179)
Illumination from the Liber Scivias showing Hildegard receiving a vision and dictating to her sribe and secretary
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
 
 

Georg Philipp Telemann (14 March 1681 – 25 June 1767)

I have added a video to my post on the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry.  The Duc de Berry’s Très Riches Heures is a Book of Hours, illuminated by the Limbourg brothers.

The music is a Magnificat, a canticle by Georg Philipp Telemann.

 

Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179)

Hildegard von Bingen was an eleventh-century woman composer and a Doctor of the Church.  She was canonized on 10 May 2012. Let this be your introduction to her.

DBP_1979_1018_Hildegard_von_Bingen© Micheline Walker
19 November 2011
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