Choral Vespers Wednesday, 17th Sept 2014

[DracoM]

Choral Vespers
Recorded in Neresheim Abbey, Southern Germany.
The Royal Academy of Music Chamber Choir



Order of Service:


Introit: Justorum animae (Lassus)
Psalms 110, 113, 122, 117 (Chant; Ortiz)
Reading: Wisdom 10: 9-13
Responsorium: O viridissima virga (Hildegard of Bingen)
Homily: The Sub-Prior Revd Fr Gregor Hammes OSB
Office Hymn: Jesu, the virgins' crown (Chant; Matthew Martin)
Magnificat octavi toni (Fischer; chant)
Lord's Prayer: Farmer
Anthem: Selig sind die Toten (Schütz)
Hymn: Komm Herr, segne uns (Trautwein)



Organ Voluntary: 'Little' Praeludium in E minor (Bruhns)


Celebrant: The Very Revd Prior Fr Albert Knebel OSB


Organists: Joseph Beech, Peter Holder, Michael Papadopoulos
Conductor: Patrick Russill

[DracoM]

Today@3.30 p.m.

[jean]

Listening to the psalms, I was reminded of a discussion on a thread here - I can't remember which one - about the practice of pausing for quite a long time in the middle of each verse, while typically almost overlapping the (antiphonal) end of each verse with the beginning of the next.

Someone told me at the weekend that the late great Mary Berry claimed to have discovered a document of the C12 0r C13 originating from St Albans that stated that the pause in the middle of the verse should be long enough to recite a Pater noster.

[Miles Coverdale]

Someone told me at the weekend that the late great Mary Berry claimed to have discovered a document of the C12 0r C13 originating from St Albans that stated that the pause in the middle of the verse should be long enough to recite a Pater noster.

What, the whole thing? Surely not. Or just say those two words, perhaps. I've heard it said that the gap should be long enought to say the words 'Hail Mary' twice. Or 'gin and tonic' twice, according to preference.

[ardcarp]

I've heard it called the 'Ave Maria' pause. But whatever, I felt it was perfectly judged today....not ridiculously overdone as it sometimes is.

What a bright and focused choral sound, enhanced by those incredible acoustics. It came over as slightlybass-light but this might have been my equipment. I felt the singers were thoroughly at home with the 'Catholic' way of doing things, and din't sound like Amglicans feeling their way.

A really lovely choral vespers.

BTW Did anyone find, in the familiar Farmer Lord's Prayer, the minor third on "in earth" a bit surprising?

[Finzi4ever]

BTW Did anyone find, in the familiar Farmer Lord's Prayer, the minor third on "in earth" a bit surprising?

Yes, but what is the authority for the major 3rd in the mss?

[Miles Coverdale]

The only source for Farmer's Lord's Prayer is Thomas East's The Whole Book of Psalms of 1592. At the point in question, the print specifies F sharp in the soprano part and, one beat later, in the alto part. Both notes were sung as F natural for some reason. The same thing happened at 'Into temp-(tation)', where both soprano and alto parts were sung as F natural, despite F sharp being marked in the source. Odd.

[Wolsey]

Someone told me at the weekend that the late great Mary Berry claimed to have discovered a document of the C12 0r C13 originating from St Albans that stated that the pause in the middle of the verse should be long enough to recite a Pater noster.

Miles Coverdale is right. The phrase 'Hail, Mary' (twice) was precisely what Mary Berry instructed us when I sang in her Schola Gregoriana of Cambridge during my undergraduate days there.

[jean]

Then the person who told me misremembered...