Monday, March 24, 2008

Easter

Ater last year's 'quiet' Holy Week, this year was quite the opposite: I reckon I spent nine hours singing in four days!

Firstly it was wonderful to be able to sing the whole of Tenebrae on each day of the Triduum. Yes it takes a long time but the music is beautiful and the total effect quite mesmerising. Special thanks to Dorothy Allen for providing the impetus for this and to Fr Michael Brown for providing the venue (SS Peter and Paul Longbenton) and for his priestly presence.

Secondly I was delighted to be able to sing for the Good Friday Liturgy (Missal of Blessed John XXIII) at SS Peter and Paul Longbenton. There was a good turnout of singers and we sang a good portion of the Improperia and the Crux Fidelis. Such wonderful music: the mournful tone of the Improperia and the subtle change to the Crux Fidelis with its note of triumph of the Cross.

Finally we sang for a Sung Mass for Easter Day at St Joseph's Gateshead. Special thanks to the "Jarrow Men" (you know who you are!) for suggesting that we sing the Mass "Lux et Origo" and providing such abundant and refulgent tone. I thought the Regina Caeli might take the roof off.

This was the best Easter Triduum I have had on Tyneside for more than 15 years.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Tenebrae

Tenebrae is the name used for the particular way of reciting the offices of Matins and Lauds during the Easter Triduum. The name comes from the Latin word for darkness because these offices traditionally were anticipated and sung the evening before, ending with all the lights extinguished.

The two offices are sung straight through, one after the other. The psalms are interwoven with responsories, meditations on the great themes of Holy Week. These responsories have been set to wonderful polyphonic settings, most notably by Victoria and Gesualdo, but the original chants are themselves very beautiful. In addition there are readings from the Lamentations of Jeremiah, sung to a haunting tone which may even date back to chants from the ancient Jewish temple, and extracts from the writings of St Augustine and St Paul.

After each of the fourteen psalms one candle is extinguished of fifteen that stand on a special stand called a hearse. During the Benedictus the six altar candles are also put out leaving just the one candle alight. After the Christus factus est is sung that candle is then removed from the hearse and hidden behind the altar. The choir bang their books, representing the chaos in on the earth deprived of the light of the world. The final candle reappears and Tenebrae ends.

It is exactly twenty years since I sang my first Tenebrae as part of the famous "Glover Holy Week" in Durham. It is wonderful to have the opportunity to be able to sing it again. I am pleased to see from the NLM blog that there is a growing revival of interest in Tenebrae. We do not seem to have set Tyneside on fire for it quite yet but at least we have made a start.

Singing in Italy

I have recently returned from a pilgrimage to southern Italy, taking in Sicily, Naples and Rome.

After a night in Palermo, we set off driving through mountainous scenery with roads lined by citrous trees to the ancient city of Agrigento. Here we visited the Valley of the Temples, a series of remains or reconstructions of temples from the period when Sicily was occupied by the Greeks. Some of these temples were stunning. I was asked by our pilgrimage leader to provide a 'spiritual moment' and so on the steps on the best preserved of all the temples the "Concordia" I sang the Kyrie eleison from the Mass Orbis Factor.

The day we spent travelling from Naples to Rome proved to be one of the highlights of the trip as we visited Monte Cassino, a Benedictine Monastery founded by St Benedict himself. It is set high in the mountains and was badly damaged during fighting towards the end of World War II. Happily it has been almost completely and very beautifully restored. We arrived to find the place shrouded in mist, which produced great atmosphere. We had our prayer service in the chapel of St Benedict and St Scholastica, which is decorated with stunning mosaics. I sang the Salve Regina to the solemn Benedictine chant. I was pleased to note that the High Altar in the main basilica is arranged for the celebration of Mass ad orientem, complete with big six and crucifix.

The highlight of our first full day in Rome for me was a Mass for our group at St John Lateran. Fr Bruce Williams OP celebrated (ad orientem) in a chapel to the north east of the High Altar with beautiful wood carvings of saints. It was wonderful to have our own Mass in this great basilica, the Pope's cathedral. During communion I sang the antiphon Tu es Petrus, which I chose considering the venue, considering that we had seen the Pope that morning and that it was the feast of St Gregory the Great.