Italian Chapel TOMORROW

Click here for the music!

Eastertide chants

I haven't found a recording of the Nunc dimittis antiphon Alleluia resurrexit, but the chant Alleluia lapis revolutus est is essentially the same melody; certainly close enough to give you a good flavour of that beautiful fifth mode:



And here's the solemn Regina caeli tone:

Jesu Salvator saeculi

Click here for another recording.

We'll learn this (the chant part of it at any rate!) when we get back together after the Easter break.

Compline group

We are meeting on Tuesday (5 March) at the usual time (7 p.m.) but not at the usual place. If you've been coming regularly, you'll have had an email from me. If you haven't, but you'd like to come along this week, leave your email address/phone no. in a comment here (which will not be published) & I'll send you the details.

Nesciens mater

Nesciens mater is the antiphon in honour of the Blessed Virgin that is sung in the Use of Nidaros after Compline, from Christmas until Candlemas. We learnt it last week at the Schola, and I am going to make a recording of it as a practice aid; however, a recording by the Choir of Winchester Cathedral from 2000 has just been re-released. The antiphon is available for download (price: 10 pence), and as it is less than a minute in length, you can actually listen to the whole thing by clicking on the little "music" logo on this page. Thanks to Hyperion Records.

Happy New Year

Our Compline group will restart on Tuesday 15 January, at the usual time & place. New members always welcome - no experience needed; just let me know if you're interested in coming to sing some chant with us, by leaving a comment here (it won't be published!)

Rebooted

This blog is now once again what it was initially intended to be: a noticeboard and resource library for the Orkney Schola, the Gregorian chant group which currently meets on Tuesday evenings in West Mainland to sing Compline. I hope it is now easier for singers to find stuff that is actually useful!

All the old posts from the "Gregorian Chant in Orkney" blog have been shipped over to my new blog, which is also where the last few doors of my musical Advent calendar will be opened.

Veni veni Emmanuel

We were singing this wonderful Advent song at Schola this evening, and I mentioned the two-part setting which is found in a thirteenth century (?Dominican nuns') processional. Somewhere online there is - or was - a really interesting article about it, with a facsimile of the manuscript. I can't find that just now, but here is a modern edition from CPDL.

Tonight we were singing it in unison - but in triple time. Try it; it's fun!

Compline on CD

As the recently revived Compline group is taking a week off (meeting again on Tuesday 11 December), one member asked me whether I had any CDs with Compline on, that could be used for learning at home.

The answer is "yes and no". Historically, Compline was one of the most stable rites in Christian worship, with the same psalms, canticle, antiphons, &c. being sung almost every night in almost every part of Western Christendom. But there were always small variations in text and music; even after the Roman office of Compline became homogenised in the age of printing, the religious orders adhered to their own unique variants. Following the Second Vatican Council, the revised office of Compline allowed for a great deal of variety - and some religious houses continued to cherish their own peculiarities even within the reformed rite.

As a result of all this, CD recordings of Compline - whether they are historical reconstructions or simply recordings of a monastery at its Work - are like snowflakes: no two the same. And this makes them of limited use as learning aids.

I have four CDs with Compline, but only a few items are precisely the same as what we are learning in the group:

1. Chant: Music for Paradise, the Cistercian Monks of Stift Heiligenkreuz (Universal). CD1, track 21 (the Gospel canticle) includes the antiphon "Salva nos" in exactly the form we are using; but N.B. the tone for the canticle itself is a different one.

2. More Sublime Gregorian Chant, the Cathedral Singers/directed by Richard Proulx (Kevin Mayhew). Track 25 is an exemplary performance of the hymn Te lucis ante terminum, using the same melody that we are learning. The only difference is that they sing it in English, and - oddly - the final "amen" is omitted.

3. Lauds of the Transfiguration and Sunday Compline, Benedictine Monks of Pluscarden Abbey (Pluscarden Abbey). Our friends in the South sing Compline according to the Benedictine tradition, and the only exact overlap with our version of the office is the Lord's Prayer (part of track 16).

4. A Treasury of Gregorian Chants, vol. 1, Benedictine Monks of En Calcat (gets churned out periodically by various record companies) includes (as track 11) four minutes of Compline highlights. The first part, from "Jube, domne" to "Deo gratias" is the same as what we are using.

The CD I mentioned last night is Nox Lucis: The Night of Light by the wonderful Finnish duo Vox Silentii. The album includes the antiphon we started learning last night, O florens rosa, which we're singing from the transcription which Vox Silentii kindly sent me.

Recordings: Compline on Tuesday per annum

As a learning aid, I have made some recordings of Compline as we are singing it on Tuesday evenings, following the order of Compline found in the liturgical books of the Use of Nidaros. Click on the respective parts of the Office to play an mp3 file.

Preamble (Jube, Domine, &c.)
Opening verses (Converte nos, &c.)
Antiphon: Miserere mihi
Psalm 4
Psalm 30
Psalm 90
Psalm 133
Antiphon: Miserere mihi (repeated)
Hymn: Te lucis
Chapter (Jeremiah 14.9)
Versicle (Custodi nos, &c.)
Antiphon: Salva nos
Canticle: Nunc dimittis
Antiphon: Salva nos (repeated)
Preces part 1
Preces part 2
Preces part 3
Preces part 4
Prayer: Illumina quaesumus
Benedicamus Domino
Antiphon in honour of our Lady: O florens rosa
Antiphon in honour of St Magnus: O martyr Magne

For the record, the total length of these recordings comes to 21 minutes 30 seconds.