This is a more up-to-date account of my work to reconstruct the medieval liturgy of St Magnus of Orkney. It can be read or downloaded here: http://www.uco.oldham.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Spark-2020-21-web.pdf
Begin at page 20.
Monday 20 September 2021
Sunday 17 January 2021
Article on the Magnus Office
It can be read here: http://www.scottishmusicreview.org/
Click on the words "Can we reconstruct the medieval liturgy of St Magnus?"
Monday 27 May 2019
BBC Radio Orkney broadcast
As I mentioned in my last post about *ahem* eighteen months ago, I gave a talk on the Tullimentan programme in October 2017. You can listen to it again by clicking here. The section on music for St Magnus starts at about 13 minutes 35 seconds.
Monday 16 October 2017
BBC Radio Orkney broadcast
Please tune in to BBC Radio Orkney at 6.10pm on Wednesday 25 October for the arts programme Tullimentan. This month's show includes a talk by me on music inspired by St Magnus, illustrated with an excerpt from the plainsong Office of St Magnus. This has been specially recorded for the programme by the Orkney Schola, and it is the first time that any part of the Magnus Office has ever been broadcast.
Wednesday 26 July 2017
Talk on Friday
Please come to the St Magnus Centre in Kirkwall on Friday (28 July) at 7pm, to hear me talking about music inspired by St Magnus - past, present and future - and to hear some medieval music in the Saint's honour, sung by the Orkney Schola.
Mine will be the first of four talks about St Magnus and his legacy, and the whole evening is part of the Aberdeen Diocesan pilgrimage on the 900th anniversary of Magnus's martyrdom.
Mine will be the first of four talks about St Magnus and his legacy, and the whole evening is part of the Aberdeen Diocesan pilgrimage on the 900th anniversary of Magnus's martyrdom.
Monday 24 April 2017
Happy St Magnus Day!
Yes, today is the feast of St Magnus the Martyr, transferred this year from 16 April, which was of course Easter Sunday, to 24 April.
This is the story:
This is the song:
This is the way:
This is the story:
This is the song:
This is the way:
Tuesday 4 April 2017
St Magnus evening class
I
am teaching an evening class on St Magnus of Orkney – the ideal way to get to
know our local saint during this novocentenary year of his martyrdom!
The
course starts on Tuesday 2
May, and runs for eight weeks. To book, phone Customer Services
at the Council on (01856) 873535. Enrolment is open now but closes on Friday 14
April.
The hymn to St Magnus, Nobilis humilis
From
the Community Learning Spring Programme:
B167:
St Magnus of Orkney
As
we commemorate the 900th anniversary of his martyrdom, this course looks at the
background, life, death and legacy of St Magnus of Orkney. Drawing on history,
art, music, archaeology and literature, we will explore how the 12th century Saint
has continued to intrigue and inspire both here and further afield. This is
another chance to take this course, which was oversubscribed in Autumn 2017.
·
Tutor: Dr Ben Whitworth.
·
Tuesdays from 2 May (8
meetings).
·
7.00pm-9.00pm
·
Course fee: £80.00.
Maximum
class size: 20 students.
Friday 31 March 2017
Nobilis humilis
Click here for a recording of me speaking the words of the St Magnus hymn. This is just here as a guide to pronunciation.
I've gone for a sort of generic medieval Latin pronunciation; it's hard to know exactly how this would have been pronounced in Orkney, as there were marked local variations as well as changes over time, and of course even the scholars can only make an informed guess, since there are no recordings! But this may well differ from the pronunciation you might have been taught as "Church Latin", because that's really late nineteenth-century Italian pronunciation ...
I've gone for a sort of generic medieval Latin pronunciation; it's hard to know exactly how this would have been pronounced in Orkney, as there were marked local variations as well as changes over time, and of course even the scholars can only make an informed guess, since there are no recordings! But this may well differ from the pronunciation you might have been taught as "Church Latin", because that's really late nineteenth-century Italian pronunciation ...
Monday 27 March 2017
MI Sancti Magni
Invitatory at Matins in the office of St Magnus.
Sancti Magni *
coléntes solénnia,
regis regum
laudémus magnália.
Celebrating the solemnities
of holy Magnus,
let us praise
the mighty works
of the king of kings.
UPDATE 28/03/2017: Click here for practice recording.
Model: Assunt Thome (office of St Thomas Becket). Recordings: Schola Hungarica (track 1) (video below); Lay Clerks of Canterbury Cathedral Choir (track 14).
Model: Assunt Thome (office of St Thomas Becket). Recordings: Schola Hungarica (track 1) (video below); Lay Clerks of Canterbury Cathedral Choir (track 14).
LA1 Favus stillans
Favus stillans is the 1st Psalm Antiphon at Lauds (hence LA1) in the office of St Magnus.
This is the first of a series of posts illustrating chants from the medieval liturgical office of St Magnus of Orkney. For this and subsequent excerpts from the office of St Magnus, I have established the text by collating all four pre-Reformation sources; however, I am indebted to Alan McQuarrie for his excellent edition of one version of the office in Legends of the Scottish Saints: Readings, hymns and prayers for the commemorations of Scottish saints in the Aberdeen Breviary (Four Courts, 2012), and I largely follow his punctuation of the texts. The translations, the setting of the texts to ancient melodies, the practice recordings, and any errors occuring in these posts, are my own.
Favus stillans frángitur, *
mellis dans dulcórem;
Mala queque fúgiunt
cujus per odórem.
The dripping honeycomb is broken,
releasing the sweetness of
honey;
at whose scent
all evils flee.
Click here for a practice recording. N.B. These recordings are rehearsal aids only; no claims are made for the quality either of the singing or of the recording!
The model for this antiphon was Granum cadit from the office of St Thomas of Canterbury. Recordings of Granum cadit [N.B. not from the same manuscript that I am using] can be found on the CDs by Schola Hungarica (track 19) and Schola Gregoriana of Cambridge (track 10; starts at 4'58"). See here for details of these recordings; the Schola Hungarica recording is on Spotify (UPDATE 29/03/2017: and on Youtube, see embedded video below, and in blogposts on the other Lauds antiphons).
The model for this antiphon was Granum cadit from the office of St Thomas of Canterbury. Recordings of Granum cadit [N.B. not from the same manuscript that I am using] can be found on the CDs by Schola Hungarica (track 19) and Schola Gregoriana of Cambridge (track 10; starts at 4'58"). See here for details of these recordings; the Schola Hungarica recording is on Spotify (UPDATE 29/03/2017: and on Youtube, see embedded video below, and in blogposts on the other Lauds antiphons).
This is the first of a series of posts illustrating chants from the medieval liturgical office of St Magnus of Orkney. For this and subsequent excerpts from the office of St Magnus, I have established the text by collating all four pre-Reformation sources; however, I am indebted to Alan McQuarrie for his excellent edition of one version of the office in Legends of the Scottish Saints: Readings, hymns and prayers for the commemorations of Scottish saints in the Aberdeen Breviary (Four Courts, 2012), and I largely follow his punctuation of the texts. The translations, the setting of the texts to ancient melodies, the practice recordings, and any errors occuring in these posts, are my own.
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