During Lent, Episcopalians hark back a few centuries to the period of the English Reformation, and sing music that is at once historically and spiritually significant, and immediately practical in our own day. The Great Litany, one of the most important musical rites of the Anglican tradition, was the very first English-language rite created by Archbishop Cranmer as he set about the creation of the English liturgy in the 1540s. He adapted the existing plainsong chants of the Roman Litany (with which most people would have been familiar) to his English text. A litany is a long intercessory rite involving use of versicles (prayers or petitions intoned by the priest or a cantor) and responses (intoned by the congregation, affirming its petitions, such as "Good Lord, deliver us," or "We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord"). The Great Litany was originally written to be sung in procession and is typically done so today, most usually as the opening rite of the Eucharist. It can also be sung on the First Sunday of Advent and on Rogation Days. When we pray the Great Litany, we are in a way participating again in the creation of our heritage as Anglican Christians.
At Eucharistic services, we sing two settings of the Ordinary (those portions of the texts of the liturgy with are "ordinary" or do not change seasonally, such as the Kyrie, Sanctus and Agnus Dei). The lyrical chant-like setting called "New Plainsong Mass" by David Hurd (Professor of Music at General Theological Seminary in New York and a well-known composer and recitalist) is sung at the 9:15 service, while at the 11:15 Eucharists, we sing the ancient setting by John Merbecke, who was the first composer to set the new English-language services to music, in his The Booke of Common Praier Noted of 1550. Merbecke was a lay-clerk (singer) and organist of St. George’s Chapel at Windsor, and would have known Cranmer and worked with him in the development of the new English rites.
On Ash Wednesday, March 1, members of our adult choirs will sing two important anthems from the classic 16th century Anglican repertoire: "Hide Not Thou Thy Face," by the Tudor composer Richard Farrant, and "Lord, For thy Tender Mercy’s Sake," which is attributed to both Farrant and his contemporary John Hilton. These simple, rather austere pieces reflect the new interest in straightforward, intelligible settings of English scriptural texts which Cranmer and the other reformers insisted upon. Cranmer’s dictum "for every word a note," so that the music could be "understanded of the people," marks the radical turn away from the florid polyphonic Latin masses and motets of the Roman rites, to simpler musical forms, the balanced clarity of which could both enhance the meaning of the new liturgies and engage the people’s understanding of them in a more direct way.
These two anthems will also be sung on the First Sunday in Lent, March 5, so if you missed them on Ash Wednesday you can hear them on the following Sunday!
I hope you can enter into the spirit of our Lenten observance at Christ Church through the music as much as through the scriptural readings and sermons, and perhaps feel better "connected" to our unique and priceless heritage of choral and congregational song that took root during the tumultuous years of the mid-16th century England and still influences the music today.
MUSIC IN LENT – Part II
Let’s continue to delve into the wonderful world of church music for Lent, in our Anglican tradition, which includes so-called “Catholic” and “Protestant” music! The anthems Call to Remembrance, O Lord, and Hide Not Thou Thy Face, attributed to the composer Richard Farrant, (organist and choirmaster of Salisbury Cathedral in the 1570s) are two important works from the period of the English Reformation, and are familiar to choirs in all denominations.
The Victorian period in the Anglican church also produced many beautiful and important anthems, particularly those by Samuel Sebastian Wesley. His Wash Me Throughly, will be sung on March 4th, the Second Sunday in Lent. This famous anthem exemplifies all the best qualities of late 19th century English church music: excellent choral writing emphasizing strong melodic contours in all voice parts, colorful chromatic harmony that adds a sense of drama, and a strong text (the first three versed of Psalm 51, the Psalm for Ash Wednesday). Wesley was the leading organist and choirmaster of his day, having held posts at Exeter, Gloucester, Hereford, and Winchester cathedrals, and composing many brilliant choral works that are still standard repertoire for choirs today.
Another important strand of our liturgical and musical roots is Gregorian Chant, which is the single most important corpus of sacred vocal music in existence. Anglicans rediscovered their inheritance of chant during the 19th century church music revival in England, and we American Episcopalians rely on it today as choral and congregational liturgical music that is both practical to sing (flowing rhythms based on speech-rhythm rather than a regular metrical beat, and limited vocal range of the melodies), and a deeply spiritual vehicle for praise and prayer. During Lent, the choir will be singing the proper Psalm of the day to Gregorian chant tones, during Communion (at the 9:15 service) and at the Gradual (at the 11:15 service).
Later in Lent the choir sings some fine Latin-texted repertoire, including Gasparini’s Classical-period motet Adoramus Te, Christe (“We adore Thee, O Christ, and we praise thee; because by thy death on the Cross thou hast redeemed the world”). On Palm Sunday, the beautiful, rather austere motet of the Italian Baroque composer Felice Anerio, Christus Factus Est will be sung (“Christ was made obedient for us even unto death, even death of the cross. Therefore God also has exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name”). These are but two of the classic, seminal sacred scriptural texts of Lent which have been set to music by countless composers over many centuries.
Our musical roots are also nourished by anthems of our own time. The Offertory anthem on Palm Sunday is by the noted English composer and choirmaster Grayston Ives, who is the director of the famous choir of Madgalen College, Oxford. Listen for this haunting piece, Ride On, Ride on in Majesty, and reflect on how a modern composer interprets a familiar seasonal text with music of singular, yet understated power.
