Music Update for the Week of October 18

(Homepage photo credit: Ira Lippke).

Music for the 11am Choral Eucharist and 4pm Choral Evensong will include works by Langlais, Palestrina, Stainer, Stanford, and Leighton.

Sunday Ocotber 18

11am Festal Eucharist

  • Service: Messe Solennelle, Jean Langlais (1907-1991)
  • Psalm: 147:1-7 Anglican Chant (Stanford)
  • Motet: Mihi autem nimis, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (c. 1525-1594)
  • Anthem: How beautiful upon the mountains, John Stainer (1840-1901)

4pm Festal Evensong

  • Responses: Kenneth Leighton (1929-1988)
  • Psalm: 67 Anglican Chant (Luard Selby)
  • Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis: in B-flat, Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924)
  • Anthem: Give me the wings of faith, Kenneth Leighton

Tuesday, October 20

5:30pm Choral Evensong

  • Introit: O let me tread in the right path, John Ward (1571-1638)
  • Responses: Kenneth Leighton (1929-1988)
  • Psalm: 104 Anglican Chant (Bevan, Parratt)
  • Magnificat: quinti toni, Hans Leo Hassler (1562-1612)
  • Ninc dimittis: octavi toni, Diego Ortiz (c. 1525-1570)
  • Anthem: Venite ad me omnes, Felice Anerio (c. 1560-1614)

Wednesday, October 21

5:30pm Choral Evensong

  • Introit: O let me tread in the right path, John Ward (1571-1638)
  • Responses: Kenneth Leighton (1929-1988)
  • Psalm: 106:1-27 Anglican Chant (Hylton Stewart)
  • Magnificat and Nunc dimittis: The Second Service, Thomas Morley (c. 1557-1602)
  • Anthem: Sing joyfully unto God our strength, William Byrd (c. 1540-1623)

Thursday, October 22

5:30pm Choral Evensong

  • Introit: O let me tread in the right path, John Ward (1571-1638)
  • Responses: Kenneth Leighton (1929-1988)
  • Psalm: 108, 109:1-4, 20-30 Anglican Chant (Hurford, Stewart, Harrison, Turle)
  • Magnificat and Nunc dimittis: in G minor, Edward Bairstow (1874-1946)
  • Anthem: There is a land of pure delight, Grayston Ives (b. 1948)

Notes on Sunday’s Repertoire

Jean Langlais (1907-1991), blind from birth, was educated at the Institut Nationale des Jeunes Aveugles and the Paris Conservatoire where, under the tutelage of Marcel Dupré, Charles Tournemire and Paul Dukas(and with Olivier Messiaen as a fellow student) he took all the major prizes in organ-playing, improvisation and composition. Having returned to his old school (the Institute for Blind Children) as a teacher, Langlaiswent on to become Organist of St. Pierre de Montrouge and, in 1945, of Ste. Clotilde, following in the steps of Charles Tournemire and César Franck.

The Messe Solennelle was regarded by Langlais himself as an expression of his profound faith – the ‘Gloria’ building through complex counterpoint to its magnificent conclusion ‘in gloria Dei Patris’, the ‘Sanctus’ with its sinuous chromaticism giving way to the jubilant ‘Hosanna’ and the ‘Agnus Dei’ marking the petitions for peace with ever-increasing urgency.

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