[Magdalen] Easter Devotions

[Jay Weigel]

"O Vos Omnes"....known to one choir I sang in as "All you eggs". But we
were an irreverent lot.

On Tue, Mar 17, 2015 at 1:57 AM, James Oppenheimer-Crawford <
oppenheimerjw at gmail.com> wrote:

> I worship now through music.  I find others who value fine musical
> performance are of a similar bent. Recently did the Messiah, and a bit
> later on we will do the Brahms Requiem. Unbeatable composition! Great text
> choice, superb composition itself (competent use of the choir, to put it
> mildly) and absolutely marvelous orchestration, and the choir isn't silent
> most of the time.
>
> We just had a concert Mar. 14 in which the first half was three settings of
> O Vos Omnes. I like to see how different masters handle the same text.
>
> O vos ómnes qui transítis per víam, atténdite et vidéte:
> Si est dólor símilis sícut dólor méus.
>
> V. Atténdite, univérsi pópuli, et vidéte dolórem méum.
> Si est dólor símilis sícut dólor méus.
>
> Translation
>
> O all you who walk by on the road, pay attention and see:
> if there be any sorrow like my sorrow.
>
> V. Pay attention, all people, and look at my sorrow:
> if there be any sorrow like my sorrow.
>
> ​The settings were by
> Tomás Luis de Victoria
> ​ (16th cent. Spain)​
> ,
> ​ Pablo​
> Casals
> ​ (20th Cent. [1932])​
> and
> ​Paul ​
> Mealor
> ​ (contemporary)​
> .
> ​ Links to performances are at the end of the email.​
>
> These are a good selection for contrast. Victoria/Vittoria is one of the
> finest composers of any time.  He wrote, very simply, very subtly, yet all
> of his effort is entirely to the text. Pablo Casals must have been a person
> of faith, because his setting, although stylistically distinct from
> Victoria, still has that simple straightforward quality of writing to the
> text.  Paul Mealor got a lot of exposure for writing the anthem that was at
> a royal wedding, and as a result, his work is being heard far more
> than heretofore. I really like his setting, with one caveat.  At the end he
> has a (VERY familiar) line from psalm 133 (
> "Hine Ma Tov Umanaim"
> ​ -- "Behold how good and pleasing [if brethren could sit together in
> unity"​
> )thrown in. I love the text, and I love what he did with it, but it just
> does not
> ​seem to ​
> belong.
>
> The second half of the program was a performance of Buxtehude's set of
> seven "cantatas" which form a single work (Membra Jesu Nostri
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Membra_Jesu_Nostri>), based on text that
> takes inspiration from Jesus' body, section by section. I was not familiar
> with the work. Perhaps it ought to be performed more often.
>
> I include links to some performances I picked out for your listening. I
> hope they are useful to you all.
>
> Vittoria:
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m11B9GuDUmM
> Casals:
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uO61aTQMl7I
> Mealor:
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOSm5RsPhbE
> Buxtehude:
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWbBK2poJlE
>
>
> ​
> James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
> *“A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved,
> except in memory. LLAP**”  *
> *-- *Leonard
> ​
> ​​
> Nimoy
>