[Magdalen] Easter Devotions

[Molly Wolf]

"Canned ham in garlic sauce" = "Spem in allium."

Molly

The man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way. -- Mark Twain

> On Mar 17, 2015, at 9:16 AM, Jay Weigel <jay.weigel at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> "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
>>