[Magdalen] Easter Devotions

Tue Mar 17 17:20:05 UTC 2015

And let us just stop before someone makes an unfortunate reference to that
Jewel of Bach "Wachet Auf".  Nope.  No remarks about that.  Wouldn't be
prudent....

James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
*“A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved,
except in memory. LLAP**”  -- *Leonard Nimoy

On Tue, Mar 17, 2015 at 11:51 AM, Molly Wolf <lupa at kos.net> wrote:

> "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
> >>
>