The Schola Cantorum celebrates the manifestation of Christ on this Sunday's feast with choral music by modern and renaissance composers from France, England and the United States.
10am Mass, Preparation of the Gifts, “Videntes Stellam” - Francis Poulenc (1899 – 1963)
This motet is a setting of the antiphon for the Gospel Canticle Magnificat as a part of Evening Prayer in the Liturgy of the Hours for the Octave of the Epiphany. The text: “Seeing the star, the wise men were overcome with great joy, and entering the dwelling they offered the Lord, gold, frankincense, and myrrh.” Poulenc was born at the turn of the last century in Paris. Although encouraged in his musical pursuits by his mother, Poulenc’s father, a successful businessman, preferred that his only son pursue an education that would lead to a more secure future. He was primarily self-taught from the age of five but studied composition with Ricardo Viñes beginning in 1914. Through Viñes he was introduced to many contemporary musicians of his days, and was counted among the storied Les Six, including Arthur Honegger and Darius Milhaud. He composed in many genres including opera, orchestral, chamber, and choral.
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11:30am Mass, Preparation of the Gifts, “Verbum Patris Hodie” - David Francis Urrows (b. 1957)
“Verbum Patris Hodie” is a short anthem for Christmastide on an anonymous 16th century macaronic text (mixture of Latin and English) set in a modern choral idiom. The principal choral refrain translates: “The Word of the Father comes forth of the Virgin.” David Francis Urrows, composer, musicologist, organist, and university professor was educated at Brandeis University, the University of Edinburgh and Boston University (D.M.A., 1987). His principal teachers were Randall Thompson and Kenneth Leighton. He currently teaches music history, and music theory and analysis at Hong Kong BU.
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11:30am Mass, Communion Motet, “O Nata Lux” - Thomas Tallis (1505 – 1585)
The source for the text for “O Nata Lux” is a hymn for Morning Prayer for the Feast of the Transfiguration. “O Light born of Light, Jesus, redeemer of the world, with loving-kindness consent to receive praise and prayer.” It has special resonance also for the feast of the Epiphany when we celebrate Christ’s showing forth his wondrous light to all the world. Thomas Tallis is one of the greatest English choral composers and with his contemporary English renaissance colleague William Byrd navigated the tumultuous period of the English Reformation while still creating sacred music for both Angliscan and Catholic liturgies.
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10am Mass, Communion Motet “Brich an, O Schones Morgenlicht” J. S. Bach (1685 – 1750) with additional verses by hymnwriter Fred Pratt Green (1903 – 2003)
The first verse of this combined chorale is the original setting from Bach’s Christmas Oratorio. The second and third verses continue with the Bach harmonization of the hymn tune ERMUNTRE DICH but with Pratt Green’s exegesis of the Christmas institution narrative and our response to this wondrous gift in our own Christian lives.
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11:30am Mass, Choral Prelude, “O Nata Lux ” - Morten Lauridsen (b. 1943)
Morten Johannes Lauridsen is an American composer. A National Medal of Arts recipient, he was composer-in-residence of the Los Angeles Master Chorale and has been a professor of composition at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music for more than 40 years.
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