As we begin the holiest week of the year, the choral music originally planned for the Schola Cantorum to sing drew from a rich and varied palette of choral music, including renaissance motets from 16th century Spain and England, as well as music from a modern composer from Washington, the late Leo Nestor.

Though the Schola Cantorum will not be providing its customary musical leadership this Sunday, we’d like to share some of the music that we planned to sing for your own reflection and meditation. Couple this with reading the scripture of the day and your own personal prayer or reflection with your family at home. For your daily prayer life we also recommend either a digital or print version of the excellent Give Us This Day prayer resource.

You may wish to begin or end your reflection with this prayer:

O God of eternal glory, you anointed Jesus, your servant,
to bear our sins,
to encourage the weary,
to raise up and restore the fallen.
Keep before our eyes the splendor of the paschal mystery of Christ,
and, by our sharing in the passion and resurrection,
seal our lives with the victorious sign
of his obedience and exaltation.
We ask this through Christ, our liberator from sin,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
holy and mighty God for ever and ever.  AMEN

10am Mass Introit, Hosanna to the Son of David - Thomas Weelkes (1576-1623)

This intricately written motet for six voices, oscillates between major and minor tonalities and utilizes various forms of part-writing imitation throughout, moving between homophony to imitative writing at the half-measure, as well as double choir effect, where multiple voices imitate each other in succession. The English composer Thomas Weelkes was organist of Chichester Cathedral, and composed several books of anthems and madrigals. The text is the antiphon proper for this Sunday, and repeats the text uttered by the Jews as Jesus triumphantly entered Jerusalem. The Hebrew word ‘Hosanna’ roughly translates to ‘we beg you to save,’ so in using it, the Jews were acknowledging Jesus as the Messiah and their savior.

10am and 11:30am Masses Preparation of the Gifts, Pueri Hebraeorum - Tomás Luis de Victoria (c. 1548-1611)

Victoria was the finest composer of sacred polyphony of the Iberian Peninsula. This gentle motet takes its text from the antiphons for the distribution of palm branches, and tells of the ‘Children of the Hebrews’ casting their cloaks as Jesus entered Jerusalem. The opening motive contains a flutter of eighth notes, as of a vestment or cloak caught in the air as it falls to earth. The motet has as an almost flippant character - possibly suggesting the fickleness of the people of Jerusalem's faith, as those who hail Jesus as the Messiah, are soon to lead him to his death.

To hear a the Schola in rehearsal last year, click below:

11:30am Mass Communion, The Mocking of Christ - Thomas Tallis (c. 1505 – 1585)

The music (Third Tune) is taken from Tallis’ Bishop Parker’s Psalter, which was written to provide vernacular settings of the Psalter in the reformed English liturgy. The tune originally set the 2nd psalm (Why fum’th in fight). The music was later used as the source material for Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis. The Mocking of Christ is a poem by the English hymn writer and minister Fred Pratt Green. The poem is in three parts, and reflects on an aspect of the Mocking; The crown of the thorns, the purple cloak, and the scepter reed. A common line in each, “They could not know what we do now” echoes Christ's plea for forgiveness from the cross “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.”

To hear the hear the Schola in rehearsal last year, click below:

10am and 11:30am Masses Post-Communion Motet, Faithful Cross – Leo Nestor (1948 - 2019)

Faithful Cross is an English rendering of the Venantius Fortunatus (530-609) poem, Crux fidelis inter omnes. Nestor’s setting of the poem uses fragments of the original Latin text to punctuate certain musical motives and textual ideas. The piece employs irregular meters creating both a chant like quality, as well as a more nuanced setting of the text. The piece is largely tonal with brief moments of modal and chromatic influence.