Sacred music in context

[David Ayers]

Since I attend a cathedral I get to hear a lot of music performed, and I wonder if anyone else experiences music in this way.

The usual communion service at my cathedral includes organ voluntaries at the beginning and end, parts of a sung mass (normally the Gloria, the Sanctus/Benedictus, and the Agnus Dei), and also a motet and a sung psalm, the motet being by a name composer, the psalm being sung as so-called Anglican chant. So today, for example, the voluntaries were by Vierne and Frescobaldi, the mass was Lassus' Missa super bel'amfitrit altera, and the motet was Esquivel.

So for Anglicans interested in music in its living tradition this is good.

Does anyone else get their music this way, of whatever kind? I posted in 'classical', of necessity, but this is rather why 'classical' generally has to appear in inverted commas.

PS please can we avoid anything that belongs in a now defunct forum...

[king ubu]

Juan García?

Not sure if I could get this kinda mass here, we ain't catholic no longer

[page]

Yes, I can understand what you are coming from. There is something about the music in a special environment such as a cathedral or a place where people come to express their faith. When I was a girl I especially loved the musical part of going to church. That was the best part for me since at such a time I felt connected. There is also something about performing in such a place even when the purpose isn't of a religious kind. I have a few times with a big band but also with a choir. It just adds something special even when you don't believe in anything. For me singing and making music has to do with expressing myself, who I am, so maybe that is partly something that has to do with this feeling. I don't know.

Edited January 19, 2014 by page

[A Lark Ascending]

I was brought up a Catholic (mega-lapsed since the early 70s) but have always much preferred Anglican hymns (the Catholic ones remind me of those pictures of Christ showing his bleeding heart) and church music. I suspect they are based on much older music.

Don't go to church of any sort (except Sainsbury's) but sometimes I hear choral evensong on Radio 3 on a Sunday - has an incredibly reassuring feel to it. You can hit anything from RVW to Tallis, Stainer, Lennox Berkeley or John Rutter in one of those.

One of my future projects is to work through Hyperion's English Anthem series. Just have the one at present. Doesn't work through the services as you describe but cherry picks the grander pieces.

[paul secor]

When I read the title, I thought this thread was about gospel music. I guess it still could be.

[7/4]

It isn't church without a pipe organ.

[king ubu]

I was brought up a Catholic (mega-lapsed since the early 70s) but have always much preferred Anglican hymns (the Catholic ones remind me of those pictures of Christ showing his bleeding heart) and church music. I suspect they are based on much older music.

...

I may sound like a blatant ignorant (probably am), but the one (partial) anglican mass I ever attended (somewhere in Scotland, east coast ... Aberdeen, Perth, Dundee ... don't recall) sounded and smelt very catholic to protestant litte me (this was in the very early 90s, I'd say). Sure, the hymns might be different, but all in all, it's a looooooong step from anglican to protestant, while it just seemed like very quick and close one to catholic to me, back then. No idea if that's typical or anything ... but the difference to what I grew up here was huge. Regular protestant mass will include some organ to open and close, and in between the attendants singing a few old songs (I'd say picked from three or four dozen, even though the hymn book holds five hundred or so). The organ will of course open the songs/hymns and accompany, usually making sure the singing gets even sagging as it goes on. Not much magic or elevation to be found there.

What I do enjoy though, is going to choir concerts at churches ... they needn't necessarily be of religious works then, it was magic once to freeze my ass off in one of Zurich's largest, virtually unheated churches, to hear "Peer Gynt". But I also saw the likes of Rossini's "Petite messe solennelle" (alas the orchestral version, I think the piano/harmonium version is more fun).

Edited January 19, 2014 by king ubu

[JSngry]

The church I visit when I attend presents a vast array of music of all varieties played on all instruments. They have a bigass organ which they'll use as needed. same with choirs and orchestras. I can't say that any of it is done earth-shatteringly well, though. It's a suburban Methodist church in an affluent (enough) area and the players are members as much as possible. Some are better than others, and the efforts are always sincere and appreciated, but...it's a five minute walk from the house, so hey. The organist is a pro, though, but she gotsta play to the room, ya' know? The main choir, though, I've heard them deal with some nice literature at a very nice level. Not "pro", but when it comes to "in context", that's not the standard, necessarily. They did very, very well, I'll put it like that.

Gospel music...I went to T.D. Jakes' Potter's house a few times, specifically because I had gotten a tip about one of the singers that was then singing there. She was indeed fine, but that was at least as much show-business as it was context (or maybe that's one and the same for a gig like that...not for me to say). I can still hear local live broadcasts from what are basically storefront churches, but have never attended any of them, just because...why would I? For entertainment? For sociology? To hang out and feel good about myself? Not there, not for that, not like that, no, not unless I was invited, and the way my life is now, it'll have to take some more evolvements before that opportunity ever again presents itself. But who knows? I still have many years left, hopefully, and there are no guarantees in life, therefore predictions are pretty much...whatever). Stuff happens. If an invitation should be extended, I will accept. Same with Hebraic, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, any other faiths that have a music (and where I live now, there are any number of places to go for them all). I'm open to hearing anything in context, but some contexts I will not insert myself into without being invited, and "religious" ones are very much at the top of the list of such things. I've actually been asking around to some of my Jewish friends to see if any of their congregations have a really kickass cantor, and the best I've gotten is that one guy said that the synagogue he attended as a kid, in Houston, had an old guy who could make your body rattle with his low notes. But he's dead now, and nobody seems to really think about it these days. Sign of the times, perhaps. But anyway, Houston, home of obscure Don Wilkerson gig videos and a dead kickass cantor. And Roscoe Mitchell concerts. I wish the weather and traffic were more to my liking.

More relevant for me, as far as the subject at hand goes, was hearing Red Garland at The Recovery Room, and similar such players in similar such places. To me, that was sacred music and to me that was in context. Still is, even though the "context" part is pretty much extinct nowadays.

As Bird is said to have said, I'm a devout musician, even if now a somewhat lapsed one.