Arvo Pärt: Cantus and Magnificat

Southern Lutheran Kantor recently did a post on Arvo Pärt. Dovetailing on his post, here is some more information on this unique composer.

Arvo Pärt was born in Estonia, and after emmigrating during the Communist regime, returned there around 2000. Arvo Pärt is still living, according to Wikipedia (and if you found it there, it must be true!).

Some of Pärt's music sounds like ringing bells, which he called "tinntinnabuli".  An example of this is his Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten. He uses the orchestral chimes throughout, but also has the other instruments playing a descending scale similar to Purcell's Bell Symphony.

On the religious side of things, here is a live performance of Pärt's Magnificat.

If you'd like to follow along with the music, here's one from King's College Choir.

Contemporaries of Arvo Pärt include Henryk Górecki and John Tavener.

Check out Southern Lutheran Kantor's Recommended Church Music Recordings List for more information on select works of Arvo Pärt.  You can catch snippets of these recordings on his original post.

Just for Fun: It - Can - not - Wait - I'm - Yours!

Dale Witte of Composing My Thoughts and conductor of this wonderful WLA Christmas concert posted this to his Facebook page.

What can I say, the kid's got talent!

Conversion of Paul: Z. Randall Stroope

Caedite, vexate, ligate vinculis!
Saul! Murder, harass, bind into chains! Saul!

Vinculis, condemnate vexate!
Chain, prosecute and harass!

Why do you persecute me, Saul?
Why, why, why?
Fall down on your knees, turn hatred into love.
Turn darkness into light.
Bow down, Saul! Bow down, Saul!
Saul, Saul, Saul.

Conversion of Paul: Egil Hovland

And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles.

And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him.

As for Saul, he made havock of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison.

Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word.

And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest,

And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem.

And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven:

And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
Acts 8:1b-4; 9:1-4

Liturgical Variations: Understanding Liturgical Worship, Part IV (d)

Lutheran Book of Worship and Lutheran Worship changed the scope of the Gloria and referred to this part of the Divine Service as "The Hymn of Praise." This carried over to Lutheran Service Book, which has the rubric

HYMN OF PRAISE
During Advent and Lent, the Hymn of Praise is omitted.

It should be noted first that the Lutheran tradition has two historic hymn paraphrases of the Gloria (LSB #947 and 948) plus the relatively new alternative "This Is the Feast" found in Lutheran Service Book's Divine Service I and II.

Here is a setting of LSB #947, All Glory Be to God on High, done in the classic tradition of an organ improvisation for the introduction followed by congregational singing.

Here is a wonderful setting featuring "a full medieval percussion section, penny whistles, and a saxophone ensemble."

The newest tradition is to substitute the Gloria for "This Is the Feast," first published as "Festive Canticle: Worthy Is Christ." As Lutherans follow the Latin Rite, they tend to assign Latin words to new liturgical works, and this is no exception, going by Dignus Est Agnus, or "Worthy Is the Lamb," taken from the first line of the first verse.

There is some discussion among Lutherans as to whether we should substitute ANYTHING for the Gloria. The text of "This Is the Feast" is drawn from the book of Revelation, and hence is appropriate for Easter and it's Season as well as any time there is an End Times theme, such as All Saints Day and the last Sundays of the church year. It is also excellent if the Divine Service is celebrated at a funeral.

As Micah at Liturgical Variations states

The image of Christ as the Lamb of God is repeated with added imagery from Revelation. The concept of praising God for Who He is and what has done is also continued. The imagery of Christmas has been replaced with the imagery of the End Time, when the angels will sing in response to Immanuel. "...has begun His reign:" We pray that Christ begins His reign in our hearts, through the hearing of His Word.

That being said, the chief text is the Gloria, and the secondary text is "This Is the Feast." Think of "This Is the Feast" as seasoning salt. It adds flavor to our church year. Think of it as coming alongside the Gloria and not replacing it. Use it wisely and use it when it is appropriate.

Here it is, sung at Easter Vigil. By the way, this would most likely be in place of the Gloria at a Roman Catholic church. They are using the Richard Hillert setting originally published as "Festival Canticle: Worthy is Christ." That last descant is always challenging, no matter who the choir is.

This is the forth and final post in a series about the Kyrie and Gloria in the Divine Service based on a post by Micah at Liturgical Variations.

Check out all of Micah's posts over at Liturgical Variations.  Micah is a student at Concordia University Texas.

Liturgical Variations: Understanding Liturgical Worship, Part IV (c)

What about English versions of the Gloria? There are some issues with modern translations of the text into English.
If you are singing from an older Anglican or English Lutheran hymnbook, or your translation contains words like "Thee" and "Thou," chances are you have a good translation.

It probably reads something like this...

Glory be to God on high.
And in earth peace goodwill towards men.
We praise Thee.
We bless Thee.
We worship Thee.
We glorify Thee.
We give thanks to Thee for Thy great glory.
O Lord God, heavenly King
God the Father almighty.
O Lord, the only-begotten Son Jesus Christ.
O Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father.
Thou that takest away the sins of the world,
have mercy upon us.
Thou that takest away the sins of the world,
receive our prayer.
Thou that sittest at the right of the Father,
have mercy upon us.
For Thou only art Holy.
Thou only art the Lord.
Thou only, O Christ,
with the Holy Ghost,
art Most High in the glory of God the Father.
Amen.

This is very close to Iggy's Literal Translation, with the exception of today's "you" and "your" instead of "thou" and "thine." Please ask permission before borrowing this translation.

Glory to God in the highest
and on earth peace to men of goodwill.
We praise You;
We bless You;
We worship You;
We glorify You;
We give thanks to You
for Your great glory.
Lord God, Heavenly King
God the Father Almighty.
Lord, the only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ;
Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father,
Who takes away the sin of the world,
have mercy on us;
Who takes away the sin of the world,
receive our prayers;
Who sits at the right hand of the Father,
have mercy on us.
For You alone are holy,
You alone are the Lord,
You alone are the Most High,
Jesus Christ,
with the Holy Spirit
in the glory of God the Father.
Amen

The International Counsel on English Texts (ICET) took some liberties with the translation, and used almost a paraphrase of the Latin.

To begin with, while the literal translation is "men" the application is "people" so I won't get hung up on that one. However, what happened to "goodwill?"

Latin
Gloria in excelsis Deo
Et in terra pax hominibus voluntatis

Iggy
Glory to God in the highest
and on earth peace goodwill toward men.

ICET
Glory to God in the highest,
and peace to His people on earth.

On another note, the current trend is to change the word "His" to "God's" in the second phrase of the ICET text. Curiously enough, if they had been faithful to the original text, there would be no pronoun there to begin with. That being said, pronouns keep us from being too repetitive with names, so the use of "His" is not only theologically correct, it is also grammatically correct.

The ICET text also loses the repetition in the beginning. In the ICET text we only worship, give thanks, and praise. We do not bless or glorify. The original text builds and builds and builds, heaping one form of praise upon the other. The ICET text is truncated at best, condensing five clauses into three.

Latin
laudamus te
benedicimus te
adoramus te
glorificamus te
gratias agimus tibi
propter magnam gloriam tuam

Iggy
We praise You;
We bless You;
We worship You;
We glorify You;
We give thanks to You
for Your great glory.

ICET
We worship You,
We give You thanks,
We praise You for your glory.

Another thing that is lost is the allusion to the Agnus Dei (Lamb of God) that will appear later in the Divine Service, just before we receive communion. This echo reminds us that we are preparing to partake in the Holy Supper and receive the Body and Blood of our Lord, as Scripture states, "given...and shed for the forgiveness of sins."

Latin
Dómine Deus Agnus Dei Fílius Patris
qui tollis peccáta mundi
miserére nobis
Qui tollis peccáta mundi
súscipe deprecatiónem nostram
Qui sedes ad déxteram Patris
miserére nobis

Iggy
Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father,
Who takes away the sin of the world,
have mercy on us;
Who takes away the sin of the world,
receive our prayers;
Who sits at the right hand of the Father,
have mercy on us.

ICET
Lord God, Lamb of God,
you take away the sin of the world:
have mercy on us;
You are seated at the right hand of the Father:
receive our prayer.

Note to hymnal committees around the world: if you would never consider The Living Bible or The Message for corporate worship, then perhaps the ICET text is not for you, either. Let's take a more literal approach to the Gloria, something along the lines of the English Stander Version instead of The Living Bible.

At any rate, here is a setting of the ICET text. This one takes the first full line of text as the refrain.

And here is the Healey Willan setting of the historic translation. I believe this one was commissioned by Concordia Publishing House for use with children. When you hear "children" in this sense, think about a classic music education for middle grade children, as opposed to songs for younger children, such as "Jesus Loves Me" or "I Am Jesus' Little Lamb."

This is the third post of four in a series about the Kyrie and Gloria in the Divine Service based on a post by Micah at Liturgical Variations.  Next in this series, the "other" hymn of praise, "This Is the Feast."

Check out all of Micah's posts over at Liturgical Variations.  Micah is a student at Concordia University Texas.

Liturgical Variations: Understanding Liturgical Worship, Part IV (b)

The historic mass follows the Kyrie with the Gloria. The Lutheran Rite now offers "This Is the Feast" as an alternate.

Regarding the Gloria, Micah at Liturgical Variations says

Assured He will come with mercy, we burst forth in song, proclaiming Who He is and what He has done for us. We sing the very same song that the angels sang when Christ physically came to earth (Immanuel- God-with-Us) to pay for the sin of all people...

The Gloria is drawn from the Latin Mass. Here is a look at the historic Latin text and a literal translation of it.

Historic Latin Text
Gloria in excelsis Deo
et in terra pax hominibus bonevoluntatis
laudamus te
benedicimus te
adoramus te
glorificamus te
gratias agimus tibi
propter magnam gloriam tuam
Dómine Deus Rex cæléstis
Deus Pater omnípotens
Dómine Fili unigénite Jesu Christe
Dómine Deus Agnus Dei Fílius Patris
qui tollis peccáta mundi
miserére nobis
Qui tollis peccáta mundi
súscipe deprecatiónem nostram
Qui sedes ad déxteram Patris
miserére nobis
Quóniam tu solus Sanctus
Tu solus Dóminus
Tu solus Altíssimus
Jesu Christe
Cum Sancto Spíritu
in glória Dei Patris
Amen

Iggy's Translation
[Please ask permission before borrowing this translation]
Glory to God in the highest
and on earth peace to men of goodwill.
We praise You;
We bless You;
We worship You;
We glorify You;
We give thanks to You
for Your great glory.
Lord God, Heavenly King
God the Father Almighty.
Lord, the only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ;
Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father,
Who takes away the sin of the world,
have mercy on us;
Who takes away the sin of the world,
receive our prayers;
Who sits at the right hand of the Father,
have mercy on us.
For You alone are holy,
You alone are the Lord,
You alone are the Most High,
Jesus Christ,
with the Holy Spirit
in the glory of God the Father.
Amen

The Gloria and its counterpart This Is the Feast are often omitted in Advent and Lent. This reflects the penitential nature of these seasons.

We get the term "Gloria" from the Latin Bible. It is the first word in the song the angels sang to the shepherds.

Gloria in excelsis deo
Glory to God in the highest

Below is a straight-forward Latin Gloria set to Gregorian chant.

Here is a wonderful setting of the Latin Gloria sung by a boys choir.  The setting is by Valentin Rathgeber, an early Baroque composer.  It is common even today that a cantor introduces (or intones) the first phrases of the Gloria with a chant, and then the choir or congregation responds with the rest of the text.

Bach and Vivaldi have wonderful settings of the Gloria. They provide a setting for each sentence or phrase of the Gloria, so these will be less practical for congregational worship. Bach's version takes over six minutes just to get through the first line. If you are looking to highlight the Gloria in your annual Christmas concert, though, these would be wonderful options.

JS Bach, Part I
Gloria in Excelsis Deo
et in terra pax hominibus bonevoluntatis



Vivaldi, Part I
Gloria in Excelsis Deo

A contemporary composer who takes a shorter approach is John Rutter. This one is three sections, but still about 20 minutes long. If you use this in the Divine Service, you might have the choir sing one of the three sections, and have a cantor chant the other two.

Rutter, Part I
Gloria in excelsis Deo
et in terra pax hominibus bonevoluntatis
laudamus te
benedicimus te
adoramus te
glorificamus te
gratias agimus tibi
propter magnam gloriam tuam
Gloria excelsis Deo

If you are looking for a straight-forward setting and you want ot show off your choir's Latin skills in a single, brief setting, try this Mozart work.

This is the second post of four in a series about the Kyrie and Gloria in the Divine Service based on a post by Micah at Liturgical Variations.  Next in this series, comparing English translations of the Gloria.

Check out all of Micah's posts over at Liturgical Variations.  Micah is a student at Concordia University Texas.