Mass for St. Patrick - Monteverdi & Grandi

The University of St Michael’s College in the University of Toronto

In honour of St Patrick

Monday, March 16th, 2015

7.30pm 

St Basil’s Church

Program

Introit: Sonata Decima Quinta à 4     Dario Castello (c.1590–c.1658)

Messa da Cappella à Quattro Voci, Kyrie  Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643)

Gloria in excelsis         Monteverdi

Gradual: Sonata Ottava a Due Violini  Giovanni Battista Fontana (c.1580–c.1630)                 

Sequence: Justus germinabit   Alessandro Grandi (1586–1630)
Hallie Fishel, Soprano                 

Credo                  Monteverdi

1.     Credo in unum Deum        

2.     Crucifixus        
Hallie Fishel, Soprano, Christopher Mayell & Christopher Jääskeläinen, Tenors,
Christian McConnell, Bass

3.     Et resurrexit         
Hallie Fishel & Mikhai Vergara, Sopranos

4.     Et iterum         
Christopher Mayell & Christopher Jääskeläinen, Tenors, Christian McConnell, Bass

5.     Et in Spiritum Sanctum        

Offertorium: Ecce sacerdos magnus   Grandi
Hallie Fishel, Soprano

Sanctus                  Monteverdi

Elevation motet: Memoriam fecit mirabilium    Grandi
Hallie Fishel, Soprano

Benedictus                  Monteverdi

Passacalio from Op. 22    Biagio Marini (1594–1663)

Agnus Dei        Monteverdi

Today is the eve of the feast of St. Patrick. Devotion to Patrick, “Apostle of Ireland,” has never been confined to Irish shores. By the seventh century, devotion had spread throughout France, Italy, and Germany and it has flourished ever since. The early modern period saw renewed interest in Patrick’s life and writings. The standard medieval life was published in English translation in 1625 (without the infancy miracles and cursing incidents!). The first edition of Patrick’s letters was published in 1656. The feast of St Patrick was included in the Roman breviary in 1631and in the Roman calendar of 1632.

In 17th-century Northern Italy, it was quite normal on feast days for the Mass to be celebrated with suitable motets replacing the usual chanted antiphons. Our concert includes two such motets, Justus germinabit and Ecce sacerdos magnus. A third motet, Memoriam fecit mirabilium, draws on several texts from the Feast of Corpus Christi. Placed between the Sanctus and Benedictus, it serves as an Elevation motet. It was also common for instrumental sonatas to be played during the liturgy—often in a chromatic style, to depict the mystery of the change of the substance of the bread and wine. During these substitutions, the priest would quietly say the text of the suppressed parts of the Proper of the Mass, at least theoretically.

A congregation lucky enough to attend a big North Italian church in the early 17th century would have an hour’s worth of concertato music (music “for the consort” of instruments and solo voices). Indeed, by the 18th century, lucky parishioners may have heard a entire violin concerto in place of the post-communion prayer. But this was far from being merely a “concert”: in the words of the governors of Santa Maria Maggiore in Bergamo in 1630, the intention was to “draw the people in and lift them up to devotion.”

Monteverdi’s Messa da Cappella à Quattro Voci was published in his Selva Morale e Spirituale of 1641, a collection that also contains vespers psalms, office hymns, motets, and even a couple of Italian madrigals on spiritual subjects—most in the new Baroque style with and without instruments. The Mass, by contrast, is in the stile antico, the old style: Monteverdi was keen to demonstrate that, while he was a composer in the forefront of the avant-garde, he was still capable of writing glorious music in the tradition of Palestrina. The Mass is marked “da capella,” which we usually take to mean unaccompanied. However, Monteverdi provides a figured bass part in the continuo part-book, and organ accompaniment to da capella choral music seems to have been common. In the middle of the Credo, Monteverdi directs: “Here you can sing the concertato Crucifixus/Et resurrexit/Et Iterum if you please,” and he provides alternative settings of those texts for one singer on a part, with and without instruments. Thus the Credo setting is both ancient and modern.

All three soprano motets are by Alessandro Grandi. Grandi came to Venice in 1617 to sing under Monteverdi. By 1620 he was Monteverdi’s vice maestro di capella. In 1627 he took a position as maestro di capella at the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Bergamo. Tragically, soon after, he and his family were victims of an outbreak of the plague; Grandi died in his mid-40s. Dario Castello worked at St. Mark’s throughout the first decades of the 17th century and boasts on the title page of his prints that held the position of Capo di Compagnia de Instrumenti. Giovanni Battista Fontana worked in Rome and Padua, but his sonatas were printed by his son in Venice in 1641. Biagio Marini was Europe’s top violinist when he worked briefly at St. Mark’s in Venice, in recognition of which he received a singer’s salary of 60 ducats a year, rather than a violinist’s mere 15 ducats (or perhaps he sang as well). But even this was not enough to retain his services: he was soon tempted away to Northern Europe by deep-pocketed German aristocrats

Kyrie eleison

Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

Gloria in exclesis Deo

Glory to God in the highest,

and on earth peace to people of good will.

We praise you, we bless you, we adore you, we glorify you, we give you thanks for your great glory, Lord God, heavenly King, O God, almighty Father.

Lord Jesus Christ, Only Begotten Son,

Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us; you take away the sins of the world, receive our prayer;

you are seated at the right hand of the Father, have mercy on us.

For you alone are the Holy One,

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.

Justus germinabit

The righteous shall grow as the lily, and flourish forever before the Lord.

This is he who knew righteousness, and saw great wonders, and made his prayer unto the Most High, and he is numbered among the saints.

He loved not his life in the world and attained unto the kingdom of heaven.

Credo

I believe in one God, the Father almighty,

maker of heaven and earth,

of all things visible and invisible.

I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,

the Only Begotten Son of God,

born of the Father before all ages.

God from God, Light from Light,

true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father;

through him all things were made.

For us men and for our salvation

he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man.

Crucifixus

For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, he suffered death and was buried.

Et resurrexit

He rose again on the third day

in accordance with the Scriptures.

He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

Et iterum

He will come again in glory

to judge the living and the dead

and his kingdom will have no end.

Et in Spiritum Sanctum

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets.

I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead

and the life of the world to come. Amen.

Ecce sacerdos magnus

Behold a great priest, Patrick, who in his days was pleasing to God, and was found just. In the time of wrath he was made a reconciliation. None was found like unto him, who kept the law of the Most High.

Sanctus

Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of hosts.

Heaven and earth are full of your glory.

Hosanna in the highest.

Memoriam fecit mirabilium

He has remembered his wonderful works; being a merciful and gracious Lord, he has given food to those who fear him.

He fed us with the finest wheat: and with honey out of the rock he satisfied us.

This is the bread which has come down from heaven; who eats this bread will live forever.

Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. O saving Victim, who open wide the gate of heaven; our foes press hard on every side: give us strength, bestow your aid.

O sacred banquet in which Christ is received, the memory of his passion is renewed, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory to us is given.

Benedictus

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.

Agnus Dei

Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.

Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.

Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world, grant us peace.

The Musicians In Ordinary

Named after the singers and lutenists who performed in the most intimate quarters of the Stuart monarchs’ palace, The Musicians In Ordinary for the Lutes and Voices dedicate themselves to the performance of early solo song and vocal chamber music. Soprano Hallie Fishel and lutenist John Edwards have been described as “winning performers of winning music.” A fixture on the Toronto early music scene for over ten years, in 2012 MIO became Ensemble in Residence at St Michael’s College in the University of Toronto. MIO have concertized across North America, and have performed to scholarly and general audiences, lecturing regularly at universities and museums, for the Shakespeare Society of America, the Renaissance Society of America, Canadian Society for Renaissance Studies, Grinnell College, the Kingston Opera Guild, and the Bata Shoe Museum, and the Universities of Alberta, Toronto, California at San Diego, Syracuse, Trent, and York. They have been Ensemble in Residence at Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania.

Christopher Verrette has been a member of the violin section of Tafelmusik since 1993 and is a frequent soloist and leader with the orchestra. He holds a Bachelor of Music and a Performer’s Certificate from Indiana University. He contributed to the development of early music in the American Midwest, as a founding member of the Chicago Baroque Ensemble and Ensemble Voltaire, and as a guest director with the Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra. He collaborates with many ensembles around North America, performing music from seven centuries on violin, viola, rebec, vielle, and viola d’amore. He was concertmaster in a recording of rarely heard classical symphonies for an anthology by Indiana University Press and recently collaborated with Sylvia Tyson on the companion recording to her novel, Joyner’s Dream.

St Michael’s Schola Cantorum is an auditioned ensemble drawn from staff, faculty, alumni/ae, students, and friends of USMC, and members of St Basil’s parish choir. We sing three concerts per year, at Michaelmas, and during Advent, and Lent. Michael O’Connor is the founding Director of St Michael’s Schola Cantorum. He teaches in the college programs at St Michael’s and also directs the St Mike’s Singing Club. His academic scholarship and practical music-making overlap in the theory and practice of liturgical music.

The Musicians In Ordinary

Violin
Christopher Verrette

Violin
Patricia Ahern

Viola
Emily Eng

Violoncello
Laura Jones

Organ
Borys Medicky

Theorbo
John Edwards

St Michael’s Schola Cantorum

Soprano
Kara Dymond
Laurel-Ann Finn
Hallie Fishel
Barbara North
Annemarie Sherlock
Emily Sherlock
Mikhai Vergara
Hope Aletheia Waterman

Alto
Irene Chan
Cindy Dymond
Irene Gaspar
Ana Iorgulescu
Christopher Jääskeläinen*
Mekhriban Mamedova
Paula Owalabi

Tenor
Mark Gamez
Andrew Helmers
Reid Locklin
Antonio Manco
Christopher Mayell
Michael Pirri

Bass
Robert Allair
Eric Charron
Scott Hoornaert
Christian McConnell
Paul McGrath
Eli White

Rehearsal Pianist
Mekhriban Mamedova