Illumination from a manuscript of St Aelred’s Life of Edward the Confessor
Showing St Aelred in monastic habit kneeling before King Henry II
To hear the Audio please click on the link below:
https://soundcloud.com/user-140188366/evensong-upon-the-feast-of-st-aelred-of-rievaulx
Opening Anthem: Memento mei Paweł Łukaszewski (born 1968), Mark Dwyer, conductor
Memento mei, Domine, dum veneris in regnum tuum.
Remember me O Lord, when thou comest into thy kingdom. (cf Luke 23:42)
Preces, Philip Radcliffe (1905-1986),
Mark Dwyer, conductor; Jeremy Bruns, organist; Corey Dalton Hart, cantor
Psalm 19: Cœli enarrant — Sir John Goss (1800-1880)
Psalm 46: Deus noster refugium,
chant adapted from Martin Luther (1483-1546) by John Goss
First Lesson: Genesis 3
Magnificat in A — Healey Willan (1880-1968),
Mark Dwyer, conductor; Jeremy Bruns, organist
Second Lesson: Matthew 22.1-14
Nunc dimittis à 5 (Gradualia), William Byrd (1540-1623)
The Advent Choir, Jeremy Bruns, conductor, Agnes Coakley, Stephanie Buen Abad, Henry Clapp, solo trio
Versicles and Responses: Philip Radcliffe (1905-1986),
Mark Dwyer, conductor; Corey Dalton Hart, cantors
Anthem: God is Love — Anthony Gregory Murray, OSB (1905–1992 and see biographical note below*)
Mark Dwyer, conductor
God is love, and where true love is, God himself is there.
Here in Christ we gather, love of Christ our calling. Christ, our love, is with us, gladness be his greeting. Let us fear and love him, holy God eternal. Loving him, let each love Christ in one another. repeat Antiphon. When we Christians gather, members of one Body, let there be in us no discord but one spirit. Banished now be anger, strife and every quarrel. Christ, our God, be always present here among us. repeat Antiphon. Grant us love’s fulfillment, joy with all the blessed, when we see your face, O Savior, in its glory. Shine on us, O purest Light of all creation, be our bliss while endless ages sing your praises. repeat Antiphon.
Ubi Caritas; Maundy Thursday hymn sung at the foot-washing ceremony:
North Italian or Burgundian, c 8th cent; tr James Quinn, SJ (1919-2010)
Sermon: Canon Alistair Macdonald-Radcliff
Hymn: Lo, he comes with clouds descending
text by Charles Wesley (1707-1788) and others; from Thomas Augustine Arne (1710-1778) adapted by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) for The 1906 English Hymnal, Descant by Mark Dwyer
1 Lo! he comes with clouds descending,
once for our salvation slain;
thousand, thousand saints attending
swell the triumph of his train:
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Christ the Lord returns to reign…….
Blessing
Organ voluntary, Scerzo in sol min. op. 49. no. 2, by Marco Enrico Bossi,
played by Sr. Alessandro Bianchi,
Director of Music, The Church of St Edward the Confessor, Lugano
on the organ of the Basilica di S. Paolo Cantù, Como, Lombardia.
The Choral Music is from the Sound Archive of the Choir of the Church of the Advent, Boston, under the Direction of Mark Dwyer by kind permission of the Rector the Revd. Fr. Douglas Anderson.
*Biographical note:
Dom Gregory Murray, OSB, MA, FRCO, organist and composer, produced music which had an impact on the Roman Catholic Church, and many other denominations later, almost by stealth. His music (such as The People’s Mass) is sung every Sunday in thousands of churches with few knowing the name of the composer and still less anything of his life.
He was educated at Westminster Cathedral Choir School when Sir Richard Terry was Master of the Music, and St Benedict’s, Ealing. In 1923 he became a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists and read for the historical tripos at Cambridge University, graduating in 1929. He was ordained in 1932 for Downside Abbey and spent most of the rest of his life there except for periods at Ealing during the war and as parish priest of Hindley, Lancashire, from 1948 to 1952. He also served as parish priest of St Benedict’s, Stratton-on-the-Fosse, from 1952 to 1987.
Dom Gregory Murray was a brilliant organist, and made regular broadcasts from the Compton organ at Downside Abbey. He was particularly noted for his skill at improvising (which would often include a musical quotation — for the discerning ear– from another work, not necessarily sacred in nature).
He was an authority on Gregorian Chant, publishing two books on the subject where, “It was a measure of his honesty that, once he had changed his mind about the rhythmic basis of plainsong, the second more or less contradicted the first. He disowned his ‘Gregorian Rhythm: a Pilgrim’s Progress’ (1934) in the October 1957 edition of ‘The Score’, later giving his reasons in ‘Gregorian Chant According to the Manuscripts’ (1963).”
Two of his hymn tunes were published in ‘Hymns Ancient & Modern (New Standard)’.
Outside music, his interests encompassed the Gospel of St Matthew, football, cricket, tennis and chess. He complained during his last illness that the greatest privation of being sick was his inability to play the latter four, especially football. His reflections on the place of music as a servant of the liturgy are recorded in ‘Music and the Mass’ (1977). His ‘Chorale Prelude on Marienlied‘ was published on the day his death was announced.