Tomás Luis de Victoria, sometimes "Italianised" as "da Vittoria" (circa 1548 – 1611), was the most famous composer of the 16th-Century in Spain, and one of the most important composers of the Counter-Reformation, along with Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and Orlando di Lasso.
Victoria was not only a composer, but also an accomplished organist and singer as well as a CatholicPriest. However, he preferred the life of a composer to that of a performer. He is sometimes known as the "Spanish Palestrina", because he may have been taught by Palestrina.
Text from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal, unless otherwise stated. The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Double of the First-Class with a Common Octave. White Vestments.
On this Feast, the most ancient (6th-Century) and solemn of the Cycle of Mary, the Church invites all her children in the Catholic world to unite their joy (Introit) and their gratitude (Preface) with those of the Angels, who praise the Son of God because of that day His Mother, bodily and spiritually, entered Heaven (Alleluia).
Admitted to the enjoyment of the delights of eternal contemplation, She chose at the feet of the Master the better part, which shall not be taken away from Her (Gospel, Communion).
The Gospel of the Vigil was, indeed, formerly read after today's Gospel, in order to show that the Mother of Christ is happy among all others, because, better than all others, "She listened to the Word of God". This word, the Word, the Divine Wisdom which, under the Old Law, dwelt among the people of Israel (Epistle), dwelt in Mary, under the New Law.
On the Una Voce Of Orange County Web-Site, all Text and Illustrations are taken from the Saint Andrew's Daily Missal, 1952 edition, with the kind permission of St. Bonaventure Press.
The Word became Incarnate in the womb of The Virgin, and now, amid the splendour of the Heavenly Sion, He fills Her with the delights of the Beatific Vision.
The Church on Earth, like Martha, has to care for the necessities of this present life, but she also, like her, invokes the help of Mary (Collect, Secret, Postcommunion).
A Procession has always been a part of the Feast of the Assumption. At Jerusalem, it was formed by the numerous Pilgrims who came to Pray at the tomb of the Blessed Virgin and who, thus, contributed to the institution of this Solemnity.
The Clergy of Constantinople also held a Procession on the Feast of the Rest, or Assumption, of Mary. At Rome, from the 7th-Century to the 16th-Century, the Papal Cortege, in which the representatives of the Senate and people took part, went on this day from the Church of Saint John Lateran to that of Saint Mary Major. This ceremony was called the Litany.
[On this occasion, they used to recite over the people, assembled for the Procession, the Collect for Assumption Day, which is first in the Sacramentary and mentions this Mystery, whilst our Collect of the Mass on 15 August was only the Second Collect and has no direct relation to the Feast.
This is the First Collect: "It is our duty to honour the Solemnity of this day, O Lord; the Holy Mother of God did, indeed, suffer temporal death, although the bonds of this death could not hold back Her, whose flesh formed the Body of Thy Son, Our Lord who liveth and reigneth . . ."]
The Introit for the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Gaudeámus omnes in Dómino . . . (Let us all rejoice in the Lord, . . .) is that of the Feast of Saint Agatha (5 February).
From the 11th-Century, this Introit was also used in seven other Masses which are in the Missal, among which are 15 August (today's Feast) and 1 November (Feast of All Saints).
The following Text is from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal for
The Vigil of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Violet Vestments.
The Epistle is "Ego quasi vitis" ["As the vine, I have brought forth a pleasant odour, and my flowers are the fruit of honour and riches"] (taken from The Book of Wisdom) from the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (16 July).
Christ, after having lain for only three days in the tomb, rose again and ascended into Heaven.
Likewise, the death of The Virgin resembled, rather, a short sleep. Hence, it was called "Dormitio" (Dormition), and before corruption could defile Her body.
God restored Her to life and Glorified Her in Heaven.
These three privileges are celebrated by the Feast of the Assumption, which follows logically from the privilege of the Immaculate Conception and the privilege of the Mystery of the Incarnation.
For sin never having defiled the Soul of Mary, it was right that Her body, in which the Word had become Incarnate, should not be tainted by the corruption of the tomb.
Rievaulx Abbey was founded in 1132 by twelve Monks from Clairvaux Abbey, France, as a Mission for the colonisation of the North of England and Scotland. It was the first Cistercian Abbey in the North. With time, it became one of the great Cistercian Abbeys of Yorkshire, second only to Fountains Abbey in fame.
The remote location was ideal for the Cistercians, whose desire was to follow a strict life of Prayer and self-sufficiency, with little contact with the outside world. The Patron, Walter Espec, settled another Cistercian community, founding Wardon Abbey, in Bedfordshire, on unprofitable wasteland on one of his inherited estates.
The following Italic Text is from the Video on YouTube.
Monks of one of the Abbeys of the Solesmes Congregation sing this beautiful Chant.
The Te Deum is attributed to two Fathers and Doctors of the Church, Saint Ambrose and Saint Augustine, and is one the most majestic Chants in the Liturgy of the Church.
It is sung in Traditional Seminaries and Monastic Houses at the Divine Office and for Double Feasts of the First Class, The Nativity, Easter, Corpus Christi, Epiphany, Pentecost and those Feasts which have an Octave.
The Solemn Te Deum is sung on all occasions of public Church rejoicing (in Traditional Catholic Churches).
The Abbey lies in a wooded dale, by the River Rye, sheltered by hills. To have enough flat land to build on, a small part of the river was diverted several metres West of its former channel. The Monks altered the course of the river three times during the 12th-Century.
The old course of the river is visible in the Abbey's grounds. This is one illustration of the technical ingenuity of the Monks, who, over time, built up a very profitable business mining lead and iron, rearing sheep and selling wool to buyers from all over Europe.
Rievaulx Abbey became one of the greatest and wealthiest Abbeys in England, with 140 Monks and many more Lay Brothers, receiving grants of land totalling 6,000 acres (24 km²) and establishing Daughter Houses in England and Scotland.
Towards the end of the 13th-Century, the Abbey had incurred a great deal of debt with its building projects and lost revenue, due to an epidemic of sheep scab (psoroptic mange). This ill fortune was compounded by Scottish raids in the Early-14th-Century. To make matters worse the decimation of the population caused by the Black Death, in the Mid-14th-Century, made it difficult to recruit new Lay Brothers for manual labour. As a result, the Abbey was forced to lease much of its land. By 1381, there were only fourteen Choir Monks, three Lay Brothers and the Abbot left at Rievaulx, and some buildings were reduced in size.
By the 15th-Century, the original Cistercian practices of strict observance, according to Saint Benedict's rule, had been abandoned in favour of a more comfortable lifestyle. It was then permitted to eat meat and more private living accommodation was created for the Monks, and the Abbot now had a substantial private household.
The Abbey was dissolved by King Henry VIII in 1538. At that time there were said to be seventy-two buildings occupied by an Abbot and twenty-one Monks, attended by 102 servants, with an income of £351 a year. It also had a prototype blast furnace at Laskill, producing cast iron as efficiently as a modern blast furnace; according to Gerry McDonnell (archeo-metallurgist of the University of Bradford), the closure of Rievaulx delayed the Industrial Revolution for two-and-a-half centuries.
Henry VIII ordered the buildings to be rendered uninhabitable and stripped of valuables such as lead. The Abbey site was granted to the Earl of Rutland, one of Henry's advisers, until it passed to the Duncombe family.
Text and Illustrations from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia,
unless otherwise stated.
English: The Church, the Bride of Christ and Mother of the Faithful in Baptism. Illustration to Scivias II.3, fol. 51r from the 20th-Century facsimile of the Rupertsberg Manuscript, circa 1165-1180.
Saint Hildegard of Bingen, O.S.B., (German: Hildegard von Bingen; Latin: Hildegardis Bingensis) (1098 – 17 September 1179), also known as Saint Hildegard, and Sibyl of the Rhine, was a German writer, composer, philosopher, Christian mystic, BenedictineAbbess, visionary, and polymath.
Elected a magistraby her fellow nuns in 1136, she founded the Monasteries of Rupertsberg, in 1150, and Eibingen in 1165. One of her works as a composer, the Ordo Virtutum, is an early example of Liturgical drama and arguably the oldest surviving morality play.
She wrote theological, botanical and medicinal texts, as well as letters, Liturgical songs, and poems, while supervising brilliant miniature illuminations.
Although the history of her formal recognition as a Saint is complicated, she has been recognised as a Saint by parts of the Roman Catholic Church for centuries. On 7 October 2012, Pope Benedict XVI named her a Doctor of the Church.
On the whole, Chartres' windows have been remarkably fortunate. The Mediaeval glass largely escaped harm during the Huguenoticonoclasm and the religious wars of the 16th-Century, although the West Rose sustained damage from artillery fire in 1591. The relative darkness of the Interior seems to have been a problem for some. A few windows were replaced with much lighter grisaille glass, in the 14th-Century, to improve illumination, particularly on the North Side, and several more were replaced with clear glass in 1753, as part of the reforms to Liturgical practice that also led to the removal of the jubé.
The installation of the Vendôme Chapel, between two Buttresses of the Nave, in the Early-15th-Century, resulted in the loss of one more Lancet Window, though it did allow for the insertion of a fine Late-Gothic Window, with donor portraits of Louis de Bourbon and his family witnessing the Coronation of the Virgin with assorted Saints.
Although estimates vary (depending on how one counts compound- or grouped-windows), approximately 152 of the original 176 Stained Glass windows survive – far more than any other Mediaeval Cathedral anywhere in the world.
English: The Central Portal in the West Facade at Chartres Cathedral.
Français: Portail central du porche occidental de la cathédrale de Chartres.
Photo: 18 June 2006.
Source: Own work.
Author: Urban.
(Wikimedia Commons)
Like most Mediaeval buildings, the windows at Chartres suffered badly from the corrosive effects of atmospheric acids during the Industrial Revolution, and subsequently. The majority of windows were cleaned and restored by the famous local workshop, Atelier Lorin, at the end of the 19th-Century, but they continued to deteriorate.
During World War II, most of the Stained Glass was removed from the Cathedral, and stored in the surrounding countryside, to protect it from damage. At the close of the War, the windows were taken out of storage and re-installed. Since then, an on-going programme of conservation has been underway and isothermal secondary glazing is gradually been installed on the exterior to protect the windows from further damage.
The Cathedral has three great Façades, each equipped with three Portals, opening into the Nave from the West and into the Transepts from North and South. In each Façade, the Central Portal is particularly large and was only used for special ceremonies, while the smaller Side Portals allowed everyday access for the different communities that used the Cathedral.
English: The South Elevation of Chartres Cathedral.
Français/Deutsch: Monographie de la cathédrale de Chartres.
Atlas / Gestochen von E. Ollivier gezeichnet von Lassus, Gedruckt bei Bougeard.
Date: Paris, Imprimerie impériale, 1867.
Source: Monographie de la Cathédrale de Chartres - Atlas.
One of the few elements to survive from the Mid-12th-Century Church, the Portail Royal, was integrated into the new Cathedral, built after the 1194 fire. Opening onto the parvis (the large Square in front of the Cathedral where Markets were held), the two Lateral Doors would have been the first entry point for most visitors to Chartres, as it remains today. The Central Door was only opened for the entry of processions on major Festivals, of which the most important was the Adventus, or Installation, of a new Bishop.
The harmonious appearance of the Façade, results, in part, from the relative proportions of the Central and Lateral Portals, whose widths are in the ratio 10:7 – one of the common Mediaeval approximations of the Square Root of 2.
As well as their basic functions of controlling access to the Interior, Portals were the main locations for sculpted images on the Gothic Cathedral, and it was on the West Façade, at Chartres, that this practice began to develop into a visual summaor encyclopaedia of theological knowledge. The three Portals each focus on a different aspect of Christ's role: His Earthly Incarnation, on the right Portal; His Second Coming, on the left Portal; and His Eternal Aspect, in the centre Portal.
Above the right Portal, the Lintel is carved in two Registers, with, (lower) the Annunciation, Visitation, Nativity, Annunciation to the Shepherds and (upper) the Presentation in the Temple. Above this, the Tympanumshows the Virgin and Child enthroned in the Sedes sapientiae pose.
Surrounding the Tympanum, as a reminder of the glory days of the School of Chartres, the Archivoltsare carved with some very distinctive personifications of the Seven Liberal Arts, as well as the classical authors and philosophers most associated with them.
The final portion of Maurice Duruflé's "Prelude, Adagio & Choral Varié"
on the Latin Hymn "Veni Creator".
Philippe Lefebvre performs on the instrument, installed in 1971,
in a recording made ten years after the installation.
The left Portal is more enigmatic, and art historians still argue over the correct identification. The Tympanum shows Christ standing on a cloud, apparently supported by two Angels. Some see this as a depiction of the Ascension of Christ (in which case the figures on the lower Lintel would represent the Disciples witnessing the event), while others see it as representing the Parousia, or Second Coming of Christ (in which case the Lintel figures could be either the Prophets, who foresaw that event, or else the 'Men of Galilee', mentioned in Acts 1:9-11).
The presence of Angels in the upper Lintel, descending from a cloud and apparently shouting to those below, would seem to support the latter interpretation. The Archivolts contain the signs of the zodiac and the labours of the months – standard references to the cyclical nature of time, which appear in many Gothic Portals.
Giovanni Antonio Canal (1697 – 1768), better known as Canaletto (Italian: [kanaˈletto]), was an Italian painter of landscapes, or vedute, of Venice. He was also an important printmaker in etching.
He was born in Venice as the son of the painter Bernardo Canal, hence his mononym, Canaletto ("little Canal"), and Artemisia Barbieri. Bernardo Bellotto was his nephew and pupil. Canaletto served his apprenticeship with his father and his brother. He began in his father's occupation, that of a theatrical scene painter. Canaletto was inspired by the Roman vedutista, Giovanni Paolo Pannini, and started painting the daily life of the city and its people.
San Simeone Piccolo (also called San Simeone e Giuda) is a Church in the sestiereof Santa Croce in Venice, Northern Italy. From across the Grand Canal, it faces the railroad terminal, serving as entry point for most visitors to the city.
Wittkower, in his monograph, acknowledges San Simeone is modelled on the Pantheon, with a temple-front pronaos; on the other hand, the peaked Dome recalls Longhena's more-embellished and prominent Santa Maria della Salute Church.
The centralized circular Church design, and the metal Dome, recalls Byzantine models and San Marco, though the numerous centrifugal Chapels are characteristic of Post-Tridentine Churches.
This was one of the last Churches built in Venice, in one of its poorer sestieri.
The Crucifix is housed in the right-hand aedicula entering our Church. We don't know where it was before 1559, but, since this date, it has been housed outside the Church, over a stone Altar, between the two Portals of the building, next to the main entrance.
It was probably removed from there during (because of) the Revolution. The Church is the Saints Simon and Jude Church, in Venice (San Simeone Pìccolo), the very first Church that you can see in front of the railway station.
The Pediment of the entrance has a Marble Relief, depicting "The Martyr-isation of the Saints" by Francesco Penso, known as "il Cabianca". Saint Simon was apparently the martyred cousin of Christ, martyred as a Jew by the Romans.
Several of Taverner's other Masses use the widespread Cantus Firmus technique, where a Plainchant melody, with long note values, is placed in an interior part, often the tenor. Examples of Cantus Firmus Masses include "Corona Spinea" and "Gloria Tibi Trinitas". Another technique of composition is seen in his Mass, "Mater Christi", which is based upon material taken from his motet of that name, and hence known as a "derived" or "parody" Mass.
The Mass, "Gloria Tibi Trinitas", gave origin to the style of instrumental work known as an In Nomine. Although the Mass is in six parts, some more virtuosic sections are in reduced numbers of parts, presumably intended for soloists, a compositional technique used in several of his Masses. The section at the words "in nomine...", in the Benedictus, is in four parts, with the Plainchant in the alto. This section of the Mass became popular as an instrumental work for viol consort. Other composers came to write instrumental works modelled on this, and the name, "In nomine", was given to works of this type.
Taverner's Festal Mass, "Missa Gloria tibi Trinitas", is some of his most elaborate and beautiful music. It was hugely influential, both on his contemporaries and successors. In fact, it gave rise to an entire new genre of music, the "In Nomine". Every English composer, upto and including Purcell, himself, tested their mastery of contrapuntal techniques by basing music on the 'In Nomine' section of the Benedictus of this Mass - Taverner's "Missa Gloria Tibi Trinitas". That is a unique achievement in the history of English music.
This music Video includes the Cantus Firmus and a troped Kyrie. I've included the Cantus Firmus so that you can hear it and recognise it as it occurs throughout the Mass. The troped Kyrie (in this case Kyrie Deus creator omnium) was widely used in the Sarum Rite Masses, said and sung in England at that time. I've created this Video for purposes of an article to be published on http://saturdaychorale.com discussing Taverner's music. The direct link to that article is here: http://saturdaychorale.com/2012/02/26...
The following Text is that accompanying the Video on YouTube.
John Taverner was an Early-16th-Century English composer, born in Boston, Lincolnshire, around 1490. He was 'Informator' (Master of the Choristers) at the Oxford College founded by Cardinal Wolsey, known today as Christ Church College.
'Missa Corona Spinea' was probably written while Taverner was at Oxford and is one of his three great Festal Masses, the others being 'O Michael' and 'Gloria Tibi Trinitas'. The great complexity and difficulty of the music suggests that Wolsey provided his new College's Chapel with singers (both boys and men) of exceptional skill. This work is one of the last great monuments of English Catholic Church Music, written just before the Reformation.
The whole Mass, as well as two other Liturgical works, the Marian Antiphon, "Gaude Plurimum", and the Lenten Respond, "In Pace", can be found on a Hyperion CD under the 'Helios' label.
Photos accompanying the music are all of English Cathedrals, Abbeys, Minsters and Chapels and are in the public domain. The painting is the Isenheim Altarpiece by Mathis Grunwald, a German contemporary of Taverner. The final photograph in the sequence shows the elevation of the Chalice during Mass in York Minster.
Each Bay of the Aisles and the Choir Ambulatory contains one large Lancet Window, most of them roughly 8.1m high by 2.2m wide. The subjects depicted in these windows, made between 1205 and 1235, include stories from the Old and New Testament and the Lives of the Saints, as well as typological cycles and symbolic images, such as the signs of the zodiac and labours of the months. Most windows are made up of around 25 – 30 individual panels showing distinct episodes within the narrative – only the Belle Verrière includes a larger image made up of multiple panels.
Several of the windows at Chartres include images of local tradesmen or labourers in the lowest two or three panels, often with fascinating details of their equipment and working methods. Traditionally, it was claimed that these images represented the Guilds of the donors who paid for the windows. In recent years, however, this view has largely been discounted, not least because each window would have cost around as much as a large mansion house to make – while most of the labourers depicted would have been subsistence workers with little or no disposable income.
Furthermore, although they became powerful and wealthy organisations in the Later-Mediaeval period, none of these Trade Guilds had actually been founded when the glass was being made in the early 13th-Century. A more likely explanation is that the Cathedral Clergy wanted to emphasise the universal reach of the Church, particularly at a time when their relationship with the local community was often a troubled one.
English: Chartres Cathedral. Rose Window in the South Transept.
Français: Cathédrale de Chartres - Transept Sud - Rose et verrières de la façade.
Because of their greater distance from the viewer, the windows in the Clerestory generally adopt simpler, bolder designs. Most feature the standing figure of a Saint or Apostle in the upper two-thirds, often with one or two simplified narrative scenes in the lower part, either to help identify the figure or else to remind the viewer of some key event in their life.
Whereas the lower windows, in the Nave Arcades and the Ambulatory, consist of one simple Lancet per Bay, the Clerestory windows are each made up of a pair of Lancets with a plate-traceried Rose Window, above. The Nave and Transept Clerestory windows mainly depict Saints and Old Testament Prophets. Those in the Choir, depict the Kings of France and Castile and members of the local nobility, in the straight Bays, while the windows in the Apse hemi-cycle show those Old Testament Prophets who foresaw the Virgin Birth, flanking scenes of the Annunciation, Visitation and Nativity, in the Axial Window.
North Transept Rose Window. Circa 1235.
English: Northern Rose Window of Chartres Cathedral. The Rose depicts the Glorification of the Virgin Mary, surrounded by Angels, twelve Kings of Juda (David, Solomon, Abijam, Jehoshaphat, Uzziah, Ahaz, Manasseh, Hezechiah, Jehoiakim, Jehoram, Asa et Rehoboam) and the twelve Lesser Prophets (Hosea, Amos, Jonah, Nahum, Zephaniah, Zechariah, Malachi, Haggai, Habakkuk, Micah, Obadiah and Joel). Below, the Arms of France and Castile (the window was offered by Blanche of Castile).
The five Lancets represent Saint Anne, Mother of The Virgin, surrounded by the Kings Melchizedek, David, Solomon and Aaron, treading the sinner and idolatrous Kings: Nebuchadnezzar, Saul, Jeroboam and Pharaoh.
Français: Rosace nord de la Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres. La rosace dépeint la Glorification de la Vierge, entourée des anges, de douze rois de Juda (David, Salomon, Abijam (Abia), Josaphat (Iosapht), Azarias (Ozias), Achaz (Acaz), Manassé (Mahases), Ézéchias, Joachim (Ioatam), Joram (Ioram), Asa et Roboam) et des douze petits prophètes (Osée (Oseas), Amos, Jonas, Nahum (Naum), Sophonie (Sephonias), Zacharie, Malachie (Malacias), Aggée (Ageus), Habacuc (Abbacuc), Michée (Micheas), Abdias et Joël (Iohel)). En-dessous, les armes de France et de Castille (la rosace a été offerte par Blanche de Castille). Les cinq lancettes représentent Sainte Anne, mère de la Vierge, entourée des rois Melchisedech, David, Salomon et d'Aaron, foulant les rois pécheurs et idolâtres : Nabuchodonosor, Saül, Jéroboam et Pharaon.
The Western Rose Window, made circa 1215, and twelve metres in diameter, shows the Last Judgement – a traditional theme for West Façades. A central oculus, showing Christ as the Judge, is surrounded by an inner ring of twelve paired roundels, containing Angels and the Elders of the Apocalypse, and an outer ring of twelve roundels, showing the dead emerging from their tombs and the Angels blowing trumpets to summon them to judgement;
The North Transept Rose Window (10.5 m diameter, made circa 1235), like much of the sculpture in the North Porch beneath it, is dedicated to the Virgin. The central oculus shows the Virgin and Child and is surrounded by twelve small petal-shaped windows, four with doves (the 'Four Gifts of the Spirit'), the rest with adoring Angels carrying candlesticks. Beyond this is a ring of twelve diamond-shaped openings containing the Old Testament Kings of Judah, another ring of smaller Lozenges containing the Arms of France and Castile, and, finally, a ring of semi-circles containing Old Testament Prophets holding scrolls.
The presence of the Arms of the French King (yellow fleurs-de-lis on a blue background) and of his mother, Blanche of Castile (yellow castles on a red background) are taken as a sign of royal patronage for this window. Beneath the Rose, itself, are five tall Lancet Windows (7.5 metres high) showing, in the centre, the Virgin, as an infant, held by her mother, Saint Anne – the same subject as the trumeau in the Portal beneath it. Flanking this Lancet are four more, containing Old Testament figures. Each of these standing figures is shown symbolically triumphing over an enemy, depicted in the base of the Lancet, beneath them – David over Saul, Aaron over Pharaoh, Saint Anne over Synagoga, etc;
The South Transept Rose Window (10.5 metres diameter, made circa 1225–30) is dedicated to Christ, Who is shown in the central oculus, right hand raised in benediction, surrounded by adoring Angels. Two outer rings of twelve circles each contain the twenty-four Elders of the Apocalypse, crowned and carrying phials and musical instruments.
The central Lancet, beneath the Rose Window, shows the Virgin carrying the infant Christ. Either side of this, are four Lancets showing the four Evangelists, sitting on the shoulders of four Prophets – a rare literal illustration of the theological principle that the New Testament builds upon the Old Testament. This window was a donation of the Mauclerc family, the Counts of Dreux-Bretagne, who are depicted with their Arms in the bases of the Lancets.
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