"The Little Church Around the Corner"
One East 29th Street, New York
MUSIC NOTES:
Easter V - May 13, 2001
As we progress through the Season of Easter, today's Mass of Easter V gives occasion to pause before the great drama of human redemption continues with Rogationtide, Ascensiontide and Whitsuntide (Pentecost), all of which are drawing nearer. Today's music fosters this sense of quiet contemplation of the ongoing feast of Easter, which for the Christian continues long after the triumphal music of Easter Sunday has ceased to resonate.
Little is known of the composer C.E.S. Littlejohn, whose Missa Sancte Niniani forms the Mass setting for today's liturgy. He held the position of librarian of the Royal School of Church Music (Surrey, near London) around the time of the publication of this Mass setting in 1931. The dedicatee of this composition, St. Ninian, offers little insight into the history of this Mass, and in fact is as resistant to research as the composer himself. Ninian was a fourth-century missionary, a British bishop instructed in the Christian faith at Rome, and sent to preach among the southern Picts in present-day Scotland. The Missa Sancte Niniani was clearly intended for use in Scotland as well as England, as the publication of 1931 includes additional settings for the Scottish rite. The work was probably written between 1925 and 1930, during that deceptively quiet period between the two world wars of the last century. The work shows no hint of the seething intellectual ferment and volatile political climate of the period. Its block harmonies and textbook voiceleading would have been reassuring to those who heard this music in 1931, even as it is to us as we hear it today in a world no less fraught with problems.
Sir Edward Bairstow (1874-1946) was appointed organist of York Minster in 1913, following the departure of Thomas Tertius Noble for New York City, where he would assume the position of organist and choirmaster of St. Thomas Church. Bairstow remained at York until his death. The anthem Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence was composed in 1925, contemporary with Littlejohn's Mass setting. The text is taken from the orthodox Liturgy of St. James, and is rife with theological poetry. Unlike much anthem music of this period, which tends to be bold and assertive, Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence has a mystical and prayerful quality which is established at the outset by the tenors and basses singing in octave unison. The upper voices join at the words "and lift itself above all earthly thought," in an imploring entreaty that all who hear engage themselves exactly thus. The anthem continues in a beautiful declamatory style, inviting companies of angels to join the eucharist now being prepared at the altar. The Alleluia unites the orthodox text with a musical style that draws from orthodox traditions, and the anthem closes with a subdued reiteration of the opening phrase.
The organ prelude and postlude were composed by Louis Vierne (1870-1937), a blind and emotionally sensitive musician, whose prodigious talents were first recognized and nurtured by César Franck and later by Charles-Marie Widor. Despite his blindness, Vierne mastered the magnificent Cavaillé-Coll organ of St. Sulpice in Paris, where he served as deputy organist under Widor. At age 29, he was appointed organist of the cathedral of Notre Dame. He held this position until his death in 1937, from a heart attack which occurred at the console of the cathedral organ. Cantilène is the second movement of the composer's Symphony No. 3 for organ, and is a superb example of his gentle lyricism. Carillon is taken from Opus 54, Suite III of the Fantasy Pieces, and was inspired by the melodies and complex sonorities of the carillon within the clock tower at Westminster in London.
Little is known of the composer C.E.S. Littlejohn, whose Missa Sancte Niniani forms the Mass setting for today's liturgy. He held the position of librarian of the Royal School of Church Music (Surrey, near London) around the time of the publication of this Mass setting in 1931. The dedicatee of this composition, St. Ninian, offers little insight into the history of this Mass, and in fact is as resistant to research as the composer himself. Ninian was a fourth-century missionary, a British bishop instructed in the Christian faith at Rome, and sent to preach among the southern Picts in present-day Scotland. The Missa Sancte Niniani was clearly intended for use in Scotland as well as England, as the publication of 1931 includes additional settings for the Scottish rite. The work was probably written between 1925 and 1930, during that deceptively quiet period between the two world wars of the last century. The work shows no hint of the seething intellectual ferment and volatile political climate of the period. Its block harmonies and textbook voiceleading would have been reassuring to those who heard this music in 1931, even as it is to us as we hear it today in a world no less fraught with problems.
Sir Edward Bairstow (1874-1946) was appointed organist of York Minster in 1913, following the departure of Thomas Tertius Noble for New York City, where he would assume the position of organist and choirmaster of St. Thomas Church. Bairstow remained at York until his death. The anthem Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence was composed in 1925, contemporary with Littlejohn's Mass setting. The text is taken from the orthodox Liturgy of St. James, and is rife with theological poetry. Unlike much anthem music of this period, which tends to be bold and assertive, Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence has a mystical and prayerful quality which is established at the outset by the tenors and basses singing in octave unison. The upper voices join at the words "and lift itself above all earthly thought," in an imploring entreaty that all who hear engage themselves exactly thus. The anthem continues in a beautiful declamatory style, inviting companies of angels to join the eucharist now being prepared at the altar. The Alleluia unites the orthodox text with a musical style that draws from orthodox traditions, and the anthem closes with a subdued reiteration of the opening phrase.
The organ prelude and postlude were composed by Louis Vierne (1870-1937), a blind and emotionally sensitive musician, whose prodigious talents were first recognized and nurtured by César Franck and later by Charles-Marie Widor. Despite his blindness, Vierne mastered the magnificent Cavaillé-Coll organ of St. Sulpice in Paris, where he served as deputy organist under Widor. At age 29, he was appointed organist of the cathedral of Notre Dame. He held this position until his death in 1937, from a heart attack which occurred at the console of the cathedral organ. Cantilène is the second movement of the composer's Symphony No. 3 for organ, and is a superb example of his gentle lyricism. Carillon is taken from Opus 54, Suite III of the Fantasy Pieces, and was inspired by the melodies and complex sonorities of the carillon within the clock tower at Westminster in London.
