Bach’s Mass in B Minor-Gloria
August 12, 2009
Here is some truly glorious music. Enjoy!
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Here is some truly glorious music. Enjoy!
Comments are closed.
Quite wonderful!
I followed it on to You Tube and found there several other excerpts. It occurred to me that it was gift that I was able to follow the Latin text without a book, having learned it some 60 years ago; and I though how sad that our young people have been cut off from this tradition.
A further thought on the corruption of our liturgy, and ecclesiastical architecture, I am just reading Eamon Duffy’s new book on the Church under Queen Mary. He notes that the Reformers aimed particularly to destroy the music and the pious decoration of the cathedrals and churches, and so on.
Looking at the changes in so many of our parish churches, and the airport lounge style of several new cathedrals, and the trivialization of the music and of the sermons, I wonder if this is not a message from on high of discontentment with the Church in the U.S.
I have just finished reading Franz Werfel’s novel on Jeremiah – HEARKEN TO THE VOICE – written in the 1930s. He describes how even the prophets despaired. And he does not neglect to include the destruction of Jerusalem.
I agree that the music is wonderful, and I too appreciate the beauty of the Tridentine Mass, but the fact that modern liturgy is in the vernacular does not make it “corrupt.” My understanding (and correct me if I’m wrong) is that the Byzantine Divine Liturgy, which is arguably even more “traditional” than the Mass of Trent (and, in my view, even more beautiful), was offered in local languages (Ukrainian, Russian, Greek, etc.) long before Vatican II. Even the Tridentine Mass was translated into several Eastern European languages (including Croatian, I believe). Latin was used in the Roman church beginning in the fifth century because it was the language of Rome (before then, the Roman church used Greek, and I’m sure they had their “traditionalists” who insisted that it was sacrilegious to say Mass in a “common language” like Latin!) Though it does have a very unique beauty, Latin is no more “sacred” than any other human tongue.
standmickey Says August 13, 2009 at 12:35 am
“I agree that the music is wonderful, and I too appreciate the beauty of the Tridentine Mass, but the fact that modern liturgy is in the vernacular does not make it “corrupt”.”
Did I put the blame for the mediocrity of our current liturgy on the vernacular? Certainly not.
I put it on the tin ears who write BAD music; and the tin ears who make bad translations [which I note are then copyrighted].
I give an example: 2 Sundays ago the Psalm chant was from Psalm 23. I learnt it [and easily by heart years ago] as “The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want”. The “new” copyrighted version is “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall want for nothing”.
Has the added anything? Or does one turn to see who has fallen flat on his nose?