SARUM CHANT SEQUENCES
  • Ken of Sarum
    Posts: 406
    Would anyone have an interest, time and skills to make YouTube recordings of the Sarum Chant Sequences as found in this book that I attach?
    Hymn_melodies_for_the_Whole_Year_from_th.pdf
    2M
    Thanked by 1M. Jackson Osborn
  • tomjaw
    Posts: 2,782
    @Ken

    Recording of the Sarum chants can be found here including Sequences, I have not checked if they are the same as in the above book.
    https://hmcwordpress.humanities.mcmaster.ca/renwick/sound-files/english-performing-missal-sound-files/english-performing-missal-temporale/
    Thanked by 2CHGiffen M. Jackson Osborn
  • Ken of Sarum
    Posts: 406
    Thanks tomjaw! I checked and most are not what is in the book I offered herein. I wonder why? I am curiously confused. I realize that there are a few different versions / translations but the music - chant should be the same.
  • tomjaw
    Posts: 2,782
    @Ken of Sarum

    Will look into this, I have friends that are experts! I also have a complete set of the facsimile editions of the last set of Sarum books published on my computer.

    In the meantime, the Sequentiarium can be found at this link,
    https://hmcwordpress.humanities.mcmaster.ca/renwick/missal/temporale/

    This may also be of interest,
    https://archive.org/details/sequencesfromsa00wilgoog/page/n4/mode/2up
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • CatherineS
    Posts: 690
    Can I ask some perhaps idiot questions:

    1) why are the sequences at the link above sung in English? in what liturgical context are they/were they used that uses English? If Anglican, are the sequences still sung these days? if not, why not?

    2) is there any (other) context in which a liturgy currently in use includes the huge repertory of sequences (besides the several used in the Tridentine rite)? I'm fascinated by them both musically and as statements of belief or accounts of the lives of saints.

    3) related, perhaps: what about troped ordinaries? is there any current context where the old troped ordinaries are used liturgically?

  • tomjaw
    Posts: 2,782
    @CatherineS

    1. A number of Anglicans originally in the U.K. but now particularly in the U.S. tried to revive the Sarum Missal. So it was translated into English, and some groups still use a English form of the Sarum Use. The Sequences would have been sung at their Liturgically correct place before the Gospel (after the Alleluia).

    2. The Roman Missal contains around 20 sequences, but most of them are for particular orders, or for particular diocese. While it is a difficult task we should collect up all the Propers that are part of the 1962 Missal, and then see if we can get permission to have the local propers made universal (I think this is quite likely) We would then get a few more sequences! At the moment if you are happy to swop around priests / venues you could sing the 2 Benedictine sequences, 4 or so Dominican, the 1 Mercedian, the several Franciscan etc. (these are in addition to the normal Roman Missal sequences. If you really want to sing a reasonably large number of them you could sing them as a Communion motet or at Benediction.

    3. Troped Ordinaries and Propers are in my opinion banned in the Roman Missal, but others disagree and are using them... Although not many are using the Sarum Missal.

    Of course if you like such things you could just use the Sarum Missal, it is allowed!
    Thanked by 2CatherineS CHGiffen
  • Ken of Sarum
    Posts: 406
    Aside from their liturgical use and in their own right, whether they are sing in Latin or English, I find them particularly beautiful and very insightful as free poetic expressions of those that created them. I see them as works of art and packed full of doctrinal and or theological information and insight. I also personally love the melodies.

    I find the Sarum Rite Mass very moving and beautiful and it aids in my understanding of the TLM. From what I gather, even the Eastern Orthodox find the Rite moving and of course "orthodox" since it preceded the TLM. I think, however, that since the Sarum Rite is more ornate, longer and with greater details, more elaborate than the TLM, some may find it more of a challenge in participation. Nevertheless, I love it also because the Rite contains so many more Sequences.
    Thanked by 3CHGiffen CatherineS tomjaw
  • CatherineS
    Posts: 690
    That was what intrigued me, Ken. I sang one for St. Ursula and her companions a couple years ago, as a kind of fun piece in a recital (otherwise classical music). And I have a book of sequences from Nonantola which I am singing through for fun. I have been generally fascinated by the way they are "packed full of doctrinal and or theological information and insight" as you say. I have a few from Las Huelgas in a facsimile of liturgical music from that region, too. Attached is the one for St. Ursula, in case anyone else is a fan.
    cGimTI-scrupulosa_colton.pdf
    150K
    Thanked by 3tomjaw M. Jackson Osborn CHGiffen
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,414
    Am I to gather that you, too, CatherineS, are a member of the Plainsong and Mediaeval Music Society? It is one of the very best and certainly one of the most scholarly resources for the church music and other music of the middle ages. Actually, my membership has expired and you have reminded me to renew it.
    Many thanks for the Ursuline sequence. It could almost be taken to be a contrafactum (particularly in regard to the cadences) of an earlier Sarum sequence for Christmas Day, the name of which does not come to me just now.
    Thanked by 2tomjaw CHGiffen
  • CatherineS
    Posts: 690
    I am not a member, but perhaps I should be. Thanks for the suggestion.
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