List your favorite incense blends!
  • Casavant Organist
    Posts: 805
    For those musicians out there who double as sacristans, I'd love to hear.
    Mine, in no particular order:
    - Three Kings Petrus
    - Three Kings Pontifical
    - Orthodox Rose
    - Gloria F8
    - Three Kings Vatican (although this blend tends to like to flame up)
  • tomjaw
    Posts: 2,782
    Favourite, as in fragrant?

    Or in ability to bring coughing fits? >end purple text
    Thanked by 2Casavant Organist CharlesW
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,415
    The best is pure frankincense blended with fragrant powders from Orthodox monasteries who offer the widest choices of the most pleasurable aromas to be had.
    To be avoided at all costs are the incenses found in most Catholic goods shops and in too many churches which are made up of a few pieces of resin and scads of cedar shavings. The aroma is that of burning wood, and the smoke, as Tomjaw hints, is guaranteed to produce coughing fits throughout the church.
    Thanked by 2tomjaw CharlesW
  • Casavant Organist
    Posts: 805
    Three Kings stuff seems to be pretty good for me. Gloria F8 is frankincense+myrrh with essential oils, made at an Orthodox monastery. It isn't typical Orthodox incense but it's quite nice.
  • Nathan_the_Organist
    Posts: 440
    My pastor loves the Pricknash Abbey blends. There is a lemongrass scent that I absolutely love. The only downside is that they have been on backorder since Covid.
    Thanked by 1Paul F. Ford
  • tomjaw
    Posts: 2,782
    We usually have the Prinknash Abbey blends,
    https://www.prinknashabbey.org/prinknash-incense/500g-Incense-pack-c31453241
    Thanked by 2M. Jackson Osborn Paul F. Ford
  • marymezzomarymezzo
    Posts: 236
    At our old parish every Easter vigil was an occasion of much coughing as a result of cruddy incense. I think I will buy one of the recommended blends above as a gift for my current pastor.
  • francis
    Posts: 10,825
    Is Cruddy an order of Jesuits?
    Thanked by 4tomjaw Nathan_the_Organist CHGiffen sdtalley3
  • Nathan_the_Organist
    Posts: 440
    tomjaw, thank you for the link. My pastor didn't think you could buy it directly from the abbey and had only ever bought it through a distributor. I will have to pass it on.
    Thanked by 1tomjaw
  • Patricia Cecilia
    Posts: 400
    Gloria Incense PR3 https://gloria-incense.square.site/product/pr3/1?cs=true

    I am a serious asthmatic and this is the only incense that does not bother me and others in several churches with which I am familiar.
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,415
    .
  • francis
    Posts: 10,825
    Yes... and a good pipe filled with Virginia is also a good smoke, I might say.
  • SponsaChristi
    Posts: 402
    Pure Frankincense, while expensive, is actually good for the lungs and acts as an anti-inflammatory for them.
    Thanked by 3CharlesW Patricia Cecilia M. Jackson Osborn
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,980
    My favorite supplier has gone out of business. Rose, Frankincense, orange and a blend called imperial were good. There is even a "smokeless" that has a light fragrance but very little smoke. Now I need a new supplier. Latin Rite incense is made up of burning tires.
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,415
    ...smokeless..
    Smokeless???
    Why the smoke is half the glory of it - the more the better.
    The fragrance, of course, is the other half.
    Isaiah relates of his heavenly experience that 'the house was full of smoke'.
    Thanked by 1Ken of Sarum
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,980
    There is a small amount of smoke which appears more like a light vapor. The fragrance is there, of course. The priest told me he used the "smokeless" to stop some of the complaints.

    This was at an OCA parish nearby. It looked more like light steam rather than smoke. What it lacked in smoke it made up for with fragrance. It had a wonderful smell.
  • RevAMG
    Posts: 162
    Find something new to try at www.opfraternity.org/incense
    Thanked by 3CharlesW M. Jackson Osborn Casavant Organist
  • Casavant Organist
    Posts: 805
    That page has some nice stuff but there is a lot of nasty stuff on there too - avoid Emkay incense for sure.
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,093
    I quickly tired of my older siblings' deep fondness for patchouli and sandalwood and acid rock when I was a young lad (though I did enjoy prog rock). I fired back with (cheap) frankincense and "Les préludes" and Bruckner's 8th (both as conducted by H von Karajan).
    Thanked by 1CharlesW
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,193
    The Herbert von Karajan recorded perfomances of the great Bruckner symphonies approach cult status, but there are other readings that are equally, if not more, superb. For me (and for many) the Jascha Horenstein recording of the 8th with the London Symphony Orchestra just over 50 years ago is the finest ever.

    Bruckner - Symphony No 8 in C minor - Horenstein
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  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,415
    I grew up on Karajan and Furtwangler and had their Mozart and Beethoven in my bones - my concept of this music was formed by them - there could be no other way. Then, a few decades later, I heard Norrington and knew that I had been decieved. (I must admit, though, that sometimes I go back to K and F and enjoy being 'decieved' by their luscious roseate romanticism.)

    This is germane to the thread because one is often 'incensed' at certain musical interpretations.
  • Schönbergian
    Posts: 1,063
    Rather than being historical, Norrington simply has a conception of all music that lacks "grandeur". One only needs to listen to his Elgar and Mahler that uses the same vocabulary of bow strokes as Corelli and Vivaldi to know one has been "deceived".

    As for the Eighth, it is tough to better Celibidache for imposing spirituality.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVvrkRgb3B8
    Thanked by 2M. Jackson Osborn CHGiffen
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,193
    In my book, Celibidache is certainly the best of the more recent recordings.
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,093
    My recording of the 8th decades ago was the legendary 2-LP EMI set from 1957 - a gift from the library of my 9th grade junior high school chemistry teacher who thought I would benefit from prolonged immersion in it. I still have it. Mr Merkel, may G_d bless you for that kindness!

    There are many wonderful recordings of the 8th, but there's always thing about one's First One, as it were. The Adagio....
  • Ken of Sarum
    Posts: 406
    Has anyone ever actually mixed together the Old Testement incense recipe?
    Thanked by 1M. Jackson Osborn
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,415
    It may last have been used in AD 70 ?
    Thanked by 2CharlesW CHGiffen
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,093
    Well, the ingredients are not entirely certain:

    https://theconversation.com/modern-science-tackles-a-biblical-secret-the-mystery-ingredient-in-holy-incense-88876
    Thanked by 3Nathan_the_Organist CHGiffen M. Jackson Osborn
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,093
    Once the Temple was gone, and the ritual laws that only pertained to it no longer having any living application, knowledge would fade or get corrupted.
  • Nathan_the_Organist
    Posts: 440
    Liam, that is a very interesting article. Thank you for sharing.
  • Casavant Organist
    Posts: 805
    Curious if anyone is using Athonite incense on a regular basis. A good priest friend gave me a huge bag of stuff and it smells great, although I'm not sure how my congregation will react to it.
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