Justorum Animae
  • mmeladirectress
    Posts: 1,100
    Wondering if anyone on this forum ever uses Byrd’s “Justorum Animae”? If so, for what occasion?

    I was thinking would seem to be a consoling piece for burial Masses, but then again, Josquin’s “O Jesu Christe” seems more like the Catholic attitude.,, would like to hear from you. Thanks
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,193
    It's nominally the Offertory for All Saints, and it is simply sublime.
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,193
    Here's a recording from a Sacred Music of Tudor England concert on 24 Nov 2002, by Zephyrus (yes, I'm singing in it).
    01 Byrd-Justorum animae.mp3
    2M
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Madame,

    Charles is right. Using it for All Souls' or for a funeral is rather more like canonizing someone than makes sense to me. I haven't programmed it, but I have sung it as a member of a choir, and Charles is right on that score, too: simply sublime.
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,414
    Byrd's Justorum Animae Is used often at funerals at Walsingham, as also on All Saints'. Stanford also wrote one, but I believe at the moment that it is for five voices.
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • Schönbergian
    Posts: 1,063
    For seven, and it is undoubtedly one of his finest works.
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,193
    The Byrd is for 5 voices.

    Stanford's Op. 38 contains three works, none of them for seven voices:

    Justorum animae (SATB unaccompanied)
    Coelos ascendit hodie (SATB double choir unaccompanied)
    Beati quorum via (SSATBB unaccompanied)
  • Schönbergian
    Posts: 1,063
    The Stanford is written on four staves but divides into as many as seven voices at time, hence my comment.
    Thanked by 2CHGiffen M. Jackson Osborn
  • SalieriSalieri
    Posts: 3,177
    A beautiful, and very liturgical, setting of this Offertory is by Antonio Salieri, for four voices, strings, and continuo; the string parts can easily be adapted to organ.

    https://youtu.be/wAJnikAWLQM
    Thanked by 1Jeffrey Quick
  • SalieriSalieri
    Posts: 3,177
    Back to funerals: I shudder every time I hear this passage used as the First Reading at a Funeral (it is one of the options in the Lectionary for O.F. funerals, alas), especially if the deceased wasn't a practicing Catholic. Yes, it's one of the "white vestment" texts of the modern Canonization-Funeral, but it's proper place is All Saints and the Common of Martyrs, which is where it was until 1969: the post-concilliar reformers knew this, of course, and their decision to include it among the funeral texts was a major mistake. (In my not-so-humble opinion.)
    Thanked by 3CHGiffen tomjaw trentonjconn
  • mmeladirectress
    Posts: 1,100
    Right, I don’t need convincing; All Saints will be fine.

    Still looking for something as beautiful as that for a funeral though
    Thx
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,193
    Not sure if you're interested in EF or OF funerals, but as a "consoling piece" for burial Masses, I think that John Donne's prayer "Bring us, O Lord God at our last awakening" in my setting might well be very appropriate in this situation (I've already had it suggested / requested for such use). It is discussed at length, with excerpts from Donne's original sermon on which the prayer is based, in this thread, together with score(s) and YouTube simulated performance.
    Thanked by 3M. Jackson Osborn sdtalley3 Nathan_the_Organist
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    If text in English is appropriate, Nolo Mortem Peccatoris is consoling for funerals.
    Thanked by 1mmeladirectress
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