Help with a Presentation on Marian Music
  • monasteryliturgistmonasteryliturgist
    Posts: 650
    I am giving a Presentation in January for a group on Marian Liturgical Music. I am wondering if anyone has good resources on the following topics

    The Most Ancient Antiphons
    -Sub Tuum Praesidium
    -Axion Estis (Byzantine)
    -any others that should be included---?

    Compline Antiphons
    -Alma Redemptoris
    -Salve Regina
    -Regina Caeli
    -Ave Regina Caelorum
    -Any other ad libitum traditions

    Marian Sequences
    -Stabat Mater Dolorosa vs. Speciosa
    -Verbum Bonum et Suave
    -Inviolata
    -Any other important ones?

    Notable Greg.Hymns
    -Ave Maris Stella
    -Salve Mater Misericordiae
    -The Angelus
    -Angelus ad Virginum
    -Akathist Hymn
    -Tota Pulchra Es

    Information on Colonization of USA with Natives Era Marian Music
    -I believe there was once a forum on the "Alabado Sea Santissimo" for ex
    -Any others that are notable

    Notable Hymnody
    -O Sanctissima
    -Lourdes vs. Fatima Ave
    -Hail Holy Queen
    -Any others?

    Marian Music in Secular Society
    -Ave Maria Schubert
    -others?

    Particular Notes on the Feast of the MOther of God versus Feast of the Maternity Propers
    -Succure Miseris
    -others?

    A wide range of topics, I am grateful for any information, pictures, recordings any of you know about. Thank you.

    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • probe
    Posts: 289
    Chant: Ave Maria Mode I Secular: so many. Maybe Rachmaninov Bogoroditse Devo?

    Magnificat solemn 1D. Some members of this forum have contributed a setting.

    Last Sunday of Advent: Beata Viscera
    Thanked by 1monasteryliturgist
  • m_r_taylor
    Posts: 413
    Couldn't tell you if this is worth it - but you may find information here of use.

    The Greatest Marian Prayers: Their History, Meaning, and Usage

    ...Twelve prayers have been singled out for study here as the greatest of these Marian prayers: the Hail Mary, the Magnificat, the SubTuum, the Akathist Hymn, the Final Antiphons (Alma Redemptoris Mater and Ave Regina Caelorum), the Hail Holy Queen, the Angelus, the Regina Caeli, the Stabat Mater, the Memorare, the Litany of Loreto and the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary. An Appendix to the work includes sixty other short prayers which have found their way into the popular piety of the People of God...


    https://www.amazon.com/dp/0818908610?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback
    Thanked by 1monasteryliturgist
  • Xopheros
    Posts: 188
    As you also plan to mention uses outside a liturgical context ("Marian Music in Secular Society"), a very interesting case is "Virgo prudentissima". The original Marian antiphone is sung as a cantus firmus in the tenor, and all other voices sing a contrafactum that expresses the imperial claims of "Caesare Maximiliano". The article in The Journal of Musicology about this motet is behind a paywall, so you might only obtain it by knowing someone who knows someone at a university with access to this journal, but maybe a citation from the abstract is sufficient for your case:
    The symbolism of Isaac's compositions helped Maximilian, who crafted his public image very carefully by commissioning numerous large-scale propagandistic textual and visual works, to portray himself as a noble and enlightened ruler seeking protection for his imperial crown and empire from the Virgin Mary.
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  • monasteryliturgistmonasteryliturgist
    Posts: 650
    @Xopheros thats really interesting I didnt know about that one. Maybe I can find some info else where without the $$
  • tomjaw
    Posts: 2,995
    The sequence, Hodierne lux diei celebris
    https://societyofstbede.wordpress.com/2026/08/21/7th-day-within-the-octave-of-the-assumption/

    Another hymn that could be mentioned is the Quem terra pontus,
    https://societyofstbede.wordpress.com/2026/08/21/7th-day-within-the-octave-of-the-assumption/
    Particularly "The sixth verse (or First verse of the Lauds Hymn) has a variety of words used to describe the Blessed Virgin, Femina (Breviary, Virginum) is the commonest reading of the MSS, though Domina of breviaries using the old text is found in some MSS. Femina refers to Lk. 1, 28, and Domina to a second meaning given to the name Mary;"

    I have also set a few acrostics,
    https://societyofstbede.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/ave-luminis-imago.pdf
    and https://societyofstbede.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/ad-honorem-matris-dei.pdf
    Are just two examples,

    N.B. Angelus ad Virginum is a Carol and should have an entry in the Oxford Book of Carols.
    Thanked by 1monasteryliturgist
  • monasteryliturgistmonasteryliturgist
    Posts: 650
    @tomjaw This is great.
    Regarding Angelus ad Virginem do you think it should just be its own category. I hesitated to include it because I knew it was a Carol, but I read in a Catholic Encyclopedia we have here from 1907 that "carol" was different from what we know a Carol to be. That this particular hymn would have been likely used in processions for feast days so it still would have a liturgical ring to it. But not sure if there is other more recent scholarship that would argue against this interpretation.
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  • tomjaw
    Posts: 2,995
    The Oxford book of Carols calls it a Carol or a Sequence, I think they are referring to a non liturgical sequence such as a Trope... It is in a couple of manuscripts including the Dublin Troper, but I don't think that is good evidence that it was used at Mass, I suspect it could have been a processional.

    It is structured like an Office Hymn, but it has a meter in each verse more like a Sequence. I class it as a carol as it is usually sung to a melody that can be danced to and Carolling involves singing, dancing and drinking. In the Millar's tale it is sung as a carol.

    https://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/NonEnglish/angelus_ad_virginem.htm

    Another item you could add is the Beata Viscera, a rare piece where we know the writer and the composer!

    For commentary on Hymns I would look at Joseph Connelly, for Roman Hymns and Aquinas Byrnes for Dominican. Cantus Selecti has a section in the back on where the text and music has come from. Also the Cantale Romanum-Seraphicum 1950's edition also has a similar section. All these are online!
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  • monasteryliturgistmonasteryliturgist
    Posts: 650
    @tomjaw yes, I did include Beata Viscera. I have to be careful not to turn this into a three hour presentation! There is so much I could expound on. It could be a book really. Maybe in another life.
    Thanked by 1tomjaw
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