Votive Vespers of the Holy Cross
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,605
    This Colloquium service, sung in the church where Fr. Carlo Rossini was choir director and organist (Thanks for that information, Fr. Frank Phillips, CR!), was full of chant and polyphony.

    Jeff Ostrowski's chant choir set a high standard that was met then by Wilko Browers as he directed his Intermediate Women's Chant choir chanting Vexilla Regis,their sound soaring through the building, as if the building were on fire. It was a performance that made you wish it would go on and on....and it did, getting better and better.

    It was amazing.

    But.

    Then Dr. Mahrt conducted the Vexilla Regis by Tomás Luis de Victoria.

    The dynamics of the mens and womens parts created waves of sound, the men on the left and women on the right, that were like floodlights of different colors washing around the entire church.

    It was not better than the chant version, it was equally stunning, both raised goosebumps.

    Amazing. Hearing two known Masters conducting and one on his way up there.

    And the entire faculty were in attendance.

    I was without my scores, so someone else may wish to elaborate about this Liturgy.
  • Jeffrey TuckerJeffrey Tucker
    Posts: 3,624
    to sing in that choir was easily the most challenging musical experience of my life.
  • Carl DCarl D
    Posts: 992
    At last year's Colloquium I was absolutely blown away by the beauty of those Vespers, it was the highlight of my week. So I decided, if possible, that I would join in the choir this year doing the Falsobordone.

    I was NOT disappointed. It was challenging, yes, but so incredibly exhilirating. I will have that music in my head for years.

    Carl
  • Charles in CenCA
    Posts: 2,416
    I thought I might actually die, and I regarded that possibility as a glorious exit. But I knew that a greater glory was in seeing & singing thru to Amen! Mahrt is a saint. Period.
    CMAA are (members) leading RC sacred worship and music out of exile. Nunc dimitis...
  • tandb
    Posts: 1
    I have a question, if I want to record Rossini, do you know how I would deal with his publishing?
  • hartleymartin
    Posts: 1,447
    Is a Votive Vespers of the Holy Cross simply the vespers from the particular feast day sung on the ferial day, or do the psalms have to come from the vespers of the regular psalter and the antiphons come from the feast? I've been asked to help out with a Votive Vespers of the Holy Cross a few weeks from now.
  • SkirpRSkirpR
    Posts: 854
    The only OF Votive Office I've seen is that printed in the book "Order for the Solemn Exposition of the Holy Eucharist" - which is a Votive Office of the Holy Eucharist and is taken verbatim from Corpus Christi.

    I would imagine in your case, you would not need to use the ferial Psalms, but should use the Psalms from the Holy Cross, since they were likely chosen for their thematic relationship to the feast. If you were to use the ferial Psalms, you should probably not use the festal antiphons - as almost always they were intended to go together.
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