Sunday 16 August 2009

Second Vespers of the Assumption (transferred)

In the Birmingham Oratory we have celebrated the Assumption twice: yesterday on the actual day in the extraordinary form, and today transferred to the Sunday in the novus ordo. To make things even more complicated, the rite of vespers we do is from the Liber Usuralis but in the new calender! Hence we had Second Vespers of the Assumption tonight.



My fellow blogger Jackie Parkes has taken this short clip from just beneath the East choir gallery where we sing vespers, and this is in the middle of the long psalms and proper antiphons. We are in fact one of the very few places in the world where we have vespers with polyphonic hymn and magnificat settings. I have written some myself for our choir which can be downloaded here at the Choral Public Domain Library. What a pity she didn't take this clip during the Hymn 'Ave Maris Stella', the Magnificat, and during benediction: we had the most glorious music then:

Office Hymn: Ave Maris Stella, Diego Ortiz
Magnificat: Tone 8, Orlando Lassus
Tantum Ergo: Max Reger no.4
Final anthem: Introduxit Me Rex by Palestrina
Organ voluntary: Improvisation by John Pryor FRCO on Salve Regina

1 comment:

Adulio said...

The London Oratory has a similar arrangement: traditional vespers but where the new calendar conflicts with the older one e.g. Christ the King, then the new collects unfortunately get precidence.

I can't say that I like this arrangement because I do not believe in mixing of rites but there is no where else down here, that does vespers with such splendor.