And scarlets and pinks and roses that adored the skies yesterday. Today is the feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary; Our Lady the Mother of God under this title of Immaculate Conception is heavenly Patroness of the Nation. Holy Mass from Saint-Eugène is scheduled to begin at 1000 here (CE, Introibo, Wiki). I went downtown yesterday evening for the first Mass of the feast at 1730, which first Masses of Sundays and feasts on the evenings preceding the day itself are called 'vigil Masses'. Pft. It will be recalled by the few that Saint Mary's, or more precisely, the reverend pastor of Saint Mary's, has begun to celebrate the Novus Ordo Mass in Latin on these 'vigils'. I will find the video and add that here.
Well, I cannot find the parish YouTube channel for some reason, so will put today's Neumz 'digital Advent calendar' video here.
Must go put the potatoes in the oven to bake and then say Terce.
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Post Tertiam. Whilst breakfasting, I watched Dr Vicente Urones Sánchez's presentation of the Ave Maria, the two offertoria the one used today, on the feast of the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady the great Mother of God, and the other used on the feast of her Annunciation, when the Archangel Gabriel obtained her fiat mihi, ´let it be done unto me´, her assent to the divine Will, and thereupon conceived in her womb the Savior-- which I was gratified to see labelled 'the feast of the Incarnation'. The ancients didn´t understand the generative process as clearly as we do and so it was and is right and proper to celebrate the Nativity of the Lord, Our Lord's earthly birth. But we know that the wonderful mystery of the Incarnation was accomplished when Our Lady accepted her place at the center of the history of salvation: Ecce ancilla Domini: fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum.
I listened last night, as I was getting ready for bed and after I did, to an audio recording of the officium in nocte-- the Hours of Matins and Lauds-- at the Grande Chartreuse. This came to mind now because of some difference between their rite and the Roman rite as performed at Saint-Eugène-- but I cannot remember at the moment what this difference was... ah, the clerics at Saint-E. made a bow of the head as the Holy Name was pronounced in the Gloria, remaining bowed during the enunciation of the four syllables; en chartreuse, such bows begin as the second syllable is pronounced and are made and completed in one action, not prolonged at all.
The Lagrime di San Pietro of Orlandus Lassus is at some point broadcast, livestreamed, via the Polish state broadcaster this morning, sung by the Capella Cracoviensis directed by Jan Tomasz Adamus.
Joined 49 minutes in, post Missam, so I heard perhaps 15 minutes, the last of the madrigals. I love it that these concerts of the Actus Humanus Festival 2020 are streamed in black and white rather than color; not quite sure why, although their website in also done in nearly illegible black and shades approaching thereunto (all the text is in white font). This is the same series that featured {OH!} Historical Orchestra with Jakub Jósef Orliński those other days-- I was too lazy to write the Festival into the story alas. Polskie Radio isn't streaming all of the concerts so one must have recourse to their Facebook page for some of them (and I can't figure out why there is a separate 'Nativitas series', the program's text of which isn't displaying).
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Am listening to the wonderful Maria Pomianowska playing the suka, a stringed instrument precursor to the violin, apparently; I only know what I read at the brief Wikipedia article. "It died out, and was known only from drawings of a single specimen displayed at an exhibition in 1888." Mme Pomianowska is apparently improvising? ("improwizacja na Wielki Piatek"-- but perhaps this means she is playing an already existing 'Good Friday improvisation', e.g. already existing in the folk tradition) a lament of Our Lady on Good Friday. Gosh.
The Wikipedia article is based on information from Mr Chris Haigh's Fiddling Around the World website.
Poland has several unique fiddles. One of these is the suka; like the gadulka this is played vertically, on the knee or hanging from a strap, and the strings are stopped at the side with the fingernails. The body of the instrument is very similar to the modern violin, but the neck is very wide, and the pegbox is crude. This is thought to be the "missing link" between the upside-down or "knee chordophone" instruments, and the modern violin. It died out, and was known only from drawings of a single specimen displayed at an exhibition in 1888. A century later the instrument was reconstructed by Andrzej Kuczkowski, and is today being popularised by string specialist Maria Pomianowska.
Am fascinated, and it's an appropriate day to hear the Marian lament-- although the concert was broadcast on Sunday.
~~~
LDVM
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