Below freezing this morning but either I simply...

Didn't notice the frost or else it wasn't there when I was out for my morning spatiamentum and rosary. I suppose its appearance depends on the moisture in the air and on the ground. It didn't feel 30 degrees, in any case. I believe an additional house is decorated with electric lights today but of course couldn't swear to that. 

At Saint-Eugène, they are celebrating the Mass Cogitationes cordis eius, the votive Mass of the Sacred Heart (because it is the First Friday of the month) but it is the feast of Saint Peter Chrysologus, bishop, confessor, and Doctor of the Church (CE, Introibo, Wiki). Before I collect those links and read a bit I must admit that I have no idea why he bears the honor of being numbered amongst the Doctores Ecclesiae. Was the bishop and metropolitan of Ravenna in the first half of the 5th century-- when Ravenna was the capital of the Western Empire-- and is a Doctor of the Church because of his many short, orthodox homilies. That latter business, italicized, is not quite right of course, ahem, but is what struck me. Short and orthodox! My own preferences, certainly. 

Dr Dominique Gatté discusses the invitatorium, the invitatory, that begins Matins each day in today's Neumz 'digital Advent calendar' video. I notice that, together with Dr Dominique Crochu-- in addition to their academic work they are both producers at Neumz-- he is responsible for the Gregofacsimil site, which is useful (I know that Dr Edwards, the incomparable champion of the Benedictine Office in Australia at the wonderful site Saints Will Arise and its companion sites, links to it; I can't tell if it is maintained at that web address, however, or not).  



 

Very foggy, now that Dawn has made her appearance for the day and there is some light; we also experiencing 'air stagnation' alerts and so forth but I think that must not have anything to do with visibility. Time for Terce and a pot of tea.

Klassikaraadio is featuring a program at 0900 that includes Wagner's 'Wesendonck' lieder and Arnold Schönberg's Verklärte Nacht; the soprano is Arete Kerge

There is a live concert broadcast on the Polish state broadcaster, from Gdansk, of the {OH!} Historical Orchestra (that is exactly how they market themselves-- {OH!} Orkiestra Historyczna) featuring six of Charles Avison's concerti grossi ('after Scarlatti') and two of Handel's arias (one from Tolomeo and the other from Tamerlano), sung by Jakub Jósef Orliński. Am going to try to listen because I'm entirely unfamiliar with Avison and have never heard Orliński in a live performance. {OH!} has participated in a variety of early music festivals and I'm familiar with the name, and the name of the director, Martyna Pastuszka, consequently; I wish I could have heard their concert Amandus Ivanschiz na Jasnej Górze, Amandus Ivanschiz at the Monastery of Jasna Gora, at the Starosądecki Festival back in July. 

This Gdansk concert has begun at 1105, alas, with the Avison concerti grossi to begin and presumably the Handel at the end, I hope-- unless, since Mass ran late because who knows, Orlińksi has already sung one of the arias. When I switched from Mass to Polskie Radio I heard the presenter say three words-- Orlińksi's name--  before the silence preceding the Avison began, ha.  




At 1100, tsk, Martha Argerich is performing Prokofiev's Concerto no 3 in C major op 26 with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France led by Myung-Whun Chung-- this a livestream on France Musique. Maybe the Romeo et Juliet will be given first; not likely.




 ~~~


Am re-reading the Gospel of the Mass Cogitationes cordis eius. Before 1929, it was St John 19,31-35. After, it was expanded to include verses 36 and 37. I see that I have somehow copy-pasted the verses 35 and 36 incorrectly; I look forward to the dozens of comments correcting my error but am not going to fuss with it here.

In illo témpore : Iudǽi (quóniam Parascéve erat), ut non remanérent in cruce córpora sábbato (erat enim magnus dies ille sábbati), rogavérunt Pilátum, ut frangeréntur eórum crura, et tolleréntur. Venérunt ergo mílites : et primi quidem fregérunt crura et alteríus, qui crucifíxus est cum eo. Ad Iesum autem cum veníssent, ut vidérunt eum iam mórtuum, non fregérunt eius crura, sed unus mílitum láncea latus eius apéruit, et contínuo exívit sanguis et aqua. Et qui vidit, testimónium perhíbuit : et verum est testimónium eius.

31 The Jews would not let the bodies remain crucified on the sabbath, because that sabbath day was a solemn one; and since it was now the eve, they asked Pilate that the bodies might have their legs broken, and be taken away. 32 And so the soldiers came and broke the legs both of the one and of the other that were crucified with him; 33 but when they came to Jesus, and found him already dead, they did not break his legs, 34 but one of the soldiers opened his side with a spear; and immediately blood and water flowed out. 35 He who saw it has borne his witness; and his witness is worthy of trust. He tells what he knows to be the truth, that you, like him, may learn to believe. 

And then verses 36 and 37.

Et ille scit quia vera dicit, ut et vos credátis. Facta sunt enim hæc ut Scriptúra implerétur : Os non comminuétis ex eo. Et íterum alia Scriptúra dicit : Vidébunt in quem transfixérunt.

36 This was so ordained to fulfil what is written, You shall not break a single bone of his. 37 And again, another passage in scripture says, They will look upon the man whom they have pierced.


Pope Pius XI had raised the feast of the Sacred Heart to the highest liturgical rank for such a modern celebration ('ad gradum duplicis primae classis cum octava evehi iussimus') in his Encyclical Letter Miserentissimus Redemptor of May 1928 and presumably those laggards at the Sacred Congregation of Rites got around to promulgating the emended liturgical texts in the next year. 




Ante Sextam. Orliński sang A dispetto d'un volto ingrato from Tamerlano and then Stille amare from Tolomeo. Still a lovely voice, I think; that was my first judgment two years or last year or whenever I first heard it. I hope it lasts!


~~~


Have been cleaning, vacuuming, and re-arranging the shelves, dresser, and so forth in my little room while listening to the new CD, a recording from 2004 by the Yale Schola Cantorum and Yale Collegium Players, directed by Simon Carrington, of Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber von Bibern's Vesperae longiores ac breviores from 1693. Not quite sure how these are longiores rather than breviores but I haven't read the notes by the musicologist Brian Clark who, evidently, has published an edition of this work. In order to make up a complete service, I gather, a Deus in adiutorium of Victoria is included, as well as one of Emperor Leopold I's compositions, an Ave maris stella, and another two pieces, one by Rupert Mayr and the other by Giovanni Legrenzi. I must read the notes!

 

***


LDVM


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