Recommended: Antiquum Documentum (and a note regarding the last post on "politics & social media")

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For those of you who appreciate reconstructions of “ancient” liturgies, magnificent music, and the sight of young enthusiasts presenting such an aural feast in beautiful locations, let me recommend Antiquum Documentum, an “early music vocal group specialising in ornamented chant and polyphony based in Oxford.” Their website can be viewed by clicking here and their YouTube channel can be accessed here.

As of this date, they have two full-length liturgical reconstructions that one can see on YouTube, which I have linked below with their respective descriptions. It may not be to everyone’s taste, but it is to mine. And if one has the imagination for it, one might be able to form a picture (as with other great liturgical settings, East and West) of how liturgy — listened to, engaged with, immersed in — sows the ground for contemplation.

Each video below has a link to the Order of Service (with translations).

Without further ado, then:

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Choral Evensong according to the 1560 Liber Precum Publicarum in Keble College Chapel

Order of Service: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-T8R...

00:00 - Prelude to the Anthem: Fantasia (Peter Phillips)

03:57 - Anthem: Domine, Dominus Noster (Thomas Morley)

07:22 - Opening Responses

09:06 - Psalms 82-85

20:32 - Prelude to the First Lesson: Præludium (Anon.)

21:47 - The First Lesson

33:16 - Magnificat (Thomas Tallis)

42:56 - Prelude to the Second Lesson (Anon.)

43:38 - The Second Lesson

50:24 - Nunc Dimittis (Thomas Tallis)

53:21 - Apostles' Creed

55:43 - Preces

58:40 - Prelude to the Anthem - Præludium (Thomas Oldfield)

59:30 - Anthem - Laboravi in Gemitu (Thomas Weelkes)

The 1560 LPP is a Latin translation of the Elizabethan 1559 Prayer Book for use in predominantly university and school chapels. Antiquum Documentum have tried to imagine what such a service would have looked like. The music includes adaptions of English plainsong to Latin words, adaptions of Sarum chant, as well as "Domine, Dominus Noster" by Thomas Morley, the Latin Evening Service by Thomas Tallis, and "Laboravi in Gemitu Meo" by Thomas Weelkes (whose 400th birthday is this year) all executed in English Latin with authentic vocal techniques. We have examined many sources to try to work out what the ritual of a Latin evensong might have looked like in a highly conservative, old-fashioned and even recusant Oxford College chapel.

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Vespers, Compline and Salve According to the Use of Sarum on the Feast of St. Cecilia

Order of Service: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JGD8...

00:00 Introduction

01:03 Pater Noster and Ave Maria

01:56 Vespers Opening Responses

02:48 Vesper Psalms: Ps. 121-5 and antiphon

13:20 Chapter: Ecclesiastici lj. 13.

13:55 Responsory

17:26 Vespers Office Hymn: Virginis Proles (setting by Thomas Tallis, d. 1585, with verset "Iste Confessor", also by Tallis)

22:55 Versicle After the Hymn

23:42 Magnificat (setting by Nicholas Ludford, d.1557), and antiphon

40:40 Vespers Closing Responses

42:07 the end of Vespers

43:03 Pater Noster and Ave Maria

43:47 Compline Opening Responses

45:00 Compline Psalms: Ps. 4, 30, 90 & 133 and antiphon

53:55 Chapter: Hieremas xiiij.9

54:56 Compline Office Hymn: Te Lucis (polyphony realised by A. Trowell)

56:48 Nunc Dimittis, and antiphon

58:27 Kyrie Eleison

59:00 Silent Lord Prayer, and response

59:32 Silent Creed, followed by responses

1:00:00 Confession and Absolution, followed by responses

1:04:30 the end of Compline

1:05:07 Salve Regina (setting à 7 by John Sutton, fl. late 15th Century)

1:21:57 Prayers after the Salve

The Use of Sarum was the predominant liturgy used in the South of late-Medieval England. It traces its history back to the Norman conquest, and is very similar to various Northern French uses. Henry VIII suppressed the other English uses, and Sarum briefly became the only English Use, until 1549 when Henry's heir, Edward VI replaced it wholesale with a series of increasingly Reformed prayer books. Sarum enjoyed a short-lived resurgence under Mary I until Elizabeth I suppressed it again in favour of the Prayer Book. Many aspects of this reconstruction will be familiar to fans of choral evensong: the Magnificat, Nunc Dimittis and anthem at BCP evensong being drawn from Vespers, Compline and the Salve respectively. This service reconstructs a service from around the middle of Henry VIII's reign; the earliest composer is John Sutton who flourished around the late fifteenth century. We will be performing his setting of the Salve Regina for seven voices, as found in the Eton Choirbook. Nicholas Ludford's (d. 1557) six-part Magnificat "Venerabilis and Benedicta Es" is taken from the Caius Choirbook, and is in a similar style to the Sutton. The Vespers office hymn is a contrafactum of a setting by Thomas Tallis (d. 1585) to the same plainsong melody with organ verset (also by Tallis). The Compline office hymn is a realisation by Antiquum Documentum director, Alexander Trowell, in the style of how it is thought late Medieval choirs would have improvised polyphony.

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I have received requests to make my previous paid post available to everyone. It was the first of a (rather loosely connected) series on spiritual direction, and I intend that the remainder of the series should be for paid subscribers (for a few reasons that I won’t go into). But, in this case, I’ll comply with the request and make it available to all. It is, I’ve been told, particularly timely and worth sharing, so I will give in and share it more widely.