Author Archives: Mary C. Weaver

Come, Let’s Rejoice: A Celebration of English Renaissance Music

tallisPlease save the date, time, and place of our next concert:

2:30 p.m. Saturday, October 18
Holy Ghost Church
1041 N. Central St., Knoxville, TN 37917

During this hour-long performance, the Pope Benedict XVI Schola will sing works of the musical giants of Renaissance England—composers such as Thomas Tallis, William Byrd, John Sheppard, and Christopher Tye.

Soprano soloist Maria Magdalena Rist and lutenist Thomas Tallant will also perform a set of sacred songs.

Here’s the lineup for the schola’s two sets:

  • Out from the deep, Thomas Tallis, 1505-1585
  • Verily, verily, Tallis
  • Lord, let thy servant, Christopher Tye, c 1505-1573
  • If ye love me, Tallis
  • Give almes of thy goods, Tye
  • Rejoice in the Lord alway, anonymous
  • Mass for four voices (sung by schola quartet), William Byrd, 1540-1623
    • Kyrie
    • Agnus Dei
  • Ave verum corpus, Byrd
  • Hear the voice and prayer, Tallis
  • A new commandment, Tallis
  • Cibavit eos (sung by schola quartet), Byrd
  • The Lord’s prayer, John Sheppard, c 1515-1556
  • Come, let’s rejoice, John Amner, 1579-1641

There’s no fee for the concert, but we’ll gratefully accept “love offerings.”

Questions? Please e-mail me, Mary Weaver, or call me at 865-437-8620.

Download a concert poster here.

A Candlemas Concert, set for Feb. 2, 2013

The Pope Benedict XVI Schola is putting on a Candlemas concert on Feb. 2, 2013, to benefit the Knoxville Ladies of Charity.

Eventbrite - A Candlemas Concert

The Christian feast of Candlemas, which falls on Feb. 2, rolls several celebrations into one: it’s the day on which the church marks the presentation of the infant Jesus in the temple; the purification of the Virgin Mary, 40 days after the birth of her son; and, traditionally, the official end of the season of Epiphany.

The Schola’s repertory for the concert includes Gregorian chant and choral works in Latin and English by Palestrina, Purcell, Victoria, Byrd, Sheppard, Tye, and Vaughan Williams. Organist Charles Walden, music director of Holy Ghost Church, will also perform.

Schola members come from churches throughout Knoxville, and the group’s director is Mary C. Weaver.

Here are the concert details:

2:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 2, 2013
Holy Ghost Church
1041 N. Central St., Knoxville, TN 37917

Google map to the church

 

Buy tickets online with Eventbrite—

or at the door

Tickets cost $10

Eventbrite - A Candlemas Concert

Proceeds benefit the Ladies of Charity, who do so much to help the poor in Knoxville. It’s amazing what they accomplish on a tiny budget–and no, they do not receive funds from Catholic Charities of East Tennessee.

Please e-mail or call me (865-437-8620) with any questions–and please mark your calendar. We look forward to seeing you there!

Mary

Come to our Christmas concert: Dec. 3, 2011

The Pope Benedict XVI Schola is putting on a concert this December to benefit the Knoxville Ladies of Charity.

The theme is “A (Mostly) Medieval and Renaissance Christmas,” and the program will feature some of the most beautiful chants, motets, and carols written in the past 800 years. Organist Charles Walden, our friend and colleague, will also perform a set of his favorite seasonal pieces.

Here are the details:

2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 3, 2011
Holy Ghost Church
1041 N. Central St., Knoxville, TN 37917

Google map to the church

 

Buy tickets at the door

Tickets are $10.

All proceeds benefit the Ladies of Charity, who do so much to help the poor in Knoxville. It’s amazing what they accomplish on a tiny budget–and no, they do not receive funds from Catholic Charities of East Tennessee.

Please e-mail or call me (865-437-8620) with any questions–and please mark your calendar. We look forward to seeing you there!

Mary

Interested in joining?

Tonight is the final rehearsal before our concert this Saturday. (E-mail for details.)

In the concert program, I'm inviting interested choristers to contact me or visit this page for more information about the schola.

We're looking for singers in all voice parts. Members must be able to read music, and they must have the musicianship to blend with a small ensemble.

We sing primarily the music of the Roman Catholic Church—Gregorian chant, Renaissance polyphony, and some later works—but members of all faiths are welcome.

If you don't know how to read Gregorian chant, don't worry—we'll teach you, and learning square notation is easier than you might think.

 

 

Schola concert set for Nov. 20

The B16 Schola is preparing its first concert: 3 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 20, 2010, at Holy Ghost Church near downtown Knoxville.

We hope to see you there! (For details, e-mail me.)

Choral sets will include works from Byrd to Bruckner, with a fairly heavy emphasis on the Renaissance period. Our friend Charles Walden will perform two organ sets in between.

There’s no charge for the concert, but we will take up a free-will offering. Donations will benefit Holy Ghost, which has been so welcoming to us, and the schola’s music budget.

Here are specifics for the choral music (subject to slight changes):

Set 1

  • Oremus pro pontifice (chant)
  • Hassler: Dixit Maria
  • Bruckner: Locus Iste
  • Jesu dulcis memoria (chant)
  • Monteverdi: O bone Jesu
  • Ubi caritas (chant)

Set 2 (all English)

  • Purcell: Thou knowest, Lord
  • Morley: Magnificat
  • Byrd: Lord, hear my prayer instantly
  • Farrant: Lord, for thy tender mercy's sake
  • Stainer: God so loved the world

Set 3

  • Crux fidelis (chant, performed in English)
  • Mozart: Ave verum corpus
  • Palestrina: Jesu rex admirabilis
  • Salve regina (chant)
  •  
  • Vivaldi: In memoria aeterna, from Beatus Vir

Preparing for Christmas and Epiphany

I've been very remiss about posting, but that doesn't mean the schola hasn't been busy.

We continue to sing for the 8:30 a.m. Mass on the first Sunday of the month at Holy Ghost Church in Knoxville. Thank you, Charles Walden, for giving us such a great opportunity.

In November we sang for my dear friend Father Patrick Resen's installation as pastor at St. Catherine Labouré Church in Copperhill. We were treated like royalty, with an excellent buffet lunch afterward, followed by Dom Pérignon at Father Patrick's house.

Of course, we sang for the second Sunday of Advent, Dec. 6, then again Dec. 8 for the feast of the Immaculate Conception. For the latter we learned Thomas Morley's "Magnificat," a simple but lovely chant-based setting that we'll definitely use again.

Now we're in the process of preparing for Christmas (we're singing at 10 a.m. on Dec. 25) and Epiphany, observed on Jan. 3 next year in the United States. We're learning a Cristobal Morales setting of "Puer Natus Est" for Christmas, as well as "Personent Hodie." For Epiphany, we'll reprise the Morales and also sing "Vidimus stellam" from the Graduale Romanum.

We have gained a bass and continue to hope and pray for more voices in every part.

Life-changing liturgy

Tonight I returned home after attending the 2009 Sacred Music Colloquium in Chicago. From Monday evening, June 22, through this morning, we rehearsed Gregorian chant and polyphony daily, sang at Mass, and attended workshops and lectures. Tuesday morning after Mass I thought, "If we participated in Masses like this every week, it would change our lives." It is impossible to be indifferent to such a Mass. Such a Mass is so profoundly otherworldly, so oriented to the transcendent, so powerfully prayerful that it is impossible to be lukewarm. One must choose whom one will serve.

If you haven’t been, you can’t imagine the joy of being with and singing with 250-some like-minded people—all of them talented singers, music directors, and/or instrumentalists—who know the church’s teachings on sacred music, support them fully, and will never say "Why do we have to sing all this Latin?"

These Masses were the closest thing to perfect liturgies that I’ve ever seen or heard. The rubrics were respected. The church’s wishes for liturgical music were respected: full Gregorian propers for every Mass (except for Tuesday, for which English propers were sung) as well as Renaissance motets. For two of the Masses choirs sung polyphonic ordinaries (Mass parts).

You can listen to some of the sound files here.

Here is the advanced women’s chant schola (including yours truly) singing "Tu puer," the Alleluia from the Graduale on the feast of the nativity of St. John the Baptist. Our conductor was Dr. William Mahrt, one of the finest chant scholars in the world. Dr. Mahrt is president of the Church Music Association of America.

Here is Cardinal George’s homily–with an excellent message for church musicians.

When the Gregorian Alleluia from today’s Mass is posted, I will post a link. It included the most beautiful solo chant I’ve ever heard, by a soprano who obviously has not only a profoundly beautiful instrument but also a great mastery of chant technique.

Did you say you are not yet a member of CMAA? Join this year for $36. Dues increase next year to $48. At any price, membership is a bargain and includes a subscription to the excellent quarterly journal Sacred Music.

 

An introduction to the propers

I’ve just finished a project I started more than a month ago—writing a brief introduction to the propers of the Mass. I attempt to explain what the propers are, what the church says about them, why we should sing them, and where settings can be found.

You can read my attempt on this site. I’ve also cross-posted the page to the website for the East Tennessee chapter of the Church Music Association of America.

Confirmation Mass

Pope Benedict XVI ScholaWe had the privilege tonight of singing for the confirmation Mass at Holy Ghost Church in Knoxville.

We sang two pieces for a 10-minute prelude—the chant Confirma hoc and the three-part Jesu Rex Admirabilis attributed to Palestrina—that also included two organ pieces.

We joined the Holy Ghost choir for the Mass and sang an introit (an English setting of Judica me, Deo, composed by Vladimir Soroka), several dignified hymns, and Albin Mascek’s setting of Veni Sancte Spiritus. Good stuff all around.

Here’s the schola in its current incarnation: from left, me (Mary Weaver), Dan Pacitti, Susan Dixon, Steven Hensley, and Nancy Harless.