Saturday, December 22, 2018

A new edition of Adeste Fideles from Matthew Schellhorn

Matthew Schellhorn writes:

For several years, I have had the honour of directing the music on Christmas Eve in St Mary Moorfields in the City of London, at the First Mass of Christmas organised by the Latin Mass Society. 

It is the custom to follow the Last Gospel with a congregational rendition of the hymn “Adeste, fideles” (most frequently sung elsewhere in its English form, “O Come, all ye Faithful”).). 

One might adapt the well known version in Carols for Choirs, but in fact the genesis of the hymn is so complex, and the melodic and harmonic incarnations so multiplicitous that all the musical options deserve to be under the tree and on offer. 

As a result, I have compared and drawn together the many different versions, freely adapting from the chant versions in the Liber usualis (1932 and 1961) and Mass and Vespers (1957), and also from the organ harmonisations of chant in Nova organi harmonia, the De La Salle Hymnal for Catholic Schools and Choirs (1913), the Thomas Helmore’s harmonisation of the Hymnal Noted (1852), editions by Martin Shaw (1875–1958) and the choral motet by François-Clément Théodore Dubois (1837–1924). 

I trust that Sir David Willcocks (1919–2015), under whose baton I had the honour of working in Worcester, would be content. 

The new, hybrid version plays on expectations and – in the best tradition of last-verse descants – confounds musical etiquette in a whimsical way. 

The result is similar to the sensation of meeting up with relations at Christmas festivities – some one knows well, and some one has not seen for a long time. 

Please note: I must be getting old, because I have lost the will to fight against the infamous passing note before the refrain, which in any case I find in several honourable sources. 

My arrangement is dedicated to my God-daughter, Miss Barbara Shaw, daughter of the Latin Mass Society’s Chairman, Joseph Shaw, on the occasion of her First Holy Communion in Oxford. Although owing to my professional commitments I am unable to be present on this auspicious occasion, I hope this offering will display my being united to her in prayer.

You can see the music here.


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Tuesday, December 18, 2018

New Chant Schola launching in London for the Traditional Mass


A new all-male schola is being launched by the Latin Mass Society in January. It will rehearse one Friday evening a month, and sing at the following Monday evening Maiden Lane Mass.

It is named after St John Houghton, proto-martyr of the English Reformation, Prior of the London Charterhouse.

Announcement: The Latin Mass Society wishes to establish an all-male chant schola able to accompany sung Traditional liturgies (Mass and the Office) in the London area to the highest possible standard, and with due regard for the spirituality of the Chant. Members will be amateurs, led by a professional.

As well as grouping together competent singers, the schola’s regular rehearsals will make it possible for those with no previous experience of singing Gregorian Chant to learn how to do so. The rehearsals will conclude with a singing of Compline.

The Schola will rehearse one Friday a month to sing at Mass on the following Monday: the regular, public 6:30pm Sung Mass at Corpus Christi Maiden Lane.

Full details on Facebook here
and on the LMS website here.
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Monday, December 17, 2018

Be careful what charities you support this Christmas

My latest on LifeSiteNews begins:

There’s a little ritual in my street in the run-up to Christmas. A man dressed up as Father Christmas (as we call him in England) in a mock-up sleigh complete with model reindeer, the whole thing on a kind of trailer pulled by a car, arrives. Fr. Christmas’s assistants ring my doorbell and ask for a donation. And I tell them that I don’t donate to their charity, the Rotary Club.
It’s a bit sad, as I’m sure they are all good people, but Rotary International has long been involved in population control campaigns. Why would I donate to them and not to someone else?
Oxford, near where I live, has a well-known charitable hospice for the dying, Douglas House, for many years a beacon of good practice in an ethically difficult area of medicine. I was brought up short, back in 2007, when I read that they had arranged, and paid for, a prostitute to service one of their patients. As if that was not enough, they show-cased this patient for a national TV program.

Read the whole thing here.

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Thursday, December 13, 2018

Wednesday, December 12, 2018

Fr David Goddard RIP

We were very sad to hear of the death of Fr David Goddard, long term supporter of the Traditional Mass and Priest Guardian of the Shrine of our Lady of Consolation, West Grinstead.
Fr David Goddard, centre, with Fr Matthew, left,
and Fr Andrew Southwell, right, during the
St Catherine's Trust Summer School
visit to West Grinstead in 2007.
Fr Goddard's body will be received into the Shrine Church at 4pm on Tuesday 18th December, and later there will be a Old Rite Requiem Mass at 7.30pm – celebrated by Fr David’s son, Fr Matthew Goddard FSSP.

On the following day, Wednesday 19th December, the Funeral Mass in the ordinary form will be celebrated in Arundel Cathedral at 11am by Bishop Richard Moth, with priests of the diocese. This will be followed by a Funeral Reception in the Cathedral Centre.

Requiem æternam dona ei, Domine. Et lux perpetua luceat ei. Requiescat in pace. Amen.

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Friday, December 07, 2018

LMS in London: new email list

The Latin Mass Society is planning some new initiatives in the London area, and there is already quite a lot happening in the capital, so we are launching an electronic newsletter just for London.

We already have one for the whole of England and Wales: you can sign up to that one here.

You don't have to be a member to join our email lists, and you don't have to live in London for this one: you may be an occasional visitor or simply interested to know what's going on. (Joining the London list won't automatically add you to the national list, so do consider signing up for both.)

We won't bombard you with emails: our plan is for a monthly email newsletter, though we may send the occasional urgent update when necessary.

LMS members in the London area who have agreed to be contacted by email are on the list. If you're not sure if this includes you, add your email address: duplicate entries are automatically merged.

Your information will only be accessible to our staff and Local and Assistant Representatives, in order for them to carry out their role in line with our Privacy Policy. We will never sell your personal information, or let other organisations use it for their own purposes.

After entering your email below and clicking subscribe, you will be sent a message to confirm your subscription. You may unsubscribe at any time by following the unsubscribe link in your newsletter.


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Thursday, December 06, 2018

Today's sexual culture is failing our young people

My latest on LifeSite News. It begins:

The headmaster of a smart London school once warned me about being too forthright when giving a talk there. “Young people today feel under tremendous pressure,” he said. I understood what he meant. They feel under pressure to do things they do not feel comfortable doing, such as engaging in premature sexual activity, or in particular sexual acts. They also feel pressure not to agree to do them. Were someone to put more pressure on them not to do such a thing, whether the pressure was emotional or intellectual, it would feel unbearable, because it makes it harder for them, it raises the emotional cost for them, to give in to the strongest pressure.

There is a cost to saying yes, and a cost to saying no. Raising the cost of saying yes may, possibly, succeed in tipping the balance. But in itself it does nothing to lower the cost of saying no, which must be paid in full: in bullying, marginalization, ostracism, and even physical violence.
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