This piece is dedicated to the victims of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria – please consider giving a donation to a non-profit of your choice.
o cruor sanguinis – blood of blood
O blood of blood that sounded on high, when all the elements joined together in lamentation and with trembling, because the blood of their creator had touched them. Anoint us for our weariness.
This project is on SoundCloud
I dedicate this chant to the victims of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria. My thoughts are with you.
O blood of blood that sounded on high, when all the elements joined together in lamentation and with trembling, because the blood of their creator had touched them. Anoint us for our weariness.
NB: You will see that there are no neumes in the manuscript for the final line of this chant. I have therefore taken an educated guess at what the melody could have been.
This project is on SoundCloud
On this third day of 2023, I am recording my New Year’s resolution here, so that I remember it and try to stick to it!
My resolution for 2023 is to expand the notion of kindness, which is for me an essential element on our road to peace and happiness, and extend kindness to myself. I will continue to do the very best I can – in particular in those areas which I see as my priorities – but I hereby resolve not to beat myself up any more for the mistakes I make along the way.
Happy New Year to you all, may it be happy and bright, and may the road be paved with kindness and consideration rather than violence, cruelty and ignorance.
Here is my version of Hildegard von Bingen’s kyrie eleison:
kyrie eleison – have mercy
Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy. Lord have mercy.
I took this picture of a double-headed eagle on our recent trip to Greece. Symbol of Byzantium and an important image for the Greece orthodox church, it seems an appropriate accompaniment to the only remaining Greek text in the Roman Mass.
This project is on SoundCloud
Only two of Hildegard von Bingen’s chants are directly linked to the Mass. The alleluia o virgo mediatrix, for which I have already made an a cappella setting, and the kyrie eleison. The kyrie is interesting, as it apparently borrows heavily from another chant – o lucidissima apostolorum turba – one of the chants whose text features in Hildegard’s first book of visions (Scivias) and which is generally considered to be one of her earlier chants. More on this later, when I record and revisit o lucidissima 🙂
kyrie eleison
Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy. Lord have mercy.
This project is on SoundCloud
