Et ingréssus in templum, cœpit ejícere vendéntes in illo et eméntes, dicens illis: Scriptum est Quia domus mea domus oratiónis est. Vos autem fecístis illam speluncam latrónum...

Páteant aures misericórdiæ tuæ, Dómine, précibus supplicántium: et, ut peténtibus desideráta concédas; fac eos quæ tibi sunt plácita, postuláre. Per Dóminum.

Today is the 9th Sunday post Pentecosten and the (commemorated) feast of the Virgin Saint Praxedes; the Mass is Ecce Deus adiuvat me. The page for today at the website of the Schola Sainte-Cécile, Liturgia, is here; the livret for Holy Mass is here and for Vespers is here. 

At Saint-Eugène, Fr de Nadaï OP was the celebrant of Holy Mass; he has celebrated Holy Mass at Saint-E. previously. While trying to find text to copy so that I could do his surname here properly I stumbled across this article at Aleteia. May the Holy Face of Our Lord Jesus Christ be the source of many graces for us!

And were it not for the electronic calendar I would have forgotten that the BBC Prom featuring Sir James MacMillan's Timotheus, Bacchus and Cecilia begins at (I believe) 1130 here. The world premiere was at Cincinnati's May Festival last year; today's performance is the UK premiere (Sir Mark Elder is at the end of his tenure at the Hallé, 'Manchester's orchestra'; the MacMillan is followed by a symphony by some fellow named Gustav). The composer's notes (from the Boosey and Hawkes site):

Timotheus, Bacchus and Cecilia was composed in 2022 and is a setting of three sections of John Dryden’s great poem from 1697 (in celebration of St. Cecilia’s Day) Alexander’s Feast: Or The Power of Music. Although the poem was written as an ode to St Cecilia, the patron saint of music, most of the text is focused on two pre-Christian classical stories.

The first section presents Timotheus, the musician who served Alexander the Great and accompanied him in his military campaigns. The legend is that his music had a huge effect on the King, moving the great warrior from one passion to another.

Dryden’s poem refers to Timotheus’s “flying fingers,” his music ascending to the heavens, where it inspires joy. There are rich images of the god Jove, moved by love in “A dragon’s fiery form” and riding “on radiant spires” to Olympia. He then “stamp’d an image of himself, a sov’reign of the world,” and we are to assume that stamp is Alexander himself. Jove’s influence on the warrior king “seems to shake the spheres.”

The poet’s purpose is to present allegories for the power of music on the human soul and body, and later there are references to Bacchus, the god of celebration and drink. But what is being described here is Alexander’s attack on the Persian capital city of Persepolis. Dryden stresses the greed of the looting soldiers, who lost all control in their thievery, slaughter and destruction. Timotheus references the increased destruction that will follow the drunken debauchery, as he sings,

“Drinking is the soldier’s pleasure;

Rich the treasure,

Sweet the pleasure

Sweet the pleasure after pain.”

Some things never change and we have seen modern versions of this in the slaughter of Ukrainians recently.

The third and final section of the work presents St Cecilia, the martyr and Patron Saint of music. And there is a distinct change in musical mood at this point. After the drama and violence of the opening two sections there is the balm and serenity of a very different character:

“Enlarg’d the former narrow bounds

And added length to solemn sounds

With nature’s mother-wit and arts unknown before.

Or both divide the crown;

He rais’d a mortal to the skies;

She drew an angel down.”

The “narrow bounds” which Cecilia enlarges with her music is a reference to the ability of mere mortals to make such a ‘divine’ thing as music. And where Timotheus praises the mortal, Alexander, raising his name to the allegorical heights reserved for celebrated individuals, St. Cecilia’s music is so powerful that it tempts heavenly creatures (angels) to descend to earth.

Although this poem is of another time and dimension I was struck by its breadth and ambition to explore the transformative nature of music from a number of different angles. And its final suggestion that music might be a sacred thing, of heavenly concerns, is an idea which will never fade, being as vital now as it was in the eras of Timotheus, Alexander, Cecilia, Dryden and Handel, who also set this poem to music in 1736.

My work is scored for various choruses and large orchestra, in one movement lasting about 20 minutes, and is dedicated to my granddaughter Isabella Grace MacMillan.

Introitus. Ps. 53, 6-7. Ecce, Deus adjuvat me, et Dóminus suscéptor est ánimæ meæ: avérte mala inimícis meis, et in veritáte tua dispérde illos, protéctor meus, Dómine. Ps. ibid., 3. Deus, in nómine tuo salvum me fac: et in virtúte tua libera me. ℣. Glória Patri.

Kyrie, Gloria.

Oratio. Páteant aures misericórdiæ tuæ, Dómine, précibus supplicántium: et, ut peténtibus desideráta concédas; fac eos quæ tibi sunt plácita, postuláre. Per Dóminum.

Léctio Epístolæ beáti Pauli Apóstoli ad Corinthios.
1. Cor. 10, 6-13.
Fratres: Non simus concupiscéntes malórum, sicut et illi concupiérunt. Neque idolólatræ efficiámini, sicut quidam ex ipsis: quemádmodum scriptum est: Sedit pópulus manducáre et bíbere, et surrexérunt lúdere. Neque fornicémur, sicut quidam ex ipsis fornicáti sunt, et cecidérunt una die vigínti tria mília. Neque tentemus  Christum, sicut quidam eórum tentavérunt, et a serpéntibus periérunt. Neque murmuravéritis, sicut quidam eórum murmuravérunt, et periérunt ab exterminatóre. Hæc autem ómnia in figúra contingébant illis: scripta sunt autem ad correptiónem nostram, in quos fines sæculórum devenérunt. Itaque qui se exístimat stare, vídeat ne cadat. Tentátio vos non apprehéndat, nisi humána: fidélis autem Deus est, qui non patiétur vos tentári supra id, quod potéstis, sed fáciet étiam cum tentatióne provéntum, ut póssitis sustinére.

Graduale. Ps. 8, 2. Dómine, Dóminus noster, quam admirábile est nomen tuum in universa terra! ℣. Quóniam eleváta est magnificéntia tua super cœlos.

Allelúja, allelúja. ℣. Ps. 58, 2. Eripe me de inimícis meis, Deus meus: et ab insurgéntibus in me líbera me. Allelúja.

✠ Sequéntia sancti Evangélii secúndum Lucam.
Luc. 19, 41-47.
In illo témpore: Cum appropinquáret Jesus Jerúsalem, videns civitátem, flevit super illam, dicens: Quia si cognovísses et tu, et quidem in hac die tua, quæ ad pacem tibi, nunc autem abscóndita sunt ab óculis tuis. Quia vénient dies in te: et circúmdabunt te inimíci tui vallo, et circúmdabunt te: et coangustábunt te úndique: et ad terram prostérnent te, et fílios tuos, qui in te sunt, et non relínquent in te lápidem super lápidem: eo quod non cognóveris tempus visitatiónis tuæ. Et ingréssus in templum, cœpit ejícere vendéntes in illo et eméntes, dicens illis: Scriptum est: Quia domus mea domus oratiónis est. Vos autem fecístis illam speluncam latrónum. Et erat docens cotídie in templo.

The sermon of a Dominican friar on today's Gospel, from Voice of the Family. I don't know why I began neglecting to add this link here; mostly laziness, most likely, although at one point his weekly sermon was absent for whatever reason. (Have always guessed that this nameless priest is Father Thomas Crean but who knows; the writer remains anonymous for a reason, I'm sure.)

Credo.

At Saint-Eugène, during the incensings at the Offertory, the Schola not gone on their summer holidays will sing the Dirigatur Domine oratio mea as in the 1739 edition of the Paris faux-bourdon.

Offertorium. Ps. 18, 9, 10, 11 et 12. Justítiæ Dómini rectæ, lætificántes corda, et judícia ejus dulcióra super mel et favum: nam et servus tuus custódit ea.

Secreta. Concéde nobis, quǽsumus, Dómine, hæc digne frequentáre mystéria: quia, quóties hujus hóstiæ commemorátio celebrátur, opus nostræ redemptiónis exercétur. Per Dóminum.

Sanctus, Benedictus, Agnus Dei.

Communio. Joann. 6, 57. Qui mandúcat meam carnem et bibit meum sánguinem, in me manet et ego in eo, dicit Dóminus.

Postcommunio. Tui nobis, quǽsumus, Dómine, commúnio sacraménti, et purificatiónem cónferat, et tríbuat unitátem. Per Dóminum.

At Saint-Eugène, the Sub tuum praesidium was sung during the Last Gospel and afterward, while the sacred ministers departed, the Chez nous soyez Reine of Pierre Huet in Gaston Roussel's harmonisation. I see that Mme Anne-Marie Lutz is directing the music today; she sings in the Schola, I know, and occasionally as soloist, and is in the last several months also responsible for the children's schola. 

LDVM