In my community we always sing the Latin Te Deum. I have nothing against singing it in Latin, but it does drag on. The brethren often refer to it as the Tedium.
For the rest of this lovely interview of the cleverest Catholic writer in English today, head to here (H/T to catholicity and covenant).
Who is our Anglican pundit who can find the middle between the extremes and paint hope into the picture of Anglican futures?
The Tedium, eh? Well, I guess enjoyment of the liturgy for some often depends upon the setting.
ReplyDeleteAt Trinity Church Wall Street we know that the parish’s Clerk Choral, William Tuckey, was teaching choristers how to perform the Te Deum as early as 1762.
Immediately after his inauguration as first President of the United States, on April 30, 1789, George Washington, with both houses of Congress, came in procession from Federal Hall to St. Paul’s Chapel, where a service of Thanksgiving was held by Bishop of New York Samuel Provoost, Chaplain of the Senate. A solemn Te Deum was sung by the Chapel’s choristers and the congregation; the setting was the Te Deum Laudamus by the seventeenth century English composer Orlando Gibbons:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeNm45N5QtY
Kurt Hill
Brooklyn, NY
Thanks for that Kurt. I have always liked the Te Deum but the settings I sang as a choirboy were all 19th and 20thc ( Stanford , Ireland etc) Never heard a Jacobean setting before..I doubt if you would hear a Gibbbons Te deum in England anywhere now except the Chapel Royal.....casualty of the demise of Sung Mattins.At Abp Justins inauguration they sang Britten ( coz it was his centenary I suppose) but I cant say I have ever found it one of B's better church pieces. Here in Canterbury of course we have lovely Choral music but a full choral Mattins is rarely to be heard.
ReplyDeletePerry