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Track(s) taken from CDA67938

Attende, Domine

composer
author of text
Hymn during Lent

Westminster Cathedral Choir, Martin Baker (conductor), Peter Stevens (organ)
Studio Master FLAC & ALAC downloads available
CD-Quality:
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Recording details: October 2011
Westminster Cathedral, London, United Kingdom
Produced by Adrian Peacock
Engineered by David Hinitt
Release date: January 2013
Total duration: 3 minutes 24 seconds

Cover artwork: The Annunciation with two saints and four prophets (1333). Simone Martini (1284-1344)
& Lippo Memmi (fl1317-1347). Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence / Giraudon / Bridgeman Images
 

Reviews

‘The choir is on excellent form and the recorded sound seems perfectly to capture a sense of place, of atmosphere’ (Gramophone)

‘This is an album for those who love the acoustic, the atmosphere and the traditions of the Roman Catholic Cathedral in London … the pacing and cohesion of the Agnus Dei of Palestrina's Missa Emendemus in melius is accomplished and moving, and their singing of plainsong with organ second-to-none’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘The true musical spirit of the Lenten season … is to be found in the ancient antiphons, psalms and motets which have been part of the liturgical fabric of the season for centuries. This is what we have here, and an intensely beautiful CD it makes too … nobody could remain untouched by the profound beauty and timelessness of this music, and given these unaffected, sensitive and fluent performances from a choir which has been singing Lenten music in a liturgical context for decades, the result is something very special indeed … this is a beautifully devised programme, sung with ineffable perceptiveness by the Westminster choristers and recorded with utterly natural atmosphere by the Hyperion team’ (International Record Review)
Plainsong exists to solemnify the text that it adorns. Attende, Domine has its origins in the Mozarabic Rite of the tenth century and is one of the more emotionally complex melodies in the literature. It is classified by Solesmes dogma as a Lydian tune, although it is authentically Ionian. On the one hand the chant drives the physical momentum of litaneic procession, while on the other it colours the plangency of Lenten supplication. The aural hook of this hymn of exhortation comprises two consecutively occurring perfect fourths (heard at the beginning of the second phrase of the refrain). This descending medieval solecism occurs to great effect no fewer than eleven times, and since the nineteenth century this chant has beguiled the willing ears of Anglicans as well as those of Roman Catholics, as witnessed by the melody’s prominent inclusion in the English Hymnal of 1906 under the title ‘A Lent Prose’.

from notes by Jeremy Summerly © 2013

Le plain-chant a pour vocation de solenniser le texte qu’il orne. Attende, Domine, qui plonge ses racines dans le rite mozarabe du Xe siècle, est l’une des mélodies les plus émotionnellement complexes de la littérature; le dogme de Solesmes la range parmi les airs lydiens, alors qu’elle est authentiquement ionienne. D’un côté, le plain-chant tire son élan de la procession litanique, de l’autre il colore le caractère plaintif de la supplique quadragésimale. L’accroche sonore de cette hymne d’exhortation inclut deux quartes justes consécutives (entendues au début de la deuxième phrase du refrain). Ce solécisme médiéval descendant apparaît d’ailleurs, avec beaucoup d’effet, pas moins de onze fois et, depuis le XIXe siècle, ce plain-chant a su séduire les oreilles bien disposées des anglicans comme des catholiques—preuve en est sa présence saillante dans l’English Hymnal de 1906, sous le titre de «A Lent Prose».

extrait des notes rédigées par Jeremy Summerly © 2013
Français: Hypérion

Die Funktion des Gregorianischen Chorals ist es, den Text, den er verziert, noch feierlicher darzustellen. Das Attende, Domine stammt ursprünglich aus der mozarabischen Liturgie des 10. Jahrhunderts und gehört zu den emotional komplexeren Melodien dieser Literatur. Das Solesmes-Dogma klassifiziert es als eine lydische Melodie, obwohl sie tatsächlich ionisch ist. Einerseits treibt der Choral das physische Moment der Prozession während der Litanei voran, während er andererseits das klagende Flehen in der Fastenzeit einfärbt. Der akustische Aufhänger dieses auffordernden Hymnus besteht aus zwei nacheinander auftretenden reinen Quarten (zu Beginn der zweiten Phrase des Refrains). Dieser absteigende mittelalterliche Solözismus tritt mit großem Effekt nicht weniger als 11 Mal auf, und seit dem 19. Jahrhundert hat dieser Gesang offene Ohren der Anglikaner und auch der Katholiken entzückt, wie es etwa durch die prominente Einbeziehung der Melodie in das English Hymnal von 1906 unter dem Titel „A Lent Prose“ deutlich wird.

aus dem Begleittext von Jeremy Summerly © 2013
Deutsch: Viola Scheffel

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