Baroque Mass

In the course of a “Tridentine” Rite Latin Mass

Tuesday, 24 August 2010, 11:00 a.m.
Vác, Piarist Church (Szentháromság Square)

Performing

Sebastian Consort

• Sára Dezső — soprano
• Gabriella Galbács — soprano
• Péter Mészáros — tenor
• György Philipp — bass

• Imre Lachegyi — recorder
• Anna Lachegyi — viol
• Júlia Regős — viol

• Anasztázia Bednarik — organ

Musical setting of the Mass

Feast of Saint Bartholomew the Apostle

• For the entrance: J. S. Bach: Prelude and Fugue in G major BWV 541 — Prelude (organ)
• Introit: Mihi autem (plainchant)
• Kyrie: Joan Cererols: Missa quattuor vocum secundi toni
• Gloria: Joan Cererols: Missa quattuor vocum secundi toni
• Gradual: Constitues eos (plainchant)
• Alleluia: Te gloriosus (plainchant)
• Before the Homily: Giovanni Battista Fasolo: Modulatio post epistolam (organ)
• After the Homily: Giovanni Battista Fasolo: Canzon secunda (organ)
• Credo: Joan Cererols: Missa quattuor vocum secundi toni
• Offertory: Mihi autem (plainchant)
  Thomas Tallis: Mihi autem (motet)
  J. S. Bach: Trio sonata in d minor (orig. in b) — Andante
• Sanctus: Joan Cererols: Missa quattuor vocum secundi toni
• Benedictus: Benedictus “Pater cunctis” in secundo tono (plainchant)
• At the Elevation: Giovanni Battista Pergolesi: O sacrum convivium (motet)
• At the Fraction: Michelangelo Grancini: O bone Jesu (motet)
• Agnus Dei: Joan Cererols: Missa quattuor vocum secundi toni
• Communion: Vos, qui secuti (plainchant)
  Johann Sebastian Bach: Concerto in d minor BWV 1059 — Adagio
  Michelangelo Grancini: Dulcis Christe (motet)
• For the leaving of the altar: J. S. Bach: Prelude and Fugue in G major BWV 541 — Fugue (organ)

The Holy Mass is celebrated in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite (Traditional or “Tridentine” Latin Mass) by Rev. Ervin Gellért Kovács Premonstratensian priest with altar service provided by the Lay Chapter of St Michael the Archangel.

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The musical setting of the Mass

The musical setting of the Mass consists of a Mass for four voices (in the second tone of Gregorian chant tones) by the Catalan early Baroque composer, Joan Cererols (1618—1680), who was a Benedictine monk and choirmaster of the Monastery of Montserrat. The other part of the musical setting is the Gregorian pieces (“propers”) of the day, which is the feast of Saint Bartholomew the Apostle. This musical programme is complemented with Baroque motets and instrumental pieces. The musical service of the Holy Mass is provided by the Sebastian Consort.

About the Mass

A novelty among the programmes, a very special musical event is part of the festival: a Baroque Mass will be performed in the course of a Tridentine Rite Latin Mass and not only as a concert. The festival definitely has some sacred music character, in addition, its concerts are hosted in churches. Therefore, a liturgical event can be justly included in it.

It is an extraordinary musical and spiritual experience to hear the several hundred year old works composed for liturgical purpose when they are performed in the liturgy of the Catholic Church in accordance with their original function. However, these compositions will acquire their real significance in their authentic environment, in the course of the traditional old liturgy. Contrary to popular belief, the old Catholic Mass did not only mean a Mass celebrated in Latin, what is more, the Latin language is not essential, though definiately characteristic element of it. Besides the language, the old liturgy is such a beautiful, deep and rich process of gestures and symbols, which on the one hand, served as daily spiritual nutriment for Catholic people, and was one of their greatest treasures for more than a thousand years. On the other hand, it also inspired the birth of Gregorian chants and baroque masterpieces, some of which are performed at this event.

The Lay Chapter of St Michael the Archangel

The Lay Chapter of St Michael the Archangel (Capitulum Laicorum S. Michaelis Archangeli; CLSMA) is a lay association of the Roman Catholic faithful in Hungary, established for the celebration of the traditional Latin liturgy. Its main goals are singing of the Divine Office as a public act of worship, the reinvigoration —as far as possible— of the local variants of the Roman rite and of the religious orders, the maintenance and cultivation of authentic vernacular liturgy, and the continuous education, both spiritually and intellectually, of its members. The history of the Lay Chapter began in 2004, when a few students from the Church Music Department of the Ferenc Liszt Music Academy, with other minded individuals, gathered together in Budapest for the first time to sing Matins and Lauds in an ecclesiastical setting and in a historically authentic, unabbreviated form according to the medieval liturgical use of Esztergom. The occasion was followed by others, and it became a regular event with regular attendance. The preparation of the textual and melodic material as well as its musical and ceremonial performance eventually lead to the habitual assignment of tasks and liturgical roles. Thus the notion of a “lay chapter” was born as an organisational form, conceived to emulate and uphold the primarily liturgical function of traditional clerical chapters (which is often reduced to naught nowadays). It followed from this interest in Latin liturgical traditions that the members of the Chapter felt inspired to expand their liturgical concerns and to extend their activity also to the celebration of Holy Mass, in fact, to all the sacraments and sacramentals. In the autumn of 2006 the Archdiocesan Authority of Esztergom—Budapest gave permission for traditional Latin Masses in the Jáki Chapel, situated in the Public City Park (Városliget), to be celebrated by a priest of the FSSP, who was able to make travels from Cracow to Budapest nearly on a monthly basis. The juridical situation was radically altered when Pope Benedict XVI decided to normalise the use of the ancient Roman liturgy in a new law promulgated on 7 July 2007. The motu proprio Summorum Pontificum makes this liturgy, as the extraordinary form of the Roman rite, juridically equal to the ordinary form introduced by Pope Paul VI after the Second Vatican Council. Thus Rev. Zoltán Osztie, Pastor of the Inner City Parish Church of Our Lady of the Assumption, made it possible for the Chapter to celebrate, from November 2007, its own Masses at 3.30 p.m. on each Sunday and Day of Obligation. The Matins and Lauds traditionally take place in the Church of St Michael the Archangel (Mary Ward Sisters — “Angolkisasszonyok”).

Further information and regular announcements on the activity of the Chapter: www.capitulumlaicorum.blogspot.com