August 12, 2012 - Proper 14

Hommage a Frescobaldi: "Communion" - Jean Langlais
Panis Angelicus - Cesar Franck
Mass for the Convents: "Agnus Dei" - Francois Couperin

Hymns: #410 Lauda Anima, #577 Ubi Caritas(Murray),
              #339 Schmucke Dich, #593 Dickinson College
The music for today’s service is centered on the Eucharist. The pieces all come from the French Catholic tradition but cover a broad spectrum of time periods gradually moving backwards from Langlais to Franck and ending with Couperin.

The prelude was written by Jean Langlais (1907-1991), a blind organist and composer. The piece is taken from his Hommage à Frescobaldi, op.70. This eight movement work written in 1951 is his second organ mass. Langlais added three movements to the five movement mass. The final movement, Épilogue, uses the opening theme of Messa della Madonna from Frescobaldi’s Fiori musicali. Anne Labounsky writes: “Although each movement is short, several of them demonstrate his ideal of mysticism: to draw the listener into a state of contemplation…through the suspension of time.” Communion is based on the Sacris Solemnis, a hymn written by St. Thomas Aquinas for Corpus Christi. The one of the strophes of this hymn is the source of the text Panis Angelicus. This piece showcases Langlais unique use of organ registrations to create mood. The piece consists of a clear statement of the chant melody combined with highly chromatic chords. The tune is first heard on the Vox Humana, or “human voice”, a thinly voiced reed that is usually combined with the tremolo (a device which gently disturbs the airflow to create a soft waiver in the tone). The tune is then passed to an 8’ flute stop with a very angular countermelody on the 4’ flute and nazard, a stop which plays the note an octave and a fifth above the key played. Langlais continues to alternate between these two solo registrations ending with a single note on the nazard.

Panis Angelicus is perhaps the best known and most often performed work of Cesar Franck (1822-1890). This piece is a setting of the last verse of the Sacris Solemniis a hymn by St. Thomas Aquinas for Corpus Christi for tenor, harp, cello, bass, and organ. The text translates as:

Lo! the Angelic Bread
Feedeth the sons of men:
Figures and types are fled
Never to come again.
O what a wondrous thing!
Lowly and poor are fed,
Banqueting on their Lord and King.

In this version for solo voice and organ, the melody is introduced by the organ and then restated by the soloist. After a brief interlude from the organ the soloist and organist enter into a duet with the melody presented in canon. Franck slightly varies the ending of the hymn for a coda which ends the piece. Franck served as organist of Ste. Clotilde from 1858 until his death in 1890. Panis Angelicus is taken from Messe solennelle, for 3 voices, chorus, organ, harp, cello and double bass, Op.12, M.61. It replaced the O Salutaris movement which was the piece originally composed for this place in the mass. It is likely that Panis Angelicus was written for use with the choir at this church. In 1872 he accepted the position as professor of organ at the Paris Conservatoire where he was known as Pere Franck by his students.

Francois Couperin (1668-1733) was born in to a family of musicians and organists. He was taught by his father and in 1685 he inherited his father’s position as organist of St. Gervais, Paris. This position was held by many members of the Couperin family. To close the service I selected the two settings of Agnus Dei from the Mass for the Convents. The first is played on the “plein jeu,” a combination of principal and flute stops and the second is a “Dialogue on the Grands jeux,” the fullest sounding chorus of the French Classical organ which includes the mixtures and reeds. The term “dialogue” refers to the way that the organist moves from manual to manual utilizing the full resources of each manual and showcasing the different tonal resources and the way in which different divisions of the organ speak from different parts of the case and allow for interesting effects such as the illusion of dialogue.