Many warm thanks to those of you who recently used the donation button to help feed the birds. There is a sale going on for feed right now and I will be able to stock up for a while. These little buggers can really eat.
Also, thanks are due to LAR of CA who sent from my amazon wish list the CD+DVD of the Missa de Sancto Donatiano by Jacob Obrecht. I have it on even as I type and work on my weekly column for The Wanderer (to which you can subscribe in electronic form, thus eliminating snail-mail lag time.)
The DVD has a recreation of Holy Mass at the time of composition in Bruges of 1487. It is quite interesting. It is a good reminder that this sacred music has an authentic context: Holy Mass. This music is meant for prayer, not for the concert hall. The Gregorian chant on the DVD is very well executed, as is the polyphony on both. This choir, the Cappella Pratensis, has got game. And the "u"s sung by the priest sacred ministers and choir in responses are rather fun.
The set is also remarkably inexpensive, considering this is a CD and DVD together. You would not make a mistake to get this for yourself sometime or give it as a gift. You can look at it on amazon.com by clicking the image on the right or using the link above.
These your gestures, large and small, buoy me up more than I can say.
I remember at the altar those who have helped. It is a duty and pleasure to pray for benefactors.
Will this DVD play on my USA region DVD player?
By saying music was meant for the Church and not the concert hall are you saying that the Masses of Haydn, Mozart, Schubert et al. were meant for the concert hall and not Holy Mass? It certainly sounds like it when I hear them and is definitely what the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia states.
GregH: Nope. That is not what I am saying. Those Masses were written for Masses, not concerts. Nice try.