Cum Jubilo

We missed the session last week, Alan was busy translating and I had a weird two-day virus.

This week, six of us met in the Hall. We began with the prayers for the Pope, despite one complaint that at 7.30pm we were too late. I claimed that we could consider that the Pope stood down at 8.00pm our time, rather than half an hour ago.

Jack told us that he had recently had his DNA sampled and had learned about his family lineage. Everything from the Middle East to Southern Spain. One part included the note that a particular strain of his DNA was common among people with his surname. Amazing.

We had several updates. Alan had news about the Festival Fringe and I had updates about the Holy Rude. They were very helpful and offered us the chance to sing Vespers or similar while they are open for visiting, starting in May. We think that we might be ready by June.

We sang the Missa de Angelis in preparation for the Latin Mass on Sunday. My first effort was too much wide-mouthed frog and Alan had us try again with smaller mouths. He encouraged us to make the music flow up and down to match the shapes of the notes.

For the Creed, we worked on breathing to make 'et propter....de caelis' and 'Et in Spiritum Sanctum....vivificantem' in one breath. In the section on baptism, we should sing Conf-ee-teor.

In the Sanctus, Alan had us pronounce excelsis as if it read egg-shells (as we did in the Gloria). We practised the pause after the third note in the third Sanctus, just before the highest note in the 'Scandicus'. The pause is repeated before the high note in the Saah of Sabaot(h) and in the two excelcis.

We sang Ave Regina caelorum, working on softening the end of each phrase. This sounded much better than our first attempt.

Alan had brought a new Mass setting, Missa 'Cum Jubilo' Ordinary IX. It is in Mode I, which he described as 'What shall we do with the Drunken Sailor'. Here are the notes and the music:

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Missa 'Cum Jubilo' (with Joyfulness/Jubilation) is used for Masses on the feasts of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

We spoke about the Cardinal but knew only what we had read. It wasn't very Joyful.