Calendar
The Rorate Mass is a beautiful Advent tradition: a votive mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary held before dawn, the altar covered with candles. It opens with the same text as the Fourth Sunday of Advent: ‘Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness‘This year, on the last Saturday of Advent, experience the beauty and stillness of this special service without needing to set your alarm! MOTET Chamber Choir will sing from William Byrd’s Gradualia in an evening concert, amidst Gregorian chant and candlelight in the wonderful acoustic of St Francis of Assisi Church. Here you can escape from the frenzy and the noise of a commercial Christmas and meditate on the mysteries surrounding the virgin birth.This is a free concert with a light reception to follow. Any donations received will go toward the restoration of the tower at St Francis of Assisi Church.
A Festival of Nine Lessons & Carols
Starts at 7 pm, organ prelude starts at 6.30 pm
MOTET Chamber Choir, under the direction of David Poon, is leading the annual Nine Lessons and Carols — a service of readings and music in the tradition of King’s College, Cambridge.
Listen to the choir sing music by John Rutter, Peter Warlock, Malcolm Archer, Harold Darke, Herbert Howells, and David Willcocks in the resonant acoustics of St James’, and join in singing traditional Christmas carols such as Once in Royal David’s City, O Little Town of Bethlehem, The First Nowell, O come, All Ye Faithful, and Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, accompanied on the majestic organ in this historic church.
Organ prelude starts at 6.30 pm. Please RSVP to indicate your intention to attend.
A perennial favourite, MOTET‘s Twelve Days of Christmas concert will present real Carols during real Christmastide, alongside other choral gems that may or may not relate to the saints’ days between 25 Dec and 6 Jan. Enjoy a breadth of music by Byrd, Lassus, Leighton, Rutter, and more!
A perennial favourite, MOTET‘s Twelve Days of Christmas concert will present real Carols during real Christmastide, alongside other choral gems that may or may not relate to the saints’ days between 25 Dec and 6 Jan. Enjoy a breadth of music by Byrd, Lassus, Leighton, Rutter, and more!
This week’s music list:
- Introit: Johannes Eccard, When to the temple Mary went
- Responses: Humphrey Clucas
- Canticles: William Harris, Evening Canticles in A
- Anthem: Charles Wood, O thou the central orb
On the eve of Candlemas, we celebrate the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple, when Simeon met his Saviour and proclaimed the words now sung daily in the Nunc dimittis. Although originally in German, Eccard’s six-part motet describing this joyful occasion has become a staple of English cathedrals. Similarly ubiquitous, Charles Wood’s setting of O thou the central orb plays deeply into the themes of light dispersing dark, joy radiating through the woes of the world, as Simeon’s eyes were opened to Christ and his glory revealed to all peoples.
To close out Epiphanytide, come experience the peace and joy with which Simeon departed the earth, knowing that there is yet hope and light amidst the terrors of the day. Come rest from your labours and be refreshed in the knowledge of better things to come. Come breathe in stillness and beauty and find release from earthly toil and worry. Come share in the 400-year old tradition of Choral Evensong.
Sung by the Cathedral Choir
with the Evensong Choir of St. John’s Sardis (Zachary Power, Director)
Hymns: 17, 132, SNC 43
Responses: Henry Loosemore (c. 1607-70)
Psalm: 34
Canticles: Herbert Howells (1892-1983) Collegium Regale
Anthem: William H. Harris (1883-1973) Faire is the Heaven
The Choir of St. John’s, Shaughnessy will offer the traditional Anglican service of Choral Evensong.
- Introit: Richard Farrant, Hide Not Thou Thy Face
- Responses: Thomas Tomkins
- Canticles: Healey Willan, Fauxbourdon Evening Service
- Anthem: Orlande de Lassus, Amen, amen dico vobis
On the Second Sunday in Lent, we take a more subdued approach to our evening service offerings in keeping with the solemn and austere sensibilities of the season. Richard Farrant and Thomas Tomkins works are highly regarded staples of the English renaissance, and Healey Willan’s renaissance-inspired setting of the canticles draws us further back, steeped in psalm tone melodies over a thousand years old. Orlande de Lassus was one of the most prolific composers of the 16th century, and in his setting of John 5:24, we hear Jesus’ reassurance that, though we are surrounded by death, in him we can have life.
Come deepen your Lenten experience with music spanning the centuries, drawing us back to the time of the early church, and meditate on our still broken world that shares so much heaviness and grief with its former self. Come listen to the words of hope that spring up out of this world and draw us ever towards a more glorious one. Come breathe in stillness and beauty and find release from earthly toil and worry. Come share in the 400-year old tradition of Choral Evensong.
Clara Bow’s role as the plucky shop girl in this 1927 box office hit brought her global fame and made her the first-ever “It Girl”. Bow is magnetic as Betty, who is enamored with the wealthy owner of the department store where she works and determined to catch his attention. Accompanied live by Vancouver Civic Theatres organist Michael Dirk on the historic Wurlitzer organ.
