Call to Worship VIVA VIVALDI A Service by Fritz Hudson & the USNH Choir Presented December 7, 2014 The Gods, who have been appointed to be our companions in the dance, have give the pleasurable sense of harmony and rhythm; and so they stir us into life, and we follow them, joining hands together in dances and songs; and these they call choruses. Plato, Greek Philosopher 4 th Century Before the Common Era Chalice Lighting It is a joy to give thanks, to sing thy praise, O thou Most High; to proclaim thy goodness in the morning, and thy faithfulness by night, to the music of the lute and the harp, to the melody of the lyre. For all the works of thy hands, I sing for joy. Psalm 92 Song #226 People Look East Chorale: I. Gloria in excelsis Deo Fore-Words "Music is the greatest treasure in the world." Martin Luther wrote these words. The year was 1538. At age 55, Luther was well-established in Wittenburg as head of the German state church. He wrote the words as part of a Foreword for a collection of 53 chorale motets, most in Latin, written by the "ancient masters" of his time. In that same year, Luther composed his own choral setting for the best known prayer in Christendom, the "Lord's Prayer" or the "Our Father." Like Martin Luther, Antonio Vivaldi as a young man was called into the Roman Catholic priesthood. He lived a century and a half after Luther, and 600 hundred miles to the south, in Venice, Italy. He headed no church. Rather his home base throughout his life was the Ospedele della Pieta, a well-provisioned home for the female children born out of wedlock from Venetian noblemen's dalliances with mistresses. Most of his works were performed, first, by the young women of the Ospedele. He began there as Violin Teacher and rose to be appointed Music Director. Our "Gloria" today Vivaldi composed in 1715, the year before he became Music Director. It was the second of three choral settings Vivaldi composed for this prayer. "Music is the greatest treasure in the world." Martin Luther did write those words, but to say only these words misrepresents Luther's contention and his profound faith. His full sentence, in the Forward was: "Next to the Word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world." (Martin Luther. Foreword to Georg Rhau's Collection, "Symphoniae iucundae") 1
In all Christendom, the gospels, the good news attributed to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, are the Most Godly of God's Words. The "Our Father" is recorded as taught by Jesus in two of the gospels: Matthew's and Luke's. The "Gloria" begins with words recorded only by Luke. Who thinks they know who said them (raise hands). Luke says, "There were shepherds out in the field.... An angel of the Lord appeared to them... and said.. 'To you is born this day, in the City of David, a Savior'... And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host saying 'Glory to God in the highest - Gloria in excelseis Deo.." Don't they (the choir) sound like a multitude of heavenly host? Who thought correctly that you knew who said the words? (raise hands) The heavenly host went on, Luke records: "And on earth peace to people of good will." Et in terra pax hominibus, bonae voluntatis." That's where their words, the Word of God, stops. The prayer though, the text of our Gloria, goes further. Its next words are: Laudamus te, benedicimus te, Adoramus te, Glorificamus te We praise you, we bless you, we adore you, we glorify you. Whose words are these? We'll return to that question in a few moments. But first let's hear the heavenly host sing them, both sets of words, whose-ever they may be. Chorale: II. Et in terra pax hominibus III. Laudamus te Connection and Meditation To live content with small means; To seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; To listen to stars and birds, to babes and sages, with an open heart; To let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common. This is to be my symphony. Willam Henry Channing, Unitarian Minister of the 19 th Century Best known for his service during the Civil War to our Church in Washington DC We welcome all among us whose spirits soar and whose spirits have been stretched this week. We are in a listening mode in today's service. We are in a mode when words come in song, and a made beautiful by the rests, the silences, which surround them. I know, we know, there are triumphs and tears among us. I know, we know, there is joy and there is sorrow. Would anyone be willing to trust us, in silence, just to know that this has been a painful week for you or for someone you love? Would you be willing to raise your hand so that I and others may know and perhaps speak with you of your pain later today? Thank you. Would anyone be willing to trusts us, in silence, just to know that this has been a joyfull week for you or for someone you love? Would you be willing to raise your hand so that I and others may know and perhaps speak with you of your pain later today? Thank you. Let us take our rest. Let us make a long silence amidst our words and our song. Let us let the silence fill as it will, within us, with whatever intimations of essential being and ultimate concern may come. Silence Thank you for your presence. 2
Let us listen now to someone's prayer, perhaps yours, perhaps not, both equally welcome. We give thanks to you For your great glory Lord God, heavenly King, God almighty Father Gratias agimus tibi Propter magnam gloriam tuam Domine Deus, rex coelestis, Deus pater omnipotens. Chorale: IV. Gratias agimus tibi V. Propter magnam gloriam VI. Domine Deus Intra-Words Whose prayer is this? In Vivaldi's time, in Luther's time, all these words were firmly fused and fixed as the opening of the Roman Christian community's weekly worship the Mass. Pope Symmachus placed this prayer there during his reign 489 to 514 Anno Dominus. The Latin was composed 150 years before then, usually attributed to Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers, now in west central France. But Hilary was translating those words from Greek. He traveled to the East, and may well have heard them there, for by the 3 rd Century they had become fused and fixed in the morning rite of the Byzantine church. But before then whose were they? In Greek texts in from the 2 nd and 3 rd century, the phrases turn up in a variety of places, but they are separated from one another. In general, we may say that the prayer was seeded and grew from what are now called "private psalms" in Latin psalmi idiotici. Individuals, early churchmen and women, composed them to imitate the ancient psalms, the songs, of the Jewish scripture. These words, at least in seed, were being spoken when the early Church found God's Words in the writings of Matthew and Luke. But the "Gloria" phrases were not included in the canon. Then, they were deemed to be just the words, the songs, of their very human authors, psalmi idiotici, idiosyncratic songs, you might say. Listen now as they strain to capture, to image, the power of God as they felt him to have come among them as the man Jesus. Lord, Only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us... hear our prayer. Who sits at the Father's right hand, have mercy on us Domine fili unigente, Jesu Christe Qui tolis peccata mundi, miserere nobis, suscipe deprecationem nostram. Qui sedes ad dexteram patris, Miserere nobis Chorale: VII. Domine Fili Unigenite IX. Qui tollis peccata mundi X. Qui sedes ad dexteram Intra-Words How does God speak to us? How do we speak to God? We can recast these questions: 3
- How does the power which engenders and sustains our existence become apprehensible, comprehensible, to us. - How do we engage with, align ourselves with partner with that power? Martin Luther thought we do so most effectively in music. He wrote: (W)hen one voice sings a simple melody, while three, four, or five other voices play and trip lustily around the voice... and adorn this simple melody wonderfully with artistic musical effects... (w)e marvel.... It remind(s) us of a heavenly dance, where all meet in a spirit of friendliness, caress and embrace. He went on: A person who gives this some thought and yet does not regard music as a marvelous creation of God, must be a clodhopper indeed. (He) does not deserve to be called a human being; he should be permitted to hear nothing but the braying of asses and the grunting of hogs." (Foreword to Georg Rhau's Collection, "Symphoniae iucundae") Luther knew how to make his point, in words. Antonio Vivaldi made his points best, I think, in music. When he chose words through which to deliver his music, most of those words came to him through the church of his culture, and the faith it carried. God in that tradition spoke through a man, Jesus. And we, in that tradition, speak to God as a King, as a Lord, as an Almighty Father. To humanize those words, to make them in some sense my own, I find it helpful to imagine myself hearing them, singing them, with those for whom Vivaldi actually wrote them, with the young women of Ospedele della Pieta - beautiful, basterdized, brave beyond words. If you need more help than that to connect with the faith and spirit of Antonio Vivaldi in this season, I have another suggestion for you. I did it late last night. You can do it as soon as you're able to access an electronic recording. Call up the work, perhaps the only work, for which Antonio Vivaldi is better known: His violin concerti, The Four Seasons. Listen to the last "Winter." These concerti were set to words as well four sonnets. No one knows who wrote them. I like to think the composer did himself. Winter, the sonnet, in English goes: Shivering, frozen mid the frosty snow in biting, stinging winds; running to and fro to stamp one's icy feet, teeth chattering in the bitter chill. To rest contentedly beside the hearth, while those outside are drenched by pouring rain. We tread the icy path slowly and cautiously, for fear of tripping and falling.... We feel the chill north winds coarse through the home despite the locked and bolted doors This is winter, which nonetheless brings its own delights. If these notes help, add them to your ears. If they get in the way, let them go. Let us listen now to our heavenly host close our psalmi idiotici: For you alone are holy. You alone are Lord. You alone are the most High, Jesus Christ. With the Holy Spirit, to the glory of God, the Father, Amen Quoniam tu solus sanctus, tu solus Dominus, tu solus altissimus, Jesu Christe. Cum Sancto Spiritu, in gloria Dei patris. Amen. 4
Chorale: XI. Quoniam tu solus sanctus XII. Cum Sancto Spiritu Benediction Thou whose harmony is the music of the spheres, by our presence here with one another, in thy presence, may some of the harshness and discord of our human lives be transmuted into music. A new song in our hearts may there be, and new harmony in our beings, so that we shall return to our several duties with fresh courage, and with eagerness and with rejoicing David Rankin Unitarian Universalist Minister of the 20 th Century 5