Hoc est praeceptum meum

Currently on repeat in my head: this gorgeous piece by Francisco Guerrero (sung by The Advent Choir a few years back with yours truly on S1)!

The Advent Choir, Boston · Guerrero-Hoc est præceptum meum / The Advent Choir

Hoc est præceptum meum -- Francisco Guerrero (1528-1599) / The Advent Choir / Jeremy Bruns, conductor /

Hoc est præceptum meum ut diligatis invicem sicut dilexi vos. Maiorem charitatem nemo habet ut animam suam ponat quis pro amicis suis. Vos amici mei estis si feceritis quæ præcipio vobis. Vos autem dixi amicos quia omnia quæcumque audivi a Patre meo nota feci vobis.

This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you; I have made known to you all that my Father has told me, and so I have called you my friends.
(John 15:12-14,15b)

Rorate caeli

A Byrd motet for the season of Advent, sung by the Choir of the Church of the Advent two years ago.

The Advent Choir, Boston · Byrd-Rorate cæli desuper / The Advent Choir

Ainsi qu'on oit le cerf bruire

Psalm 42 has inspired some of choral music’s best moments (“like as the hart”, “as the deer”, “sicut cervus”), but this setting, sung by The Advent Choir a few weeks ago, is probably my favorite of all time.

Missa Ecce ancilla Domini

Nothing like an epic Dufay mass setting to break up mid-winter lethargy!

Mundy Te Deum

Sang this yesterday for Trinity Sunday at Church of the Advent. It definitely lives up to its “for trebles” designation!

Vruechten - Sacred or Secular?

An Early Music Monday post for Easter Monday - have you ever noticed how many of the songs used in religious liturgies have Renaissance or Baroque origins? Or aren’t actually sacred at all? This is one of those, and my personal favorite of all the hymns for Easter.

From Mark Dwyer, Organist and Choirmaster:

VRUECHTEN is originally a seventeenth-century Dutch folk tune for the love song "De liefde Voortgebracht." It became a hymn tune in Joachim Oudaen's David's Psalmen (1685) as a setting for "Hoe groot de vruechten zijn." The tune is distinguished by the rising sequences in the refrain, which provide a fitting word painting for "arisen." Sung with athletic enthusiasm by the congregation of The Church of the Advent, the organist provides an improvisation as the altar is censed at the Offertory of the First Mass of Easter.