Music for Presentation of Our Lord at the Temple

This Sunday’s liturgy features a setting of the Mass ordinaries (including the Gloria) penned by Costanzo Porta, known in his late lifetime as one of the most astute composers of strict counterpoint in southern Europe. As a young man, Porta trained as an apprentice at the Basilica of St. Mark in Venice, under Adrian Willaert, a master of the Franco-Flemish style who stayed in Italy at the end of his life. At the Basilica, Porta became acquainted with the organists, Andrea Gabrieli and Claudio Merulo, the latter of whom he befriended and corresponded with until his death. Born of a rather exceptional period in the development of western music, one detects a remarkable balance in Porta’s musical style: between florid polyphony and textual clarity; between the bold motives of his Franco-Flemish tutelage with the reserved charm of the Italian school; as well as the influence of keyboard styles such as the canzona and capriccio.

The musicians of St. Mark’s developed a style of lavish concerted music sung and played by choirs and ensembles of trombones, strings, and cornetti placed in the various galleries of St. Mark’s. As the best musicians from the north moved to work in Venice, so Venetian style extended its reach into neighbouring regions, notably southern Germany and Prussia. The sacred music of Johannes Eccard (conductor at the Prussian court by 1599) bears such resemblances, although it is written with greater emphasis on textual clarity, describing the story of the Presentation of Jesus to Simeon.

The story of Simeon continues in the offertory hymn written by English Bishop and noted hymodist Timothy Dudley-Smith. The text forms a rhyming paraphrase of the proclamation by Simeon in the Nunc dimittis – it is fascinating that of the dozens of hymns Dudley-Smith wrote, this and his paraphrase of the other evening canticle (Magnificat anima mea) “Tell Out My Soul” are the two most often sung today.

Abraham Ross

Solemn Mass takes place at St. James’ Anglican Church, Vancouver at 10:30 am every Sunday.