This collection of essays, written to commemorate their centenary, celebrates the work of the Plainsong and Mediaeval Music Society. Founded in 1888, the Society quickly established two areas of activity: the propagation of information on medieval music and the revitalization of the Anglican liturgy with the riches of the plainchant of the Roman Rite.

Of the two sides of the Society's activities, the scholarly and the practical, this collection represents the former. The essays reflect the founders' interest in medieval music, both monophonic and polyphonic, and, particularly, their concern with chant. The contributors to this volume are among the most distinguished scholars of medieval music of recent years.

Contributors: David Hiley, Ritva Jacobsson, Michel Huglo, Susan Rankin, Wulf Arlt, Ruth Steiner, David Chadd, Andrew Hughes, John Caldwell, Frank Ll. Harrison, Nick Sandon.

Dancing at the Harvest - Songs by Ray Makeever

for SATB and piano or chamber orchestra This gentle setting of the traditional Welsh lullaby features a new English text by David Warner. An alternative Christmas text is included. The story depicts someone at the end of life who is asking to be led into eternal life. The altos sing the text of the hymn, while the sopranos, tenors, and basses accompany them on "oo." Accessible for most church choirs and suitable for performance throughout the year. An accompaniment for chamber orchestra is available on hire.

For all that has been written about Renaissance Florence we know relatively little about its musical life, its religious life, and the aspirations of its average citizens. This book contributes significantly to all understanding of all of these by documenting and interpreting the corporate patronage of an important Florentine musical repertory over a period of some 200 years. From the late thirteenth to the early sixteenth centuries at least twelve lay confraternities sponsored a widespread musical activity involving a specialized network of singers and instrumentalists. The meticulous records kept by these companies reveal a wealth of information about the musicians' conditions and patterns of activity, the central role of music in the companies' vernacular liturgy (especially as conditioned by bequests), and vital performance practice issues such as the role of instruments in vocal performance, the shift from monophonic to polyphonic practice, and the interaction of written and unwritten musical traditions. Because the companies were, in many respects, both a microcosm and characteristic manifestation of this remarkable Renaissance city, the author also seeks to explain how mendicant spirituality, guild society, and devotional images and imagination provide the essential context for understanding the function and significance of laudesi practice and repertoire. This book well be welcomed not only by musicologists, but by Italianists and late medieval and early modern scholars in general.

This is the first volume of a magisterial survey of English music that charts its development from its beginnings in the early monastic institutions to the rise of 17th-century opera and masque and instrumental music, culminating in the genius of Henry Purcell.

The Royal Abbey of Saint-Denis was founded in honour of Dionysius, one of seven missionaries sent from Rome to Gaul around 250. It grew to be one of the most powerful monasteries in western Christendom and enjoyed a central position in French history as the first Gothic abbey, royal necropolis, and place of origin of the chronicles of the kings. This is a study of the music and ritual at Saint-Denis from the sixth to the sixteenth century. It is based on an examination of the liturgical books and archival sources relating to the abbey, in particular the surviving service-books, which tell us much about the history of the music and of the Divine Office at Saint-Denis. Anne Robertson also looks at the tropes and sequences proper to the office for Saint-Denis, provides information on the performance practices, instruments, musicians, and liturgists from the abbey, and offers an account of the history of the liturgy from the Council of Tours in 567 to the pillage of the abbey by the Huguenots in 1567, thus explicating the extant liturgical codices from Saint-Denis. For the author the ritual and history of the abbey is also inextricably linked to the reconstruction of its various buildings, the decorations of the church, even the monks' ambitions. This is a fascinating and wide-ranging study of this extraordinary institution.

Hermann Scherchan was a distinguished German conductor, described by Norman Del Mar as a `great doyen conductor of contemporary music'.

The venerable Dixie Hummingbirds stand at the top of the black gospel music pantheon as artists who not only significantly shaped that genre but, in the process, also profoundly influenced emerging American pop music genres from Rhythm & Blues and Doo-Wop to Rock 'n' Roll, Soul, and Hip-Hop. Great God A'Mighty! The Dixie Hummingbirds shows how, in a career spanning more than nine decades, they pointed the way from pure a cappella harmony to guitar-driven soul to pop-stardom crossover, collaborating with artists like Stevie Wonder and Paul Simon along the way. Drawing on interviews with founding and quintessential members as well as many of the pop luminaries influenced by the Hummingbirds, author Jerry Zolten tells their story from rising up and out of the segregated South in the twenties and thirties to success on Philadelphia radio and the New York City stage in the forties to grueling tours in the fifties and over the long haul a brilliant recording career that carried well over into the 21st century. The story of the Dixie Hummingbirds is a tale of determined young men who navigated the troubled waters of racial division and the cutthroat business of music on the strength of raw talent, vision, character, and perseverance, and made an indelible name for themselves in American cultural history. This heavily edited 2nd edition features brand new photographs, expanded historical context, and a full new chapter on the Hummigbirds' trajectory up to the 21st century.

This book is the most thorough and extensive history of English parish church music ever published, covering the period from the late middle ages to the present day. Through the ages English parish churches have resounded to all manner of music, ranging from the rich choral polyphony of Henry VIII's or Victoria's reigns to the bare unaccompanied psalm tunes of the seventeenth century. Temperley has found in this neglected field a wealth of fascinating music, as well as a host of intellectual problems to intrigue the scholar. A recurring theme of the book is the conflict between two incompatible goals for Protestant parish church music: artistic performance and popular expression. Professor Temperley suggests that the Elizabethan metrical psalm tunes were survivors of a mode of popular music that preceded the familiar corpus of ballad tunes. Passed on by oral transmission through several generations of unregulated singing, these once lively tunes changed gradually into very slow, quavering chants. This later style, which came to be called 'the old way of singing', is fully described and explained here for the first time. Temperley guides the reader through the complex social, theological and aesthetic movements that played their part in the formation of the late Victorian ideal of the surpliced choir in every chancel, and he makes a fresh assessment of that old bugbear, the Victorian hymn tune. His findings show that the radical liturgical experiments of the last few years have not dislodged the Victorian model for the music of the English parish church.

In Jewish Religious Music in Nineteenth-Century America: Restoring the Synagogue Soundtrack, Judah M. Cohen demonstrates that Jews constructed a robust religious musical conversation in the United States during the mid- to late-19th century. While previous studies of American Jewish music history have looked to Europe as a source of innovation during this time, Cohen's careful analysis of primary archival sources tells a different story. Far from seeing a fallow musical landscape, Cohen finds that Central European Jews in the United States spearheaded a major revision of the sounds and traditions of synagogue music during this period of rapid liturgical change. Focusing on the influences of both individuals and texts, Cohen demonstrates how American Jewish musicians sought to balance artistry and group singing, rather than "progressing" from solo chant to choir and organ. Congregations shifted between musical genres and practices during this period in response to such factors as finances, personnel, and communal cohesiveness. Cohen concludes that the "soundtrack" of 19th-century Jewish American music heavily shapes how we look at Jewish American music and life in the first part of the 21st-century, arguing that how we see, and especially hear, history plays a key role in our understanding of the contemporary world around us. Supplemented with an interactive website that includes the primary source materials, recordings of the music discussed, and a map that highlights the movement of key individuals, Cohen's research defines more clearly the sound of 19th-century American Jewry.

A leading historian of the early church and the best-selling author of Misquoting Jesus, Bart Ehrman offers the first comprehensive account of the newly discovered Gospel of Judas, revealing what this legendary lost gospel contains and why it is so important for our understanding of Christianity. Ehrman recounts the fascinating story of where and how this ancient papyrus document was discovered, how it moved around among antiquities dealers in Egypt, the United States, and Switzerland, and how it came to be restored and translated. More important, Ehrman gives the reader a complete and clear account of what the book teaches and he shows how it relates to other Gospel texts--both those inside the New Testament and those outside of it, most notably, the Gnostic texts of early Christianity. Finally, he describes what we now can say about the historical Judas himself as well as his relationship with Jesus, suggesting that one needs to read between the lines of the early Gospels to see exactly what Judas did and why he did it. The Gospel of Judas presents an entirely new view of Jesus, his disciples, and the man who allegedly betrayed him. It raises many questions and Bart Ehrman provides illuminating and authoritative answers, in a book that will interest anyone curious about the New Testament, the life of Jesus, and the history of Christianity after his death.
"A must for those interested in the subject of early Christianity, this volume will also attract readers intrigued by all the hoopla arising from the discovery of the lost Gospel."
--Booklist
"In typically brilliant fashion, Ehrman tells the lively tale of the modern discovery of the Gospel of Judas and its significance for us today."
--Publishers Weekly

The first exhaustive treatment of Eastern European Jewish music tracing its roots from biblical times through its zenith in the nineteenth century to its decline in the late twentieth century. Sholom Kalib has taken on the crucial task of collecting, analyzing, and systematically presenting in over 160 examples a magnificent tradition to future generations of cantors, scholars of Jewish music, and music enthusiasts worldwide. Traditionally, this body of music was a source of great strength, stability, and inspiration to Eastern European Jews amid the uncertainties and upheavals of their everyday lives. With this volume the author reacquaints acculturated Jews with a vital and largely unknown part of their heritage. Comprehensive in breadth and scope, the book will serve as a standard scholarly reference for musicians, cantors, and musicologists.

This hardbound full score is presented in a slip-case embellished with William Walton's signature in gold. William Walton signed the title pages of 350 copies, of which only a handful are still left in OUP's stock. An oratorio for baritone soloist, mixed chorus, and orchestra, using text from the Bible selected by Osbert Sitwell Orchestral material is available on hire

The traditional edition of the English Hymnal, this volume includes the very best hymnody from medieval plain chant to the early twentieth-century classics. The hymns are grouped according to theme and contain material suitable for any festival or occasion in the life of a church.

This text includes both traditional and new carols that have become popular through radio, TV or schools; black music; Taize; pop music; and music from modern composers. It includes the three extra verses of Silent Night, discovered in 1997.

Anyone who has used Cynthia Cowen's resources knows that they have the following characteristics:
They are complete -- everything you need is here.
They require little preparation, rehearsal, or props.
They are theologically sound and spiritually uplifting.
Many churches have discovered recently that families wish to include worship in the festivities of their Christmas day. This is the perfect way to do it without requiring a lot of work.
It's all here: call to worship, Christmas carols, litanies, meditations, scripture readings, and more
Cynthia E. Cowen is a Christian resource writer and liturgical evangelist. She has written and published numerous programs for women, youth, and special congregational events. She holds a B.A. degree in education from Northern Michigan University and has completed requirements for certification as an Associate in Ministry in the ELCA. She is a former member of the Board of Directors of the ELCA Board of Publications and is president of the Northern Great Lakes Synodical Women's Organization Executive Board.

Music in the California missions was a pluralistic combination of voices and instruments, of liturgy and spectacle, of styles and functions - and even of cultures - in a new blend that was non-existent before the Franciscan friars made their way to California beginning in 1769. From Serra to Sancho explores the exquisite sacred music that flourished on the West Coast of the United States when it was under Spanish and Mexican rule, delving into the historical, cultural, biographical, and stylistic aspects of California mission music during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Author Craig H. Russell examines how mellifluous plainchant, reverent hymns, spunky folkloric ditties, "classical" music in the style of Haydn, and even Native American drumming were interwoven into a tapestry of resonant beauty. In addition to extensive musical and cultural analysis, Russell draws upon hundreds of primary documents in California, Mexico, Madrid, Barcelona, London, and Mallorca. It is through the melding together of this information from geographically separated places that he brings the mystery of California's mission music into sharper focus. Russell's groundbreaking study sheds new light on the cultural exchange that took place in the colonial United States, as well as on the pervasive worldwide influence of Iberian music as a whole.

"Two Tenebrae Readings and Services" provides pastors and congregations with dramatic ways to remember the Passion of the Lord.
Tenebrae I - 9 reading parts
Tenebrae II - 12 reading parts
Parts are simple enough for young people and adults. They are creatively drawn from the Bible narratives and present realistic human responses from those who would be his disciples.
These resources require very little preparation. They were conducted in the author's congregation by calling the readers together an hour before the service.
Richard A. Dinges has been an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ since 1978. He has an M.Div. degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Massachusetts. He has served churches in California, Massachusetts, and West Virginia. Currently he is working to establish a Christian Healing Center in West Virginia for the promotion of healing and peace.

Johann Sebastian Bach is one of the most unfathomable composers in the history of music. How can such sublime work have been produced by a man who seems so ordinary, so opaque - and occasionally so intemperate? In this remarkable book, John Eliot Gardiner distils the fruits of a lifetime's immersion as one of Bach's greatest living interpreters. Explaining in wonderful detail how Bach worked and how his music achieves its effects, he also takes us as deeply into Bach's works and mind as perhaps words can. The result is a unique book about one of the greatest of all creative artists.

Musical activity is one of the most ubiquitous and highly valued forms of social interaction in North America (to say nothing of world over), being engaged from sporting events to political rallies, concerts to churches. Moreover, music's use as an affective agent for political and religious programs suggests that it has ethical significance. Indeed, many have said as much. It is surprising then that music's ethical significance remains one of the most undertheorized aspects of both moral philosophy and music scholarship. Music for Others: Care, Justice, and Relational Ethics in Christian Music fills part of this scholarly gap by focusing on the religious aspects of musical activity, particularly on the practices of Christian communities. Based on ethnomusicological fieldwork at three Protestant churches and a group of seminary students studying in an immersion course at South by Southwest (SXSW), and synthesizing theories of discourse, formation, and care ethics oriented towards restorative justice, it first argues that relationships are ontological for both human beings and musical activity. It further argues that musical meaning and emotion converge in human bodies such that music participates in personal and communal identity construction in affective ways-yet these constructions are not always just. Thus, considering these aspects of music's ways of being in the world, Music for Others finally argues that music is ethical when it preserves people in and restores people to just relationships with each other, and thereby with God.

Dieser Band enthalt die Berichte des internationalen Kongresses Musik aus Kloestern des Alpenraums (Universitat Freiburg i. Ue., 23.-24. November 2007), der eine erste Gelegenheit der Auseinandersetzung und des Zusammentreffens von Spezialisten und Forschern bot, die die Prasenz, Rolle und Bedeutung der Musik in Kloestern des Alpenraums vom 17.-19. Jahrhundert untersuchen. Zu Unrecht von der Wissenschaft vernachlassigt, stellt das musikalische Leben in den Kloestern des Alpenraums ein enormes Interessenpotential dar. Studien zur Musikkultur, der Beschaffung und Zirkulation von Musikquellen, zur internen Produktion und den musikalischen Auffuhrungspraxen im Rahmen der verschiedenen liturgischen Kontexte, zur Bestellung von Vertonungen bei 'externen' Komponisten und zu den Musikalienbestanden der religioesen Institutionen - von Kriegen verschont und daher einzigartig und von unschatzbarem historischen Wert - zeigen sehr deutlich den ganzen Reichtum dieses unerforschten Wissenschaftsgebietes.