December 26th, 2005 at 4:13 pm
Last week I got an early Christmas present from my parents: Lutheran Mass for Christmas Morning, by Michael Praetorius, performed by Gabrieli Consort & Players and directed by Paul McCreesh.
The performance is listed first among Rev. Cwirla’s Favorite Christmas Recordings, and even if he doesn’t rank his choices accordingly, this still should be first. It is amazing music, with parts performed by various groups and soloists in a would-be congregation.
The amount of singing for everything (except, I suppose, the sermon) is amazing to me. Some of those who favor a “contemporary” music worship “style” cite that the old “liturgy” is boring. It is worth examining which liturgy they are talking about before we are ready to concede the point. This is less “boring” than most spoken liturgy.
My favorite track is the congregational singing of the Gradual hymn, “Vom Himmel hoch da komm ich her”, a.k.a. “From Heaven Above to Earth I Come”. I don’t know much German, but the back-and-forth between soloists, choirs, and congregation backed by a monstrous pipe organ is enjoyable anyway.
Check out the samples on Amazon.com.
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February 2nd, 2006 at 8:44 am
[...] The CD is not one that someone sits back and “enjoys” like a normal music CD. If one enjoys sermons or talk radio they may enjoy the readings from the Small Catechism. I liked the music but found myself longing for large choir or congregational fullness—spoiled by Roskilde’s Congregational Choir in the Christmas Mass, I suppose. [...]
July 1st, 2006 at 3:05 pm
[...] Martin Luther und die Musik has good performances and is well recorded; some CDs like Praetorius’ Christmas Mass sound like the gain has been cranked too much on the microphone. Only a few of the eighteen tracks are hymns I recognized. “Ein Feste Burg” (”A Mighty Fortress”) is strong, but “Vater Unser” (”Our Father Who In Heaven Above”) and “Wir gläuben all an einen Gott” (”We All Believe in One True God”) are single stanza organ instrumentals. An Amazon reviewer recommends getting it for “Beati Immaculati”, and I agree, the running cadences are beautiful. For congregational singing of familiar hymns, though, I was forced to look elsewhere. [...]
December 20th, 2007 at 11:51 pm
[...] do watch too much TV — they can quote a ton of stuff — but they also get their share of Praetorius, Enya, Sunny 95 Christmas radio, and piano time, of [...]