Mono- and Polyphonic Liturgical Chants in Honour of the Holy Cross

Veneration of the Cross disseminated through the Eastern and Western churches: believers approached it with wonder and love, and asked for its protection. The liturgical celebration of the Cross was first and foremost linked to Good Friday, but later the Cross was given two feastdays of its own: first on 14 September (the Exaltation of the Cross) and later on 3 May (the Invention of the Cross).
The different eras of veneration of the Cross are clearly reflected in the feastday chants. The oldest chants address Christ, giving thanks for redemption and praising the cross as the tool of redemption. Another group tells the story of Constantine the Great who, the night before the decisive battle with his co-emperor, had a vision telling him 'in this sign will you be victorious'. The chants also include the story of how three crosses were found on Calvary; which of the three was Christ's. A third group of chants praises the sign of the cross, and asks for its protection.
Veneration of the Holy Cross influenced music history in its entirety. This thematic disc is thus a kind of cross-section of the history of liturgical chant. Chants praising it can be found in the old liturgy of the Eastern Orthodox church, while in the west they first appeared in the Good Friday rituals. The Old Latin rites.
The second group of movements is drawn from the old mass movements for the feast of the Holy Cross.
The third group of movements is a medieval curiosity. At variance with the custom of the Roman church (perhaps in the Celtic churches), some mass movements were set to texts drawn not from Biblical sources, but from legends. In the Introitus even the verse of the psalm is replaced by such an excerpt; the Offertory is notable for its extreme length and its melodic style, which contrasts with Gregorian chant. The Communion after them is a Hungarian rarity.
The fourth group of movements draws on late Gregorian chant, using material in Hungarian codexes.

Track Listing

• Beneventan antiphons for the Exaltation of the Cross, on Good Friday
• Responsory for the Feast of the Holy Cross (to an Old Roman melody)
• Ambrosian Ingressa and Transitorium for the feast of the Holy Cross
• O crux (for three voices)
• Introit with tropes
• Alleluia with sequence
• O crux splendidior (for six voices)
• Offertory
• Communion
• Haec est arbor dignissima
• Introit
• Offertory
• Communion
• O crux benedicta
• Antiphon
• Responsory
• Crucem sanctam
• Antiphon series for the Feast of the Holy Cross
• Adoramus te Christe

Additional Details

Label: BMC Records

Genre: Classical

Run Time: 64 mins

Release Date: 12/10/13

UPC: 5998309302060