The group of seven ‘Penitential Psalms’ (psalms 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130 and 143 in the Hebrew numbering) have been recommended for devotions since as early as the time of St Augustine in the fifth century. They have often been prescribed by the Church for Ash Wednesday and for other times during Lent and […]
Category: New Year 2021
Posts from December 2020
Corelli transformed
Arcangelo Corelli’s music was the first in European history to go viral. This was caused by the wide dissemination of his twelve violin sonatas—a collection first printed in 1700 and republished in more than forty editions in the eighteenth century alone—that built on the popularity of his earlier collections of trio sonatas. His concertos published […]
Consorts unchained!
These lyrics, from Come, ye sons of art, away, the birthday ode for Queen Mary of 1694, are an exhortation to use instruments overtly and powerfully — as Henry Purcell himself demonstrates in his setting. That prescient call would have struck home for its modernity, doubtless more than we can appreciate today. Strike the viol! […]
A precarious new dawn
Handel’s metaphysical sunrise, ‘Eternal source of light divine’, with its shimmering, breathtaking beauty, is my best choice of music for today, 20 January 2021, when the USA wakes to the new dawn of the beginning of the new presidential term. People of goodwill throughout the world are welcoming the inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala […]
O joy, and joyful happy day!
Today, 6 January 2021 (the twelfth day of Christmas), those who have lived through and suffered from the tyranny and injustice propagated by Trump’s corrupt administration and its enablers in the Republican Party may breathe sighs of relief and new hope. After the cruel separation of infants from immigrant families, the racist voter suppression, the […]
Hope is arriving!
During Advent in 2020 we’ve experienced the stark contrast between increasing gloom — the worsening reach of the pandemic, severe political crises, economic dire straits, our separation from family and friends — and new-found hope now that vaccines are becoming available after the amazing scientific success that produced them. “Help is coming!” say our public-health […]