The Arc of Life: Penitential Psalms and More
This spring, the Ann Arbor Grail Singers will present an unusual program on the arc of life, in chant and polyphony.
Director of the choir’s spring 2023 program is Jacob Carroll, with Sylvie Tran as Assistant Director. The choir will be accompanied by a consort of viols (May 19 and 20) or a string trio of Baroque violin and viols (June 4). Instrumentalists are Arnie Tanimoto, treble viol; Lily Schrantz, tenor viol, Jamie Gallupe, bass viol, and Phoebe Gelzer-Govatos, Baroque violin.
Friday, May 19, 2023
7:30 p.m.
Congregational Church of Birmingham, UCC
1000 Cranbrook Rd
Bloomfield Hills MI 48304
Saturday, May 20, 2023
7:30 p.m.
Christ Church Grosse Pointe
61 Grosse Pointe Blvd
Grosse Pointe Farms MI 48236
Sunday, June 4, 2023
4:00 p.m.
St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church
306 N Division St
Ann Arbor MI 48104
Tickets $15 General / $12 Seniors / $5 Students.
Available at the door an hour before each performance; cash or checks only, please.
Safety precautions: Masks are respected but not expected.
For more information, email AnnArborGrailSingers@gmail.com or call 734-662-0631.
About the Program
Our program highlights major life events as they would be recognized in the Traditional Latin Mass, also known as the Tridentine Mass — so named for the influence of the Council of Trent on the Catholic Counter-Reformation movement in the 16th century.
This concept is reflected in two ways throughout. First, we hear it through carefully selected chants that people attending the Tridentine Mass would have heard or sung throughout their lives. The chants highlight major events from Catholic liturgy: the conception of Jesus, baptism, a prayer for resilience, the wedding mass, and the absolution and burial procession for the dead.
The second reflection, and the largest component of the program, comes through William Byrd’s 1589 setting of the seven Penitential Psalms. These psalms have a long history within the Catholic Church as a means of confession, having been utilized as early as the scholar Origen (ca. 184–253 AD). The penitential psalms were also assigned to new clerics after receiving their tonsure, until the practice of tonsure was abolished in the twentieth century.
Throughout the program there are several introductions to, and reflections on, the chants and the Byrd settings. They include an early example of polyphony, Pérotin’s Viderunt Omnes, with text that is historically sung at the Christmas Day Mass. Also included are two modern perspectives: one on the duality of man by Moira Smiley, and the other on expectant love by David Lang.
Included in the second half of the program is another reflection: Suor Leonora d’Este’s prayerful and introspective motet “Angeli, archangeli, troni,” which appears in d’Este’s collection of motets, Musica quinque vocum (16th century). Its text is a prayer from the Litany of the Saints.
D’Este, who was a daughter of Lucrezia Borgia, would have heard the Litany at various times throughout the year; in Roman Catholic liturgy, it is especially prominent during the Feast of All Saints and the Easter Vigil, among other occasions. The prayer invokes the entire company of saints to intercede for believers still living on earth.
Throughout the concert program, we invite our audience to use this example of an “arc of life” as a starting point to reflect on their own unique journey in relation to the larger traditions with which they find community.