St. Francis of Assisi & St. Anthony of Padua, Rhymed Offices

Description

Recently recorded at the Basilica of Assisi, the cradle of the Franciscan order, a complete collection of the “Rhymed Offices,” sung by religious communities to bear witness to the miracles and virtues of Saint Francis and Saint Anthony of Padua, has been produced. In the Middle Ages, the Church established the custom of singing original poetic texts during the Hours of the Office (especially Vespers, Matins, and Lauds). Their purpose was to build a narrative linking biblical texts, such as the psalms and canticles, to the deeds and virtues of the saints of the Church. These Offices dedicated to Saint Francis of Assisi and Saint Anthony of Padua are attributed to Brother Julian, a monk, musician, and poet born in Speyer, in Rhineland, between 1175 and 1180. He spent most of his life in Paris. He received the Franciscan orders around 1225 and died in 1250. Saint Francis died in October 1226. A biography was quickly published by Tommaso de Celano, and Julian seems to have drawn inspiration from this text to compose his Offices; these were widely sung in monasteries and convents throughout Europe from 1235 onward. As for the Offices dedicated to Saint Anthony, who died in 1231 and was canonized the following year, they seem to be entirely by Julian’s hand, both in text and music. Julian writes in fluent Latin iambic pentameter and composes in a style increasingly detached from the formulas of plain Gregorian chant, influenced by the contemporary emergence of polyphony, illustrated by the music of Pérotin in works such as Sederunt principes. The musicians and singers of the Nova Schola Gregoriana of Verona have recorded several volumes of Gregorian chant over the course of their forty years of existence, while also performing at major international festivals in Paris, Avignon, and Cremona, and touring Japan and the United States. They also appear on the Brilliant Classics albums devoted to the organ masses of Fasolo, Frescobaldi, and Merulo. Their new interpretation of these meditative offices is of impeccable authenticity, both in style and in text and origin.