Music Notes for September 29

As we celebrate this Sunday the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels we learn more about the ethereal, the powerful, and the enlightened. 

Throughout the Bible the archangels Michael, Gabriel, U’riel, and Ra’pha-el hold a special place as the messengers of God. In the book of Revelation we see Michael as the chief agent of all God's messengers, often depicted with a powerful sword in hand and dazzling raiment. In the music of Michaelmas, or Michael's Mass, we therefore experience these angelic attributes of the ethereal, the powerful, and the enlightened. Michael, as so often depicted, is both power, which we hear in the strong almost march-like rhythms of music such as our Offertory hymn Christ, the Fair Glory of the Holy Angels, and ethereal, which we hear in flowing melodies of music like our mass setting, Missa De Angelis (Mass of the Angels).

In a December 1933 edition of The Caecilia an in-depth analysis of the Missa De Angelis gives great insight into the history of this popular chant setting. A. Gastoue attributes the setting to the Franciscan Order who in the 16th century began to celebrate a weekly service in honour of the Holy Angels. This service used a collection of chants from the 12th, 15th, and 16th centuries that we now know today as the Missa De Angelis. As is the case with so much of our worship music, a great example being our anthem this Sunday, Ave Verum Corpus by Elgar (see my notes from Pentecost 17), the melodies of the Missa De Angelis lived entirely different lives as popular chants before they arranged to fit the text of our mass Ordinary.