FROM DR. DAVID HURD: THE CHOIR OF SAINT MARY’S 2022-2023

For most of the documented history of the Church, singing has been integral to its gatherings for worship. We at Saint Mary the Virgin, where Solemn Mass is the primary Sunday morning expression, have experienced on a week-by-week basis and participated in the great song of faith which has been offered in praise and thanksgiving through the ages to the Giver of all gifts. From anonymous ancient chants, emerging from the earliest Christian adaptations of Jewish song, through to the present, the Church’s life of worship has found distinctive and varied musical expression. The choir of Saint Mary’s is a remarkable octet of professional musicians with whom I have been privileged to work in the past six years as we offer a sample of this vast and ever-growing repertory of the Church’s ongoing devotional life. The choir’s core membership of eight singers also continues to evolve. This season we welcome three new members, and I am pleased to introduce them to you.  

Joining Joy Tamayo in the soprano section this season is Emma Daniels. Emma is a conductor, composer, and soprano originally from Chicago. She is the Music Director of Philomusica Concert Choir and a founding member of Triad: Boston’s Choral Collective, an organization made up of singers, composers, and conductors who share artistic responsibility and perform new music. Today, she sings, conducts, and composes with C4: the Choral Composer/Conductor Collective here in New York, the choir after which Triad was modeled. Emma’s compositions have been performed by Triad: Boston’s Choral Collective, Westminster Chapel Choir, Tufts Chamber Singers, and other college, synagogue, and church choirs from Boston to Los Angeles. As a vocalist, she has performed both solo and ensemble work in the Midwest and on the East Coast, including with Saint Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Wilton, Connecticut; Saint James Cathedral Choir of Chicago; Philadelphia Symphonic Choir; Princeton Society of Musical Amateurs; and Hans Zimmer Live US Tour. Emma holds an MM in Choral Conducting from Westminster Choir College and a BA in Music from Tufts University. 

Joining Christopher Howatt in the tenor section is James Ruff. James has performed as tenor soloist with such early music groups as the Handel and Haydn Society, Newberry Consort, King’s Noyse, Aradia Ensemble, New York Collegium, Early Music New York, and Music of the Baroque. He has toured the U.S. and abroad singing the title role in the medieval Play of Daniel with EMNY and GEMS. He has sung at the Spoleto Festival/Italy, the Tanglewood, Ravinia and Rockport Chamber Music Festivals, the Boston and the Connecticut Early Music Festivals. He has been featured with the New York City Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Saint Louis Opera, and the Boston Academy of Music. Since 2005, James has focused his energies on researching and performing the early repertoires of Scottish Gaelic Song and the Early Gaelic Wire Harp—the “Classical Music of the Gael”—as well as learning the Scottish Gaelic language. He has presented concerts of this music at the Scoil na gCláirseach Festival of Early Irish Harp in Kilkenny, Ireland—where he has taught since 2017, Boston Early Music Festival Fringe, Gotham Early Music Scene Midtown Concerts, Beacon Hill Concerts, Stone Church Arts Concert Series, and the Mount Holyoke and Vassar College Concert Series. He has won awards for Gaelic singing at the US National and the ACGA North Carolina Gaelic Mòd, and the Royal National Mòd in Scotland. His 2018 recording “The Gaels’ Honour: Early Music for Harp and Voice form Gaelic Scotland and Ireland” showcases this music. James has taught voice at Vassar College since 2008, and also teaches voice and harp privately. Click here for his webpage.

Joining Muir Ingliss in the bass section is bass-baritone Jonathan Mark Roberts. Jonathan has performed over two dozen principal roles and solo masterworks from the sixteenth century to world premieres. Selected appearances include Opera du Périgord, France; the Kapitelsaal, Salzburg; the Mois Molière festival, Versailles; the Boston Early Music Festival Fringe; Emmanuel Music; and the Celebrity Series at Boston Opera House. Jonathan was previously soloist and artist-in-residence at the First Unitarian Society in Newton and has performed with renowned New York ensembles including the Choral Society of Grace Church, C4, and the Canticum Novum singers. He is a two-time New Jersey Governors Award recipient and a finalist in the Grand Concours de Chant, Austin, Texas. Jonathan is a graduate of Harvard College, where he was a Choir Secretary and Choral Fellow with the Harvard University Choir. He joined Saint Mary’s choir in October 2022. 

Daniel Castellanos has sung in the tenor section of the Choir of Saint Mary’s since the fall of 2018. This season he will join Kirsten Ott in the alto section as a countertenor.  

So, the roster of the choir this season is as follows: 

Emma Daniels 
Joy Tamayo 
Kirsten Ott 
Daniel Santiago Castellanos 
James Ruff 
Christopher Howatt 
Muir Ingliss 
Jonathan Roberts 

I am happy to recognize our continuing choir members, whose profiles have been shared in the past when they have served as cantor at Solemn Mass, and to welcome our new members. May we all continue to experience together a great richness of worship expressed in music. — DJH 

THE PARISH PRAYER LIST

We pray for those who are sick and for those in any need or trouble. We pray for those celebrating birthdays and anniversaries this week; for those living with drought, storm, flood, fire, and earthquake; and we pray especially for Marilyn, Gloria, Lourdes, Samantha, Nora, Emily, Theodore, Michael, Joyce, Brad, Frank, Loretta, Clark, David, Penny, Gigi, Julie, Carole, Helga, Gina, Maria, Pat, Ava-Grace, Charlotte, Greg, Eric, Carlos, Christopher, Luis, Barbara, Shalim, Greta, Liduvina, Quincy, Laverne, and Abraham; Lind, deacon; and Matthew, Scott, Rick, and Tony, priests.

We give thanks for God’s many blessings, especially for the gifts of life; of abundance; of prayer; of music, art, and beauty; of this parish community; and for the many volunteers—both members and friends of this parish—who gave of their time this week in support of this parish’s ministries.

We pray for those who have been called to elect a bishop coadjutor for the Diocese of New York.

We pray for the members of the Discernment Committee who have been asked to search for a new rector for Saint Mary’s

STEWARDSHIP UPDATE

As of November 22, we have received 53 pledge cards for a total of $285,011, which represents 71% of our $400,000 goal. Your pledge is a way that you can actively support the spiritual work we do to make Christ present and to provide meaning to all who worship here or value our worship and outreach. Click here to submit your pledge online.

THIS WEEK AT SAINT MARY’S

Saturday, December 3, The Election of a Bishop Coadjutor for the Diocese of New York. Saint Mary’s will be represented by Father Smith, Father Jacobson, Mrs. Grace Mudd, and Ms. Mary Robison. Father Sammy Wood is not canonically resident in the diocese and is not eligible to vote. He will, however, be at Saint Mary’s that day, leading the Advent Quiet Day.

Saturday, December 3, 9:30 AM to 2:30 PM, Advent Quiet Day: “All will be well,” led by Father Sammy Wood.

Sunday, December 4, The Second Sunday of Advent (Eucharist Year A and Daily Office Year One), Adult Education 9:30 AM in Saint Benedict’s Study in the Parish House; Solemn Mass 11:00 AM. The readings at the Solemn Mass are Isaiah 11:1–10; Psalm 72:1–8; Romans 15:4–13; Matthew 3:1–12. Father Wood will preach. Evensong and Benediction with a quartet from our choir will be offered at 5:00 PM.

Commemorations this week: Monday, December 5, Clement of Alexandria, Priest, c. 210; Tuesday, December 6, Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, c. 342; Wednesday, December 7, Ambrose of Milan, 397; Thursday, December 8, The Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This is the one hundred fifty-second anniversary of the opening of the first parish church.

Wednesday, December 7, Holy Hour, Lady Chapel, 11:00–11:50 AM. A time of prayerful quiet in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament.

THE CONCEPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY, DECEMBER 8

This coming Thursday, December 8, is our Patronal Feast, the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. There will be two Masses that day, a Said Mass at 12:10 PM in the Lady Chapel and a Solemn Mass at 6:00 PM in the church. Father Matthew Jacobson will preach at both Masses.

At 5:30 PM, before the Solemn Mass, Michael Hey, Associate Director of Music and Organist at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, New York City, will play the organ recital. A reception in Saint Joseph’s Hall will follow the Solemn Mass.

The first Mass in the first parish church on 45th Street was celebrated on December 8, 1870. The first Mass in the present church was celebrated on December 8, 1895.

THE COMMISSIONING OF THE MEMBERS OF THE DISCERNMENT COMMITTEE FOR A NEW RECTOR

The members of the Discernment Committee will be commissioned during the Solemn Mass on Sunday, December 4. The committee has been asked to discern, with assistance from the Canon for Transition Ministry, Nora Smith, how best to build our parish profile and who the Holy Spirit is calling to be the tenth rector of Saint Mary’s.

Co-chaired by Mark Risinger and Mary Robison, the committee members are MaryJane Boland, Charles Carson, Clark Mitchell, Grace Mudd, and Elizabeth Nisbet.

Please add these good people to your regular prayers as they begin their work in the coming days. And watch your inboxes for opportunities to share your own thoughts as together we discern the mind of the parish about the sort of rector we seek to come alongside us to do the work God has given Saint Mary’s to do. — Mary Robison and Mark Risinger, Co-Chairs

NEIGHBORS IN NEED, SAINT MARY’S OUTREACH MINISTRY

There will be two Drop-by distributions of clothing and hygiene items in December. The first, which is planned for Tuesday, December 13, is designed primarily for families with children, especially for those seeking asylum now sheltering in our neighborhood. The second will take place on Friday, December 16, and will be primarily for the guests, mostly single adults, whom we’ve served for some time now. This two-part distribution system will allow us to prepare somewhat different items for each group and to provide Spanish-speaking interpreters for those who have come from South and Central America, many of whom have limited English.

If you would like to ask questions about volunteering for any of our Neighbors in Need activities or if you would like to volunteer, please send us a message at neighbors@stmvnyc.org.

ABOUT THE MUSIC AT THE SOLEMN MASS ON SUNDAY, DECEMBER 4

Georg Böhm (1661–1733) is remembered primarily as organist of the Johanniskirche in Lüneburg from 1698 until his death. A student of Johann Adam Reincken (1623–1722), Böhm is almost certain to have crossed paths with the young Sebastian Bach during the latter’s stay in Lüneburg. Böhm’s Partita: Freu dich sehr, O meine Seele is a set of twelve variations built upon the melody for Psalm 42 from the 1551 Genevan Psalter, a tune which has been attributed both to Louis Bourgeois and to Claude Goudimel in various sources. By the time Böhm wrote his partita, this melody had been harmonized in many ways, adopted by the Germans, put into equal note values, and paired with a number of different texts. Many know this melody today as it is found in The Hymnal 1982 at #67 with Catherine Winkworth’s translation of Johann Olearius’s paraphrase of Isaiah 40:1–5, a portion of scripture often read in the Advent season. The organ prelude on Sunday morning will be Variations 1, 2, and 12 from Böhm’s Partita on this hymn melody, commonly referred to as Psalm 42. Variation 11 will be played as the postlude on Sunday at the end of the Solemn Mass.

The setting of the Mass on the Second Sunday of Advent is the Missa in contrapuncto a 4 vocibus by Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer (c. 1656–1746). Fischer was recognized in his day as one of the finest German composers of keyboard music. He was strongly influenced by the French composer Jean Baptiste Lully, with whom he may have studied, and he conveyed French influences to the Italian-influenced German music of his time. Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frederick Handel were the two most notable musicians who knew and were influenced by Fischer’s work. Unfortunately, the record of Fischer’s life and career seems best documented in writings devoted to others and which only mention him in passing. Of Fischer’s works which were published in his lifetime are collections of sacred music from 1701 and 1711. His Mass for four voices begins with a fugal Kyrie which references the opening phrase of the chorale Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland (“Come now, Savior of the Gentiles”) and is therefore particularly appropriate for Advent. While evidencing aspects of the stile antico (antique style), this Mass also clearly embraces German baroque style.

The motet Canite Tuba by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (c. 1525–1594) will be sung during the ministration of Communion at the Solemn Mass on Sunday. This classic Advent motet “sounds the trumpet” thrillingly in five-voice chorus with two soprano parts. The motet begins with the three interior voices, to which soon are added the outer two. Palestrina alternates moments of full choir with trio passages featuring the upper three or lower three voices, almost giving the effect of a double choir. The text is the first antiphon at Lauds and Vespers for Advent IV and is derived from Joel 2:1 and Isaiah 40:4.

ADVENT QUIET DAY

On Saturday, December 3, Father Sammy Wood will lead a Quiet Day here at the parish. The theme of the day will be “All Things Well.” The day will begin around 9:00 or 9:30 AM, will include the Holy Eucharist, lunch in Saint Joseph’s Hall, several talks by Father Wood, and time for prayer and reflection in the church and in the Hall. If you would like to attend, please send an e-mail to the parish office.

THE SOCIETY OF MARY

The local ward of the Society of Mary will meet for a guided meditation and a celebration of the Eucharist on Saturday, December 10, at the Church of the Good Shepherd, 240 East 31st Street, at 10:30 AM.

The Society of Mary is an international devotional society or fellowship whose work and witness is to celebrate, teach, and extend a proper understanding of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ by devotion to the Blessed Virgin. (There are many devotional societies in the Anglican Communion and the Society of Mary is one of these.) The Blessed Virgin has a unique place in salvation history and the liturgical or devotional practices associated with her strengthen our discipleship to Our Lord. Additionally, the worship and mission of the Church is advanced, and the full Christian faith is promoted, through the work and fellowship of the Society

The members of the Society invite you to take this opportunity for a moment of quiet during the holiday rush. Join us for prayer and fellowship on December 10 at the Church of the Good Shepherd. — Father Stephen Morris

ADULT EDUCATION 2022–2023

This coming Sunday, December 4, at 9:30 AM, in Saint Benedict’s Study (Parish Hall, 145 West 46th Street), Father Peter Powell will continue his series of classes on several of the so-called Deutero-Pauline Letters.

This Sunday, Father Powell plans to discuss Colossians 1:1–23.

We hope you’ll be able to join us in Saint Benedict’s at 9:30 AM on Sunday. Coffee available. All are welcome. Questions and discussion encouraged.

To find Saint Benedict’s Study, please enter Saint Joseph’s Hall via the entrance at 145 West 46th Street, bear right and head down the long hallway which takes you past the rest rooms, the windows, and then head toward the Sacristy. The classroom is located on your left, just short of the doors to the Smoke Room, the Control Room, and the Sacristy.

FROM THE FLOWER GUILD

Volunteers are needed for Christmas flowers and decorations. Preparations will begin on Saturday, December 17, with work continuing daily through December 24, with particular need for people of any skill level (no flower arranging happening) to help unpack deliveries, move materials into place, and hang greenery on Saturday, December 17 from morning through afternoon; Sunday, December 19 in the afternoon; and Tuesday, December 21 in the morning. Anyone interested in creating flower arrangements, of any skill level, is also welcome during the production week. Please contact Brendon Hunter if you are able to help or have any questions.

Many Sundays and feast days in 2023 are available to donate the altar flowers, including the Epiphany and Baptism of Our Lord, January 6 and 8; Sundays January 15 and 22; Candlemas, February 2; Sundays February 5, 12, and 19; and the Annunciation, March 25. Please contact Chris Howatt if you would like to make a donation for one of the available dates.

COMING UP

Saturday, December 24, The Last Mass of Advent, 9:00 AM in the Lady Chapel.

Saturday, December 24, Christmas Eve, Music 9:30 PM, Procession and Solemn Mass 10:00 PM

Sunday, December 25, Christmas Day, Solemn Mass 11:00 AM

Saturday, December 31, New Year’s Eve. The church opens at 9:00 AM. Mass will be said in the Lady Chapel at 10:00 AM. The church will close at the end of Mass. The parish offices will be closed.

Sunday, January 1, The Holy Name of Jesus. Solemn Mass 11:00 AM. Evening Prayer will not be said in the church. Evensong and Benediction will not be offered during the month of January 2023.

CLOSING SOON: AN EXHIBITIONAT THE BARD GRADUATE CENTER GALLERY, 18 WEST 86TH STREET

This exhibition closes January 1, 2023: Threads of Power: Lace from the Textilmuseum St. Gallen.

From the gallery website: “Lace—delicate, sumptuous, enigmatic—has been used in fashion and décor for centuries to project power and wealth. Trace the development of European lace from its sixteenth-century origins to the present day in Threads of Power. See more than 150 examples of lace from the renowned collection of Switzerland’s Textilmuseum St. Gallen, including some of the world’s finest examples of handmade needle and bobbin lace that were favored by the wealthy and powerful of Bourbon France and Habsburg Spain. Learn about the women who crafted this sought-after status symbol by hand and about the evolution of Swiss chemical lace, known as guipure lace, made on embroidery machines. Explore new innovations in lace production, like laser-cut and 3D-printed lace, used in contemporary haute couture.”

Father Matt Jacobson and his wife, Professor Meredith Linn, alerted us to this exhibition. Meredith teaches at Bard Graduate Center and her colleagues Michele Majer and Emma Cornack curated the exhibition. Meredith writes, “I should mention that among the many objects on display [in the exhibition], there is an amazing lace altar frontal (made with metal thread) from about 1700 as well as a beautiful chasuble from about 1650. Another highlight of the exhibition is the dress and coat Michelle Obama wore to the 2008 presidential inauguration.”

In addition to the exhibition in the gallery, there is a digital exhibition, which includes photos of some of the objects in the gallery exhibition as well as supplementary materials. The online exhibition may be accessed here.

CONCERTS AT SAINT MARY’S

On Saturday, December 3, 2022, The New York Repertory Orchestra (NYRO) will play an all-Wagner Concert:  Das Rheingold, Entry of the Gods into Valhalla and Die Walküre, Act I (complete). David Leibowitz, music director; Sarah Cambridge, soprano, and Kyle van Schoonhoven, tenor. Saint Mary’s parishioner Mark Risinger, bass, will also sing at this concert.

There is no charge for admission to NYRO concerts. However, a $15.00 donation will be much appreciated.

ORGAN RECITALS AT SAINT MARY’S IN 2023

Friday, 6 January, The Epiphany
Gail Archer, Barnard College, New York City

Thursday, 2 February, The Presentation
David Hurd, Church of Saint Mary the Virgin New York City

Friday, 24 March, Eve of The Annunciation
Timothy Pyper, Church of the Holy Apostles, New York City

Thursday, 18 May, Ascension Day 5:30 PM
Mickey Thomas Terry, Howard University, Washington, D.C.

This edition of the Angelus was written and edited by Father Jay Smith, except as noted. Father Matt Jacobson also edits the newsletter and is responsible for formatting and posting it on the parish website and distributing it via mail and e-mail, with the assistance of Christopher Howatt, parish administrator, and parish volunteer, Clint Best.