Excellent Eastertide U.S. Recordings

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One of my favourite Eastertide recordings is 'EASTER: Hymns, Carols, and Anthems' from All Saints Episcopal Church in Beverly Hills, California.  I think it is one of the best recordings of its kind with a mixed voice chorus in the United States.  The arrangements are splendid, and the voicing of the recording is very good. Click below on the Amazon image of the album to listen to previews at Amazon.  If you cannot find it locally, obviously Amazon has it on offer.  But do try to 'Buy Local' as my friends here like to say.

Another Eastertide recording of great worth is 'Easter Triumph, Easter Joy' from the Shrine and Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. 
 [The CD I have has a couple of voicing issues where the brass seem to stand out above the chorus too much.  But I am very, very picky.]  
All in all it is a recording of superb quality from one of the rare bastions of excellent choral music in the Catholic Church in the USA.  +

Paul Creston: Psalm 23

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Psalm 23 by Paul Creston

Jeff Prillaman, tenor 

Dr. Charles Hulin IV, piano

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Comes Wisdom

"In our sleep, pain which cannot forget

falls drop by drop upon the heart

until, in our own despair,

against our will, comes wisdom

through the awful grace of God."

Aeschylus

Agamemnon

RADIO WALSINGHAM ONLINE

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During this Paschaltide please do listen to RADIO WALSINGHAM ONLINE.  The station is an apostolate of Our Lady of Walsingham Institutes of Catholic Culture Studies in Houston, Texas.  The music will be as a blessing upon your daily duties and night watches.

Click here to visit the Radio Walsingham station page on Live365.com.

If you do not care for the annoying commercials, you may wish to join Live365.com as a VIP member for $6 a month (at the present moment) and then listen without commercial interruption.  VIP members hear much more beautiful music during the day.

Click here for RADIO WALSINGHAM ONLINE.

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Richard J. Clark's 'Lumen Christi'

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Lumen Christi

Paschal Candle Processional

by Richard J. Clark

Saint Cecilia Parish Choir, Boston

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Bach: Oster-Oratorium, BWV 249

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Johann Sebastian Bach

Easter Oratorio (in German: Oster-Oratorium), BWV 249

Václav Luks conducts Collegium 1704 

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The Simplest 'Regina coeli' in English

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A friend asked if there was a very simple setting in English of Regina coeli laetare that his musically challenged parish could learn and sing.  

The easiest by far is to use the melody sung to the Easter hymn Jesus Christ is risen today with the following text:  

Joy to thee, O Queen of heav'n!  Alleluia!

He whom it was thine to bear; Alleluia!

As He promised hath aris'n; Alleluia!

pray for us to God above. Alleluia!

The contractions heav'n and aris'n may take some getting used to, but as a text and tune it is the very simplest I know about.  

The only published version of this text with which I am familiar is to be found in the St. Ambrose Hymnal of the Western Rite Vicariate of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese.  In that hymnal the text can be found as the fourth verse of the Paschal hymn Jesus Christ is risen today.

[The tune is usually called 'EASTER HYMN' and is an altered form taken from Lyra Davidica, 1708.  The metre is 77.77 with alleluias.]

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Bearing Witness: Psalm 66: 16-20

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     16   Come and hear, all you who fear God;
                let me tell you what he has done for me.

     17   I cried out to him with my mouth;
                his praise was on my tongue.

     18   If I had cherished sin in my heart,
                the Lord would not have listened;

     19   but God has surely listened
                and has heard my prayer.

     20   Praise be to God,
                who has not rejected my prayer
                or withheld his love from me!

Psalm 66:16-20 

[orig. NIV]

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Ēriks Ešenvalds - O Salutaris Hostia

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“When you live life like a saint, and when you die, 
this is what you hear in Paradise."

O Salutaris Hostia

Ēriks Ešenvalds

Hannah Partridge

Rachel Ambrose Evans

The Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge

Stephen Layton, Conductor

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Ola Gjeilo: "SUNRISE MASS"

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Audiences have been tremendously enthusiastic about Ola Gjeilo's compositions.  To my mind Gjeilo's 'Sunrise Mass' can only be compared to Morten Lauridsen's "Lux Aeterna" — and today's audiences (who are starving spiritually) need to hear both works.   May you be blest in listening to this masterpiece of beauty and faith.

Sunrise Mass 

by Ola Gjeilo

Bel Canto Choir Vilnius

Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra

Arturas Dambrauskas, conductor

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Дивна Любоевич, Пасхальный концерт

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A Blessèd Pascha 

To all of my Orthodox Christian family and friends!

Christos voskrese!

Christ is risen! 

Дивна Любоевич, Пасхальный концерт 2012.04.16

Divna Lyubojevich, Paschal Concert 16 April AD 2012

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Quasimodogeniti Sunday: Alleluia Verses

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Alleluia after First Reading:

Second Alleluia:

 

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