O Antiphons Prayer Service in San Francisco for St Nicholas’ Day

The Benedict XVI Institute for Sacred Music and Divine Worship is sponsoring a St Nicholas Day prayer service with Abp Salvatore Cordileone, on Friday, December 6th at 6:00 p.m., at St Patrick’s Seminary, located at 320 Middlefield Rd in Menlo Park, California. Director Richard Sparks will lead The Benedict Sixteen choir in singing the O Antiphons in Gregorian Chant, with additional polyphonic settings by Arvo Part, Rihards Dubra, and James MacMilan, among other composers. The choir will also sing a setting of the Magnificat by Palestrina. The event is free, but they ask those planning to attend to register to help with planning: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/st-nicholas-day-prayer-service-the-o-antiphons-tickets-65465478007. For more information, see this article by Roseanne Sullvian on her blog: https://catholicpunditwannabe.blogspot.com/2019/12/archbishop-cordileone-to-lead-unique-st.html

Mr Sparks explains the plan for the music: “Since we are doing this in one Advent service (with all seven of the O Antiphons) we will do only one setting of the Magnificat, a wonderful 8-voice setting by Palestrina. As we go through the Antiphons, we will always sing the Gregorian chant of that antiphon, followed in all but one case by a setting of that antiphon by various composers, most contemporary, since composers in recent years have been fascinated by these beautiful texts. Some examples: O Adonai will be sung in a setting by Arvo Pärt, the Estonian Orthodox composer (who set all seven of the Antiphons in German), for men’s voices alone. It’s a slow, mystical setting, and utilizes the wonderful low basses in Benedict 16. The setting of O Radix Jesse is by Rihards Dubra, a Latvian composer born in 1964, who was raised as Catholic by his grandparents, and whose music is almost entirely sacred. And O Oriens is set in English by one of today’s preeminent Catholic composers, the Scottish James MacMillan as O Radiant Dawn.”

This prayer service is free of charge, but please register for planning purposes. The BenedictInstitute.org depends on generous supporters to help Archbishop Cordileone evangelize through sacred beauty.