The Living Room

Tomorrow shall be my dancing day

Posted on December 23, 2013 by Michaela

Geertgen tot Sint’s Nativity Scene ca 1490
The light is returning…

Happy Christmas everyone

“Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day,
I would my true love did so chance
to see the legend of my play
to call my true love to my Dance.”

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Open, my whole heart

Posted on December 22, 2013 by Michaela

Van Eyck’s small and charming Dresden Tryptich.
On the left, Archangel Michael presenting a donor, on the right St Catherine, with a book and the sword in her hand. Lots of symbols in the iconography….

Enjoy

Johann Sebastian Bach; Christmas Cantata (BWV 61)

Öffne dich, mein ganzes Herze,
Open, my whole heart
Jesus kömmt und ziehet ein.
Jesus comes and enters within
Bin ich gleich nur Staub und Erde,
Though I am only like dust and earth,
Will er mich doch nicht verschmähn,
he does not want to scorn me
Seine Lust an mir zu sehn,
but to see his pleasure in me
Daß ich seine Wohnung werde.
so that I become his dwelling.
O wie selig werd ich sein!
Oh how blessed I shall be!

Queen of Heaven

Posted on December 20, 2013 by Michaela

Another beautiful Van Eyck Madonna
Enjoy with a piece of Mozart (click embedded player at the bottom of the page)

W.A. Mozart Missa brevis, C-Major (Spatzenmesse)

Posted in Classical Music, Musica Sacra | Leave a comment

Our life, our sweetness and hope

Posted on December 18, 2013 by Michaela

A picture of completeness with the Divine Mother in it’s centre.
Enjoy with a Gregorian Meditation…

MADONNA OF THE ROSE GRADEN (ca 1440)

STEFAN LOCHNER

(b. ca. 1400, Meersburg am Bodensee, d. 1451, Köln)

Salve Regina
mater misericordiae
vita dulcedo et spes nostra, salve.

Ad te clamamus
exules filiae Evae
ad te suspiramus
gementes et flentes
in hac lacrimarum valle.

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The gate of the rising sun

Posted on December 17, 2013 by Michaela

For the lover of mystery, mysticism and music:

Vespro della Beata Vegine
Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)
Conducted byNikolaus Harnoncourt

” Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool”
…Loosen the chains of the guilty, give light the blind…
…It is Mary, that gentle virgin, she is the gate of the rising sun…

https://youtu.be/k2ZKFB8Rs9Q

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Behold, you have been raised above the choir of angels

Posted on December 16, 2013 by Michaela

Geertgen tot Sin’s Madonna with child, ca 1480 in the Netherlands, about 40 years after Van Eycks death.

Fascinating symbolism, complemented by the sacred music of a 16th century Venetian….

Giovanni Gabrieli: Beata es virgo Maria

Latin text
Beata es, virgo Maria, Dei genitrix,
quae credidisti omnia perfecta sunt
in te quae dicta sunt tibi:
ecce, exaltata es super choros angelorum:
intercede pro nobis ad Dominum Deum tuum.

English Translation:

Blessed are you, O Virgin Mary,
who gave birth to God;
who believed; all has been fulfilled
in you that was said to you:
behold, you have been raised up
above the choirs of angels.
O pray for us now to the Lord your God.

Posted in Christmas Carols & songs, Classical Music, God in the Detail, Musica Sacra | Leave a comment

You are beautiful, my friend

Posted on December 16, 2013 by Michaela

Last year I was drawn to Giotto’s breathtaking expressions of the Madonna and child.
This Christmas I am marveling at the beauty of Van Eyck’s take on the symbolism of the Birth and the Mother’s Love for her child.

This one is the “Madonna at the Fountain” from 1435.

complemented with this beautiful motet from Monteverdi’s Vespers for the Blessed Virgin, composed about 150 years later.

Pulchra es, amica mea,
suavis et decora, sicut Jerusalem
terribilis ut acies ordinata. Averte oculos
tuos a me, quia ipsi me avolare fecerunt.

Thou art beautiful, O my love, fair and comely as Jerusalem: terrible as an army with banners. Turn away thine eyes from me, for they have overcome me.