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Eustache Du Caurroy – Sanctus

Eustache Du Caurroy – Benedicamus Domino

From the Missa Pro Defunctis by Eustache Du Caurroy
Performed by the Choir of New College, Oxford
From Eustache du Caurroy: Requiem Mass & Motets [emusic] [amazon]

Listen to this music. The writing below does no justice to what you hear. Listen to the music. Ignore the rather pretentious words that follow, words that grasp towards a sincere expression of wonder, surprise and gratitude, but fall far short. Instead, listen.

If you lived in New York, you might write more about jazz or hip-hop. In Dakar you might’ve written about mbalax. As it’s turned out, living in Oxford has offered the gift of (re)discovering choral music. In particular, the New College Choir has featured numerous times previously on this blog.

Last Sunday night was the end Trinity Term and the last sung evensong at New College before I leave Oxford, (yes, I’m leaving – perhaps a subject for a separate post sometime). I don’t depart for another couple of months, but I already know that of all the magic of this strange city, I will miss most of all the evenings spent in New College’s mediaeval chapel.

Photo by Lawrence OP

When they sing at their best, this choir makes the planet stop turning. Their music sounds like falling backwards forever through a stained glass universe, Lux æterna.

When Eustache du Caurroy wrote the Missa pro defunctis for the funeral of Henry IV of France in 1610, the Choir of New College had already been singing in Oxford for more than 200 years.

It’s been a mysterious and wonderful privilege to participate, if ever so peripherally, in a continuing tradition of music and worship that stretches back so far into our past. Thank you, Dr Higginbottom and the boys and clerks of the choir. May others continue to find inspiration in your work and singing. Floreat Collegium Novum.