16 December 2012

Litany of Ars Nova (Trecento) Saints

Lord have mercy on us
Christ have mercy on us
Lord have mercy on us.

Accept holy Trinity
This joyful cry of peace
And remove the cloud
Of horrible schism.

Holy Hildegard
Mother of Musicians
Virgin Composer -- have mercy on us.

Holy Philippe de Vitry -- pray for us
Holy Marchetto of Padua -- pray for us
Holy Guillaume de Machaut -- pray for us
Holy Jacopo da Bologna -- pray for us
Holy Giovanni da Cascia -- pray for us
Holy Master Piero -- pray for us
Blessed Egidio and Guglielmo -- pray for us
Holy Francesco the Blind -- pray for us
Holy Lorenzo of Florence  -- pray for us
Holy Johannes Ciconia -- pray for us
Blessed Anthony, called Zachara of Teramo -- pray for us
Holy Matteo of Perugia -- pray for us
Holy Bartolino of Padua  -- pray for us
Blessed Solage  -- pray for us
Blessed Engardus -- pray for us
Holy Christine de Pizan -- pray for us
Blessed Alanus -- pray for us
Holy Baude Cordier -- pray for us
Blessed Oswald of Wolkenstein -- pray for us
Holy Prosdocimus of Beldemandis -- pray for us
All you holy composers, singers, and musicians -- pray for us
All you holy theorists and poets -- pray for us
All you scribes and compilers of manuscripts -- pray for us.

Blessed Françoise-Joseph Fétis -- pray for us
Blessed Johannes Wolf -- pray for us
Blessed Friedrich Ludwig  -- pray for us
Venerable Heinrich Besseler -- pray for us
Blessed Kurt von Fischer -- pray for us
Blessed Susanne Clercx -- pray for us
Holy Nino Pirrotta -- pray for us
Blessed Billy Jim Layton -- pray for us
Blessed Giuseppe Vecchi -- pray for us
Blessed Pierluigi Petrobelli -- pray for us
All you holy scholars -- pray for us
All you thinkers about medieval composers -- pray for us
All you translators of music theory -- pray for us
All you searchers of manuscripts and fragments -- pray for us.

Lord, be merciful,
From all dissonances -- Lord, save your people
From all scribal errors -- Lord, save your people
From your tritones -- Lord, save your people
From bad ficta choices -- Lord, save your people
From a sudden and unprovided hexachordal mutation -- Lord, save your people
From the scourge of lost manuscripts -- Lord, save your people
From incorrect prolation and mensuration -- Lord, save your people
From unexplained coloration -- Lord, save your people.

By the mystery of minim equivalence,
By your dragmas,
By your custodes, -- Lord, save your people
By your ligatures of perfection,
By your ligatures of propriety,
By your ligatures of opposite propriety, -- Lord, save your people
By your alteration and imperfection,
By your dots of division, and of addition,
By your chains of perfect semibreves under similis ante similis,
By your knowledge that what cannot be transcribed
    should not be transcribed, -- Lord, save your people
On the day of publication -- Lord save your people.

Be merciful to us scholars, -- Lord hear our prayer
That you will guide us,
That you will help us discern the alignment of voices,
Through the logic of perfect consonances on strong beats,
And not invent alternative explanations for simple transcriptions -- Lord hear our prayer
That you will grant us your Apel to discern your will, -- Lord hear our prayer
That it may please you to bring us to true transcription -- Lord hear our prayer
Guide and protect your holy universities,
Preserve in holy religion the editors at LIM, Brepols, AIM,
    and all those in holy publishing houses -- Lord hear our prayer
Humble the fifteenth-century scholars,
Who assert that only complete polyphonic Mass cycles are pleasing to you,
And those who transcribe fourteenth-century music
    without rhythmic reduction -- Lord hear our prayer
Bring back to the unity of performance those who sing without ficta,
    those who choose moribund tempos, and all those who play
    shawms without thought of intonation -- Lord hear our prayer
Strengthen and preserve us at Certaldo, and Dozza, and Novacella,
Raise our databases to the level of true understanding,
Reward all your servants with everlasting tenure -- Lord hear our prayer
Deliver our souls from indecipherable tropes, and the souls of those who transcribe ars subtillior,
    who search in archives, and read clerical shorthand -- Lord hear our prayer
Give and preserve the fragments not yet found,
Yield to us productivity in our sabbaticals,
Grant three beats of rest to all perfect semibreves pausae
Never causing our Finales or Sibeliuses to think of imperfecting them,
That it may please You to hear us and our editions,
    Jesus, Son of the Living God -- Lord hear our prayer

Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of transcription -- Spare us, O Lord!
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of musicology -- Spare us, O Lord!
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of scholarship -- Grant us thy peace.

Christ, hear us,
Lord Jesus, hear our prayer,
Lord, have mercy on us,
Christ, have mercy on us,
Lord, have mercy on us,

Amen.

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