Communion: Viderunt Omnes Fines Terre Salutare Dei Nostri

The mystery of the Incarnation of the Word lies at the heart of the Christian faith. It is celebrated just after the longest night of the year, when (in the northern hemisphere) the days begin to lengthen until we reach the summer solstice, which is associated with the figure of John the Baptist. To celebrate this moment, the Church deploys an exceptional virtually uninterrupted liturgical cycle in which the usual Offices are interspersed with four Masses.
The music is that of the ancient chant of the Church of Rome, one of the oldest repertories of which traces have remained in the collective memory of mankind. Up to the thirteenth century this repertory accompanied the papal liturgy. It disappeared with the installation of the papacy in Avignon, and sank into oblivion. Rediscovered in the early twentieth century, it aroused little enthusiasm among musicians, and only began to be studied properly, first from the liturgical, then from the musicological perspective, in the second half of the century. At this time, to distinguish it from Gregorian chant, it was named Old Roman chant.

Old Roman chant occupies a central position in the history of music. It is the keystone which gives meaning and coherence to what ought to be the musical consciousness of Western Europe and far beyond. For, looking back to the period before, it gives us the key to the filiation between the chant of the Temple of Jerusalem and the heritage of Greek music. Through the magic of music, sung texts become icons. Time is deployed with sovereign slowness confers on the sound a hieratic immanence in which time and space are united in a single vibrant truth.

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[blahkaw98]

This is a very beautiful version of this piece. The bass voice is kind of stunning!

[serrano525]

@Lysandros gracias

[Lysandros]

@serrano525 From Marcel Pérès' album Old Roman chants, 6th-13th century

[serrano525]

very beautiful I would like to know where this interpretation comes from