Natalis
invicti – undefeated birth. On this CD Schola Gregoriana Monostorinensis
offers Christmas songs to the audience. These songs come from different
sources and contain both some that were sung in the mass and others sung
when praying the liturgy of the hours.
On this CD one
can find very rare sequencies from the century as well as two hymns and some
of the responsories from the liturgy of the hours of Christmas-time. One can
listen to two such songs sung on the mass, that were written down in 16th
century by a Fransiscan monk in the manner and according to the Franciscan
tradition of his time. These latter ones can be found in the Csíksomlyó
Gradual, still preserved and kept in the Franciscan Monastery of Csíksomlyó/ªumuleu
Ciucului.
The songs one can
hear on this CD are not the common Christmas carols with the manger, the
shepherds and the magi in them. These songs are the witness of a different
kind of religious and cultural memory: the one that greets the newborn Child
as King. This is the King who, being in very nature God, did not consider
equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking
the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
And so those who listen to the
songs of this CD will experience not only pleasure and enjoyment common
when listening to music, but will also experience the emotions of
devotion and admiration, certainty and gratitude.
