Music Notes 6-23-24

What began as a Gregorian chant that some music scholars believe originated before the formation of the Catholic Mass, Ubi Caritas ("Where Charity Is") has evolved into many iterations and compositions. The actual origin of the chant is unknown and ambiguous, although musicologists and researchers believe it was written between 300 and 1100 CE. Today Ubi Caritas is performed in a variety of settings and traditions, including its typical use as an antiphon during the Catholic Church's washing of feet ceremony. That ceremony is performed on Maundy Thursday (Holy Thursday), which is the Thursday before Easter Sunday commemorating the Last Supper where Jesus's washed his disciples' feet. Ubi Caritas is also sometimes performed during Eucharistic Adoration and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.  Perhaps one of the most popular compositions of Ubi Caritas is by Maurice Duruflé.  Maurice Gustave Duruflé was a French composer, born in Louvier in 1902.  After studying with a variety of famous French composers, he ended up as assistant to organist/composer Louis Vierne at the Cathedral of Notre-Dame, and was named the titular organist at St-Étienne-du-Mont.  His most renowned works were his Requiem Mass, which received its North American premier right here in Los Angeles under the baton of renowned conductor Roger Wagner, and his settings of four motets based on Gregorian chants.  Duruflé composed the arrangement of Ubi Caritas in 1960 as part of his Quatre motets sur des thèmes grégoriens, Op. 10, by using only the first stanza of the original chant. He also used the chant's original melody, layering and weaving it into a sublime, polyphonic, and understated choral work.  Ubi Caritas is one of the “Top 10” choral works for a cappella choir and is basically part of every choral singer’s repertoire.  I remember singing it at the spur of the moment in the Sony Studios scoring stage for film composer Jerry Goldsmith after we recorded the music for the movie First Knight.

In This Very Room is considered to be one of the all-time “Top 10” modern Christian songs.  It was written by Los Angeles-based composer Ron Harris, who, at the time, was music director for Carol Lawrence.  Over coffee at Starbucks one day, he told me the story of how he was on the road with Carol, and had been away from home for over a month.  He was in New Orleans, and had just gotten off a one hour phone call to his wife.  He was sitting on the bed of his hotel room, feeling lonely and miserable, and, looking around at the walls of the room, suddenly came to the realization that there was more to the room than just the 4 walls.  Pulling out his electronic keyboard, he began writing a melody to the words that had popped into his head - “In this very room there’s quite enough love for one like me….”  It’s been performed as a solo, as a choral work, with piano, with orchestra, a cappella, and to date, is known to have been sung in the Upper Room – the room generally accepted to be the room where the Last Supper took place – at least twice.

One Thing Remains is a song that was written in 2010 by Brian Johnson, Jeremy Riddle and Christa Black Gifford.  It was recorded and released as part of the live album Come Away, which was recorded at the 2010 Jesus Culture Encounter Conference.  The Jesus Culture Conference began as part of the youth group of Bethel Church in Redding, California, with the first conference being held in 1999 and attracting 500 attendees.  Since then, it has grown into a musical force for worship with a full time staff of dozens and a discography that numbers 33 albums.  It recently expanded to Sacramento, where they meet at Folsom High School.  One Thing Remains has been covered by numerous artists, including Kristian Stanfill, Israel Houghton and Chris Tomlin.