She's Ba-a-a-ack

Ruth Cunningham, at St. Mary the Virgin, that is, this Sunday, August 30. I wish I could go.

The prelude at Solemn Mass this morning is the chorale prelude on Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier ("Dearest Jesus, we are here"), BWV 731, by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). The cantor is Ms. Ruth Cunningham, soprano, and the organist is Mr. James Kennerley. Sanctus and Agnus Dei will be improvised to a setting by Mr. Kennerley and Ms. Cunningham. Improvisation results in a particularly powerful, exciting and direct communication of the text that is set. At the ministration of Communion, Ms. Cunningham and Mr. Kennerley sing the duet Schaffe in mir, Gott, ein reines Herz ("Create in me a clean heart, O God"), from Kleine geistliche Konzerte, SWV 291, composed by Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672). The motet is taken from the first of the two volumes of Schütz's Kleine geistliche Konzerte ("Little Sacred Concertos"), published in Germany during the 1630s.