Ubi Caritas - John Rutter, Maurice Duruflé, the Cambridge Singers

'Ubi Caritas'
From the album ‘This is the Day’ - Music on Royal Occasions

Composer Maurice Duruflé
Conductor John Rutter
Choir The Cambridge Singers

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LYRICS:
Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est.
Congregavit nos in unum Christi amor.
Exsultemus, et in ipso jucundermur
Timeamus et amemus Deum vivum.
Et ex corde diligamus nos sincero.

Where charity and love are, God is there.
Christ’s love has gathered us into one.
Let us rejoice and be pleased in Him.
Let us fear, and let us love the living God.
And may we love each other with a sincere
heart.

Antiphon for Maundy Thursday

Ubi Caritas
'Ubi Caritas' was composed by Duruflé in 1960. It is the first of a set of four short motets 'based on Gregorian themes'.

This is the Day
This album recollects and celebrates some of the choral music heard on royal occasions during the lifetime of HM Elizabeth II. The music chosen reflects the personal choices and commissions by the Royal Family for weddings, funerals, and anniversaries.

Featuring John Rutter’s celebratory royal wedding anthem This is the day, written for the marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton at Westminster Abbey in 2011. Orchestrated especially for this recording, it reminds us of the event that captivated the attention of the nation.

The CD also includes an arrangement for unaccompanied choir of the much-loved Air from County Derry to the text I would be true, and an orchestration of Schubert’s beautiful Psalm 23 - The Lord is my Shepherd by John Rutter for this recording.

John Rutter, English composer and conductor, is associated with choral music throughout the world. His recordings with the Cambridge Singers (the professional chamber choir he set up in 1981) have reached a wide global audience, many of them featuring his own music in definitive versions. Among John’s best-known choral works are Gloria, Requiem, Magnificat, Mass of the Children, and Visions, together with many church anthems, choral songs and Christmas carols.

Contact

[MisterTayTay]

It’s so sad knowing this was his last choral composition. Thank you for your beautiful music Duruflé. Honestly, one of the best romantic contemporary composers of the entire 20th century.

[aadschram]

"Ubi caritas" is a hymn of the Western Church, long used as one of the antiphons for the washing of feet on Maundy Thursday. Its text is attributed to Paulinus of Aquileia in 796. The traditional melody probably also stems from the late 8th century. It is now and then sung at Eucharistic Adoration and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament and has for a long time been part of the Holy Thursday evening liturgy. The current Roman Catholic Missal (1970, 3rd typical edition 2002) reassigned it from the foot-washing mandatum to the offertory procession at the Holy Thursday evening Mass of the Lord's Supper. It also is found in current Anglican and Lutheran hymnals.

In the second typical edition (1975) of the current Roman Missal, the antiphonal response was altered to read "Ubi caritas est vera, Deus ibi est, " after certain very early manuscripts. This translates as: "Where true charity is, God is there."

[abigailhamiltonactor]

The wold "SINCERO", at 1.30, does it for me every time!

[scrimshawrose]

This is one of the most beautiful compositions, thank you wonderful moving performance <3

[jppardo]

... cuando la Armonía se convierte en Belleza

[bigmaclily]

My church choir is doing this for Holy Thrusday, so I'm using the recording to practice. The part i keep replaying, because its tricky, is the "most replayed" 😅 i wonder if it's because others like me are practicing, or it's just the best part! Haha (0:45-1:36)

[Doug]

John - would love to hear you and the Cambridge Singers do an album of Durufle's works: the Motets, Messe Cum Jubilo, Requiem, Notre Pere

[MrLamontSanford]

Its sad and pathetic I can only find this fulfilling sacred music on Youtube but NOT at mass, not even in Holy Week because even then and especially then most parishes have to continue novelty, new songs etc. My Holy Week once AGAIN in 2024 was utterly disappointing because once AGAIN no matter where I go no one plays any of the standard and traditional hymns like this, but some novelty song. I spend year-round on Youtube living in Holy Week Advent Lent etc. but in those actual seasons the music at mass is pathetic.

[gerryj]

Overall, well done. Now my nits: the recording is missing 'presence'. It seems to have been recorded far enough away that the balance of the parts and the breadth of sound from Bass to Soprano is missing; especially the bass. It also doesn't have the ebb and flow, the emphasis and subsidence of chant.