Michaelmas 2024
Processional hymn: Holy, Holy, Holy, 929
Recessional hymn: Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven, 933
Kyriale: Mass IX, 740; Credo IV, 780
Motet at Offertory: Michael, Coeli Signifer, Jacobus Gallus (1550–1591)
Hymn at Communion: Christe sanctorum decus Angelorum, Chant
The feast of the Dedication of St. Michael the Archangel, also referred to as Michaelmas, falls on Sunday this year. Motets written for this feast often refer to each of the three Archangels named in the Bible whenever one is mentioned. This is true for Jacobus Gallus’s motet Michael, Coeli Signifer: Michael, standard-bearer of heaven. Gabriel, the light-bringer of the world. Raphael—the three archangels of Christ and all the angels, the beloved ones: through all the ages they protect our bodily purity from the snares and treacheries of our enemies. May they always guard us, and after death may they receive us. Let us sing the praise of the angels to the Lord Most High. Gallus’s setting is quick and energetic and features a lot of “off-beat” rhythms.
Jacobus Gallus (1550–1591), was a late-Renaissance composer of presumed Slovene ethnicity. Born in Carniola, which at the time was one of the Habsburg lands in the Holy Roman Empire, he lived and worked in Moravia and Bohemia during the last decade of his life. His output was both sacred and secular, and hugely prolific: over 500 works have been attributed to him.