NoonSong

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Vocal ensemble sirventes berlin at NoonSong in the church at Am Hohenzollernplatz Berlin
Stefan Schuck, conductor and founder of the NoonSong in Berlin

The NoonSong in the church at Am Hohenzollernplatz Berlin is a new ecumenical form of worship that is supported by polyphonic choral singing. It's a free concert and worship service alike. The name refers to the noon prayer (Noonsong) in the Anglican Hours , which has become uncommon today. The Berlin NoonSong takes place every Saturday at 12 noon and is sung by the professional vocal ensemble sirventes berlin under the direction of Stefan Schuck.

idea

As a professor of choral conducting, Stefan Schuck experienced the Anglican evening prayer ( Evensong ) in England and was thus stimulated to a musical noon prayer, the NoonSong.

Like the Evensong of the Anglican Church, the NoonSong also offers the framework for a large repertoire of choral music, including Protestant compositions that have no place in Protestant services or concerts. In this way he enables the revival of this treasure. The visitors of the NoonSong are primarily involved in the liturgy with hearing. “The liturgy, the order of readings, music and songs, has the main function of making the listener into a participant who can tune into the course and who still feels like a participant even if he only listens . "

Contributors

The NoonSong is always sung by the professional vocal ensemble sirventes berlin under the direction of Stefan Schuck. Eight singers from a pool of 32 singers create the NoonSong. The scriptures are read by Protestant pastors and Catholic priests from various parishes. Every NoonSong is recorded by a sound engineer.

Revitalization of an old musical tradition

Since November 1st, 2008 the NoonSong has been taking place in the church at Am Hohenzollernplatz Berlin every Saturday at 12 noon. "With the time being set to Saturday noon and the reduction to 30 minutes, the special liturgy of the NoonSong accommodates the rhythm of life of the modern city dweller". The audience can combine a visit to the NoonSong with shopping at the weekly market in front of the church. After the liturgy, visitors can talk to each other over soup or cake.

The tension between music and architecture

The church at Hohenzollernplatz was built in 1932 by Fritz Höger in the Expressionist style. The striking building made of dark red brick with its tall, slender tower can be seen from afar. The renovation by Achim Freyer in 1990/1991 transformed the interior into a light-flooded room that does without any decoration. It thus offers an open ambience for music from every era. Small vocal music is supported particularly well by the acoustics.

The liturgical process

The psalm chant in the Liturgy of the Hours comes from ancient monasticism. While it is cultivated by religious in monasteries, only the Anglican Church has so far been able to establish hour prayers as congregational services.

The NoonSong, which is sung with several voices throughout, is part of this Anglican tradition. It also refers to the hourly prayers that were celebrated in Latin schools in Protestant Central Germany after the Reformation . In preparatory discussions and a. Schuck developed the reconstruction and adaptation of the liturgical model with the Catholic liturgical scholar Andreas Odenthal (Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen) and Former Bishop Wolfgang Huber . The formal brackets are the Preces & Responses of the Evensong in German translation. They form the framework for two psalm settings , the reading, the canticle and the respective weekly song . The reading order of the Evangelical daily book with the respective daily and weekly psalms for the following Sunday serves as the basis for the selection of psalms .

The ringing of the bells invites you to attend a Sunday service. The participants move in to the sound of the organ and stand between the congregation and the altar steps. This makes it clear that the choir acts on behalf of the community. He sings the “Preces” alternating between cantor, liturgy and choir according to the Anglican rite, which are made up of the invitatory and verse of the liturgy . Next, two figurative psalm compositions for the daily and weekly psalm can be heard from the chancel. The liturgy then delivers the reading as the only spoken word with a few introductory words, followed by the choir's responsory in the form of German Gregorian chant . The canticum is either a Magnificat or Benedictus composition or the setting of another hymn from the New Testament that is appropriate for the church season. This is followed by the “responses”. They consist of the Kyrie, the Lord's Prayer , in which the congregation joins, the great intercessions alternating between liturgy and choir, and the three collection prayers, which the liturgy sings on a recitation tone according to Anglican tradition. The approximately thirty-minute liturgy closes with the respective weekly song, sung alternating between the polyphonic movement of the choir and the congregation and the blessing of the liturgy, and the choir leaves again to the sound of an organ piece.

repertoire

The NoonSong features compositions ranging from Gregorian chant to world premieres of commissioned compositions. The works are performed exclusively a cappella or with organ accompaniment. One focus of the repertoire is the music of the 16th and 17th centuries, including many rediscoveries such as a. the motets by Hans Leo Haßler , Melchior Franck , Andreas Hakenberger , Andreas Hammerschmidt , but also the motets by Gottfried August Homilius , which sirventes berlin recorded for the first time on CD. The repertoire includes over 20 liturgy compositions, including five specially composed for the NoonSong, over 400 psalm settings and over 40 Magnificat settings.

Commissioned compositions for the Christmas NoonSongs:

Ecumenism

Protestant, Catholic and Anglican Christians find each other in the cultivation of the musically particularly intensive daytime liturgy of the NoonSong. The psalm settings from Reformed synagogues also include Judaism. Currently, eight Protestant pastors and Catholic pastors from the neighboring St. Ludwig parish regularly take over the office of liturgist, which illustrates the intensive ecumenical relationship between the two parishes. In the last NoonSong before Christmas, which is particularly festive, a total of nine personalities from politics, culture and church are involved as lecturers.

public perception

“Target vision 2020: The church will be publicly perceptible and tangible.” The NoonSongs are advertised professionally. Every three months a flyer appears with the musical program for the next NoonSongs. The NoonSongs will be announced in detail on the free event programs and websites. The multimedia, trilingual Internet presence www.noonsong.de provides information about future NoonSongs, but also offers the opportunity to listen to the last NoonSong in full for a week. Registered users can download the recordings from the archive.

Support, sponsors and funding

NoonSong is supported by the non-profit association NoonSong e. V. The NoonSong is financed exclusively from donations, collection income and membership fees. The parish Am Hohenzollernplatz supports the NoonSong by providing the church room including heating and cleaning as well as the weekly program booklets free of charge.

CDs

  • Gottfried August Homilius: "Have your pleasure" Carus
  • Berlin Christmas a cappella

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Peter Uehling: Liturgy in Wilmersdorf: After asking questions comes cheering. In: berliner-zeitung.de. November 7, 2013, accessed February 14, 2018 .
  2. ↑ Joachim Gauck on January 23, 2010 at NoonSong
  3. ^ Salt of the earth - Ekbo perspective program, p. 73, Berlin 2007