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Music at St. John's
Music has been a central component to the Liturgy at St. John's,
Somerville. St. John's has had a tradition of performing
choral music and continues to serve the parish and greater community
in that way. Under the new direction of John Plesniarski, the
choirs continue to strive for musical excellence by performing fine
choral music. John recently was called as the new Organist and
Choirmaster, replacing Brent Miller, who served the parish as
Organist and Choirmaster for 35 years.
The Adult Choir is open to anyone high school age and above.
The choir rehearses on Thursdays, from 7:30 pm - 9:00pm in the Choir
Room and on Sundays, from 9:45 am - 10:05am. Any interested
people should see John Plesniarski after a Sunday service, or email
- johnples82@gmail.com.
The Junior Choir, directed by Tracey Jameson, allows the opportunity
for young children to praise God through the gift of song.
They perform one anthem each month during a Sunday Service.
Rehearsals are held from 9:15 am - 9:45 am on Sundays preceding the
10:15 am service. Any interested children should see Tracy or
John after a Sunday Service.
John A. Plesniarski was recently called to the Organist/Choirmaster
position at St. John's. Plesniarski is a graduate of the Mason
Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University, where he received the
Bachelor of Music Degree in Music Education along with a major
concentration in Organ.
Past teachers include David Messineo, Paul Martin Maki, Mark
Trautman and Antonius Bittmann. He has performed in numerous
recitals in the central New Jersey area, as well as in Larchmont NY.
He was also heard on the nationally syndicated radio program,
Pipedreams. Upon graduation, Plesniarski was awarded the
Elizabeth Wyckoff Durham Award for academic excellence and
excellence in performance.
A church musician since he was a teenager, John has held positions
in Bayonne, and most recently at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church,
South River, NJ, where he served for seven years.
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St. Cecilia ~ Patron Saint ~
Musicians, Composers, Instrument Makers, Poets |
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Saint
Cecilia is said to have heard heavenly music
inside her heart when she was forced to marry the pagan,
Valerian. A wealth of music, art and festivals in
honor of St. Cecilia has grown from this little bit of
information from her biography. she is the acclaimed
patron saint of music, especially church music, as well as
that of musicians, composers, instrument makers and
poets. The name Cecilia means blind and so, although
we don't know if she herself couldn't see, she is also the
Catholic patron saint of the blind.
It is believed that St. Cecilia
was born in the 2nd or 3rd century A.D., although the dates
of her birth and martyrdom are unknown. A religious
romance telling the love story of Saint Cecilia and Valerian
appeared in Greece during the 4th century A. D., and there
is a biography of St. Cecilia dating from the 5th century A.
D.
She is purported to have been
the daughter of a wealthy Roman family, a Christian from
birth, who was promised in marriage to a pagan named
Valerian Cecilia, however, had vowed her virginity to
God, and wore sackcloth, fasted and prayed in hopes of
keeping this promised.
Saint Cecilia disclosed her
wishes to her husband on their wedding night. She told
Valerian that an angel watched over her to guard her purity.
He wanted to see the angel, so St. Cecilia sent him to Pope
Urban(223-230). Accounts of how and when Valerian saw
the angel vary, but one states that he was baptized by the
Pope, and , upon his return to Saint Cecilia, they were both
given heavenly crowns by an angel. Another
version recounts that Tiberius, Valerian's brother sees the
crowns and he too is converted.
The two brothers then make it
their mission to bury Christian martyrs put to death by the
prefect of the city. In turn, they were brought in
front of the prefect and sentenced to death by the
sword.
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| Cecilia, in the meantime, continued to make many
conversions, and prepared to have her home preserved as a
church at her death. Finally, she too was arrested and
brought before the prefect. He ruled that she should
die by suffocation int he baths. Saint Cecilia was
locked into the bathhouse and the fires vigorously stoked.
She remained there for a day and a night but was still alive
when the soldiers opened the doors. She was then
ordered beheaded, but the executioner, after striking
three times without severing St. Cecilia's head, ran away,
leaving her badly wounded.
St. Cecilia hung onto life for three days after the
mortal blows, preaching all the while. She made many
more conversions and people came to soak up her flowing
blood with sponges and cloths. There exists in Rome a
church in St. Cecilia's honor that dates from about the
fifth century. Her relics were believed to have been
found by Pope Paschal I in 821 A.D., in the cemetery
of St. Celestas. These remains (said to be incorrupt)
were exhumed. in 1599, when Cardinal Paul Emilius Sfondrati
rebuilt the church of St. Cecilia. |
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| St. Cecilia's following flourished during
the Middle Ages in Europe. Songs were sung in her
name, poetry was written, paintings with St Cecilia as the
subject were created (three are above), and her feast day,
on November 22 was happily celebrated. She continued to be
a popular topic for the arts well into the 18th century.
Hans Memling, in 1470, painted St. Cecilia playing the organ
at the mystical marriage of Catherine of Alexandria.
In 1584 she was named patroness of the academy of music
founded in Rome. Raphael painted her at Bologna,
Rubens at Berlin and Domenichino in Paris. Chaucer
commemorates her in his Second Nun's Tale and Handel set
John Dryden's "Ode to Saint Cecilia" to music in 1736.
Never was so much made of such a tiny bit of
pseudo-biographical information. St. Cecilia, said to
have heard heavenly music at one moment of her life, became
the patroness of all western music. Even the Andrews
Sisters, in 1941, recorded a song, "The Shrine of St.
Cecilia." |
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