Gaude Maria Virgo. 
Chants from old Vilnius manuscripts

The worship of the Virgin Mary was always inherent to the piety of St. Francis of Assisi’s sons. Gaude Maria Virgo (Rejoice, Virgin Mary) reveals a significant share of this devotion. The CD presents hymns celebrating the Assumption of Mary and other songs worshipping the Virgin Mary from the Liturgical Year’s repertoire. These compositions are all distinguished by their specific melodic variants that can be defined as the Bernardine idiom of the Gregorian Chant and have been taken from Graduale RS F22:103 stored at the Wróblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences in Vilnius. Dating back to the 14^th century, the manuscript is the oldest of the Bernardine liturgical books stored here. The Graduale was created in Italy and brought to Vilnius by the Bernardine monks from Kraków. In this recording, Proprium and Ordinarium Missae have been taken from the manuscript F22:103 and two other Vilnius codices present works from the Liturgy of Hours.

The odd stanzas of the hymn Ave maris stella, the only composition of the CD performed in alternatim with polyphonic parts, were taken from the manuscript F22:95 (Processionale –Hymnarius), while the antiphon Ave Maria and the responsory Gaude Maria Virgo — from the Antiphonary F22:101. In this way, the CD covers a wide range of the Bernardines’ repertoire and the liturgical books used over the centuries in Vilnius. May this album become a beautiful manifestation of the continuity of Vilnius history and sacrum, the relentless resonance of which is the liturgical chant.
DMus. Hab. Michał Sławecki

The program was recorded by the choir of the Vilnius Archcathedral Basilica SCHOLA GREGORIANA VILNENSIS (director – Dainius Juozėnas), the producer of the project – musicologist Beata Baublinskienė.

Michał SŁAWECKI – conductor

Cantores:
Beata BAUBLINSKIENĖ (13)
Dainius JUOZĖNAS (4)
Paweł KASPRZYK (3)
Vaidas URMILEVIČIUS (11)

Cantores psalmi: Daina Liučija Adamkevičiūtė (8, 10), Rimantas Andrikonis (8), Živilė Tamaševičienė (10), Giedrius Tamaševičius (2), Laura Vildžiūnienė (1, 2).
Darius Andziulis, Vytautas Blaževičius, Rūta Čeponytė, Asta Salomėja Etkevičiūtė, Gilma Giedraitė, Giedrė Gurevičienė, Renata Marija Labanauskienė, Alina Leščinskienė, Eglė Pranckūnienė, Agnė Ruikienė, Jūratė Sereikienė, Giedrius Šmuilaitis, Skirmantė Valiulytė, Agnė Zemkajutė, Virginija Žalienė, Augustė Žičkytė

Sources: Graduale LMAB RS F22–101 (1, 11), Graduale LMAB RS F22–103 (2–10, 12, 13), Procesionale–Hymnarius LMAB RS F22–95 (14)