The University of Cambridge’s Catholic Chaplaincy, Fisher House, boasts two liturgical choirs: one for the Latin Mass and one for the English. This year they provided recordings of all of the chants of the Easter Vigil, sung by Carlos Rodríguez Otero, the director of the Latin Mass Schola and third year music student at Queens’ College. Carlos has a place at Queens’ to read for the MPhil in Music next year, following on from his undergraduate dissertation on the work of the Counter-Reformation composer Marc’Antonio Ingegneri.
Fisher House is an understated institution in the British Catholic world, having played a role in the lives many of the great movers-and-shakers of the English Church over the last century. Aside from its growing musical capacities, it enjoys a reputation for the spiritual direction, preaching and lectures delivered there, its library and for the best value bar in Cambridge.
Obviously, this year the live-streamed liturgies from Fisher House could not have choral music, but doubtless these recordings will help prepare scholas for next year. Listening to them has made me look forward to next Easter’s celebrations which, God willing, will be two years worth of festivities.
