Much of the talk over the last few days has been about the election of Pope Francis I. Regardless of your spiritual (or non-spiritual) bent, it certainly is fascinating to watch the process unfold, as a very elite group of men elect their next leader. Barack Obama might be the most powerful man on earth according to some, but in addition to becoming the spiritual leader for some 1.1 billion Catholics worldwide, Pope Francis just became CEO of perhaps the world's largest corporation.
The whole thing left me wondering what the musical accompaniment is to all this pomp and circumstance. After all, American presidents have inaugural balls, there is a wealth of music for the coronation of kings and queens. Surely there must be a "papal playlist"?
I did some digging, and the only thing that I came up with is the piece of music the Cardinals sing as they head into the Papal Conclave. It's a piece of Gregorian Chant called Veni Creator Spiritus - Come Creator Spirit - and this piece gets used in a variety of contexts in both the Catholic and Anglican churches.
Here are the Cardinals themselves getting the piece started.
Then the organ and congregation join, and then the choir of the Sistine Chapel breaks into beautiful harmony (I tried to find out the name of the piece - or the setting - they were singing, but couldn't find it anywhere. If you know, please comment!)
And if this just gives you an appetite for more, the online version of Time Magazine published this playlist of music, considered fitting for the occasion.
Let's hope that Pope Francis I, as well as each one of us, gets visited by a spirit of hope, love and creativity, to help us deal with the times ahead.
Related:
The plague, Landini and the afterlife: artistic expression in 14th-century Florence