This is a setting to music of the hymn by St Thomas Aquinas, the medieval theological scholar. It speaks of the bread at communion as ‘bread of the angels’.
Today’s choice is by César Franck who set the hymn in 1872 for tenor, harp, ‘cello, and organ, later including it as an additional movement in his Messe à trois voix of 1859.
Around this time Franck was a member of the Parisian Société Nationale de Musique, and had just been appointed professor of organ at the Paris Conservatoire – a position that had to be nominated to the French Government – so popular was Franck that many claimed to have made the nomination including Saint-Saëns, Dubois, and Cavaillé-Coll.
He was also organist titulaire and maître de chapelle at Basilique-Sainte-Clotilde, for where he most likely composed today’s choice.
It has a simple, repetitive tune, notable for the repeated A section which has the melody in canon:
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