About this blogger:
Jeff Ostrowski
A theorist, organist, and conductor, Jeff Ostrowski holds his B.M. in Music Theory from the University of Kansas (2004), and did graduate work in Musicology. He serves as choirmaster for the new FSSP parish in Los Angeles, where he resides with his wife and children.
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“We must say it plainly: the Roman rite as we knew it exists no more. It has gone. Some walls of the structure have fallen, others have been altered—we can look at it as a ruin or as the partial foundation of a new building. Think back, if you remember it, to the Latin sung High Mass with Gregorian chant. Compare it with the modern post-Vatican II Mass. It is not only the words, but also the tunes and even certain actions that are different. In fact it is a different liturgy of the Mass.”
— Fr. Joseph Gelineau (1978)

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“Te Saeculorum” • Simple, Sensational, SATB
published 30 October 2015 by Jeff Ostrowski

AM ALWAYS SEARCHING FOR brief SATB pieces that can be used throughout the liturgical year. The following seems to have been written for the institution of the FEAST OF CHRIST THE KING, 1 but can be sung at any time. The piece alternates back and forth between chant & polyphony, just like this setting of the “Ave Maris Stella.” Examine the chant used by Mercier and you’ll see it comes from Mocquereau’s 1903 Liber Usualis. This suggests that Mocquereau’s edition continued to be employed by French musicians in spite of the Editio Vaticana publications which began appearing in 1905.

    * *  PDF Download • “Te Saeculorum” (MERCIER)

When you listen to this rehearsal video, do you hear how the composer has mixed together in a marvelous fashion the plainsong melody?


That rehearsal video uses words the first time; but when the refrain is repeated, it’s sung in Solfège. It also provides assistance for counting the rhythm.

Rehearsal Videos :

EQUAL VOICES : YouTube   •   Mp3 Audio

SOPRANO : YouTube   •   Audio

ALTO : YouTube   •   Audio

TENOR : YouTube   •   Audio

BASS : YouTube   •   Audio

When teaching the chant verses, you can use this accompaniment.



NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:

1   Pope Pius XI—who also wrote about the Sacrament of Matrimony—established the Feast of Christ the King on 11 December 1925, by means of an encyclical letter called “Quas primas.”



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