T WILL BE NECESSARY to speak tons more about the idea of common melodies. In a nutshell, it means that the Brébeuf Hymnal allows you to get through the entire liturgical year even if your parish knows very few hymn melodies! Then, of course, you can add more tunes with each passing year. Consider the following English translation by Fr. John Fitzpatrick of Christe Redemptor Omnium—which has the same name as a Christmas hymn, but is actually a hymn for All Saints. (Just to confuse everyone, in 1631AD, its title was changed to “Placare Christe Servulis.”)
The text is used with many melodies in the Brébeuf Hymnal, and here’s one of them—with Soprano line recorded yesterday by a young lady in the 8th grade:
You can hear the individual tracks if you visit the Brébeuf website and scroll to #156.
For the record, that melody (“Erschienen Ist”) has become one our congregation in Los Angeles loves to sing. In the Brébeuf Hymnal, that melody is used for several different texts.
Below is another musical setting of “Placare Christe Servulis” is #158 in the Brébeuf hymnal:
And here is yet another musical setting of “Placare Christe Servulis”—#161 from the Brébeuf hymnal:
