Views from the Choir Loft

Setting propers to psalm tones with gregorio

Veronica Brandt · June 10, 2013 ·

OW TO get started typing up chant? It all depends what you want to type. Here is a video showing how easy it is to arrange the propers to psalm tones for the 4th Sunday after Pentecost.

The links required are:

gabc.romanliturgy.org/propers.html for the online-install-nothing version and
the Chrome App for the offline-faster version.

From Benjamin Bloomfield’s Blog comes this quote from the Liber Brevior:

These abridged chants are intended exclusively for churches where it is not possible to properly execute all the melodies of the Roman Gradual and for which a simple melody of the Sacred Texts is tolerated (S. C. R. N° 3697). Where there are Choirs sufficiently trained, the official Chant of the Gradual must be kept.

I had a little technical difficulty with the video software so the picture tends to lag behind the sound, but with a bit of patience I hope it helps explain how to use the Propers Tool. And thanks to Jeff Ostrowski for the great idea to make the video while holding a baby!

<noscript><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="480" src="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/WDYF1HVSIgQ?rel=0" width="640"></noscript>

Illustration from the Breviary of John the Fearless. Paris, 1413-1419. Harley 2897, f.33v from the British Library.

About Veronica Brandt

Veronica Brandt holds a Bachelor Degree in Electrical Engineering. As editor, she has produced fine publications (as well as valuable reprints) dealing with Gregorian chant, hymnody, Latin, and other subjects. These publications are distinguished on account of their tastefulness. She lives in the Blue Mountains near Sydney, Australia, with her husband Peter and six children.

Could Pope St. Pius X Sing?

“On 12 March 1908, the complete publication of the Roman Gradual was issued by the Vatican Press. On that very day, Dom Pothier solemnly presented the first copy to the Holy Father. A witness of the audience says that Pius X wished to be the first to see the new book; he opened it at random, at page 128 of the supplement pro aliquibus locis—it was the Introit of the new Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. The Pope sang it with perfect taste to the last note.” (Catholic Choirmaster, February 1915)

—Jeff Ostrowski

Julius Bas Accompaniment

A very prolific harmonizer of Gregorian chant in the early 20th century was Mr. Julius Bas. He often uses a very strange technique, wherein he employs rests to eliminate the Alto, Tenor, and Bass voices. Consider what he did with “Lumen ad revelationem” here:

* JPEG • Lumen ad revelationem

It seems quite lazy, and I’ve never seen anyone else use such a technique, although Dr. Peter Wagner often switched to parallel octaves when he ran out of ideas… (Yuck!)

—Jeff Ostrowski

Hitting wrong notes

Fr. Valentine Young, OFM, used to say: “The organist can play 1,000 correct notes and one wrong note—and the only thing people will care about is the wrong note.” Last Sunday I hit some wrong notes, and felt bad. Then I remembered a story about Rudolf Serkin and started to chuckle. Charles Rosen (or was it Leon Fleisher?) told the story of Serkin playing a Beethoven Sonata in front of a large audience. The theme is all in octaves; but Serkin hit some wrong notes, and played parallel 7ths instead. This so unnerved him that every time the theme returned, he played the entire thing in parallel 7ths! We must remember that even the greatest hit wrong notes. Alfred Cortot, Vladimir Horowitz, Wilhelm Backhaus, Edwin Fischer, Sviatoslav Richter, Egon Petri—they all hit wrong notes, which we can hear on recordings. (Josef Hofmann was an exception, but he was super-human so he doesn’t count!)

—Jeff Ostrowski