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Views from the Choir Loft

Pedagogy, propers and psalm tones

Veronica Brandt · October 5, 2013

E CAN ALWAYS PSALM TONE IT, is a common catch cry in less experienced choirs when things get difficult singing the prescribed Latin propers. Those lines of a single note repeated can look pretty attractive when faced with unusual melismas and intervals that defy our ear’s expectations.

While psalm tones are comparatively simple, understanding them is still a learned skill. There is a little theory to learn – terms like incipit, mediant and final are handy to have when explaining the tunes. Singing technique for rendering the verses in a pleasant way is important too. All this learning is good grounding for more involved chant later on.

Some of my intrepid volunteer singers keep asking for recordings. Through some crazy mix up I have two sets to showcase here today. See what you think. Would recordings like this help you? Would it be better to focus more on getting choir members reading music independently?

20th Sunday after Pentecost

Last week I went to the Psalm Tone Tool (now with Novus Ordo Latin propers too!) and generated this pdf and handed it out after Mass to some willing volunteers. Who thereupon asked for recordings. So I made recordings: Introit, Gradual, Alleluia, Offertory and Communion. (Thanks go to my mother, Teresa, for singing with me)

21st Sunday after Pentecost

This time I found some old files from last year on my computer, so here is the pdf. You may notice the Introit is not a straight psalm tone, but the antiphon has been simplified heavily. And I have left out the jubilus from the Alleluia. Here are the recordings: Introit, Gradual, Alleluia, Offertory and Communion.

These are for the Extraordinary Form or Vetus Ordo, where there is a bit of a jump between the Low Mass and a Sung Mass. The Ordinary Form has a lot more flexibility. Still the note from the Liber Brevior is worth bearing in mind:

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.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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About Veronica Brandt

Veronica Brandt holds a Bachelor Degree in Electrical Engineering. She lives near Sydney, Australia, with her husband and six children.—(Read full biography).

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Quick Thoughts

14 May 2022 • “Pure” Vatican Edition

As readers know, my choir has been singing from the “pure” Editio Vaticana. That is to say, the official rhythm which—technically—is the only rhythm allowed by the Church. I haven’t figured out how I want the scores to look, so in the meantime we’ve been using temporary scores that look like this. Stay tuned!

—Jeff Ostrowski
14 May 2022 • Gorgeous Book

If there is a more beautiful book than Abbat Pothier’s 1888 Processionale Monasticum, I don’t know what it might be. This gorgeous tome was today added to the Saint John Lalande Online Library. I wish I owned a physical copy.

—Jeff Ostrowski
Sound Familiar?

1 June 1579: “The chapter passes a rule that anyone ascending to the new organ without official permission shall be fined a month’s pay.”

26 October 1579: “The altar boys remain always separate and distinct from choirboys—the one group learning only plainchant and assisting at the altar, the other living with the chapel-master and studying counterpoint and polyphony as well. Father Francisco Guerrero postpones his departure for Rome and instead spends the entire year in Seville making ready for the trip. In the meantime he neglects his choirboys. On 16 November, after considerable complaint against their unruliness and ignorance, he engages an assistant, Bartolomé Farfán.”

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

When you consider that the greatest hymns ever written—the plainchant hymns—are pushing the age of eight hundred and that the noble chorale hymn tunes of Bach date from the early eighteenth century, then what is the significance of the word “old” applied to “Mother at Thy Feet Is Kneeling”? Most of the old St. Basil hymns date from the Victorian era, particularly the 1870s and 1880s.

— Paul Hume (1956)

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