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Views from the Choir Loft

Introducing polyphony in a round about way

Veronica Brandt · January 18, 2014

Bodfari welsh choir ‘Noson Lawen’ concert at Lleweni Uchaf, Bodfari, Wales, 1953 INGING IN PARTS is a beautiful thing to aspire to. Never take it for granted. A choir singing together in harmony must be close to a miracle, considering all the disparate elements that need to come together. So many things can get in the way – anxiety, apathy and embarrassment to name a few.

One short-cut is to learn rounds or canons. One tune for everyone. That doesn’t guarantee that singing in the round is necessarily simple, but one initial step is easier, getting you one step closer to the fun of singing and listening at the same time.

Last year we tackled Da pacem Domine by Melchior Franck. The year before I had attempted Non nobis, Domine, attributed to William Byrd. It proved a bit too much too soon. Da pacem Domine is just that little bit simpler, and repeating the tune All Year Long proved fruitful. There’s one tricky spot where a phrase starts on the up beat. With younger children we would clap and stomp to try show the rhythm. Anything is possible with patience.

Andre van Ryckeghem has collected 73 canons together into this little booklet. Jubilate Deo and Dona nobis pacem are two that we have had fun with.

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

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Sheet Music 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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20 January 2021 • REMINDER

We have no savings, no endowment, and no major donors. You can help us (please) by subscribing to our mailing list. It’s incredibly easy; just scroll to the bottom of any blog article and enter your email address. Thank you!

—Jeff Ostrowski
19 January 2021 • Confusion over feasts

For several months, we have discussed the complicated history of the various Christmas feasts: the Baptism of the Lord, the feast of the Holy Family, the Epiphany, and so forth. During a discussion, someone questioned my assertion that in some places Christmas had been part of the Epiphany. As time went on, of course, the Epiphany came to represent only three “manifestations” (Magi, Cana, Baptism), but this is not something rigid. For example, if you look at this “Capital E” from the feast of the Epiphany circa 1350AD, you can see it portrays not three mysteries but four—including PHAGIPHANIA when Our Lord fed the 5,000. In any event, anyone who wants proof the Epiphany used to include Christmas can read this passage from Dom Prosper Guéranger.

—Jeff Ostrowski
6 January 2021 • Anglicans on Plainsong

A book published by Anglicans in 1965 has this to say about Abbat Pothier’s Editio Vaticana, the musical edition reproduced by books such as the LIBER USUALIS (Solesmes Abbey): “No performing edition of the music of the Eucharistic Psalmody can afford to ignore the evidence of the current official edition of the Latin Graduale, which is no mere reproduction of a local or partial tradition, but a CENTO resulting from an extended study and comparison of a host of manuscripts gathered from many places. Thus the musical text of the Graduale possesses a measure of authority which cannot lightly be disregarded.” They are absolutely correct.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

And since it is becoming that holy things be administered in a holy manner, and of all things this sacrifice is the most holy, the Catholic Church, to the end that it might be worthily and reverently offered and received, instituted many centuries ago the holy canon, which is so free from error that it contains nothing that does not in the highest degree savor of a certain holiness and piety and raise up to God the minds of those who offer.

— Council of Trent (1562)

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