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“What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too…” Pope Benedict XVI (7 July 2007)

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Views from the Choir Loft

Mp3 Audio: “Why Do I Use My Paper, Ink, And Pen”

Jeff Ostrowski · February 4, 2014

827 BYRD A SPECIAL MOTET written by Renaissance composer William Byrd (†1623) honoring the Martyrdom of St. Edmund Campion is now 1 available for free and instant download:

      * *  Why do I use my paper, ink and pen (Mp3 Audio)

HY DOE I USE my paper inck and pen,
and call my wits to counsel what to say,
such memories were made for mortal men,
I speak of Saints, whose names cannot decay,
An Angels trump, were fitter for to sound,
their glorious death, if such on earth were found.

For obvious reasons, this extraordinary recording was commissioned as the soundtrack for the Promotional Video explaining the Campion Missal & Hymnal. If you appreciate this, please consider purchasing a copy of this book. Thank you!

THE AUDIO RECORDING is the work of Matthew J. Curtis, a truly gifted singer. Regarding the text itself, an Edmund Campion scholar sent the following via Email:

“The words are moving because Catholics were forced to use manuscript to disseminate works (printing presses being difficult to buy, conceal and feed; paper being bulky and expensive). This poem, written by Henry Walpole within a month of Campion’s death, was printed in the Alfield, A true reporte of the death & martyrdome of M. Campion Iesuite and preiste; the press of Richard Verstegan was seized. The manuscript version was disseminated widely, and set to music by William Byrd, probably with a few months, although the printed version of Byrd’s setting was not published till 1588, without Campion’s name being included (for obvious reasons, in Protestant England). The poem itself is remarkable, since it is in the same form as Shakespeare’s Venus and Adonis: six-line stanzas of rhyming iambic pentameters (unstress/stress). There are thirty of them, divided into clear groups of ten. In other words, it is much more than a popular ballad, and has (unlike many modern Catholic hymns) a very clear concordance between words and metre.”




NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:

1   As a matter of fact, it’s been available since 31 January 2013. You can see this by going to the Campion Missal Website and scrolling to the bottom of the page, where the various “external” articles are featured.

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

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: St Edmund Campion Missal Hymnal Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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About Jeff Ostrowski

Jeff Ostrowski holds his B.M. in Music Theory from the University of Kansas (2004). He resides with his wife and children in Los Angeles.—(Read full biography).

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Quick Thoughts

    William Byrd • Simple “Agnus Dei” Canon
    Time flies! Back in July, I posted a PDF setting of a perfect canon by William Byrd (d. 1623) arranged as an AGNUS DEI for three voices. Last Sunday, we sang that arrangement with our volunteer choir. To hear a ‘live’ recording of it, click here (Mp3). In my humble opinion, this would be a perfect piece for a choir just beginning to experiment with polyphony.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Glory To God” • (For Choir + Congregation)
    I wish to thank everyone for the nice comments I received vis-à-vis my Glory To God setting for Choir & Congregation. A gentleman with a musical doctorate from Indiana University wrote: “Love this setting so much. And I will pray, as you asked, for your return to composition more fully. You are very very good.” A female choir director wrote: “I love your harmonizations, your musicality, and the wonderful interplay you have with dissonance and consonance in your music. So fun to listen to, and great for intellect, heart, and soul!” A young woman from California wrote: “Thank you for releasing your new Glory To God in honor of Saint Noel Chabanel. I'm enjoying reading through the various parts and listening to your recordings.”
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    William Byrd • “Mass for Five Voices”
    Our volunteer choir is learning the “Sanctus” from William Byrd’s Mass for Five Voices. You can hear a short excerpt (recorded last Sunday) but please ignore the sound of babies crying: Mp3 recording. We still have work to do—but we’re on the right track. Once we have some of the tuning issues fixed, I desire to use it as an example proving volunteers can sing complicated polyphony. — One of our volunteer choirs also sang that SANCTUS on 24 September 2023, and you can listen to how that came out.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“We wish to express the hope that students of Gregorian Chant come back to the pure Vatican Edition, in the ancient block-note form, without the addition of any signs whatever, in order to achieve Gregorian unity.”

— Josef Gogniat (12 March 1938)

Recent Posts

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  • William Byrd • Simple “Agnus Dei” Canon
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  • A Brief Addendum

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