Views from the Choir Loft

On Singing the Passion Gospel for Palm Sunday

GuestAuthor · February 7, 2014 ·

REPARATIONS FOR the liturgies of Holy Week have already begun in many places. In some parishes extra lay lectors are assigned parts for a dramatic reading of the Passion Gospel on Palm Sunday. But why not sing the Gospel?

The Second Vatican Council did indeed encourage the sung form of the mass as the “more noble.” (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 113; see also Musicam Sacram, 5) And since the Passion Gospel is the most important portion of the Gospel read all year, to sing it would be an effective way of realizing the solemnity of the occasion.

In fact, there is a long tradition in sacred music of composing special settings for the Passion Gospel, both on Palm Sunday and on Good Friday. The beautiful settings by Victoria and Byrd are simple enough to be used even by parishes with small choirs.

My “St. Matthew Passion” seeks to answer the need for a musical setting in English of the Lectionary text currently used on Palm Sunday in Year A.

Following the tradition of sung Passions, it provides three solo parts for most of the narrative and choral sections for the voice of the crowd. The choral passages (in SAB) are well within the ability of a modest parish choir. The solo parts of tenor, bass (Christus) and baritone (Evangelist) employ simple reciting formulas, each set at its own pitch level within a Mode 3 (Phrygian) modality.

We hope you enjoyed this guest article by Royce Nickel.

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* * The Passion according to St. Matthew

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