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Views from the Choir Loft

How To Sing The Gregorian Alleluia

Jeff Ostrowski · May 15, 2014

510 Alleluia UTSIDE OF EASTERTIDE, the Alleluia is easy enough to sing. The “Alleluia” is sung, up until the asterisk. Then, the complete Alleluia is sung. The verse follows, and the “Alleluia” is repeated in its entirety.

This method creates something like this:

— ALLELUIA (1/2)
— ALLELUIA (complete)
— VERSE
— ALLELUIA (complete)

By the way, this same method is also used for the very first week of Easter (confusing, no?).

* *  However, during Eastertide, the method changes, since there’s now a Lesser Alleluia and Greater Alleluia. During Eastertide, here is the method for the 1st Alleluia (sometimes called the “Lesser Alleluia”):

LESSER ALLELUIA: Alleluia is sung up until the asterisk. Then, the entire Alleluia is repeated. Then the verse is sung.

This method creates something like this:

— ALLELUIA (1/2)
— ALLELUIA (complete)
— VERSE

And, for the 2nd Alleluia (sometimes called the “Greater Alleluia”):

GREATER ALLELUIA: Alleluia is sung all the way through. The verse is sung. The Alleluia is sung all the way through.

This method creates something like this:

— ALLELUIA (complete)
— VERSE
— ALLELUIA (complete)

If you don’t think my explanation was clear, you can read Dom Johner or the Vatican Preface. However, some people get confused by these, as the wording is not totally clear.

Incidentally, after the Second Vatican Council, the method of singing the Alleluia was changed somewhat, but it is still allowed to use the traditional method.

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

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Greater Alleluia, Gregorian Easter Alleluia Last Updated: April 1, 2021

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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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Corpus Christi Watershed

Quick Thoughts

    Vespers Booklet (4th Sunday of Lent)
    The organ accompaniment booklet (24 pages) which I created for the 4th Sunday of Lent (“Lætare Sunday”) may now be downloaded, for those who desire such a thing.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Vespers Booklet, 3rd Sunday of Lent
    The organ accompaniment I created for the 3rd Sunday of Lent (“Extraordinary Form”) may now be downloaded, if anyone is interested in this.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Weeping For Joy! (We Hope!)
    Listening to this Easter Alleluia—an SATB arrangement I made twenty years ago based on the work of Monsignor Jules Van Nuffel—one of our readers left this comment: “I get tears in my eyes each time I sing to this hymn.” I hope this person is weeping for joy!
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“If you begin by telling a man that in a word like ‘Deus’ the first syllable corresponds to the weak beat, the second to the strong beat of a modern bar, the one thing that will succeed in accomplishing is to bewilder him thoroughly.”

— Father Heinrich Bewerunge writing to Dame Laurentia

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