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Views from the Choir Loft

Colloquium Update IV

Fr. David Friel · July 6, 2014

HERE IS SO MUCH to be learned about Gregorian chant, and the Colloquium is such a terrific place to learn it. I have spent all week chanting in a schola led by Scott Turkington, one of the true living masters of the art. My fellow chanters and I have learned many things under his direction.

On Friday morning, we were especially blessed to have an open discussion about one of the chants we were preparing. The piece was the offertory chant for the Votive Mass of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Improperium exspectavit Cor meum. (The same chant, in a slightly extended format, is used also on Palm Sunday.) The chant appears below in a photo, and here is the text (and translation) from Psalm 68:21:

Improperium exspectavit Cor meum et miseriam, et sustinui qui simul mecum contristaretur et non fuit; consolantem me quaesivi et non inveni.

My Heart awaited reproach and misery; and I hoped for one that would grieve together with me, but there was none; I looked for one who would comfort me, and found no one.

In our analysis of the piece, we observed that it would be difficult to tell the mode just on the basis of the opening phrase. The phrase et miseriam, however, removes all doubt that this is a mode VIII chant, since it launches from sol, returns to sol, and hovers around the reciting tone do. Moreover, the piece ends neatly on the final sol, as do all chants in modes VII & VIII.

We considered several episodes of obvious word painting. Perhaps the cleverest comes on the word Cor in the opening phrase. The repercussion on do, called for by the bistropha and subsequent tristopha, seems to simulate a heartbeat. Then, in the melody for miseriam, one finds three separate expressive puncta, which helps to convey the sense of real misery. As Turkington describes, expressive neums should not necessarily be sung with extra speed, extra delay, or greater volume; rather, they should exhibit a certain “fire” within.

Structurally, we took note of two very similar figures on the word et, at the end of the third staff and the beginning of the fifth staff. Both of these figures consist of a salicus with a terminal liquescent. Turkington contends that liquescents always serve a purpose, and, in this case, he suggested that they are an encouragement to the singer to close on “t” and begin the singable “n” of the following word. In the first instance, the salicus is built with a sol ti re progression, whereas in the second it consists of fa la do. The figure beginning with fa seems to come “out of nowhere,” and therefore adds a terrific element of surprise to the chant’s concluding phrase before it resolves in a lovely cadence on sol.

Even more surprising, perhaps, is the inclusion of the mi above the staff; not only is this the highest note in the piece, but it also lies outside the standard range of mode VIII (re to re). This should probably be interpreted as a case of word painting, wherein the composer is stressing the deep despair conveyed by the text. During our discussion, one of the participants suggested that it signifies the speaker of the Psalm, who goes everywhere—even outside the mode—looking for someone to comfort him, in the end desperately confessing that he has “found no one.”

Another remark that Turkington made about chant in general has stuck with me all week. He shared with us this idea: “In chant, there are no Gothic arches—only Romanesque arches.” In other words, the shaping of every phrase in chant should be a smooth arc, rather than an arc with sharp or jagged points. For example, in this piece, even the mi of the final line, which constitutes the physical highpoint of the chant, ought not to stick out unduly from the rest of the phrase.

All of this reflection arose from an impromptu discussion on a rather short piece of chant. When the propers, in their simplicity, contain such depth and meaning and spirituality, why would anyone want to sing a hymn instead?

Indy_Improperium

Colloquium Update I

Colloquium Update II

Colloquium Update III

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

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Gregorian Chant, Hymns Replacing Propers, Propers, Sacred Music Colloquium Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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About Fr. David Friel

Ordained in 2011, Father Friel is a priest of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and serves as Director of Liturgy at Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary. —(Read full biography).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    PDF Download • “Polyphonic Extension” (Kevin Allen) for Gloria III
    EVIN ALLEN was commissioned by Sacred Music Symposium 2025 to compose a polyphonic ‘middle section’ for the GLORIA from Mass III, often denoted by its trope name: Missa Kyrie Deus sempiterne. This year, I’m traveling from Singapore to serve on the symposium faculty. I will be conducting Palestrina’s ‘Ave Maria’ as well as teaching plainsong to the men. A few days ago, I was asked to record rehearsal videos for this beautiful polyphonic extension. (See below.) This polyphonic composition fits ‘inside’ GLORIA III. That is, the congregation sings for the beginning and end, but the choir alone adds polyphony to the middle. The easiest way to understand how everything fits together is by examining this congregational insert. You may download the score, generously made available to the whole world—free of charge—by CORPUS CHRISTI WATERSHED:
    *  PDF Download • Gloria III ‘Middle Section’ (Kevin Allen)
    Free rehearsal videos for each individual voice await you at #24366. Related News • My colleague, Jeff Ostrowski, composed an organ accompaniment for this same GLORIA a few months ago. Obviously, the organist should drop out when the polyphony is being sung.
    —Corrinne May
    “Booklet of Eucharistic Hymns” (16 pages)
    I was asked to create a booklet for my parish to use during our CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION on 22 June 2025. Would you be willing to look over the DRAFT BOOKLET (16 pages) I came up with? I tried to include a variety of hymns: some have a refrain; some are in major, others in minor; some are metered, others are plainsong; some are in Spanish, some are in Latin, but most are in English. Normally, we’d use the Brébeuf Hymnal—but we can’t risk having our congregation carry those heavy books all over the city to various churches.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Yahweh” in church songs?
    My pastor asked me to write a weekly column for our parish bulletin. The one scheduled to run on 22 June 2025 is called “Three Words in a Psalm” and speaks of translating the TETRAGRAMMATON. You can read the article at this column repository. All of them are quite brief because I was asked to keep within a certain word limit.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    Antiphons Don’t Match?
    A reader wants to know why the Entrance and Communion antiphons in certain publications deviate from what’s prescribed by the GRADUALE ROMANUM published after Vatican II. Click here to read our answer. The short answer is: the Adalbert Propers were never intended to be sung. They were intended for private Masses only (or Masses without music). The “Graduale Parvum,” published by the John Henry Newman Institute of Liturgical Music in 2023, mostly uses the Adalbert Propers—but sometimes uses the GRADUALE text: e.g. Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (29 June).
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    When to Sit, Stand and Kneel like it’s 1962
    There are lots of different guides to postures for Mass, but I couldn’t find one which matched our local Latin Mass, so I made this one: sit-stand-kneel-crop
    —Veronica Brandt
    The Funeral Rites of the Graduale Romanum
    Lately I have been paging through the 1974 Graduale Romanum (see p. 678 ff.) and have been fascinated by the funeral rites found therein, especially the simply-beautiful Psalmody that is appointed for all the different occasions before and after the funeral Mass: at the vigil/wake, at the house of the deceased, processing to the church, at the church, processing to the cemetery, and at the cemetery. Would that this “stational Psalmody” of the Novus Ordo funeral rites saw wider usage! If you or anyone you know have ever used it, please do let me know.
    —Daniel Tucker

Random Quote

“Partly on account of these alterations, and partly because I have been unable to ascertain the authorship of many compositions—which have come to me either in manuscript or through other collections—I have thought it right to publish the volume without appending the names of writers to their works. This, however, I confess to be a defect…”

— Benjamin Hall Kennedy (1863)

Recent Posts

  • PDF Download • “Polyphonic Extension” (Kevin Allen) for Gloria III
  • “Booklet of Eucharistic Hymns” (16 pages)
  • PDF Download • “Text by Saint Francis of Assisi” (choral setting w/ organ: Soprano & Alto)
  • “Yahweh” in church songs?
  • “Music List” • Pentecost Sunday

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