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Views from the Choir Loft

“Salve Festa Dies” • SATB Choral Piece By Canon Jules Van Nuffel (d. 1953)

Jeff Ostrowski · February 25, 2015

“One may wish that Venantius Fortunatus’ magnificent processional hymn for Easter, Salve festa dies had survived as a sequence. It is really a pity that room for it was not found in some part of the office.” —Fr. Adrian Fortescue|

230 Salve Festa Dies OU DESIRE a contemporary SATB setting of the Salve Festa Dies for Easter? You love the ancient poem by Fortunatus (†609AD) but require English translations for it? You cannot sing all 60+ verses of the entire hymn? No problem!

Try the one by Msgr. Van Nuffel, who died in 1953:

      * *  PDF • Salve Festa Dies (SATB)

The Soprano line holds the traditional chant melody while the other voices provide modern harmonies, with tons of stepwise motion in the bass. 1

UPDATE • A professional recording was made available on 21 March 2015:

    * *  Professional Recording • Salve Festa Dies

In the first verse, the bass section must employ a very light falsetto—otherwise flawless stepwise motion would be impossible. If your basses become perturbed, remind them that contemporary music can be much more demanding than a few falsetto bars!

EXCELLENT LITERAL TRANSLATIONS of the Salve Festa Dies into English can be found here:

      * *  PDF • English Translations

Here’s the Gregorian score as printed in the 2014 CMAA Parish Book of Chant:

      * *  PDF • Score from PBC

Here’s an organ accompaniment to that version:

      * *  PDF • Organ Accompaniment

Here are six (6) more versions of the Salve Festa Dies:

      * *  PDF • Six (6) versions of the Salve Festa Dies

An ancient manuscript with many more verses—transcribed by Dreves & Blume here and here—can be viewed:

      * *  PDF • Ancient Manuscript with additional verses

The NOH version uses a melodic variant of the Salve Festa Dies:

      * *  PDF • Organ Accompaniment with a different melody

Here’s what Dom Guéranger has to say about the Salve Festa Dies:

      * *  PDF • Guéranger speaks of the poem by Fortunatus

790 San Gall SALVE FESTA DIES



NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:

1   In 2004, when I first showed the NOH accompaniments by Flor Peeters & Jules Van Nuffel to Fr. Robert Ferguson, FSSP—who is a magnificent organist—he couldn’t get over the walking bass lines. He thought they were absolutely splendid. When I passed by his Oklahoma rectory a few days after our meeting, he opened his door and called out across a field: “Jeff, I still can’t get over that beautiful stepwise motion in the bass!” And he was right!

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

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Salve Festa Dies English Translation 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

    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 he converses with the learned and judicious, he delights in their talent—if with the ignorant and foolish, he enjoys their stupidity. He is not even offended by professional jesters. With a wonderful dexterity he accommodates himself to every disposition. As a rule, in talking with women (even with his own wife) he is full of jokes and banter.”

— ‘Erasmus on St. Thomas More (England’s 1st lay Chancellor)’

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