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Views from the Choir Loft

“Veni Sancte Spiritus” • Sing Directly From An Ancient Manuscript!

Jeff Ostrowski · May 16, 2015

767 Veni Sancte Spiritus OME BELIEVE that when Pope Pius X promulgated the Editio Vaticana, he got rid of ancient variants of Gregorian chant, but that view cannot be maintained. What Pius X did was create an official edition for the Church—which no other publisher could overrule—and anyone aware of the situation during those years realizes what a remarkable action this was.

It’s actually not forbidden to sing from ancient manuscripts—so long as the text is not altered—and this was done by the Sistine Chapel during papacy of Pope Saint Pius X. Moreover, the legislation of Pius X allows modern composers to replace the Vaticana melodies with their own creations, although this should be done only with discretion. 1

The FSSP choir in Los Angeles will be singing the “Golden Sequence” directly from a 13th-century manuscript on Pentecost Sunday:


You can download the musical score, which includes the ancient version, an English translation by Fr. Adrian Fortescue, and a modern notation version:

    * *  PDF Download • Singer’s Score / Ancient & Modern Notation

Teresa Clark has kindly sent another version, in box notation:

    * *  PDF Download • Gregorian Version (Courtesy T. Clark)

You can also download an organ accompaniment I composed earlier this week:

    * *  PDF Download • Organ Accompaniment by Jeff Ostrowski

The priest who taught me Gregorian chant doesn’t care for 2 the Belgian style of accompaniment. Please play through what I’ve written and let me know your thoughts on the CCW Facebook page. I always read the CCW Facebook comments about my articles—although I personally don’t have a Facebook account. I may not read them immediately, but sooner or later I always do. In particular, please tell me what you think of the organ stops I chose for “O Lux Beatissima” (VERSE 5) and “Sine Tuo Numine” (VERSE 6) in that video.



NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:

1   Speaking of the Victimae Paschali—another Sequence—Fr. Fortescue wrote: “The clanging melody (like the blare of trumpets) is one of the very finest pieces of plainsong we have. It seems the perfect musical expression of Easter. And its immemorial connection with the words makes it almost incredible that anyone should ever want to replace it by a modern composition.”

2   His precise words were: “De gustibus non est disputandum.”

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

Filed Under: Articles 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 Michigan. —(Read full biography).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    “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
    “Music List” • Pentecost Sunday
    Some have expressed interest in perusing the ORDER OF MUSIC I prepared for Pentecost Sunday (8 June 2025). If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. Because our choir is on break this week, the music is relatively simple.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Truly Great Processional” • (Pipe Organ)
    I stumbled upon this live recording of a PROCESSIONAL I played on the pipe organ in 2002. It’s an excerpt from a much longer composition by Sebastian Bach. In those days, there weren’t sophisticated recording devices allowing one “fix” wrong notes. (Perhaps they existed, but we didn’t have machines like that.) So it was necessary to play the entire piece from beginning to end. If you’re a church organist, feel free to download the PDF score. I suppose it’s only a matter of time until some joker uses “artificial intelligence” to play music at church … but there’s something so satisfying about playing an organ in real life.
    —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

“It would be difficult to find a failure of imagination greater than that of Carl Czerny.”

— Robert Schumann

Recent Posts

  • PDF Download • “Text by Saint Francis of Assisi” (choral setting w/ organ: Soprano & Alto)
  • “Yahweh” in church songs?
  • “Music List” • Pentecost Sunday
  • “Participation” • Recovering its Receptive Dimension
  • “Breathtaking Photographs” • First Mass of Father Michael Caughey, FSSP (Muskegon, MI)

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Corpus Christi Watershed is a 501(c)3 public charity dedicated to exploring and embodying as our calling the relationship of religion, culture, and the arts. This non-profit organization employs the creative media in service of theology, the Church, and Christian culture for the enrichment and enjoyment of the public.

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