Views from the Choir Loft

Short, Fresh, & Beautiful • SATB “Ave Maris Stella”

Jeff Ostrowski · July 7, 2015

ERE IS A WONDERFUL, short, easy, fresh piece by Fr. Antonin Lhoumeau (d. 1920) which provides an SATB polyphonic refrain for the famous & ancient Marian hymn, “Ave Maris Stella.” This piece can be used until Advent!

* * PDF Download • AVE MARIS STELLA

Your choir will love this piece! And you can choose soloists for each verse. You’ll notice that the melody for the verses is slightly different than the Editio Vaticana. I thought perhaps Lhoumeau was using a French version, but as you can see, this variant was quite common during the Middle Ages. By the way, a cool thing about ancient manuscripts is their treatment of hypermetric syllables—the ones that don’t fit—and there are different ways to handle them. When they had trouble, they would write out the problem spot in the margin like this. The score above treats “monstra te esse” according to how it was sung in ancient times.

EQUAL VOICES : YouTube • Mp3 Audio

SOPRANO : YouTube • Audio

ALTO : YouTube • Audio

TENOR : YouTube • Audio

BASS : YouTube • Audio

Here’s how the “Ave Maris Stella” appears in the Campion Hymnal:

534 Ave Maris Stella

You’ll notice the English translation is by Fr. Adrian Fortescue. Throughout the Campion Missal, many translations by Fortescue are used—as well as Cardinal Newman and others—because translations by Roman Catholics were given preference.

NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:

There is an error on the Bass rehearsal video with regard to the rhymic value of one (1) note. Sorry about that!

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

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).

“Simplified” Keyboard Accompaniment (PDF)

I’d much rather hear an organist play a simplified version correctly than listen to wrong notes. I invite you to download this simplified organ accompaniment for hymn #729 in the Father Brébeuf Hymnal. The hymn is “O Jesus Christ, Remember.” I’m toying with the idea of creating a whole bunch of these, to help amateur organists. The last one I uploaded was downloaded more than 1,900 times in a matter of hours—so there seems to be interest in such a project. For the record, this famous text by Oratorian priest, Father Edward Caswall (d. 1878) is often married to AURELIA, as it is in the Brébeuf Hymnal.

—Jeff Ostrowski

‘Bogey’ of the Half-Educated: Paraphrase

Father Adrian Porter, using the cracher dans la soupe example, did a praiseworthy job explaining the difference between ‘dynamic’ and ‘formal’ translation. This is something Monsignor Ronald Knox explained time and again—yet even now certain parties feign ignorance. I suppose there will always be people who pretend the only ‘valid’ translation of Mitigásti omnem iram tuam; avertísti ab ira indignatiónis tuæ… would be “You mitigated all ire of you; you have averted from your indignation’s ire.” Those who would defend such a translation suffer from an unfortunate malady. One of my professors called it “cognate on the brain.”

—Jeff Ostrowski

Father Cuthbert Lattey • “The Hebrew MSS”

Father Cuthbert Lattey (d. 1954) wrote: “In a large number of cases the ancient Christian versions and some other ancient sources seem to have been based upon a better Hebrew text than that adopted by the rabbis for official use and alone suffered to survive. Sometimes, too, the cognate languages suggest a suitable meaning for which there is little or no support in the comparatively small amount of ancient Hebrew that has survived. The evidence of the metre is also at times so clear as of itself to furnish a strong argument; often it is confirmed by some other considerations. […] The Jewish copyists and their directors, however, seem to have lost the tradition of the metre at an early date, and the meticulous care of the rabbis in preserving their own official and traditional text (the ‘massoretic’ text) came too late, when the mischief had already been done.” • Msgr. Knox adds: “It seems the safest principle to follow the Latin—after all, St. Jerome will sometimes have had a better text than the Massoretes—except on the rare occasions when there is no sense to be extracted from the Vulgate at all.”

—Jeff Ostrowski

“Reminder” — Month of November (2025)

On a daily basis, I speak to people who don’t realize we publish a free newsletter (although they’ve followed our blog for years). We have no endowment, no major donors, no savings, and refuse to run annoying ads. As a result, our mailing list is crucial to our survival. Signing up couldn’t be easier: simply scroll to the bottom of any blog article and enter your email address.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Gospel Options for 2 November (“All Souls”)

We’ve been told some bishops are suppressing the TLM because of “unity.” But is unity truly found in the MISSALE RECENS? For instance, on All Souls (2 November), any of these Gospel readings may be chosen, for any reason (or for no reason at all). The same is true of the Propria Missæ and other readings—there are countless options in the ORDINARY FORM. In other words, no matter which OF parish you attend on 2 November, you’ll almost certainly hear different propers and readings, to say nothing of different ‘styles’ of music. Where is the “unity” in all this? Indeed, the Second Vatican Council solemnly declared: “Even in the liturgy, the Church has no wish to impose a rigid uniformity in matters which do not implicate the faith or the good of the whole community.”

—Corpus Christi Watershed

“Our Father” • Musical Setting?

Looking through a Roman Catholic Hymnal published in 1859 by Father Guido Maria Dreves (d. 1909), I stumbled upon this very beautiful tune (PDF file). I feel it would be absolutely perfect to set the “Our Father” in German to music. Thoughts?

—Jeff Ostrowski