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Views from the Choir Loft

Polyphony (SATB) By Verdelot • With Optional Hymn “Christe Supreme”

Jeff Ostrowski · July 23, 2015

471 Non Sharp In Truth HEN YOU LISTEN to this wonderful piece by Philippe Verdelot, pay special attention to the cadence ending the polyphony. The penultimate chord is almost a Dominant Seventh, 1 which is truly remarkable when we consider that Verdelot died in 1532AD.

    * *  PDF • “CHRISTE SUPREME” & Polyphony

Scroll down to hear rehearsal videos created to help your choir.

This piece almost constitutes a “mini course” in music history. The techniques used by Verdelot—imitation, stretto, polyphonic lines as opposed to homophony, and so forth—would be used for the next 250 years…and never surpassed. (I say this as someone who loves Chopin dearly.) In that sense, Verdelot was similar to Cristóbal de Morales; both were ahead of their time. 2 The hymn tune is the same melody from which we get Solfège (i.e. DO RE MI FA SOL LA TI DO), except it’s a special version from Mocquereau’s 1903 Liber Usualis. In my opinion, this version is infinitely more beautiful than the one found in the Editio Vaticana. An organ accompaniment can also be downloaded.


We have often stressed that books like the Jogues Pew Missal contain the complete Mass Propers—the official prayers of the Mass. However, as this piece shows, our liturgical heritage also contains numerous treasures no longer part of the official Missal, Lectionary, or Gradual.

EQUAL VOICES : YouTube   •   Mp3 Audio

SOPRANO : YouTube   •   Audio

ALTO : YouTube   •   Audio

TENOR : YouTube   •   Audio

BASS : YouTube   •   Audio




NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:

1   I speak of the way it sounds to our modern ears, not the way Verdelot would have thought about or analyzed it.

2   These composers were not the only ones using such techniques, but I’m here speaking of the perfection with which they did so.

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

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Philippe Verdelot Composer Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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Jeff Ostrowski

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

Surprising Popularity!

One of our most popular downloads has proven to be the organ accompaniment to “The Monastery Hymnal” (131 pages). This book was compiled, arranged, and edited by Achille P. Bragers, who studied at the Lemmensinstituut (Belgium) about thirty years before that school produced the NOH. Bragers might be considered an example of Belgium “Stile Antico” whereas Flor Peeters and Jules Van Nuffel represented Belgium “Prima Pratica.” You can download the hymnal by Bragers at this link.

—Jeff Ostrowski
15 February 2021 • To Capitalize…?

In the Introit for the 6th Sunday after Pentecost, there is a question regarding whether to capitalize the word “christi.” The Vulgata does not, because Psalm 27 is not specifically referring to Our Lord, but rather to God’s “anointed one.” However, Missals tend to capitalize it, such as the official 1962 Missal and also a book from 1777 called Missel de Paris. Something tells me Monsignor Knox would not capitalize it.

—Jeff Ostrowski
15 February 2021 • “Sung vs. Spoken”

We have spoken quite a bit about “sung vs. spoken” antiphons. We have also noted that the texts of the Graduale Romanum sometimes don’t match the Missal texts (in the Extraordinary Form) because the Mass Propers are older than Saint Jerome’s Vulgate, and sometimes came from the ITALA versions of Sacred Scripture. On occasion, the Missal itself doesn’t match the Vulgate—cf. the Introit “Esto Mihi.” The Vulgate has: “Esto mihi in Deum protectórem et in domum refúgii…” but the Missal and Graduale Romanum use “Esto mihi in Deum protectórem et in locum refúgii…” The 1970s “spoken propers” use the traditional version, as you can see.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders”—is that English idiom? “For the Nazis, and all the Germans, except they say Heil Hitler! meet not in the street, holding their lives valuable”—is that English idiom?

— Monsignor Ronald Knox

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