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Views from the Choir Loft

Three part motet for the Assumption by Ravanello

Veronica Brandt · August 8, 2015

The Assumption of the Virgin Mary, Chartres Cathedral The Assumption of the Virgin Mary, Chartres Cathedral HEN I AGREED TO WRITE FOR this blog, little did I know how much I would learn along the way!

I hadn’t heard of Oreste Ravanello until Jeff posted his Ave Maria. Turns out Ravanello wrote a whole book of three part motets. It looks like he composed about half of them and collected similar short pieces from other composers.

Browsing through in an optimistic sort of way, I found an Offertory Antiphon in three parts. I tried tapping out the notes on the piano. It looked promising. I tried getting someone to sing with me. That’s always a challenge! So I turned to my laptop to type it up so I could listen to the midi output.

      * *  Here is the PDF of Assumpta Est Maria by Oreste Ravanello for three voices (SSA) and here is the computer generated audio in MP3 for: all voices, top voice, middle voice and bottom voice.

The next part of the adventure came in response to Jeff’s Easiest Way to Teach Polyphony. He recommends annotating the score with solfege syllables and mastering those first before moving on to the real words.

I thought maybe there was a shortcut to annotating a score and found this repository of solfeged scores in Lilypond.

      * *  Here is the PDF of Assumpta est Maria with solfege syllables replacing the text.

It is not as handy as Jeff’s little red annotations as the solfege sheet and the lyrics are on separate versions, but being computer generated from something I already typed up is handy for the one preparing the score.

As a side note, it was interesting singing the solfege syllables – being more aware of where “do” is. I had a go with a piece I was more familiar with and was surprised how tricky it becomes when the key shifts (modulation?) and my ear was confused between the “do” on the page and the “do” which my ear had switched to. A related question is how to handle minor keys, whether to start the scale on “la” or “do”.

I have so much to learn!

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

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Polyphony For Three Voices Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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About Veronica Brandt

Veronica Brandt holds a Bachelor Degree in Electrical Engineering. She lives near Sydney, Australia, with her husband and six children.—(Read full biography).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

Quick Thoughts

    “Glory To God” • (For Choir + Congregation)
    I wish to thank everyone for the nice comments I received vis-à-vis my Glory To God setting for Choir & Congregation. A gentleman with a musical doctorate from Indiana University wrote: “Love this setting so much. And I will pray, as you asked, for your return to composition more fully. You are very very good.” A female choir director wrote: “I love your harmonizations, your musicality, and the wonderful interplay you have with dissonance and consonance in your music. So fun to listen to, and great for intellect, heart, and soul!” A young woman from California wrote: “Thank you for releasing your new Glory To God in honor of Saint Noel Chabanel. I'm enjoying reading through the various parts and listening to your recordings.”
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    William Byrd • “Mass for Five Voices”
    Our volunteer choir is learning the “Sanctus” from William Byrd’s Mass for Five Voices. You can hear a short excerpt (recorded last Sunday) but please ignore the sound of babies crying: Mp3 recording. We still have work to do—but we’re on the right track. Once we have some of the tuning issues fixed, I desire to use it as an example proving volunteers can sing complicated polyphony. — One of our volunteer choirs also sang that SANCTUS on 24 September 2023, and you can listen to how that came out.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Baptism” • A Unique Hymn
    Father Christopher Phillips is the founding Pastor of Our Lady of the Atonement Catholic Church. One of his hymns is unique and (in my humble opinion) quite beautiful. His hymn is basically a prayer to the Holy Trinity but also speaks of Baptism and the Holy Eucharist. It would be an ideal Communion hymn on Trinity Sunday or the feast of the Baptism of the Lord. You can hear live recording from last Sunday by clicking here.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

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