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Views from the Choir Loft

Rehearsal Videos • “Jesu Dulcis Memoria”

Jeff Ostrowski · September 3, 2015

OUR CHOIR CAN SING the following composition at any time during the liturgical year. I first sang it as a freshman in college, under Dr. James F. Daugherty. At the last minute, Daugherty shifted us into “mixed position”—he loved keeping us on our toes! Singing this piece a cappella that night made a great impression upon me, and I realized I wanted to be a choirmaster the rest of my life (not a pianist):

    * *  PDF Download • “Jesu Dulcis Memoria” (attr. VICTORIA)

    * *  PDF Download • Additional Verses to make this piece longer


Scroll to the bottom and you’ll discover wonderful REHEARSAL VIDEOS to help your choir learn.

THIS PIECE HAS BEEN attributed to a Spanish priest, Tomás Luis de Victoria (d. 1611)—perhaps the greatest composer of all time—but anyone familiar with Victoria’s style realizes that he could not have written this piece. 1 I had thought the earliest copy was from 1843, in a French collection called Recueil des morceaux de musique ancienne—literally “A collection of scraps of ancient music.” Here’s how it looked in 1843:

    * *  PDF Download • “Jesu Dulcis Memoria” from 1843

However, my friend Nancho Alvarez sent me another copy, also created toward the middle of the 19th century:


I suspect the person who created that manuscript is the true composer.

REHEARSAL VIDEOS :

EQUAL VOICES : YouTube   •   Mp3 Audio

SOPRANO : YouTube   •   Audio

ALTO : YouTube   •   Audio

TENOR : YouTube   •   Audio

BASS : YouTube   •   Audio




NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:

1   If Victoria did compose this piece, it must have been written toward the very end of his life, based on the style.

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

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Jesu Dulcis Memoria Polyphony, Toms Luis de Victoria 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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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

“I would hope there is a place [at Mass] for the avant-garde in the same way I think there has to be a place—and we have to be careful with this—a place for Jazz and a place for Evangelical and all of that. […] On theological grounds, I do think we need interaction with the culture at the level of high art or at the level of more commercial pop culture.”

— Fr. Anthony Ruff (22 June 2016)

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