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Views from the Choir Loft

Transposed Mode • This Sunday’s Communion

Jeff Ostrowski · September 22, 2015

N SOME UNIVERSITIES, there’s a disconnect between modal theory and practice. Some professors make students memorize a whole bunch of “rules” which can actually be detrimental. Those who really dig into Renaissance music—and I mean performing and examining tons of scores by tons of composers—discover this disconnect pretty quickly. In the conservatory, we had to read woks by the theorists of the time: H. Glareanus, J. Tinctoris, T. Morley, A. Uttendal, and so forth. One theorist we read extensively was Pietro Aron. Students ardently wish that all those theorists agreed, but many even contradicted themselves! They were trying to force music to fit into a set of “rules” and some created quite a mess. 1

Looking at this Sunday’s Communion is a good way to explore certain problems of modal theory. When we add psalm verses, the normal routine is to switch the position of DO—literally switch its position—like this. If you’re unwilling to do that, you can try to avoid switching the position of DO, but that leads to major problems. Believe it or not, the problems could actually be “solved” if a single flat was added to the word “Dóminum,” but that’s not really how flats were used. 2 One could also use a Mode VII psalm tone to “solve” the problem … but doing that just sounds wrong.

This chant is known as a “transposed” chant. You can see this was no accident on the part of the Editio Vaticana editors:

272 Tollite Hostias Chant


Abbot Pothier followed the tradition in his 1883 Liber Gradualis, and notice where he places the reciting pitch (highlighted in yellow):

270 Pothier 1884 TOLLITE


My favorite way to “solve” the problem—which can avoid confusing your singers—is with a transposed psalm tone:

    * *  PDF Download • COMMUNION “Tóllite Hóstias”

If you don’t believe this psalm tone actually exists, please click here and here.



NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:

1   Proper analysis of Mode VI polyphony, for example, can often be problematic. Glareanus is particularly interesting on these questions.

2   A reader, Ján Janovčík, has kindly pointed out the exception which proves the rule, from the Graduel de Klosterneuburg.

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 Los Angeles.—(Read full biography).

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Quick Thoughts

14 May 2022 • “Pure” Vatican Edition

As readers know, my choir has been singing from the “pure” Editio Vaticana. That is to say, the official rhythm which—technically—is the only rhythm allowed by the Church. I haven’t figured out how I want the scores to look, so in the meantime we’ve been using temporary scores that look like this. Stay tuned!

—Jeff Ostrowski
14 May 2022 • Gorgeous Book

If there is a more beautiful book than Abbat Pothier’s 1888 Processionale Monasticum, I don’t know what it might be. This gorgeous tome was today added to the Saint John Lalande Online Library. I wish I owned a physical copy.

—Jeff Ostrowski
Sound Familiar?

1 June 1579: “The chapter passes a rule that anyone ascending to the new organ without official permission shall be fined a month’s pay.”

26 October 1579: “The altar boys remain always separate and distinct from choirboys—the one group learning only plainchant and assisting at the altar, the other living with the chapel-master and studying counterpoint and polyphony as well. Father Francisco Guerrero postpones his departure for Rome and instead spends the entire year in Seville making ready for the trip. In the meantime he neglects his choirboys. On 16 November, after considerable complaint against their unruliness and ignorance, he engages an assistant, Bartolomé Farfán.”

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“During Lent…the use of musical instruments is allowed only so as to support the singing. Nevertheless, Laetare Sunday (the Fourth Sunday of Lent), Solemnities and Feasts are exceptions to this rule.”

— ‘Roman Missal, 3rd Edition (2011)’

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