Views from the Choir Loft

“Te Saeculorum” • Simple, Sensational, SATB

Jeff Ostrowski · October 30, 2015 ·

AM ALWAYS SEARCHING FOR brief SATB pieces that can be used throughout the liturgical year. The following seems to have been written for the institution of the FEAST OF CHRIST THE KING, ¹ but can be sung at any time. The piece alternates back and forth between chant & polyphony, just like this setting of the “Ave Maris Stella.” Examine the chant used by Mercier and you’ll see it comes from Mocquereau’s 1903 Liber Usualis. This suggests that Mocquereau’s edition continued to be employed by French musicians in spite of the Editio Vaticana publications which began appearing in 1905.

* * PDF Download • “Te Saeculorum” (MERCIER)

When you listen to this rehearsal video, do you hear how the composer has mixed together in a marvelous fashion the plainsong melody?

That rehearsal video uses words the first time; but when the refrain is repeated, it’s sung in Solfège. It also provides assistance for counting the rhythm.

Rehearsal Videos :

EQUAL VOICES : YouTube • Mp3 Audio

SOPRANO : YouTube • Audio

ALTO : YouTube • Audio

TENOR : YouTube • Audio

BASS : YouTube • Audio

When teaching the chant verses, you can use this accompaniment.

NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:

1 Pope Pius XI—who also wrote about the Sacrament of Matrimony—established the Feast of Christ the King on 11 December 1925, by means of an encyclical letter called “Quas primas.”

About Jeff Ostrowski

A theorist, organist, and conductor, Jeff Ostrowski holds his B.M. in Music Theory from the University of Kansas (2004), and did graduate work in Musicology. He serves as choirmaster for the new FSSP parish in Los Angeles, where he resides with his wife and children.

Could Pope St. Pius X Sing?

“On 12 March 1908, the complete publication of the Roman Gradual was issued by the Vatican Press. On that very day, Dom Pothier solemnly presented the first copy to the Holy Father. A witness of the audience says that Pius X wished to be the first to see the new book; he opened it at random, at page 128 of the supplement pro aliquibus locis—it was the Introit of the new Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. The Pope sang it with perfect taste to the last note.” (Catholic Choirmaster, February 1915)

—Jeff Ostrowski

Julius Bas Accompaniment

A very prolific harmonizer of Gregorian chant in the early 20th century was Mr. Julius Bas. He often uses a very strange technique, wherein he employs rests to eliminate the Alto, Tenor, and Bass voices. Consider what he did with “Lumen ad revelationem” here:

* JPEG • Lumen ad revelationem

It seems quite lazy, and I’ve never seen anyone else use such a technique, although Dr. Peter Wagner often switched to parallel octaves when he ran out of ideas… (Yuck!)

—Jeff Ostrowski

Hitting wrong notes

Fr. Valentine Young, OFM, used to say: “The organist can play 1,000 correct notes and one wrong note—and the only thing people will care about is the wrong note.” Last Sunday I hit some wrong notes, and felt bad. Then I remembered a story about Rudolf Serkin and started to chuckle. Charles Rosen (or was it Leon Fleisher?) told the story of Serkin playing a Beethoven Sonata in front of a large audience. The theme is all in octaves; but Serkin hit some wrong notes, and played parallel 7ths instead. This so unnerved him that every time the theme returned, he played the entire thing in parallel 7ths! We must remember that even the greatest hit wrong notes. Alfred Cortot, Vladimir Horowitz, Wilhelm Backhaus, Edwin Fischer, Sviatoslav Richter, Egon Petri—they all hit wrong notes, which we can hear on recordings. (Josef Hofmann was an exception, but he was super-human so he doesn’t count!)

—Jeff Ostrowski

“Although the Mass contains much instruction for the faithful, it has nevertheless not seemed expedient to the fathers that it be celebrated everywhere in the vernacular. The holy synod commands pastors and everyone who has the care of souls to explain frequently during the celebration of the Masses, either themselves or through others, some of the things that are read in the Mass, and among other things to expound some mystery of this most Holy Sacrifice, especially on Sundays and feastdays.”

— ‘Council of Trent, XII:8 (1562)’