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Views from the Choir Loft

Rehearsal Videos • “O Magnum Mysterium” (Victoria)

Jeff Ostrowski · December 7, 2015

953 O Magnum Mysterium Victoria IKE MANY of his fellow composers, TOMÁS LUIS DE VICTORIA (†1611) was a Roman Catholic priest. 1 His distinctive religious sensibility was apparent in his compositions, and a striking example is his setting of the Responsory for the Octave Day of Christmas:

    * *  O Magnum Mysterium (PDF)

I’ve created rehearsal videos for each voice to help amateur choirs. It can be a bit frightening to tackle such a masterpiece—and sometimes feels like “rushing in where angels fear to tread”—but hopefully these practice videos help:

EQUAL VOICES : YouTube   •   Mp3 Audio

SOPRANO : YouTube   •   Audio

ALTO : YouTube   •   Audio

TENOR : YouTube   •   Audio

BASS : YouTube   •   Audio

Renaissance composers frequently (but not always) left it up to the singers to add the sharps and flats. The rules for “musica ficta” are fairly straightforward, but—as many Renaissance theorists pointed out—problems arise when the various rules conflict.

Many editions of Victoria’s O Magnum Mysterium have a sharp for the Sopranos in measure 21 but a natural for Tenors in measure 20, even though they sing the exact same phrase. Here’s the Tenor line in a 1582 manuscript:

959 TENOR 1583b


There are reasons why Tenors might not sing a sharp—while the Sopranos do—but there are more compelling reasons why they ought to match. When I looked at a 1572 manuscript, I found that missing sharp for the Tenors:

958 O Magnum Mysterium Victoria 1572


Now I will reveal the “dirty little secret” about musica ficta: we prefer it how we learned it. In other words, we tend to prefer a piece the way we sang it the first time. For example, some editions have the Sopranos in measure 42 singing a natural—not a sharp—and there are compelling reasons for this; but in my edition, I keep the “traditional” way.

For those of you who know this piece, have you ever sung directly from the part book? Here’s how the TENOR would have been sung in the 16th century.



NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:

1   Cristóbal de Morales (†1553), Costanzo Porta (†1601), Lodovico Viadana (†1627), and Gregorio Allegri (†1652) were all clerics, and many more composers could be mentioned.

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

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Tomas Luis de Victoria Composer 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

16 May 2022 • Harmonized Chant?

This year’s upcoming Sacred Music Symposium will demonstrate several ways to sing the CREDO at Mass. This is because—for many parishes—to sing a full-length polyphonic CREDO by Victoria or Palestrina is out of the question. Therefore, we show options that are halfway between plainsong and polyphony. You can hear my choir rehearsing a section that sounds like harmonized plainsong.

—Jeff Ostrowski
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

Random Quote

“You should try to eat their food in the way they prepare it, although it may be dirty, half-cooked, and very tasteless. As to the other numerous things which may be unpleasant, they must be endured for the love of God, without saying anything or appearing to notice them.”

— Fr. Paul Le Jeune (1637)

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