Views from the Choir Loft

Motet for Three Voices: “O Crux Ave”

Fr. David Friel · January 24, 2016

HE SPACE between Christmas and Lent never seems as long as we expect (or would like). Preparations for Lent and Holy Week have already begun in many parishes, with Ash Wednesday looming on February 10th. Time is therefore precious at upcoming choir rehearsals.

On Friday, Richard Clark offered links to a number of resources he has published for Lent and Easter. Today, allow me to offer a link to a composition of my own.

Available through CanticaNOVA Publications, my setting of O Crux, Ave is written for three voices. The range is limited enough that it can be sung by equal voices (either men or women) or by a mixed choir (SAB).

This piece is ideal for use as a motet during the veneration of the Holy Cross at the Good Friday liturgy. Its structure with optional verses allows the piece to be limited or extended, as necessary, while its text focuses attention on the majesty of the Holy Cross. The text is actually a splicing of a phrase from the Exsultet with a line from the Passiontide hymn, Vexilla Regis prodeunt.

O Crux Ave can also be sung at any point in Passiontide (from the Fifth Sunday of Lent through Good Friday) or on the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (September 14th). This piece, which can be ordered here, is an easy, go-to piece for choirs to use any time there is a focus on the Holy Cross or the mystery of salvation.

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

About Fr. David Friel

Ordained in 2011, Father Friel served as Parochial Vicar at Saint Anselm Church in Northeast Philly before earning a doctorate in liturgical theology at The Catholic University of America. He presently serves as Vocation Director for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.—(Read full biography).

“Tonus Solemnior” • How old is it?

In the 1962 Missal, a section called “præfationes in tono solemniore” contains ornate melodies for the Preface. An article posted on the blog of the Church Music Association of America claims the tone comes from “the late 19th century” and said its elimination “is one of the very few good things which the post-Conciliar reform did for Gregorian chant.” The author said: “The Roman solemn preface tone is already beautiful enough, there was no need to give a more Romantic feel.”

Some have asked us whether the tonus solemnior comes from “the late 19th century.” It does not. Their author was wrong by at least 400 years. I have seen this tone in MSS from the 1400s—and it may go back even further. Here is an example from 1494AD. And here’s another from the 1400s. The FSSP priests use these tones on high feasts, and the effect is unforgettable.

—Jeff Ostrowski

6 January 2022 • Quick!

A short version of the INTROIT for the feast of the Epiphany has been added to the Saint René Goupil Gregorian Chant Website.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Confusing Feasts of Christmas

Whether one considers the Missale Vetustum or the post-conciliar calendar—or even the 1908 calendar—the feasts which follow Christmas are very confusing. Last year I created this comparison chart. I hope you find it helpful. As far as I can tell, my chart is the first effort to carefully detail the changes made to post-Christmas feasts (unless we also count the rather basic one by Lauren Pristas).

—Jeff Ostrowski

These prayers were not peculiar to Good Friday in the early ages (they were said on Spy Wednesday as late as the eighth century); their retention here, it is thought, was inspired by the idea that the Church should pray for all classes of men on the day that Christ died for all. Duchesne is of opinion that the “Oremus” now said in every Mass before the Offertory—which is not a prayer—remains to show where this old series of prayers was once said in all Masses.

— Catholic Encyclopedia (1909)