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Views from the Choir Loft

Francisco Guerrero • “Hymn To The Sacred Trinity” (SATB with Plainsong)

Jeff Ostrowski · February 9, 2016

EADY FOR THE HYMN CHALLENGE? FIRST, spend some time familiarizing yourself with this beautiful melody (unless you already know it). If you prefer, you can use a version by Pustet that is probably closer to what Guerrero sang. SECOND, scroll down and sing through the individual parts—especially the Bass, Alto, and Soprano. THIRD, locate the Canon in the final section. FOURTH, see if you agree that this one is the most incredible hymn you’ve never heard!

    * *  PDF Download • “HYMN TO THE SACRED TRINITY” (Francisco Guerrero)

I recorded all the voices myself, to give you an idea how it sounds. Needless to say, a real choir would sound much nicer:


This melody was set polyphonically by numerous masters: Marenzio, Palestrina, Anerio, Victoria, and so forth. Indeed, these two settings (see above) are not the only ones by Guerrero. In our current liturgical books, this tune is a “Christmas” melody. Traditionally, however, the same tune was used for numerous feasts: Epiphany, Holy Innocents, Saint Catherine, and especially NOVEMBER 1st (the Feast of All Saints). Here’s an All Saints hymn called “Jesu salvator saeculi” as found in an ancient manuscript:

781 “Jesu salvator saeculi”


Do you see how it uses that same hymn melody? In Guerrero’s time, this melody was used for the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity—a “Spanish” tradition as far as I can tell. Fr. Andrew Green used that tune thusly in 1950. The Desclée/Westminster 1949 hymnal does something similar. And it can be seen in a 1524AD Sarum manuscript.

REHEARSAL VIDEOS :

EQUAL VOICES : YouTube   •   Mp3 Audio

SOPRANO : YouTube   •   Audio

ALTO : YouTube   •   Audio

TENOR : YouTube   •   Audio

QUINTUS : YouTube   •   Audio   •   (2nd Half Only)

BASS : YouTube   •   Audio

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

    Vespers Booklet (4th Sunday of Lent)
    The organ accompaniment booklet (24 pages) which I created for the 4th Sunday of Lent (“Lætare Sunday”) may now be downloaded, for those who desire such a thing.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Vespers Booklet, 3rd Sunday of Lent
    The organ accompaniment I created for the 3rd Sunday of Lent (“Extraordinary Form”) may now be downloaded, if anyone is interested in this.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Weeping For Joy! (We Hope!)
    Listening to this Easter Alleluia—an SATB arrangement I made twenty years ago based on the work of Monsignor Jules Van Nuffel—one of our readers left this comment: “I get tears in my eyes each time I sing to this hymn.” I hope this person is weeping for joy!
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“From six in the evening, his martyrdom had continued through the ghastly night until nine o’clock in the morning. After fifteen hours of torture rarely if ever surpassed in the bloody annals of the Iroquois, the soul of Gabriel Lalemant was freed from its charred and mutilated prison and summoned to join his comrade Jean de Brébeuf in the radiant splendor of God. March 17th, 1649, was the date; for Brébeuf it had been the sixteenth.”

— ‘Fr. John A. O’Brien, speaking of St. Gabriel Lalemant’

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