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Views from the Choir Loft

Does Gregorian Chant Work In English?

Jeff Ostrowski · May 4, 2016

525 King David Psalter OME CLAIM the darkest period for plainsong in Catholic churches was the 1980s, and it would be difficult to argue with them. Growing up in the late ’80s and early ’90s, I can assure you that my large (rich) parish was innocent of even the thought of Gregorian chant. During those dark years, several journals dealing with early music published articles with misguided titles like: “Which is more important in Gregorian chant: Words or Music?”

These authors felt one must “win” and the other must “lose.” They were at a disadvantage because they only knew the laws of more recent composers—Baroque, Classical, and so forth—who treated the text a certain way. Trying to make sense out of plainsong, many concluded the words must win. Yet, had they looked more carefully, they would have discovered thousands of passages which don’t fit their a priori theory:

    * *  PDF Download • Demonstration on the Gregorian Tonic Accent

In other words, Gregorian composers often treated the text as a whole, not as individual syllables. Dom Gajard said it best in 1950:

“One does not compose in order to set every word to music, but in order to translate into music a single idea expressed in a number of words. In a musical phrase, each element is a part of the whole and must take its own place in that whole: for instance, the word coeli in SANCTUS IX, or the word Domini in the BENEDICTUS of Mass XI, and so forth. Here, the melodic line must be given first place, according to the ancient adage: Musica non subjacet regulis Donati.”

A student of Roger Wagner put it this way: “Gregorian rhythm is inherently musical in nature.”

MOST PLAINSONG SETTINGS now appearing in English favor the “Baroque method” of tonic accent treatment. In my opinion, that’s just fine—because plainsong examples can be found to support such an approach. (Remember, the Gregorian corpus is mammoth, and developed over a millennium.) However, I believe that as time goes on, composers who adapt Gregorian chant into the vernacular will begin to dig deeper into the authentic plainsong repertoire. A desire will form in their hearts to “steal” the mysterious, spiritual, sophisticated, unpredictable technique of the Gregorian composers. As the decades roll on, we will begin to see English settings which look more like the examples in that chart (see above).

I’m old enough to remember when composers were afraid to adapt Gregorian chant because the GIRM seemed to imply that approval by the local bishop is required. On 20 November 2012, the Bishops’ Liturgy Committee stated publicly what had been happening behind closed doors for half a century. Specifically, they said that—according to them—certain parts of the GIRM can be ignored. While I personally disagree with their interpretation, I’m glad that what’s been happening for 50 years has finally been acknowledged publicly.

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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Jeff Ostrowski

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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Corpus Christi Watershed

Quick Thoughts

Surprising Popularity!

One of our most popular downloads has proven to be the organ accompaniment to “The Monastery Hymnal” (131 pages). This book was compiled, arranged, and edited by Achille P. Bragers, who studied at the Lemmensinstituut (Belgium) about thirty years before that school produced the NOH. Bragers might be considered an example of Belgium “Stile Antico” whereas Flor Peeters and Jules Van Nuffel represented Belgium “Prima Pratica.” You can download the hymnal by Bragers at this link.

—Jeff Ostrowski
15 February 2021 • To Capitalize…?

In the Introit for the 6th Sunday after Pentecost, there is a question regarding whether to capitalize the word “christi.” The Vulgata does not, because Psalm 27 is not specifically referring to Our Lord, but rather to God’s “anointed one.” However, Missals tend to capitalize it, such as the official 1962 Missal and also a book from 1777 called Missel de Paris. Something tells me Monsignor Knox would not capitalize it.

—Jeff Ostrowski
15 February 2021 • “Sung vs. Spoken”

We have spoken quite a bit about “sung vs. spoken” antiphons. We have also noted that the texts of the Graduale Romanum sometimes don’t match the Missal texts (in the Extraordinary Form) because the Mass Propers are older than Saint Jerome’s Vulgate, and sometimes came from the ITALA versions of Sacred Scripture. On occasion, the Missal itself doesn’t match the Vulgate—cf. the Introit “Esto Mihi.” The Vulgate has: “Esto mihi in Deum protectórem et in domum refúgii…” but the Missal and Graduale Romanum use “Esto mihi in Deum protectórem et in locum refúgii…” The 1970s “spoken propers” use the traditional version, as you can see.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

A hymn verse need not be a complete sentence, but it must have completed sense as a recognisable part of the complete sentence, and at each major pause there would be at least a “sense-pause.” Saint Ambrose and the early writers and centonists always kept to this rule. This indicates one of the differences between a poem and a hymn, and by this standard most of the modern hymns and the revisions of old hymns in the Breviary stand condemned.

— Fr. Joseph Connelly

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