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Views from the Choir Loft

No Greater Advent Piece Exists

Jeff Ostrowski · September 3, 2016

ES, IT’S ONCE AGAIN TIME to start thinking about Advent! We begin with a splendid Advent hymn: Creátor alme síderum. The original title was Cónditor alme síderum, but four Jesuits working for Pope Urban VIII (d. 1644) wrecked most of the Breviary hymns—causing endless confusion. Correct accentuation is crucial since CÓNDITOR means “maker” whereas CONDÍTOR means “pickler.”

The famous tune can be played on this Woofer Guitar:


Before you listen to the full version by Guerrero, explore the Tenor and Soprano only:


Do you see the beautiful counterpoint with just two voices? In real life, one hears clearly the different vocal sections, and the counterpoint sounds awesome. In a YouTube version, however, the voices sound “flattened.”

I couldn’t resist recording it, even though my voice singing all the parts never sounds quite right:

    * *  PDF Download • “Cónditor alme síderum”

REHEARSAL VIDEOS :

EQUAL VOICES : YouTube   •   Mp3 Audio

SOPRANO : YouTube   •   Audio

ALTO : YouTube   •   Audio

TENOR : YouTube   •   Audio

BASS : YouTube   •   Audio


The reason I couldn’t resist is because this composition is so powerful. It’s not even music anymore … Guerrero has here created a force of nature.

By the way, the tempo could probably be slightly slower, but I don’t recommend taking it so slowly that the plainsong in the Soprano line becomes difficult to recognize.

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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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

I basically don’t favor Cardinal Kasper’s proposal; I don’t think it’s coherent. To my mind, “indissoluble” means “unbreakable.”

— Daniel Cardinal DiNardo (19 October 2015)

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