• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

“What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too…” Pope Benedict XVI (7 July 2007)

  • Our Team
  • Pew Resources
    • Brébeuf Catholic Hymnal
    • Jogues Illuminated Missal
    • Campion Missal, 3rd Edition
  • MUSICAL WEBSITES
    • René Goupil Gregorian Chant
    • Noël Chabanel Psalms
    • Nova Organi Harmonia (2,279 pages)
    • Lalemant Polyphonic
    • Saint Antoine Daniel KYRIALE
    • Roman Missal, 3rd Edition
    • Emporium Kevin Allen
  • Miscellaneous
    • Site Map
    • Saint Jean de Lalande Library
    • Sacred Music Symposium 2023
  • Donate
Views from the Choir Loft

Major Problems with “Holy Family” Feast

Jeff Ostrowski · January 3, 2017

OU PROBABLY THINK I’m going to complain that the Feast of the Holy Family has been moved around too much. After all, it was created in 1893 by the very Pope who composed the breviary hymns for it. First it was placed on the Third Sunday after Epiphany. In 1914 it was moved to January 19th. Later on it was moved to the Sunday within the Octave of the Epiphany. After Vatican II, it was moved yet again. You can see how confusing things were by looking at this page from a 1957 Solesmes book. (The Feast of the Holy Name has also been moved a whole bunch of times.)

But that’s not my problem.

The psalm verse for the Introit—specifically “in átria Dómini”—breaks the formula:

    * *  PDF Download • INTROIT for the Holy Family

Here’s the formula:

500 Holy Family Introit


I wanted to see if this was a 1960s typo, but it’s not. You can see Abbot Pothier did the same thing in 1908:

502 Pothier


Dom Mocquereau, in his 1903 Liber Usualis, does it correctly. That is to say, he treats this solemn cadence as cursive rather than accentual:

501 Mocquereau 1903 Liber Usualis


In Pothier’s 1896 Liber Usualis, he does the same as the Vatican Edition:

499 Pothier 1896 LIBER USUALIS


CONCLUSION : Abbot Pothier must have been extremely bothered by a cursive treatment of “átria.” Sometimes, ancient manuscripts did bend the rules for the tonic accent—but that was not the norm. (Solemn Mode VI is especially confusing in this regard.) Bruce Ford has written:

“Some have criticized Pothier’s treatment of the final cadence of the eighth introit psalm tone. It is cursive, but Pothier sometimes treated it as if it were a cadence of one accent with three preparatory syllables.”

To make matters worse, Rome has sometimes muddled things.


P.S.

Many don’t realize that all the EF chants for the Holy Family can be used for the Ordinary Form. Cf. section 397 of the Ordo Cantus Missæ.

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

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Feast of the Holy Family Last Updated: January 19, 2021

Subscribe

It greatly helps us if you subscribe to our mailing list!

* indicates required

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).

Primary Sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

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

I feel the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a direct war, a direct killing—direct murder by the mother herself. And we read in the Scripture, for God says very clearly: “Even if a mother could forget her child, I will not forget you: I have carved you in the palm of my hand.”

— Mother Theresa (11 Dec 1979)

Recent Posts

  • Four (4) Shimmery Hymns for Lent & Passiontide
  • “Go!” • The Word That Changed My Life Forever
  • Vespers Booklet (4th Sunday of Lent)
  • At the Cross • Stabat Mater
  • Summer Ward Method Courses • CUA 2023

Subscribe

Subscribe

* indicates required

Copyright © 2023 Corpus Christi Watershed · Isaac Jogues on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Corpus Christi Watershed is a 501(c)3 public charity dedicated to exploring and embodying as our calling the relationship of religion, culture, and the arts. This non-profit organization employs the creative media in service of theology, the Church, and Christian culture for the enrichment and enjoyment of the public.