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Views from the Choir Loft

PDF Download • “Sing the Angelus” (Plainchant)

Jeff Ostrowski · January 26, 2017

YNN DEAHL is an Environmental Engineer with whom I was blessed to sing Gregorian chant about sixteen years ago. He gave me a plainsong setting of the ANGELUS (attributed to Dom Charpentier, OSB) which I habitually taught to my high school students—and they loved it.

Print this booklet to begin your choir rehearsals:

    * *  PDF Booklet • THE ANGELUS (Dom Charpentier, OSB)

Choose a different choir member each week to say the concluding prayer:


Time sure flies! In February of 2010, I posted this setting to the CMAA forum. Since that time, it’s been adopted by a surprising number of people across the globe.

But did Dom Charpentier, OSB, truly compose it?

The melodic pattern is quite common in the Gregorian repertoire and would have been known even in the “decadent ages” of Gregorian chant (circa 1700). However, I recently came across this ancient manuscript:

4743 Charpentier ANGELUS source

This implies that Dom Charpentier created his rendition based on an ancient model.

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

Filed Under: Articles, PDF Download Tagged With: Singing the Angelus Last Updated: November 10, 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

4 March 2021 • Can you spare 15 seconds?

Due to Covid-19, California has basically been under “lock down” for 11 months, and these restrictions have had quite a detrimental effect on our choral programs. We are frequently limited to just 2-3 singers, on account of regulations by the government and our Archdiocese. However, although the number of singers is quite small, I was struck by the beauty of the singing last Sunday. Listen to this 15-second live excerpt and see if you agree?

—Jeff Ostrowski
3 March 2021 • “A policeman” — really?

According to Monsignor Frederick R. McManus, there were “policemen” serving the Sanhedrin in the time of Our Blessed Lord. Look at this awful translation in the 1966 “Saint Andrew Bible Missal” from 1966. Yuck!

—Jeff Ostrowski
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

Random Quote

“So, as in delirium a man talks in a long-forgotten tongue, now—when her heart is rent—the Catholic Church drops twenty centuries without an effort, and speaks as she spoke underground in Rome, and in Paul’s hired house, and in Crete and Alexandria and Jerusalem.”

— A non-Catholic describing the “Hagios O Theos” of Good Friday in 1906

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