“Mode 4” • How To Teach Your Choir

Jeff Ostrowski · July 19, 2017

WAS SO INSPIRED by the courses at the 2017 Sacred Music Symposium, I can’t wait to start teaching my current choir members a ton. I met so many fantastic people ¹ and got so many ideas I can’t wait to implement. I’m going to recruit new members! At rehearsal tomorrow, we will have an awesome discussion about Mode 4, using this worksheet:

* * PDF Download • Gregorian Mode IV

It’s the Gradual for 7th Sunday after Pentecost. Did you notice the “ups and downs” were omitted? The choir will fill those in during the rehearsal.

This will be fun!

(Photograph: Dr. Alfred Calabrese teaching Sacred Music Symposium 2017.)

NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:

1 Eighty people from all over the world came and attended the full week, which is phenomenal since it was only our second year. And this is a demanding conference—singing and learning from 7:30am to 9:30pm each day!

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

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).

“Tonus Solemnior” • How old is it?

In the 1962 Missal, a section called “præfationes in tono solemniore” contains ornate melodies for the Preface. An article posted on the blog of the Church Music Association of America claims the tone comes from “the late 19th century” and said its elimination “is one of the very few good things which the post-Conciliar reform did for Gregorian chant.” The author said: “The Roman solemn preface tone is already beautiful enough, there was no need to give a more Romantic feel.”

Some have asked us whether the tonus solemnior comes from “the late 19th century.” It does not. Their author was wrong by at least 400 years. I have seen this tone in MSS from the 1400s—and it may go back even further. Here is an example from 1494AD. And here’s another from the 1400s. The FSSP priests use these tones on high feasts, and the effect is unforgettable.

—Jeff Ostrowski

6 January 2022 • Quick!

A short version of the INTROIT for the feast of the Epiphany has been added to the Saint René Goupil Gregorian Chant Website.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Confusing Feasts of Christmas

Whether one considers the Missale Vetustum or the post-conciliar calendar—or even the 1908 calendar—the feasts which follow Christmas are very confusing. Last year I created this comparison chart. I hope you find it helpful. As far as I can tell, my chart is the first effort to carefully detail the changes made to post-Christmas feasts (unless we also count the rather basic one by Lauren Pristas).

—Jeff Ostrowski

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