• 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
  • Catholic Hymnal
  • Jogues Missal
  • Site Map
  • Donate
Views from the Choir Loft

PDF Download • Rare German Hymnal

Jeff Ostrowski · October 17, 2017

4195 In Dulci Jubilo HE Brébeuf Hymnal project is really coming along. I have been privileged (for several years) to serve on a committee creating this book. One of the members is a veritable encyclopedia of hymnody, and it’s difficult to find a tune, text, or author he doesn’t know. The amount of material we have unearthed is overwhelming, and I hope someday 100% can be released online.

We have commissioned a remarkable amount of new texts and melodies for this book. However, we will also include historic Catholic tunes that have been (unfairly) neglected—and the following book by Dreves has several nice ones.

For the first time in history we have placed this celebrated German hymnal online:

    * *  PDF Download •   O CHRIST HIE MERK!   (Rev. Dreves, 1885)

Fr. Robert Skeris, perhaps the world’s preëminent scholar of hymnody, wrote about Dreves:

In order to make available in practise some of the results of his research work, DREVES published two small books which were important and influential in the continuing discussion: Ein Wort zur Gesangbuchfrage and “O Christ hie merk!” DREVES intended his “Wort” as “building material” for an eventual German national hymnal. If the “Wort zur Gesangbuchfrage” is more theoretical, then “O Christ hie merk!” is completely practical: a hymnal with 150 tunes illustrating the principles set forth in the “Wort.” WITT identified himself with this “word” by saying that it expressed “the principles of the Caecilian Society on this point.”

Fr. Guido Maria Dreves was a Jesuit priest who died in 1909. He’s responsible for the definitive work (55 volumes) on Latin hymnody: Analecta Hymnica Medii Aevi.

DESCRIPTION OF THIS BOOK :

Dreves, Guido Maria S. J. — “O Christ hie merk!”
Ein Gesangbüchlein geistlicher Lieder. Freiburg im Breisgau.
Herdersche Verlagshandlung. 1885.
Mit Approbation des hochw. Herrn Erzbischofs von Freiburg.

S. Halbleinen-Bibliothekseinband mit Leinenecken und marm. Deckeln. Handbeschr. Rückenschild oben sowie Bibliotheksschild auf V-Deckel, gestempelt. Kanten und Deckel berieben, sonst gut. Innen stärker gebräunt, die ersten Seiten mit zahlreichen Bibliotheksstempeln und handschr. kleinen Eintragungen. Nach S. X im Gelenk angebrochen. Vorsätze sowie Innendeckel und erste bzw. letzte S. gilbtleckig, sonst sauber.

Zweck dieses Gesangbüchleins ist einzig und allein, die echt christlichen, echt volkstümlichen Lieder, wie sie von Anfang bei unseren Vorfahren in Brauch und Übung gewesen, dann aber in glaubensschwacher, nüchterner Zeit über Bord geworfen oder bis zu Unkenntlichkeit entstellt wurden, unserem Volke zurückzugeben, und zwar in einer Gestalt, die sich möglichst innig der überlieferten Urform des Liedes anschlösse (…) Aus dem Vorwort.

Mit zahlreichen Notenbeigaben.

DREVES. Guido Maria, Jesuit, Hymnologe und geistlicher Lyriker, * 27.10. 1854 in Hamburg als Sohn des Notars und Dichters Leberecht D., † 1.6. 1909 in Mitwitz bei Kronach (Ober.franken).

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

Filed Under: Articles, PDF Download Last Updated: January 1, 2020

Subscribe to the CCW Mailing List

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).

Primary Sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

Quick Thoughts

19 January 2021 • Confusion over feasts

For several months, we have discussed the complicated history of the various Christmas feasts: the Baptism of the Lord, the feast of the Holy Family, the Epiphany, and so forth. During a discussion, someone questioned my assertion that in some places Christmas had been part of the Epiphany. As time went on, of course, the Epiphany came to represent only three “manifestations” (Magi, Cana, Baptism), but this is not something rigid. For example, if you look at this “Capital E” from the feast of the Epiphany circa 1350AD, you can see it portrays not three mysteries but four—including PHAGIPHANIA when Our Lord fed the 5,000. In any event, anyone who wants proof the Epiphany used to include Christmas can read this passage from Dom Prosper Guéranger.

—Jeff Ostrowski
6 January 2021 • Anglicans on Plainsong

A book published by Anglicans in 1965 has this to say about Abbat Pothier’s Editio Vaticana, the musical edition reproduced by books such as the LIBER USUALIS (Solesmes Abbey): “No performing edition of the music of the Eucharistic Psalmody can afford to ignore the evidence of the current official edition of the Latin Graduale, which is no mere reproduction of a local or partial tradition, but a CENTO resulting from an extended study and comparison of a host of manuscripts gathered from many places. Thus the musical text of the Graduale possesses a measure of authority which cannot lightly be disregarded.” They are absolutely correct.

—Jeff Ostrowski
2 January 2021 • Temptation

When I see idiotic statements made on the internet, I go nuts. When I see heretics promoted by people who should know better, I get angry. Learning to ignore such items is difficult—very difficult. I try to remember the words of Fr. Valentine Young: “Do what God places in front of you each day.” When I am honest, I don’t believe God wants me to dwell on errors and idiocy; there’s nothing I can do about that. During 2021, I will strive to do a better job following the advice of Fr. Valentine.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“The authority of the Pope is not unlimited. It is at the service of Sacred Tradition. Still less is any kind of general ‘freedom’ of manufacture, degenerating into spontaneous improvisation, compatible with the essence of faith and liturgy. The greatness of the liturgy depends—we shall have to repeat this frequently—on its lack of spontaneity.”

— Josef Cardinal Ratzinger (2000)

Recent Posts

  • 19 January 2021 • Confusion over feasts
  • PDF Download • “Mass Propers For Sundays And Holydays Set To Simple Melodies” (429 pages)
  • Hidden Gem: Salvum Fac Populum Tuum (Bruckner)
  • Landmark Documentary on the Renewal of Sacred Music
  • Thou Hast Saved the Good Wine until Now

Copyright © 2021 Corpus Christi Watershed · Charles Garnier 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.