Views from the Choir Loft

PDF Download • Authentic Irish Hymnal (164 pages)

Jeff Ostrowski · November 20, 2017

HE AMOUNT of Roman Catholic hymnals we’ve discovered while working on the St. Jean de Brébeuf Hymnal has been truly astounding. I hope when everything is finished, we can make them available for download. One of the strangest hymnals we have been sent is a 1928 book written entirely in Irish (Gaelic). I have ancestors who are Irish, but I cannot read or understand a single word in this book:

* * PDF • GAELIC HYMNAL (Roman Catholic)

I can only imagine the amount of time spent typesetting a book like this!

Some information:

In 1928 Úna Ní Ógain published her collection of Dánta Dé with Irish music, arranged for the organ by Robert O’Dwyer, and lyrics in Irish.

This hymnal was published by and for Roman Catholics. Many of the hymns (though not all) are based on the poetry collected by Douglas Hyde in “Religious Songs of the Connacht” and most seem to be traditional Irish religious songs, not translations from English—some from Latin, however.

UPDATE :

The translation for the entire book (into English) can be found here, but without any of the music.

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).

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