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Views from the Choir Loft

Rorate Caeli • “Very Ancient Catholic Song”

Jeff Ostrowski · December 5, 2017

ELIEVE IT OR NOT, researching the composers and arrangers often requires significantly more time than typesetting musical notes for the St. Jean de Brébeuf Hymnal. Sometimes it feels like we are creating a doctoral dissertation on each hymn writer—but we feel it is important to always have access to the original text as the artist published it, even though sometimes adjustments are made based on the principles adopted by the hymn committee.

The Brébeuf hymnal will contain terrific information about the composers, hymn writers, sources, and so forth—but things didn’t used to be like this. Roman Catholic hymnals were notorious for including zero tunes names, zero composer names, and often listed the source as “ancient melody” or “sublime air” or “traditional text.” The Parochial Hymn Book, published in England (1897) by Fr. Anatole Police, usually lists the source as “ancient hymn.” Perhaps he could have done a better job of (wait for it…) policing his attributions.

For some reason, he dubs Rorate Coeli a “Very Ancient Catholic Chant.”

3725 Rorate Coeli


There is one exception to the rule followed by Fr. Police. Many pieces in this collection are given the attribution of “Rev. A Police.” 1

I understand why hymnals used to be done in such a way, but I am glad for how things have changed. One of the pioneers in this area was J. Vincent Higginson, who wrote under the pen name of “Cyr de Brant.”

Mr. Higginson wrote about his own hymnal:

A distinctive feature of the Mediator Dei Hymnal is the naming of the tunes and listing of their metric schemes. This practice is, unfortunately, all too rare in American hymn publications. It is hoped that other hymnals will in time adopt these names (they are free to do so) in order that unity in this regard will prevail in future years. Naming the tunes in a uniform manner makes the identification of these tunes a simple matter, and a knowledge of the meter enables one to apply an alternate melodic setting to a given text when this seems to be called for. The choice of names given here is proposed as a first classification for use in all future hymn collections. The accompaniment edition is adapted to the abilities of the less experienced organist.

The argument could be made that the St. Jean de Brébeuf Hymnal will be—in some ways—the successor of the Mediator Dei Hymnal.



NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:

1   The same is true of the St. Gregory Hymnal, which attributes tons of hymns to its editor, “NAM.” That stands for “Nicola A. Montani,” founder of the St. Gregory Society, who died in 1948.

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

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Affordable Hymnal for Catholic Parishes, Jean de Brebeuf Hymnal Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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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

    Tempo?? • 𝘏𝘰𝘭𝘺 𝘎𝘰𝘥, 𝘞𝘦 𝘗𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘛𝘩𝘺 𝘕𝘢𝘮𝘦
    Once, after Mass, my pastor said he really loved the hymn we did. I said: “Father, that's Holy God, We Praise Thy Name—you never heard it before?” He replied: “But the way you did it was terrific. For once, it didn't sound like a funeral dirge!” Last Sunday, our volunteer choir sang that hymn. I think the tempo was just about right … but what do you think?
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Don’t You Agree About These?
    If you want to make Jeff Ostrowski really happy, send him an email with effusive praise about the individual voice recordings for hymn #296. [Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass] They came out dazzlingly sensational, don't you agree?
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Choral Vowels? Yes? No?
    Here's a live recording of one of the choral “warm-up” exercises my choir enjoys. It was taken during our rehearsal on 27 January 2023. It’s good to make sure each chord is perfectly in tune and balanced before moving to the next one. That only happens when each singer has the correct vowel. If you like, you can freely download that vocal exercise.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“The introduction of the vernacular will certainly be a great sacrifice for those who know the beauty, the power and the expressive sacrality of Latin. We are parting with the speech of the Christian centuries; we are becoming like profane intruders in the literary preserve of sacred utterance. We will lose a great part of that stupendous and incomparable artistic and spiritual thing, the Gregorian chant. We have reason indeed for regret […] We are giving up something of priceless worth.”

— Pope Paul VI

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