Views from the Choir Loft

PDF Download • Easy Hymn with Melody in Tenor

Jeff Ostrowski · January 11, 2018

EOPLE HAVE BEEN ASKING how our committee could possibly work on a single hymnal for five years. (Reminder: I’m part of an international team creating a hymnal dedicated to St. Jean de Brébeuf.) Because our task involves art and theology, sometimes a single word can be argued over for weeks! ¹

The Brébeuf hymnal also carefully chooses melodies. Do you see how the following tune (“Old Hundredth”) can be used in the Tenor voice?

REHEARSAL VIDEOS for each individual voice & PDF score await you at #90771.

IT MAKES ME SAD that some readers won’t click on the above link (#90771).

…where you can download the PDF score.

…where you can access individual rehearsal videos.

…where you can get all verses in Latin and English, with a literal translation, too.

But many won’t follow that link, which makes me glum.

NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:

1 Contrariwise, I’m often astounded at the sloppiness in productions by “big” Catholic publishers. A recent GIA hymnal doesn’t even examine whether the rhyme scheme matches, when texts are cobbled together.

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