Views from the Choir Loft

PDF Download • “Agnus Dei” … for Lent

Jeff Ostrowski · January 28, 2018

Are you searching for a brief a cappella AGNUS DEI for Lent?

REHEARSAL VIDEOS for each individual voice and PDF score await you at #90719.

IRREPRESSIBLE SADNESS fills my soul when I recall many readers won’t click the link (90719):

…where you’ll find the PDF score.

…where you’ll find rehearsal videos for each individual voice.

But many will not click on that link.

I wish they would—but they won’t.

Some will notice that Giovanni Gabrieli has the Tenor and Bass (an “outer voice”) approach a perfect consonance in similar motion—breaking a cardinal rule of counterpoint. It’s difficult to understand why he made that choice; but I doubt it was done without consideration. ¹

Listen to Alto and Quintus alone:

* * Mp3 • Counterpoint between two voices only

Captivating, no?

NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:

1 Those who write about such things point out that when more voices are added, one can be less strict about such rules.

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