Views from the Choir Loft

Rare Lenten Hymns You’ve Not Sung

Jeff Ostrowski · February 19, 2018 ·

ERVING ON A COMMITTEE to produce the St. Jean de Brébeuf Hymnal has brought to my attention many wonderful Catholic hymns. Fr. Adrian Fortescue once said, speaking of an ancient hymn: “Where could anyone find a better evening hymn than this, coming right down from the catacombs? Our hymnbooks know nothing of such a treasure as this, and give us pages of poor sentiment in doggerel lines by some tenth-rate modern versifier.”

I could not find any written out versions of the Gregorian chant hymn Ex more docti mystico (6th century) so I created a clean version. Have you sung this great hymn?

* * PDF Download • “Ex More Docti Mystico” (LENT)

The following is also very nice—but some of you may have sung it before, because it’s printed in many books:

* * PDF Download • “O Sol Salutis” (LENT)

Here is a beautiful page from a book by John David Chambers:

90317 EX MORE DOCTI MYSTICO

A saint once commented on Psalm 50 (Miserere Mei) something to the effect of: “I wish we could all sin like David, if our repentance were to be as great as David’s…” If someone can send the exact quote, thank you in advance!

The book by Chambers is yet another book we came across in our work on the Brébeuf Hymnal.

About Jeff Ostrowski

A theorist, organist, and conductor, Jeff Ostrowski holds his B.M. in Music Theory from the University of Kansas (2004), and did graduate work in Musicology. He serves as choirmaster for the new FSSP parish in Los Angeles, where he resides with his wife and children.

Could Pope St. Pius X Sing?

“On 12 March 1908, the complete publication of the Roman Gradual was issued by the Vatican Press. On that very day, Dom Pothier solemnly presented the first copy to the Holy Father. A witness of the audience says that Pius X wished to be the first to see the new book; he opened it at random, at page 128 of the supplement pro aliquibus locis—it was the Introit of the new Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. The Pope sang it with perfect taste to the last note.” (Catholic Choirmaster, February 1915)

—Jeff Ostrowski

Julius Bas Accompaniment

A very prolific harmonizer of Gregorian chant in the early 20th century was Mr. Julius Bas. He often uses a very strange technique, wherein he employs rests to eliminate the Alto, Tenor, and Bass voices. Consider what he did with “Lumen ad revelationem” here:

* JPEG • Lumen ad revelationem

It seems quite lazy, and I’ve never seen anyone else use such a technique, although Dr. Peter Wagner often switched to parallel octaves when he ran out of ideas… (Yuck!)

—Jeff Ostrowski

Hitting wrong notes

Fr. Valentine Young, OFM, used to say: “The organist can play 1,000 correct notes and one wrong note—and the only thing people will care about is the wrong note.” Last Sunday I hit some wrong notes, and felt bad. Then I remembered a story about Rudolf Serkin and started to chuckle. Charles Rosen (or was it Leon Fleisher?) told the story of Serkin playing a Beethoven Sonata in front of a large audience. The theme is all in octaves; but Serkin hit some wrong notes, and played parallel 7ths instead. This so unnerved him that every time the theme returned, he played the entire thing in parallel 7ths! We must remember that even the greatest hit wrong notes. Alfred Cortot, Vladimir Horowitz, Wilhelm Backhaus, Edwin Fischer, Sviatoslav Richter, Egon Petri—they all hit wrong notes, which we can hear on recordings. (Josef Hofmann was an exception, but he was super-human so he doesn’t count!)

—Jeff Ostrowski