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Views from the Choir Loft

Can Plainsong Be Harmonized? • (Rehearsal Video)

Jeff Ostrowski · May 28, 2018

HE GOALS of the Sacred Music Symposium are not secret: we aim to expose participants to a wide variety of pieces, all of which come from the authentic tradition of sacred music. The participants go home energized, filled with inspiration, and excited to revamp their own programs. (I completely revised my approach to directing a choir based on last year’s Symposium, with sensational results.) We’ve registered 75 for this year’s conference, but a few spots still remain.

Naturally, we sing most of the Propers from the Church’s official edition. However, the Communion antiphon at the final Mass will be rather special this year, taken from the Editio Medicæa with a modern harmonization: 1

REHEARSAL VIDEOS for each individual voice and PDF score await you at #88841.


Some readers won’t click that link, thereby missing out on the individual rehearsal videos. Furthermore, avoiding that link (88841) will cause them to miss downloading the PDF score, which has some fascinating source material on the final two pages.

Those who click that link will enjoy exploring the historical editions upon which Mr. Allen’s version is based. I also included several nasty harmonizations of the Editio Medicæa from the 19th century, to illustrate the progress we’ve made in understanding modality over the last century. Incidentally, Monsignor Jules Van Nuffel was a seminal figure in this effort—as was Lemmens, his predecessor—as demonstrated by his harmonizations as well as modal choral pieces like his Pater Noster.



NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:

1   For about 140 years, it was not allowed to say anything nice about the Editio Medicaea because it had “lost the fight” to Pothier’s edition—which was undoubtedly more authentic and beautiful. However, Haberl’s Medicæa was not 100% rotten, and was basically the Church’s official edition for fifty years (until 1908). According to Msgr. Francis Schmitt, his close friend, Dom Ermin Vitry once admitted that he liked the Medicæa, adding that it did not deserve the utter contempt poured down upon it throughout later years. Indeed, Vitry grew up singing from it.

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

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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Jeff Ostrowski

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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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

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“There is no music worth hearing save that written in the last 40 years.”

— Johannes Tinctoris (1477)

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