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“What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too…” Pope Benedict XVI (7 July 2007)

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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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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

14 May 2022 • “Pure” Vatican Edition

As readers know, my choir has been singing from the “pure” Editio Vaticana. That is to say, the official rhythm which—technically—is the only rhythm allowed by the Church. I haven’t figured out how I want the scores to look, so in the meantime we’ve been using temporary scores that look like this. Stay tuned!

—Jeff Ostrowski
14 May 2022 • Gorgeous Book

If there is a more beautiful book than Abbat Pothier’s 1888 Processionale Monasticum, I don’t know what it might be. This gorgeous tome was today added to the Saint John Lalande Online Library. I wish I owned a physical copy.

—Jeff Ostrowski
Sound Familiar?

1 June 1579: “The chapter passes a rule that anyone ascending to the new organ without official permission shall be fined a month’s pay.”

26 October 1579: “The altar boys remain always separate and distinct from choirboys—the one group learning only plainchant and assisting at the altar, the other living with the chapel-master and studying counterpoint and polyphony as well. Father Francisco Guerrero postpones his departure for Rome and instead spends the entire year in Seville making ready for the trip. In the meantime he neglects his choirboys. On 16 November, after considerable complaint against their unruliness and ignorance, he engages an assistant, Bartolomé Farfán.”

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“A penalty is decreed against clerics, who, being in sacred Orders, or holding benefices, do not wear a dress befitting their Order. […] In these days, the contempt of religion has grown to such a pitch that—making but little account of their own dignity, and of the clerical honor—some even wear in public the dress of laymen…”

— ‘Council of Trent (Session 14, Chapter 6)’

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