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Views from the Choir Loft

Gregorian Impressions • Plainchant Settings for Organ

Richard J. Clark · June 29, 2018

BRAND NEW release from The Sacred Music Press/The Lorenz Corporation, Gregorian Impressions is a collection of organ works based on familiar and beloved plainchants.

Shifting in character, they are designed to accommodate a variety of liturgical or concert circumstances. At the very least, this music can be performed on a two manual instrument with limited ranks. However, colorful registration, especially in animating chant melodies is encouraged on instruments with larger resources.

With intense dynamic and expressive intent, this collection cries out for the pipe organ to breathe and to sing.

• View Sample pages and Forward with notes on registration here.

• Order Score: Gregorian Impressions • Plainchant Settings for Organ

      YouTube:  I. Pange lingua
      YouTube:  II. Adoro te devote
      YouTube:  III. Jesu dulcis memoria
      YouTube:  IV. Ubi caritas
      YouTube:  V. O filii et filiae
      YouTube:  VI. Veni, creator Spiritus
      YouTube:  VII. Ave Maria

• Tracks 1, & 3-7 were recorded on the 1999 Smith & Gilbert Organ (IV/54), Saint Cecilia Church, Boston, MA.
• Track 2 was recorded on the D. A. Flentrop (I/8) at Saint Mary’s Chapel, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA.


PLAYLIST:


OWE A GREAT debt to Timothy E. Smith and Theodore Gilbert, builders of a unique instrument. Featured at several concerts during the 2014 National Convention of the American Guild of Organists and celebrated by the Boston Music Intelligencer as “Cavaillé-Coll-esque,” it is situated in one of the most glorious (and useful) acoustics in New England.

To the casual listener it is somewhat notorious for its power. But noted by every distinguished organist is the warmth and richness of its foundations and strings (voiced by Theodore Gilbert). More recent additions to the instrument by Timothy E. Smith have only added to the array of richness and color, seamlessly complimenting ranks with Gilbert’s voicing.

Such richness and warmth is certainly on display in these recordings, e.g., the introduction and coda of Veni, creator Spiritus or the building up of foundation stops and reeds on Jesu dulcis memoria.

None of this begins to speak of the highly pragmatic liturgical design of the instrument: foundation stops that speak clearly into the nave to support congregational singing, dynamic flexibility to accompany soloists, choral works, and chant, and an antiphonal division that unites a 19th Century architecture with the 21st Century liturgy. All of these necessary elements are the design and vision of Timothy E. Smith.

Finally, what is quite special to me, is not always the full array of the organ, but the quiet moments of reflection while composing and improvising. A few soft 8’ stops speak into an empty and darkened sanctuary, expressing most exactly what I ask. I thank God for an abundance of these moments for nearly twenty years. Such moments of musical and prayerful sanctuary have saved my life.

Soli Deo gloria

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

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Gregorian Chant, Pipe Organ Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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About Richard J. Clark

Richard J. Clark is the Director of Music of the Archdiocese of Boston and the Cathedral of the Holy Cross.—(Read full biography).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    “Booklet of Eucharistic Hymns” (16 pages)
    I was asked to create a booklet for my parish to use during our CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION on 22 June 2025. Would you be willing to look over the DRAFT BOOKLET (16 pages) I came up with? I tried to include a variety of hymns: some have a refrain; some are in major, others in minor; some are metered, others are plainsong; some are in Spanish, some are in Latin, but most are in English. Normally, we’d use the Brébeuf Hymnal—but we can’t risk having our congregation carry those heavy books all over the city to various churches.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Yahweh” in church songs?
    My pastor asked me to write a weekly column for our parish bulletin. The one scheduled to run on 22 June 2025 is called “Three Words in a Psalm” and speaks of translating the TETRAGRAMMATON. You can read the article at this column repository. All of them are quite brief because I was asked to keep within a certain word limit.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Music List” • Pentecost Sunday
    Some have expressed interest in perusing the ORDER OF MUSIC I prepared for Pentecost Sunday (8 June 2025). If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. Because our choir is on break this week, the music is relatively simple.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    Antiphons Don’t Match?
    A reader wants to know why the Entrance and Communion antiphons in certain publications deviate from what’s prescribed by the GRADUALE ROMANUM published after Vatican II. Click here to read our answer. The short answer is: the Adalbert Propers were never intended to be sung. They were intended for private Masses only (or Masses without music). The “Graduale Parvum,” published by the John Henry Newman Institute of Liturgical Music in 2023, mostly uses the Adalbert Propers—but sometimes uses the GRADUALE text: e.g. Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (29 June).
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    When to Sit, Stand and Kneel like it’s 1962
    There are lots of different guides to postures for Mass, but I couldn’t find one which matched our local Latin Mass, so I made this one: sit-stand-kneel-crop
    —Veronica Brandt
    The Funeral Rites of the Graduale Romanum
    Lately I have been paging through the 1974 Graduale Romanum (see p. 678 ff.) and have been fascinated by the funeral rites found therein, especially the simply-beautiful Psalmody that is appointed for all the different occasions before and after the funeral Mass: at the vigil/wake, at the house of the deceased, processing to the church, at the church, processing to the cemetery, and at the cemetery. Would that this “stational Psalmody” of the Novus Ordo funeral rites saw wider usage! If you or anyone you know have ever used it, please do let me know.
    —Daniel Tucker

Random Quote

“We cannot approve of the attitude of those who use the problems raised and discussed by the Council to create in themselves and in others an attitude of unrest and a desire for radical reformation, as if the Council gives every private opinion a chance to destroy the heritage of the Church. acquired during Her many centuries of history and experience.”

— Pope Paul VI (30 June 1965)

Recent Posts

  • “Booklet of Eucharistic Hymns” (16 pages)
  • PDF Download • “Text by Saint Francis of Assisi” (choral setting w/ organ: Soprano & Alto)
  • “Yahweh” in church songs?
  • “Music List” • Pentecost Sunday
  • “Participation” • Recovering its Receptive Dimension

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