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Flos Carmeli for a Carmelite Novena

Veronica Brandt · July 7, 2018

OVENAS give a bit of variety to our family prayers. Today we are starting a Novena to Our Lady of Mt Carmel for a new monastery.

The prayers are beautiful, but I recognised the closing prayer as the Carmelite sequence Flos Carmeli – the name always reminds me of dessert, but maybe that’s just me.

Trawling the internet I found the words, the music, but nothing arranged for pleasant printing. A few hours later, and a little wiser about LaTeX and Gregorio, I can present you with this:

* * Flos Carmeli

For those who like the technical side, I used the package marginnote to put the translation in the right column. There were a few variations in the Latin words on different sources – it would be good to know the history of these. I went with the version on Gregobase, but changed consonantal “I“s to “J“s and split the ae ligatures to make it easier to notate the accents.

Our Lady of Mt Carmel, pray for us!

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

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About Veronica Brandt

Veronica Brandt holds a Bachelor Degree in Electrical Engineering. She lives near Sydney, Australia, with her husband and six children.—(Read full biography).

“Tonus Solemnior” • How old is it?

In the 1962 Missal, a section called “præfationes in tono solemniore” contains ornate melodies for the Preface. An article posted on the blog of the Church Music Association of America claims the tone comes from “the late 19th century” and said its elimination “is one of the very few good things which the post-Conciliar reform did for Gregorian chant.” The author said: “The Roman solemn preface tone is already beautiful enough, there was no need to give a more Romantic feel.”

Some have asked us whether the tonus solemnior comes from “the late 19th century.” It does not. Their author was wrong by at least 400 years. I have seen this tone in MSS from the 1400s—and it may go back even further. Here is an example from 1494AD. And here’s another from the 1400s. The FSSP priests use these tones on high feasts, and the effect is unforgettable.

—Jeff Ostrowski

6 January 2022 • Quick!

A short version of the INTROIT for the feast of the Epiphany has been added to the Saint René Goupil Gregorian Chant Website.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Confusing Feasts of Christmas

Whether one considers the Missale Vetustum or the post-conciliar calendar—or even the 1908 calendar—the feasts which follow Christmas are very confusing. Last year I created this comparison chart. I hope you find it helpful. As far as I can tell, my chart is the first effort to carefully detail the changes made to post-Christmas feasts (unless we also count the rather basic one by Lauren Pristas).

—Jeff Ostrowski