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Views from the Choir Loft

PDF Download • “Sunday Vespers”

Jeff Ostrowski · August 7, 2018

AST SUNDAY, we began singing Sunday Vespers. From now on, we will do this each week as a parish. Vespers is actually pretty complicated if one remembers to place in all the rubrics, starting pitches, parallel translations, and so forth. I find my solution fully adequate…but quite ugly.

UPDATE (21 September 2020):

Mr Bloomfield has solved all these problems!

*  PDF Download • “Vespers for Sundays & Holy Days”
—465-page booklet can be downloaded or purchased.

Each week, I will think about how I can make the booklets more beautiful. After a year, I believe I will have found a layout I consider worth printing. Until then, if you want to get your parish singing Sunday Vespers, feel free to use our version:

* *  PDF Download • SUNDAY VESPERS (Testing)

Everything except the Magnificat remains the same each week until Advent. Therefore, I had to create this sheet for 5 August 2018. 1 As time goes on, we will also add organ accompaniment. We will also employ special versions for the hymn.

* *  Magnificat • 24th Sunday after Pentecost

* *  Magnificat • 6th “resumed” Sunday after Epiphany

* *  Magnificat • 5th “resumed” Sunday after Epiphany

* *  Magnificat • 4th “resumed” Sunday after Epiphany

* *  Magnificat • 16th Sunday after Pentecost

* *  Magnificat • 17th Sunday after Pentecost

* *  Magnificat • 18th Sunday after Pentecost

* *  Magnificat • 19th Sunday after Pentecost

* *  Magnificat • 20th Sunday after Pentecost

* *  Magnificat • 21st Sunday after Pentecost

* *  Magnificat • 22nd Sunday after Pentecost

ORRY TO SWITCH TOPICS, but if you look in the Summit Hymnal (published in 1983 by the Dominican Monastery of Our Lady of the Rosary) you will find on page 517 a “combination descant.” The editor says one can combine their harmony for HALTON HOLGATE with the popular hymn tune called MONKLAND. They provide both, so there’s no possibility of melody variants.

A member of the Brébeuf Hymnal editorial team first brought this to my attention, and we got excited. The Summit Hymnal is one of the better hymnals…but—alas!—this turned out to be a lie:

* *  PDF Download • Copyrighted Descant “Fail”

But it doesn’t work. What a huge disappointment—it would have been spectacular if it worked. The Summit Hymnal editor even copyrighted what they call the “Tune-Descant combination.” But it’s a lie.

It just doesn’t work; they break all the rules of writing descants and several parts sound terrible.

87994 monk writes


NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:

1   Each week, I must create a similar sheet—unless I can successfully convince each choir member to purchase a copy of the Liber Usualis.

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

Filed Under: Articles, PDF Download Tagged With: Vespers Last Updated: July 31, 2021

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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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Corpus Christi Watershed

Quick Thoughts

    Introit • Candlemas (2 February)
    “Candlemas” • Our choir sang on February 2nd, and here's a live recording of the beautiful INTROIT: Suscépimus Deus. We had very little time to rehearse, but I think it has some very nice moments. I promise that by the 8th Sunday after Pentecost it will be perfect! (That Introit is repeated on the 8th Sunday after Pentecost.) We still need to improve, but we're definitely on the right track!
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Simplified Antiphons • “Candlemas”
    Anyone who desires simplified antiphons (“psalm tone versions”) for 2 February, the Feast of the Purification—which is also known as “Candlemas” or the Feast of the Presentation—may freely download them. The texts of the antiphons are quite beautiful. From “Lumen Ad Revelatiónem Géntium” you can hear a live excerpt (Mp3).
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Tempo?? • 𝘏𝘰𝘭𝘺 𝘎𝘰𝘥, 𝘞𝘦 𝘗𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘛𝘩𝘺 𝘕𝘢𝘮𝘦
    Once, after Mass, my pastor said he really loved the hymn we did. I said: “Father, that's Holy God, We Praise Thy Name—you never heard it before?” He replied: “But the way you did it was terrific. For once, it didn't sound like a funeral dirge!” Last Sunday, our volunteer choir sang that hymn. I think the tempo was just about right … but what do you think?
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

The Sanctus and Benedictus are one text and should be sung through without a break. The practice—once common—of waiting till after the Consecration and then singing: “Benedictus qui venit…” is not allowed by the Vatican Gradual.

— Father Fortescue, writing in 1912

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