Can You Say “Theft” ??

Jeff Ostrowski · September 19, 2018

HROUGHOUT THE PROCESS of producing the St. Jean de Brébeuf Hymnal—which will hopefully be released in October—our committee saw tons of theft. Even the most famous translators, such as John Mason Neale, steal phrases and rhymes from other translators. As I’ve said many times, when it comes to theft, nobody can hold a candle to John David Chambers (d. 1893). Chambers stole almost every rhyme he ever used; and he “wrote” hundreds of hymn translations. ¹

Consider the following:

Robert Campbell was an excellent hymn translator. A Scottish lawyer, he converted to the Catholic Faith in 1852.

But can we all agree he stole from Chandler?

NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:

1 By the way, John David Chambers was a valuable assistant to Dr. John Julian in the creation of the (amazing) Dictionary of Hymnology. This would imply that theft was considered okay in those days.

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

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).

30 November 2020 • “Case in point”

The Solesmes rhythmic markings, which often contradict the official rhythm, do such damage to the antiphons of the Divine Office that—in my humble opinion—they should be abandoned. (In reality, this will never happen.) But sometimes, they do great damage to the melody of the Graduale Romanum, and I would offer the Offertory for the 1st Sunday of Advent as a “case in point.”

—Jeff Ostrowski

27 November 2020 • ACCENTS

Certain Latin words are constantly mispronounced. For example, Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana is supposed to be pronounced “Cármina” but people frequently pronounce it as “Carmína”—wrong! Another example: Nova organi harmonia is supposed to be pronounced “órgani” but many people erroneously say “orgáni.” A somewhat tricky word is incipit. In Latin, it would be “íncipit” while some believe it has entered the English language as “incípit”—but I’m not convinced…

—Jeff Ostrowski

20 November 2020 • Epiphany Sequence?

A very interesting Missale from 1759AD has a Sequence for the Epiphany, but I don’t know where one could find the musical notation. The Seqence is called: “Prompto Gentes Animo Ferte Nunc Altissimo Honorem Et Gloriam.”

—Jeff Ostrowski

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About Jeff Ostrowski