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).

Father Adrian Fortescue on the “Agnus Dei”

Speaking about the AGNUS DEI, Father Fortescue wrote: “Agnus as a vocative is curious, evidently in order to reproduce the original text (John 1:29) exactly.” [Altera die vidit Joannes Jesum venientem ad se, et ait: Ecce agnus Dei, ecce qui tollit peccatum mundi.] Father Fortescue, as usual, is correct; but in some medieval manuscripts you can find “Agne Dei.” Here’s an an example of that.

—Jeff Ostrowski

List • Responses by each bishop!

This incredible website gives each bishop’s response to the recent MOTU PROPRIO Traditionis Custodes, a decree by Pope Francis which seeks to reduce the number of celebrations of the “Extraordinary Form” (Traditional Latin Mass): traditioniscustodes.info

—Jeff Ostrowski

Tomorrow is Sunday…

When you were in school, you would have gotten in trouble if you wrote the Roman Numeral “9” as viiii. You were supposed to write: IX. But look how an ancient manuscript writes “9” as a Roman Numeral. That’s the Introit Ecce Deus for tomorrow’s feast in the Extraordinary Form: The 9th Sunday after Pentecost.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Subscribe to the CCW Mailing List

About Jeff Ostrowski