Views from the Choir Loft

Brébeuf Hymn #156 • “Christe Redemptor”

Jeff Ostrowski · July 20, 2019

T WILL BE NECESSARY to speak tons more about the idea of common melodies. In a nutshell, it means that the Brébeuf Hymnal allows you to get through the entire liturgical year even if your parish knows very few hymn melodies! Then, of course, you can add more tunes with each passing year. Consider the following English translation by Fr. John Fitzpatrick of Christe Redemptor Omnium—which has the same name as a Christmas hymn, but is actually a hymn for All Saints. (Just to confuse everyone, in 1631AD, its title was changed to “Placare Christe Servulis.”)

The text is used with many melodies in the Brébeuf Hymnal, and here’s one of them—with Soprano line recorded yesterday by a young lady in the 8th grade:

You can hear the individual tracks if you visit the Brébeuf website and scroll to #156.

For the record, that melody (“Erschienen Ist”) has become one our congregation in Los Angeles loves to sing. In the Brébeuf Hymnal, that melody is used for several different texts.

Tag: “Erschienen ist der herrlich Tag”

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).

Surprising Popularity!

One of our most popular downloads has proven to be the organ accompaniment to “The Monastery Hymnal” (131 pages). This book was compiled, arranged, and edited by Achille P. Bragers, who studied at the Lemmensinstituut (Belgium) about thirty years before that school produced the NOH. Bragers might be considered an example of Belgium “Stile Antico” whereas Flor Peeters and Jules Van Nuffel represented Belgium “Prima Pratica.” You can download the hymnal by Bragers at this link.

—Jeff Ostrowski

15 February 2021 • To Capitalize…?

In the Introit for the 6th Sunday after Pentecost, there is a question regarding whether to capitalize the word “christi.” The Vulgata does not, because Psalm 27 is not specifically referring to Our Lord, but rather to God’s “anointed one.” However, Missals tend to capitalize it, such as the official 1962 Missal and also a book from 1777 called Missel de Paris. Something tells me Monsignor Knox would not capitalize it.

—Jeff Ostrowski

15 February 2021 • “Sung vs. Spoken”

We have spoken quite a bit about “sung vs. spoken” antiphons. We have also noted that the texts of the Graduale Romanum sometimes don’t match the Missal texts (in the Extraordinary Form) because the Mass Propers are older than Saint Jerome’s Vulgate, and sometimes came from the ITALA versions of Sacred Scripture. On occasion, the Missal itself doesn’t match the Vulgate—cf. the Introit “Esto Mihi.” The Vulgate has: “Esto mihi in Deum protectórem et in domum refúgii…” but the Missal and Graduale Romanum use “Esto mihi in Deum protectórem et in locum refúgii…” The 1970s “spoken propers” use the traditional version, as you can see.

—Jeff Ostrowski