Views from the Choir Loft

Brébeuf #379 • “Quem Terra” (Melcombe)

Jeff Ostrowski · August 3, 2019

OMEBODY WHO TAKES THE TIME to carefully examine old Catholic hymnals will discover that “Melcombe” was one of the most popular tunes. Fr. Selner (1952) used it for “O Salutaris Hostia.” Sir Richard Runciman Terry (1912) used it for “O Thou immortal Light divine.” Dom Gregory Murray (1939) in the New Westminster Hymnal used it for “Verbum Supernum Prodiens.” J. Vincent Higginson (a.k.a. “Cyr de Brant”) used it (1955) in the Mediator Dei Hymnal for “I love Thee, O Thou Lord most high.” Furthermore, the best Protestant hymnals use this melody with multifarious texts.

Numerous rehearsal videos are available at the Brébeuf website.

Last night, MELCOMBE was added to the collection:

You can hear the individual tracks if you visit the Brébeuf website and scroll to #379.

The beautiful translation of “Quem Terra, Pontus, Aethera” is by Prior James Ambrose Dominic Aylward (d. 1872). That ancient Latin hymn—“Quem Terra”—is quite important, and was consequently featured heavily in the Brébeuf Hymnal. It was given numerous translations, explanations, and set to quite a few different melodies.

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

“Unfortunately, on the one hand a deadly error in judgment placed the official leadership of this committee into the hands of a man who—though generous and brave—was not very knowledgeable: Cardinal Lercaro. He was utterly incapable of resisting the maneuvers of the mealy-mouthed scoundrel that the Neapolitan Vincentian, Bugnini, a man as bereft of culture as he was of basic honesty, soon revealed himself to be.”

— ‘Fr. Louis Bouyer, an important member of the Consilium’