“Dies Irae” • Why Does It Appear In So Many Movies?

Jeff Ostrowski · September 16, 2019

URING the Sacred Music Symposium each year, we spend hours explaining to the participants how Gregorian chant is the basis for Western music. We have an entire series on this, including expensive slides. Even the “B-Flat” and the “Natural” symbols come from Cantus Gregorianus. Readers of Views from the Choir Loft know we avoid posting YouTube videos, since everyone in the world can already search YouTube without our help.

However, the YouTube video below (about the Dies Irae) is worth watching. It was created by “VOX”—an organization I know absolutely nothing about:

PLEASE OVERLOOK anything considered inappropriate in the video.

Watershed is not the creator of this video.

See also the 2014 article by Veronica Brandt.

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