Views from the Choir Loft

Incredible!!! • Ancient Kyriale MSS for Download

Jeff Ostrowski · October 10, 2019

CURRENTLY DIRECT approximately 62 choral singers, and we often sing pieces from a nifty little booklet: the Père Daniel Kyriale (126 pages). Through the centuries—in spite of variants, which will always exist—there is a remarkable stability of the KYRIALE. I like to show my choral singers pictures of Gregorian manuscripts, and they enjoy seeing whether they can sing directly from such manuscripts, which are astounding in their beauty.

An excellent source of such items is RAPHAEL (an Italian website), which is teeming with examples from different centuries and different locations:

* * Link 1 • “manuscripts” (RAPHAEL)

* * Link 2 • “editions” (RAPHAEL)

The creators of the website were attempting to put forth an explanation for how parts of the KYRIALE might have been sung “mensurally” (with longs and shorts). Based on the evidence I have seen, there is no question that some of these manuscripts would have been sung that way—although exactly where, when, and how remain subjects which are far from settled. ¹

Here are some examples:

81311 ancient MSS kyriale

81308 manuscripts

If your singers need to practice Gregorian chant from videos and Mp3 files, send them to the Saint Antoine Daniel Website.

NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:

1 In terms of some of the speculation the creators indulge in regarding these theories, readers will have to decide for themselves which assumptions make sense.

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