Views from the Choir Loft

PDF Accompaniment • “Jesu Redemptor Omnium”

Jeff Ostrowski · December 30, 2019 ·

HOSE WHO ATTENDED the very first Sacred Music Symposium will remember how the entire thing was based upon a particular hymn melody. These days, the melody (“Jesu Redemptor Omnium”) is normally associated with the Christmas season. However, anyone who has studied the color pages section of the Brébeuf hymnal will realize the actual history of this hymn tune is more complicated. Indeed, the plainsong melody was used for the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity (in Guerrero’s time), as well as for Christmas, Epiphany, the Feast of All Saints (November 1st), and several other feasts. Click here to see the melody used for Salutis Aeterne Dator. Or, you can see how it looks when this melody is used for Exsultet Orbis Gaudiis. We sang this hymn for Vespers yesterday—the entire congregation—and it was marvelous. Nonetheless, I wasn’t quite happy with the NOH harmonization, so I took the liberty of creating my own:

* * PDF Download • “Jesu Redemptor” (Organ Accompaniment)

You can compare my accompaniment to that found in the NOH:

80485-jesu-redemptor-omnium

You can also compare it to an accompaniment by Achille P. Bragers:

80487-Jesu-Redemptor-Omnium

You can also compare it to an accompaniment by the famous Gregorianist, Dr. Peter Wagner, who studied with Father Michael Hermesdorff at the Cathedral school in Trier:

80484-Peter-Wagner

Let’s do one more. This is from the “Laudate Catholic Hymnal,” published in Kansas in the 1940s:

80483 Laudate Catholic Hymns

The Brébeuf hymnal contains more information about this ancient Catholic hymn (“Jesu Redemptor Omnium”) than any other hymnal—so much info! For more information, cf. pages 278-279 of the Brébeuf pew edition.

Bonus Question:

Can you see what Bragers did here?

80478 CONTRAFACTUM BRAGERS

(Those familiar with “common melodies” in the Brébeuf hymnal will not be surprised by this!)

About Jeff Ostrowski

A theorist, organist, and conductor, Jeff Ostrowski holds his B.M. in Music Theory from the University of Kansas (2004), and did graduate work in Musicology. He serves as choirmaster for the new FSSP parish in Los Angeles, where he resides with his wife and children.

Could Pope St. Pius X Sing?

“On 12 March 1908, the complete publication of the Roman Gradual was issued by the Vatican Press. On that very day, Dom Pothier solemnly presented the first copy to the Holy Father. A witness of the audience says that Pius X wished to be the first to see the new book; he opened it at random, at page 128 of the supplement pro aliquibus locis—it was the Introit of the new Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. The Pope sang it with perfect taste to the last note.” (Catholic Choirmaster, February 1915)

—Jeff Ostrowski

Julius Bas Accompaniment

A very prolific harmonizer of Gregorian chant in the early 20th century was Mr. Julius Bas. He often uses a very strange technique, wherein he employs rests to eliminate the Alto, Tenor, and Bass voices. Consider what he did with “Lumen ad revelationem” here:

* JPEG • Lumen ad revelationem

It seems quite lazy, and I’ve never seen anyone else use such a technique, although Dr. Peter Wagner often switched to parallel octaves when he ran out of ideas… (Yuck!)

—Jeff Ostrowski

Hitting wrong notes

Fr. Valentine Young, OFM, used to say: “The organist can play 1,000 correct notes and one wrong note—and the only thing people will care about is the wrong note.” Last Sunday I hit some wrong notes, and felt bad. Then I remembered a story about Rudolf Serkin and started to chuckle. Charles Rosen (or was it Leon Fleisher?) told the story of Serkin playing a Beethoven Sonata in front of a large audience. The theme is all in octaves; but Serkin hit some wrong notes, and played parallel 7ths instead. This so unnerved him that every time the theme returned, he played the entire thing in parallel 7ths! We must remember that even the greatest hit wrong notes. Alfred Cortot, Vladimir Horowitz, Wilhelm Backhaus, Edwin Fischer, Sviatoslav Richter, Egon Petri—they all hit wrong notes, which we can hear on recordings. (Josef Hofmann was an exception, but he was super-human so he doesn’t count!)

—Jeff Ostrowski