HEN I PLAY organ for Vespers on Sunday afternoon, sometimes I have to jump in and sing. It doesn’t happen often—because we usually have at least 30-40 singers—but on certain days it’s necessary…such as the Sunday before Thanksgiving, when the attendance was quite sparse! We normally do the “Lucis Creator Optime” to a metrical hymn setting, taken from the Brébeuf Hymnal (since everything else is sung in plainsong) but sometimes we sing the plainsong version.
I composed this organ accompaniment following the “Brébeuf method,” where every verse is written out:
* PDF Download • “Lucis Creator Optime” (Vespers Hymn)
Perhaps my favorite thing about the Saint Jean de Brébeuf Hymnal is how every single verse of the organ accompaniments is carefully written out. It makes life so easy, I actually feel guilty! Notice how the accompaniment provides contrasting accompaniments for the same melodic phrase; one has the bass line in descending stepwise motion, while the other has the bass line in ascending stepwise motion:
But the Brébeuf Hymnal is hardly the first book to recognize how essential it is to write out every verse. Take a look at this special Paris edition of the Antiphonale, printed in 1913:
By the way, the approbation in the front of that book is by Cardinal Martinelli, who wrote a very important letter condemning the “Mocquereau” rhythm, the “Wagner” rhythm, and the “Haberl” rhythm. We shall speak of that letter another day…
I think you’ll agree we have made tremendous progress since 1851, when this accompaniment appeared:
(That is from an 1851 book called “Hymnarium Vesperale.”)
