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Views from the Choir Loft

PDF Download • “Victimae Paschali” Organ Accompaniment (Nine Versions)

Jeff Ostrowski · April 14, 2020

UR SOCIETY has many excellent qualities, but there’s one thing people today seem incapable of appreciating: subtlety. That causes problems when we discuss musical phrasing, due to its delicacy. Grouping notes (or “phrasing”) is something teachers spend hours examining with students during lessons; and great musicians often disagree vociferously. Consider the way E. Power Biggs plays this section from a Bach Fugue. His phrasing (score) is not the “normal” way most organists group those patterns. Frankly, this subject is so delicate, I prefer not speak of it on the internet. Unfortunately, plainsong harmonizers have no choice—because the chords must be placed according to the note groupings. Dom André Mocquereau (d. 1930) formulated a very sophisticated method of grouping, which we now call the “classic Solesmes method.” Some people love it; others hate it. Regardless, Mocquereau never backed down, and we must admire his tenacity!

Needless to say, the Easter Sequence (Victimae Paschali Laudes) has neither dots nor episemata in the official edition:

Dom Mocquereau placed his “ictus” as follows:

Dom Mocquereau carefully avoids the tonic accent, which is how his method tries to “lighten” the accent, and keep the chant from becoming heavy:

Dom Mocquereau did this for the entire piece, as you can see:

*  PDF Download • Dom Mocquereau Rhythm
—Taken from 1957 Mass & Vespers (Solesmes Abbey).

This is quite different from “German Rhythm.” Consider this example by Dr. Peter Wagner:

Here’s another example of “German Rhythm,” this time from Max Springer of Beuron Abbey:

Here’s a third example of “German Rhythm,” from Father Franz Xaver Mathias:

To accompany the “German Rhythm” (a.k.a. Accentualist), use the NOH version:

*  PDF Download • Nova Organi Harmonia (1944)
—Monsignor Jules Van Nuffel was choirmaster at the Cathedral of Saint Rumbold (Belgium).

For some reason, the “German Rhythm” never caught on. Even to this day, the vast majority of Gregorian accompaniments follow “Mocquereau Rhythm.” Here are six (6) examples:

*  PDF Download • Giulio Bas (1874-1929)
—Giulio Bas was the editor of the “Rassegna Gregoriana” (Rome).

*  PDF Download • Henri Potiron (1882-1972)
—Potiron was Choirmaster of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart (Paris).

*  PDF Download • Achille P. Bragers (1887-1955)
—Bragers taught at the Pope Pius X School of Liturgical Music (Manhattanville College, New York).

*  PDF Download • Achille P. Bragers (TRANSPOSED)
—This has been transposed very high.

*  PDF Download • Father Andrew Green (1865-1950)
—Father Green headed the music department at St. Benedict’s College (Atchison, KS).

*  PDF Download • Dom Gregory A. Murray (1905-1992)
—Dom Murray was a Downside Abbey monk who eventually came to hate Mocquereau’s method.

*  PDF Download • Dr. Eugene Lapierre (1957)
—Lapierre (University of Montreal) granted Roger Wagner his doctorate “in absentia” (from California).

Jeff Ostrowski’s Attempt

Here is my attempt:

*  PDF Download • Harmonization by Jeff Ostrowski
—Jeff has harmonized this strictly according to the rhythmic method of Dom André Mocquereau.

(Notice how the Mocquereau method creates funny “rhythmic alighting points”—which make singers pronounce peccatóres as “pec-CA-tores.”)

Would our ears be bothered by the “Mocquereau Rhythm” if it were applied to English, in the exact same way? You be the judge:

*  PDF Download • English Version Matching the Latin
—This allows an “Apples-To-Apples” comparison.

That translation—quite brilliant—was created by a member of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

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Filed Under: Articles, PDF Download Tagged With: Dom Mocquereau, Gregorian Chant Accompaniments, victimae paschali Last Updated: June 24, 2020

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Jeff Ostrowski

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).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

Quick Thoughts

19 January 2021 • Confusion over feasts

For several months, we have discussed the complicated history of the various Christmas feasts: the Baptism of the Lord, the feast of the Holy Family, the Epiphany, and so forth. During a discussion, someone questioned my assertion that in some places Christmas had been part of the Epiphany. As time went on, of course, the Epiphany came to represent only three “manifestations” (Magi, Cana, Baptism), but this is not something rigid. For example, if you look at this “Capital E” from the feast of the Epiphany circa 1350AD, you can see it portrays not three mysteries but four—including PHAGIPHANIA when Our Lord fed the 5,000. In any event, anyone who wants proof the Epiphany used to include Christmas can read this passage from Dom Prosper Guéranger.

—Jeff Ostrowski
6 January 2021 • Anglicans on Plainsong

A book published by Anglicans in 1965 has this to say about Abbat Pothier’s Editio Vaticana, the musical edition reproduced by books such as the LIBER USUALIS (Solesmes Abbey): “No performing edition of the music of the Eucharistic Psalmody can afford to ignore the evidence of the current official edition of the Latin Graduale, which is no mere reproduction of a local or partial tradition, but a CENTO resulting from an extended study and comparison of a host of manuscripts gathered from many places. Thus the musical text of the Graduale possesses a measure of authority which cannot lightly be disregarded.” They are absolutely correct.

—Jeff Ostrowski
2 January 2021 • Temptation

When I see idiotic statements made on the internet, I go nuts. When I see heretics promoted by people who should know better, I get angry. Learning to ignore such items is difficult—very difficult. I try to remember the words of Fr. Valentine Young: “Do what God places in front of you each day.” When I am honest, I don’t believe God wants me to dwell on errors and idiocy; there’s nothing I can do about that. During 2021, I will strive to do a better job following the advice of Fr. Valentine.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“The Catholic Church holds it better for the sun and moon to drop from heaven, for the earth to fail, and for all the many millions on it to die of starvation in extremest agony, as far as temporal affliction goes, than that one soul, I will not say, should be lost, but should commit one single venial sin, should tell one willful untruth, or should steal one poor farthing without excuse.”

— Saint John Henry Newman (1865)

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