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“What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too…” Pope Benedict XVI (7 July 2007)

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Views from the Choir Loft

Live Recording (42 min) • “Vespers for the Sacred Heart”

Dr. Alfred Calabrese · June 14, 2020

RIDAY, June 19 is the Feast of the Sacred Heart. If anyone desires to sing Vespers on that evening, the wonderful video (below) will help tremendously. Recorded at last year’s Sacred Music Symposium, Richard J. Clark, Kevin Allen, and I led the Symposium Choir in the plainchants and hymns. Featured prominently are two beautiful pieces. The sublime opening hymn, “Blest Author of the World,” a composition by Mr. Clark, can be found in the Brébeuf hymnal #84. Please pay attention to the words of the hymn, which are quite beautiful, and Mr. Clark’s lovely melody is the perfect vehicle for them. The Recessional that night was Kevin Allen’s heartfelt motet, “Lead, Kindly Light,” a setting of a quite well-known text by St. John Henry Newman. Like all of Mr. Allen’s music, this is beautifully constructed, as each progression, dissonance, and cadence spring directly from the text. And while not an easy piece to sing, the choir did an amazing job! I had the privilege of conducting, among some other things, the polyphonic Magnificat for five voices by Francisco Guerrero (marker 27:22). Set in alternatim with plainchant verses, I find that this is one of the most effective and expressive ways to sing a Magnificat.

The Choir You Hear

A word about the Symposium Choir: as you listen, please remember that this is a completely volunteer group, many of them under the age of 30 (some in high school!), and that we are literally sight-reading everything except the Magnificat and the Allen motet. Before traveling to the Sacred Music Symposium, some participants had never sung in Latin—but we sure fixed that! You will hear, as the service progresses, how unisons become more and more refined and how subtlety finds its way into the psalmody. Many of these same singers have formed themselves into the new Brébeuf Virtual Choir. If there is any concern over the future of beautiful and true sacred music in the Church going forward, you may take great comfort in these young people of tremendous talent and faith whom you will hear on this 42-minute video. I miss them, and I can’t wait for next year’s Sacred Music Symposium!

 

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

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Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: In festo sacratissimi Cordis Jesu ad Vesperas Last Updated: June 16, 2020

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Dr. Alfred Calabrese

About Dr. Alfred Calabrese

Dr. Alfred Calabrese is Director of Music and Liturgy at St. Rita Catholic Church in Dallas, TX. He and his wife have two children.—(Read full biography).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

Quick Thoughts

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

Random Quote

“It is very curious, rather barbarous, much too ornate, immeasurably less dignified than ours now, anything in the world rather than archaic or primitive.”

— Fr. Fortescue describing the “Sarum Use” in 1912

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