• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

“A much greater source of anxiety to Us is the style of action of those who maintain that liturgical worship should shed its sacred character, who foolishly say we should substitute for sacred items & furnishings ordinary common things in daily use.” —Pope Saint Paul VI (14 Oct 1968)

  • Donate
  • Our Team
    • Our Editorial Policy
    • Who We Are
    • How To Contact Us
    • Sainte Marie Bulletin Articles
  • Pew Resources
    • Brébeuf Catholic Hymnal
    • Jogues Illuminated Missal
    • KYRIALE • Saint Antoine Daniel
    • Campion Missal, 3rd Edition
    • Repository • “Spanish Music”
    • Ordinary Form Feasts (Sainte-Marie)
  • MUSICAL WEBSITES
    • René Goupil Gregorian Chant
    • Noël Chabanel Psalms
    • Nova Organi Harmonia (2,279 pages)
    • Roman Missal, 3rd Edition
    • Catechism of Gregorian Rhythm
    • Father Enemond Massé Manuscripts
    • Lalemant Polyphonic
  • Miscellaneous
    • Site Map
    • Secrets of the Conscientious Choirmaster
    • “Wedding March” for lazy organists
    • Emporium Kevin Allen
    • Saint Jean de Lalande Library
    • Sacred Music Symposium 2023
    • The Eight Gregorian Modes
    • Gradual by Pothier’s Protégé
    • Seven (7) Considerations
Views from the Choir Loft

Two remarkable (radical) liturgical realities … which few realize!

Jeff Ostrowski · July 5, 2020

HE INTERNET is replete with theories about the 1960s reform of the liturgy. The documents of Vatican II have been posted in translation, excellent commentaries (e.g. by Fr. Robert Skeris) have been posted online, and those who were involved in the actual work of reform—such as Ferdinando Cardinal Antonelli (d. 1993) and Father Louis Bouyer (d. 2004)—have revealed how slapdash and hurried many of the decisions were.

But two liturgical realities are frequently overlooked:

(1) the Psalter created in the 1940s under Pope Pius XII;

(2) the Urbanite revision of the hymns in 1631AD.

The new Psalter by Pius XII (which soon died out) would have massively changed every liturgical book in existence, and would have required at least 10-20 years to implement. (We have scanned a 2,000 page book by Solesmes Abbey which uses the Pius XII Psalter, and you will be hearing more about this later.)

(1) Pope Pius XII Psalter

It is remarkable to observe how infrequently liturgical blogs and journals speak of the 1940s version of the Psalter, which was supposedly created directly from Hebrew MSS. The prime mover for this Psalter was Augustin Cardinal Bea (d. 1968), the personal confessor of Pope Pius XII. This was a massive change, because—in a very real sense—the Psalter is the liturgy itself! It is a matter of debate whether the Versio Piana was ever imposed upon the Church; some insist it was, while others say it was optional. In any event, I personally know priests who were forced to use it—but it was abandoned after a few years. (Father Michael Irwin told me he couldn’t understand it!) We have scanned a remarkable book, published by the Abbey of Solesmes in the 1950s, which uses the Psalter of Pius XII, and in the coming months we will have much to say about this book.

Without question, this gargantuan modification to the ancient liturgy by Ven. Pope Pius XII helped “pave the way” for further reform during Vatican II Council.

(2) Urbanite Corruption of the Hymns

Father Adrian Fortescue explained 1 the whole matter very well, perhaps better than anyone. While Pope Urban VIII left a few hymns intact, many were utterly destroyed: even the meter was changed! In some hymns, the Urbanite reform left less than 5% of the original poetry. A new publication, the Saint Jean de Brébeuf Hymnal (2018), carefully explores and explains the actions of Pope Urban VIII, providing hundreds of examples. (In particular, the color-page section is fabulous in its treatment of the Urbanite reform.) Dr. Aaron James, who has a double doctorate, recently the following vis-à-vis the Brébeuf hymnal:

Anyone who has engaged seriously with the texts of the ancient Office hymns knows the great confusion that can be generated by multiple versions of the same texts (particularly as a result of Urban VIII’s 1631 reform of the breviary, which rewrote the hymns to match the Latin prosody of pre-Christian antiquity). The editors navigate this difficult terrain with assurance; indeed, the editors’ explanation of the Urbanite reform and its impact on English translators is a model of clarity, and contains information this reviewer has not encountered elsewhere.

The Brébeuf hymnal had access to some of the world’s greatest experts in Latin, and the book provides many literal translations of ancient Catholic hymns which can’t be found anywhere else. Here’s an example of the Pre-Urbanite Ad Cenam Agni Providi hymn:

The book I mentioned earlier—the one published by Solesmes Abbey in the 1950s using the Pius XII Psalter—also had scholars create literal translations of the hymns. Here’s an example of the Urbanite Ad Cenam Agni Providi hymn (which changed the title to “Ad Regias Agni Dapes”):

I think we can agree that the Brébeuf hymnal literal translations are excellent, while the Solesmes Abbey version isn’t too shabby either!



NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:

1   Father Fortescue writes: “In the seventeenth century came the crushing blow which destroyed the beauty of all breviary hymns. […] Attempts to reform them had been made before, but so far they had been spared. Pope Urban VIII (d. 1644) was destined to succeed in destroying them. He appointed four Jesuits to reform the hymns, so that they should no longer offend Renaissance ears. […] These four Jesuits, in that faithful obedience to the Holy See which is the glory of their society, with a patient care that one cannot help admiring, set to work to destroy every hymn in the office. They had no concept of the fact that many of these hymns were written in meter by accent; their lack of understanding those venerable types of Christian poetry is astounding. They could conceive no ideal but that of a school grammar of Augustan Latin. Wherever a line was not as Horace would have written it, it had to go. The period was hopelessly bad for any poetry; these pious Jesuits were true children of their time. So they embarked on that fatal reform whose effect was the ruin of our hymns. They slashed and tinkered, they re-wrote lines and altered words, they changed the sense and finally produced the poor imitations that we still have, in the place of the hymns our fathers sang for over a thousand years. Indeed their confidence in themselves is amazing. They were not ashamed to lay their hands on Sedulius, on Prudentius, on St. Ambrose himself. […] No one who knows anything about the subject now doubts that that revision of Urban VIII was a ghastly mistake, for which there is not one single word of any kind to be said. Now all the points which shocked him, as not being classical, are known and established as perfectly legitimate examples of recognized laws. It was as foolish a mistake to judge poetry of the fourth and following centuries by the rules of the Augustan age, as it would be to try to tinker prose written in one language, to make it conform with the grammar of another. There are cases where these seventeenth-century Jesuits did not even know the rules of their own grammar books.”

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

Follow the Discussion on Facebook

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Insane Pacelli Liturgical Practice, Jean de Brebeuf Hymnal, Pope Urban VIII, Urbanite Hymn Reform Last Updated: September 8, 2021

Subscribe

It greatly helps us if you subscribe to our mailing list!

* indicates required

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 Michigan. —(Read full biography).

Primary Sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    Simplest “Agnus Dei” Ever Published
    Our choir is on break during the month of July. I needed a relatively simple “Agnus Dei,” so I composed this setting for organ & voice in honor of Saint René Goupil. It has been called the simplest setting ever composed. I love CARMEN GREGORIANUM (“Gregorian Chant”), especially the ALLELUIAS, INTROITS, and COMMUNION ANTIPHONS. That being said, some have pointed out that certain sections of the Kyriale aren’t as strong as the Graduale or Vesperale. There’s a reason for this—but it would be too complicated to explain at this moment.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    14th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)
    Our choir is on break during the month of July. However, on the feasts website, the chants have been posted for the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C), which is this coming Sunday: 6 July 2025.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Bugnini’s Statement (6 November 1966)
    With each passing day, more is revealed about how the enemies of the liturgy accomplished their goals. For instance, Hannibal Bugnini deeply resented the way Vatican II said Gregorian Chant “must be given first place in liturgical services.” On 6 November 1966, his cadre wrote a letter attempting to justify the elimination of Gregorian Chant with this brazen statement: “What really gives a Mass its tone is not so much the songs as it is the prayers and readings.” Bugnini’s cadre then attacked the very heart of Gregorian Chant (viz. the Proprium Missae), bemoaning how the Proprium Missae “is completely new each Sunday and feast day.” There is much more to be said about this topic. Stay tuned.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    Pope Pius XII Hymnal?
    Have you ever heard of the Pope Pius XII Hymnal? It’s a real book, published in the United States in 1959. Here’s a sample page so you can verify with your own eyes it existed.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    “Hybrid” Chant Notation?
    Over the years, many have tried to ‘simplify’ plainsong notation. The O’Fallon Propers attempted to simplify the notation—but ended up making matters worse. Dr. Karl Weinmann tried to do the same in the time of Pope Saint Pius X by replacing each porrectus. You can examine a specimen from his edition and see whether you agree he complicated matters. In particular, look at what he did with éxsules fílii Hévae.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    Antiphons Don’t Match?
    A reader wants to know why the Entrance and Communion antiphons in certain publications deviate from what’s prescribed by the GRADUALE ROMANUM published after Vatican II. Click here to read our answer. The short answer is: the Adalbert Propers were never intended to be sung. They were intended for private Masses only (or Masses without music). The “Graduale Parvum,” published by the John Henry Newman Institute of Liturgical Music in 2023, mostly uses the Adalbert Propers—but sometimes uses the GRADUALE text: e.g. Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (29 June).
    —Corpus Christi Watershed

Random Quote

“I ask that future priests, from their time in the seminary, receive the preparation needed to understand and to celebrate Mass in Latin, and also to use Latin texts and execute Gregorian chant; nor should we forget that the faithful can be taught to recite the more common prayers in Latin, and also to sing parts of the liturgy to Gregorian chant.”

— Statement by the Supreme Pontiff (Sacramentum Caritatis, 22-feb-2007)

Recent Posts

  • Pope Saint Paul VI to Consilium (14 October 1968)
  • August 2025 • “Colorado Sacred Music Conference”
  • New “Latin/English Missal” for the Novus Ordo
  • Simplest “Agnus Dei” Ever Published
  • Bishop François Charrière Vs. Hannibal Bugnini

Subscribe

Subscribe

* indicates required

Copyright © 2025 Corpus Christi Watershed · Isaac Jogues on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Corpus Christi Watershed is a 501(c)3 public charity dedicated to exploring and embodying as our calling the relationship of religion, culture, and the arts. This non-profit organization employs the creative media in service of theology, the Church, and Christian culture for the enrichment and enjoyment of the public.

The election of Pope Leo XIV has been exciting, and we’re filled with hope for our apostolate’s future!

But we’re under pressure to transfer our website to a “subscription model.”

We don’t want to do that. We believe our website should remain free to all.

Our president has written the following letter:

President’s Message (dated 30 May 2025)

Are you able to support us?

clock.png

Time's up