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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) • “Jesus My Lord, My God, My All”

Jeff Ostrowski · May 4, 2021

HEN YOU PICK UP a book of organ accompaniments for Gregorian Chant, more often then not the composer will begin by apologizing (!) for accompanying Gregorian Chant, loquaciously explaining that Gregorian Chant “really shouldn’t be accompanied.” Yet, the same author has published 300+ pages of Gregorian accompaniments, so he clearly doesn’t believe what he’s saying! 1 Similarly, fin de siècle Catholic hymnals all follow a “hidden rule,” which demands they begin by apologizing for several of the hymns they have printed. To give just one example, Tozer’s Catholic Church Hymnal (1906) contains this supercillious statement: “I have retained several more or less traditional tunes, absolutely valueless and without merit from a musical point of view, but which seem to have become a necessity if a book is to appeal—as I hope this one will—to the varied needs of various churches.”

A less haughty attitude is espoused by Sir Richard Runciman Terry who said that we must not disdain the preferences of the older generation, which grew up with certain hymns. Father Valentine Young used to say: de gustibus non est disputandum!

Here is a hymn which singers absolutely love to sing:

This is #727 the Brébeuf hymnal. It was written by Father Frederick William Faber, Cong. Orat. (d. 1863). Several members of the Brébeuf committee made clear they were not fond of this hymn, which sounded somewhat horse-and-buggy. However, it would be wrong to omit it from any Catholic hymnal because congregations really love singing it. The Brébeuf hymnal has hundreds of magnificent hymns—far more than any other Catholic hymnal—so those who don’t care for this particular song have tons of other choices they can select.


NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:

1   Sometimes, it’s quite puzzling to see what composers before Vatican II provided accompaniments for. An example would be the “Gloria Laus Et Honor” of Palm Sunday; the NOH provides accompaniments for this—but why? Some believe it was for “rehearsal purposes,” whereas others point out there were certain circumstances where that part of the Palm Sunday procession happened inside the Church instead of at the Church porch. There are many such instances, where composers harmonize things which were never allowed to be accompanied before Vatican II.

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

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Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Frederick William Faber, Jesus My Lord My God My All, Sir Richard Runciman Terry Last Updated: May 5, 2021

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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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Quick Thoughts

23 May 2022 • FEEDBACK

From a reader: “I wasn’t looking for it. But, I stumbled across your hand-dandy arrangement of Pachelbel’s Canon. Jeff, this is the greatest thing since sliced bread! I had to play a wedding on Saturday. The bride requested the Canon. There were 11 bridesmaids! The organ loft is a football field away from the communion rail. It’s so difficult to play and keep checking the mirror. Your arrangement is absolutely genius. One can skip and choose which variations to use. The chord names are handy so that when my eyes are off the music, I always know where I am at. A thousand times thank you for sharing this arrangement!”

—Jeff Ostrowski
19 May 2022 • “Trochee Trouble”

I’m still trying to decide how to visually present the “pure” Editio Vaticana scores, using what is (technically) the official rhythm of the Church. You can download my latest attempt, for this coming Sunday. Notice the “trochee trouble” as well as the old issue of neumes before the quilisma.

—Jeff Ostrowski
16 May 2022 • Harmonized Chant?

This year’s upcoming Sacred Music Symposium will demonstrate several ways to sing the CREDO at Mass. This is because—for many parishes—to sing a full-length polyphonic CREDO by Victoria or Palestrina is out of the question. Therefore, we show options that are halfway between plainsong and polyphony. You can hear my choir rehearsing a section that sounds like harmonized plainsong.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

Had the Church never spoken on this matter, it would still be repugnant to our Catholic people’s sense of what is fit and proper in the holiest of places, that a priest should have to struggle through the prayers of the Holy Mass, because of such tunes as “Alice, where art thou?” the “Vacant Chair,” and others of more vulgar title, which, through the carelessness or bad judgment of organists, sometimes find their way into our choirs.

— Preface to a Roman Catholic Hymnal (1896)

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