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Views from the Choir Loft

PDF Download • Alleluia (SATB) by Morales for “Ordinary Form” + “Extraordinary Form”

Jeff Ostrowski · August 6, 2021

FEEL THAT the “Alleluia” before the Gospel—whether in the Ordinary Form or the Extraordinary Form—should be “bright.” In other words, it ought to “shimmer.” That’s why I love this piece by Father Cristóbal de Morales (d. 1553). Some believe that Father Morales was the bridge between the older style (Josquin des Prez) and the newer style (Palestrina, Lassus, Victoria, and so on). He had one foot in the old, and the other foot in the new. For example, his use of a tiny ostinato in this piece harkens back to a former age. Yet the way he balances “disjunct” lines with “step-wise motion” lines is something Palestrina would also do.

This piece works well in the “OF” (Ordinary Form) or the “EF” (Extraordinary Form):

*  PDF Download • ALLELUIA (Father Morales)
—From Missa Cortilla, also known as the “Hexachord Mass.”

Rehearsal videos for each individual voice await you at #62698.

Here is the only known picture of Father Morales:

Recordings Don’t Cut It

We attempted this Alleluia for the first time on Sunday. You can hear a live recording, but the microphones don’t reproduce the sound accurately. For example, I was physically present to hear this being sung. When the Bass section came in, I’m here to tell you that it was awesome and it was powerful. But the recording didn’t capture this; microphones often make the human voice sound harsh. Oh well—we will continue to sing this and each week it will get better and better. Each week, it will become more beautiful.

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

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Filed Under: Articles, Featured, PDF Download Tagged With: Catholic Composer Cristobal de Morales Last Updated: September 14, 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

14 May 2022 • “Pure” Vatican Edition

As readers know, my choir has been singing from the “pure” Editio Vaticana. That is to say, the official rhythm which—technically—is the only rhythm allowed by the Church. I haven’t figured out how I want the scores to look, so in the meantime we’ve been using temporary scores that look like this. Stay tuned!

—Jeff Ostrowski
14 May 2022 • Gorgeous Book

If there is a more beautiful book than Abbat Pothier’s 1888 Processionale Monasticum, I don’t know what it might be. This gorgeous tome was today added to the Saint John Lalande Online Library. I wish I owned a physical copy.

—Jeff Ostrowski
Sound Familiar?

1 June 1579: “The chapter passes a rule that anyone ascending to the new organ without official permission shall be fined a month’s pay.”

26 October 1579: “The altar boys remain always separate and distinct from choirboys—the one group learning only plainchant and assisting at the altar, the other living with the chapel-master and studying counterpoint and polyphony as well. Father Francisco Guerrero postpones his departure for Rome and instead spends the entire year in Seville making ready for the trip. In the meantime he neglects his choirboys. On 16 November, after considerable complaint against their unruliness and ignorance, he engages an assistant, Bartolomé Farfán.”

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“From six in the evening, his martyrdom had continued through the ghastly night until nine o’clock in the morning. After fifteen hours of torture rarely if ever surpassed in the bloody annals of the Iroquois, the soul of Gabriel Lalemant was freed from its charred and mutilated prison and summoned to join his comrade Jean de Brébeuf in the radiant splendor of God. March 17th, 1649, was the date; for Brébeuf it had been the sixteenth.”

— ‘Fr. John A. O’Brien, speaking of St. Gabriel Lalemant’

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