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Views from the Choir Loft

PDF Download • “Ave Maris Stella” (Organ Accompaniment)

Jeff Ostrowski · August 14, 2021

HEAR from so many church musicians—often via telephone—about what is happening throughout the Catholic Church apropos music, and (sadly) I hear many horror stories. The vocation of a Church musician is frequently filled with obstacles and difficulties. From my friend, Richard J. Clark, I learned that composing can “raise one’s spirits” when things are tough. On Sunday afternoon, I had 20 minutes to compose an accompaniment for the Purification Vespers Hymn (“Ave Maris Stella”), and I really had fun. I hope you like it.

I wrote out each verse, just like the choral supplement of the Brébeuf Hymnal does:

*  PDF Download • “Ave Maris Stella” for Organ
—Harmonization by Jeff Ostrowski for Vespers on 2 February 2020.

(Some day, I’d like to create a different harmonization for each verse.)

Did you notice the second part? It has has blank staves, so you can compose your own version:

Some organists will probably “fill in” the bass line, creating pristine descending stepwise motion:

Here are three versions from the NOH, each one slightly different:

*  PDF Download • “Ave Maris Stella” (NOH)
—From the Nova Organi Harmonia.

Here is a version from Achille P. Bragers:

*  PDF Download • “Ave Maris Stella” (Bragers)
—Notice he did not follow the “Brébeuf method” of notating each verse.

This version—by Dom Jean-Hébert Desroquettes, a disciple of Dom Mocquereau—is printed in the New Saint Basil Hymnal. It omits verses, which I find very, very strange:

*  PDF Download • “Ave Maris Stella” (Desroquettes)
—Notice he did not follow the “Brébeuf method” of notating each verse.

Finally, here’s a version printed circa 1910 by a man named Ignace Müller, whom I know nothing about:

*  PDF Download • “Ave Maris Stella” (Müller)
—Notice he did not follow the “Brébeuf method” of notating each verse.

My posting these examples—which are of historical interest—does not indicate an endorsement; e.g. the one by Müller is horrible.

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

Filed Under: Articles, PDF Download Tagged With: Ave Maris Stella, Vespers Organist Scores Last Updated: August 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

    Vespers Booklet (4th Sunday of Lent)
    The organ accompaniment booklet (24 pages) which I created for the 4th Sunday of Lent (“Lætare Sunday”) may now be downloaded, for those who desire such a thing.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Vespers Booklet, 3rd Sunday of Lent
    The organ accompaniment I created for the 3rd Sunday of Lent (“Extraordinary Form”) may now be downloaded, if anyone is interested in this.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Weeping For Joy! (We Hope!)
    Listening to this Easter Alleluia—an SATB arrangement I made twenty years ago based on the work of Monsignor Jules Van Nuffel—one of our readers left this comment: “I get tears in my eyes each time I sing to this hymn.” I hope this person is weeping for joy!
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“The authority of the Pope is not unlimited. It is at the service of Sacred Tradition. Still less is any kind of general ‘freedom’ of manufacture, degenerating into spontaneous improvisation, compatible with the essence of faith and liturgy. The greatness of the liturgy depends—we shall have to repeat this frequently—on its lack of spontaneity.”

— Josef Cardinal Ratzinger (2000)

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