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

Corpus Christi Watershed

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

  • Our Team
  • Pew Resources
    • Brébeuf Catholic Hymnal
    • Jogues Illuminated Missal
    • Campion Missal, 3rd Edition
  • MUSICAL WEBSITES
    • René Goupil Gregorian Chant
    • Noël Chabanel Psalms
    • Nova Organi Harmonia (2,279 pages)
    • Lalemant Polyphonic
    • Saint Antoine Daniel KYRIALE
    • Roman Missal, 3rd Edition
    • Emporium Kevin Allen
  • Miscellaneous
    • Site Map
    • Saint Jean de Lalande Library
    • Sacred Music Symposium 2023
  • Donate
Views from the Choir Loft

“Like None Other!” • New Three-Voice Collection

Jeff Ostrowski · March 8, 2022

ERIOUS MUSICIANS must realize what they can and cannot do. For example, studying piano at the conservatory, I already knew I could never play Franz Liszt’s Feux Follets. It has impossible passages that must be played at a breakneck tempo. Even Vladimir Horowitz said Feux Follets was the most difficult piece he ever played. (To get some idea of how grueling it is, listen to the YouTube recording by Evgeny Kissin.) I realize some students attempt pieces far beyond their abilities—e.g. teenagers “performing” Chopin’s 4th Ballade—but such actions defile great artistic works … at least according to my professors.

Three-Voice Music • As a student, if I heard a 3-voice motet by Kevin Allen, I would probably think: “I could compose a piece like that.” And I would have been dead wrong. Three voice music is much more difficult to compose than SATB music. Indeed, only a mature musician can appreciate the marvelous feat Mr. Allen has accomplished with these pieces. And choirs really love singing these pieces, with their sumptuous contemporary dissonances. If you have not purchased this new collection from Amazon, consider doing so immediately. It’s called “Matri Divinaæ Gratiæ”—and I could not function as a choirmaster without it.

“Si Ambulavero” • My choirs are currently learning “Si Ambulávero” by Kevin Allen. I recorded all the voice parts myself, to give them an idea how it sounds. Listen to the rich texture Mr. Allen achieves with only three voices:

REHEARSAL VIDEOS for each individual voice and the (free) PDF score await you at this website, towards the bottom.

A Tragedy: Most readers won’t click on the individual voice parts, and that makes me sad. When we post a “scandalous” liturgical video, we get 40,000 views. I wish we could get as many views for the rehearsal videos.


NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:

*   I call this collection “new” because it’s new to me. I technically knew about it for half a decade, but until we actually began singing these pieces, I never realized they are such absolute masterpieces.

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

Filed Under: Articles, Featured Tagged With: Composer Kevin Allen, Matri Divinae Gratiae, Motets for Three-Part Choir, Music for Three Parts, Polyphony For Three Voices, Three Voice Music Last Updated: March 8, 2022

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 Los Angeles.—(Read full biography).

Primary Sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

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

“There are some so restless that when they are free from labour they labour all the more, because the more leisure they have for thought, the worse interior turmoil they have to bear.”

— Pope Gregory the Great

Recent Posts

  • Four (4) Shimmery Hymns for Lent & Passiontide
  • “Go!” • The Word That Changed My Life Forever
  • Vespers Booklet (4th Sunday of Lent)
  • At the Cross • Stabat Mater
  • Summer Ward Method Courses • CUA 2023

Subscribe

Subscribe

* indicates required

Copyright © 2023 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.