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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

PDF Download • “Audi Benigne Conditor” (Organ Accompaniment)

Jeff Ostrowski · March 13, 2022

T IS SOMEWHAT remarkable how difficult it is to find accompaniments for Vespers. Without question, the best source is the Nova Organi Harmonia—using, of course, the search function, which is COMMAND+F on a Mac, or CONTROL+F on a Windows computer. People like Giulio Bas, Joseph Hanisch, John Lambert and Peter Wagner also harmonized parts of the Divine Office, which you can conveniently download at the Lalande Library—but those collections are problematic in various ways. In Lent, the organ is permitted “to accompany the voices.” We have posted a number of articles with Vespers resources.

Here’s an accompaniment I created:

*  PDF Download • “Audi Benígne Cónditor”
—Harmonization by Jeff Ostrowski (15 March 2020).

Do you see how every verse is written out? This imitates the accompaniments for the Brébeuf hymnal:

Below is “Audi Benigne Conditor” as it appeared approximately 1425AD:

By the way, here’s an organ accompaniment to AUDI BENIGNE CONDITOR by Marcel Dupré (d. 1971), whom some consider the greatest concert organist of all time:

Our parish has five Sunday Masses, plus Vespers. I am so glad the Brébeuf hymnal provides numerous different tunes for each hymn, because I would go crazy playing the same tune six times in one day!

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

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Audi Benigne Conditor, Vespers Hymn for Lent, Vespers Organist Scores Last Updated: March 13, 2022

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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

“If I could only make the faithful sing the Kyrie, the Gloria, the Credo, the Sanctus, and the Agnus Dei…that would be to me the finest triumph sacred music could have, for it is in really taking part in the liturgy that the faithful will preserve their devotion. I would take the Tantum Ergo, the Te Deum, and the Litanies sung by the people over any piece of polyphony.”

— ‘Giuseppe Cardinal Sarto, Letter to Msgr. Callegari (1897)’

Recent Posts

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