• 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

“Do You Know This Hymn Composer?” • Orlando Gibbons (d. 1623)

Jeff Ostrowski · July 9, 2022

ODAY WE RELEASE “installment 2” in the new series called How Has Nobody Done This Before? This series features hundreds of rehearsal videos—for each individual singer’s voice part—of the world’s greatest hymns. The entire project can be accessed completely free of charge at this website (scroll towards the middle section). It’s so useful to be able to send your choir members to a website containing individual voice parts, while knowing the hymn texts (lyrics) and the hymn notes (harmonies) have not been tampered with.

Glenn Gould’s Favorite: Today we feature Glenn Gould’s favorite composer: ORLANDO GIBBONS. Let’s start with Brébeuf #715, which is a Roman Catholic text (Adesto Pater Domine) translated into English by a Catholic poet named Alan Gordon McDougall (whose work Father Adrian Fortescue admired):

M Rehearsal videos for each individual voice await you at #715.

Common Tunes: What makes the Brébeuf hymnal so powerful is its use of “common tunes.” That means you can teach your choir #715 (above) and they already know a bunch more hymns. For example, they already know this hymn to Saint Joseph, whose text was written by an FSSP priest:

M Rehearsal videos for each individual voice await you at #790.

…and they’ll automatically know this hymn for Lent:

M Rehearsal videos for each individual voice await you at #240.

…and here’s another Lenten hymn they will know automatically:

M Rehearsal videos for each individual voice await you at #220.

HE new publication by Sophia Institute Press (Saint Jean de Brébeuf Hymnal) is quite different than other Catholic hymnals currently available. Unlike other “Catholic” hymnals, it refused to mimic or “build upon” Protestant models. The hymnal is Catholic to its core. To find something similar, you’d have to go back seventy years to the New Westminster Hymnal, which was (generally speaking) the work of Monsignor Ronald Knox and Dom Gregory Murray.

Here are some examples demonstrating how this melody by Orlando Gibbons was adopted by serious Catholic hymnals, even though Gibbons was not a Catholic:

*  PDF Download • “How It Used To Look”
—Notice how the editors chose a hymn to the Holy Ghost, just like the Brébeuf hymnal.

*  PDF Download • “New Saint Basil Hymnal”
—Notice how the editors chose a hymn to the Holy Ghost, just like the Brébeuf hymnal.

*  PDF Download • Theodore Marier
—Dr. Marier used this Gibbons tune at least three times in his hymnal.

*  PDF Download • “New Westminster Hymnal”
—Dom Gregory Murray and Msgr. Ronald Knox were its main creators.

*  PDF Download • “The Catholic Hymn Book”
—Produced by the London Oratory circa 1998.

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

Filed Under: Articles, Featured Tagged With: Adesto Pater Domine, Angel's Song by Orlando Gibbons, Gibbons Song 34, How Has Nobody Done This, Orlando Gibbons Last Updated: July 18, 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

    Tempo?? • 𝘏𝘰𝘭𝘺 𝘎𝘰𝘥, 𝘞𝘦 𝘗𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘛𝘩𝘺 𝘕𝘢𝘮𝘦
    Once, after Mass, my pastor said he really loved the hymn we did. I said: “Father, that's Holy God, We Praise Thy Name—you never heard it before?” He replied: “But the way you did it was terrific. For once, it didn't sound like a funeral dirge!” Last Sunday, our volunteer choir sang that hymn. I think the tempo was just about right … but what do you think?
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Don’t You Agree About These?
    If you want to make Jeff Ostrowski really happy, send him an email with effusive praise about the individual voice recordings for hymn #296. [Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass] They came out dazzlingly sensational, don't you agree?
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Choral Vowels? Yes? No?
    Here's a live recording of one of the choral “warm-up” exercises my choir enjoys. It was taken during our rehearsal on 27 January 2023. It’s good to make sure each chord is perfectly in tune and balanced before moving to the next one. That only happens when each singer has the correct vowel. If you like, you can freely download that vocal exercise.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“I would hope there is a place [at Mass] for the avant-garde in the same way I think there has to be a place—and we have to be careful with this—a place for Jazz and a place for Evangelical and all of that. […] On theological grounds, I do think we need interaction with the culture at the level of high art or at the level of more commercial pop culture.”

— Fr. Anthony Ruff (22 June 2016)

Recent Posts

  • Tempo?? • 𝘏𝘰𝘭𝘺 𝘎𝘰𝘥, 𝘞𝘦 𝘗𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘛𝘩𝘺 𝘕𝘢𝘮𝘦
  • PDF Download • Belgian Book of Gregorian Accompaniments (Official Edition)
  • Don’t You Agree About These?
  • Choral Vowels? Yes? No?
  • Crucial Tip For Choir Directors

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.