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Views from the Choir Loft

Gregorian Rhythm Wars • “Feedback from Dom Stephen Concordia”

Corpus Christi Watershed · November 16, 2022

Message from Jeff Ostrowski: “I see that my colleague, Mr. Patrick Williams, has added another installment to the Gregorian Rhythm Wars series. I will certainly respond, but not immediately. I try to avoid ‘knee-jerk’ responses. My preference is to first consider carefully my response (for a few days) before posting. There is no rush. I suspect our series will continue for a considerable period of time. Needless to say, our series will only terminate once everyone agrees that my views are correct, perfect, and incontrovertible.”

M The following was sent to us
M by Dom Stephen Concordia, OSB.
M (Reproduced with permission).

FTEN HAVE I THOUGHT of writing to Corpus Christi Watershed to express my gratitude for your work. I’m writing to you now to contribute a few words to your series “Chant Rhythm Wars”. It’s sad to say that your choice of the word ‘Wars’ has been—at least at certain times in our history—accurate. I’ve been a Benedictine monk since 1989, first at Montecassino, and since 2008 at Saint Vincent Archabbey, and the debates have been at times harsh and unfair … and sometimes worse. I greatly appreciate your hospitality and willingness to engage in dialogue. By way of introduction, I first studied chant according to the Solesmes Method, and with Ward Method pedagogy, with Dr. Theodore Marier at Catholic University. Just a few years later, as an organ student at the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music in Rome, I was required to study Semiology with Nino Albarosa, an early disciple of Dom Eugène Cardine, and Gregorian Modality with Alberto Turco, a disciple of Dom Jean Claire. I then chose to complete a DIPLOMA (Magistero) in chant with the same faculty. Since then, I have continued to be active with teaching, directing, offering workshops, and—more recently—translating recent chant textbooks by Alberto Turco from Italian to English. I’ve been a professor of Gregorian Chant at the Pontifical Liturgical Institute Sant’Anselmo (Rome); at Saint Vincent College here in Latrobe; at Franciscan University of Steubenville; at Duquesne University; and I’ve offered numerous workshops.

A. Now, regarding Mr. Jeff Ostrowski’s assertion that the Solesmes Method is the Official method of interpreting the rhythm of chant, there are numerous points of fact to the contrary:

1. Why is this supposed law known to so few practitioners?
2. At Papal liturgies where chant is sung, and a worship aid has been printed for the congregation that includes the chant melodies for the congregation to sing, the rhythmic signs of Solesmes are entirely absent.
3. The 2nd Vatican Council mandated the publication of a volume of chant for use in smaller churches and parishes; namely, the Graduale Simplex. Once again the rhythmic signs of Solesmes are entirely absent.

B. Regarding the assertion that the Solesmes Method recreates the original rhythm of chant:

The semiologists would affirm: To approach an interpretation as close as possible to an “original” rhythm there is no witness, no testimony, no factual evidence historically closer than the adiastematic neumes.

C. Regarding the predominant role of the word in chant interpretation:

1.The “composers” of Gregorian chant spoke Latin, they knew the sound of the words and their rhythmic qualities. Knowing of their passion for Latin grammar, and the Roman grammarians, it is unlikely that they would have sung in a manner contrary to the rules of Latin pronunciation. For instance… the Solesmes method does respect the words, but it also advocates for the “the subordination of the words to the melody” (Dom Gajard). This notion, together with the rule of the “indivisible beat’ cannot help but result often in mistaken pronunciations, additions of, and exaggerations of, accents.

Thank you again! With all best wishes and blessings on your work.

Fr. Stephen Concordia, O.S.B.

P.S.

Volumes of chant pedagogy by Alberto Turco and translated into English by Fr. Stephen Concordia OSB:

(1) Tones & Modes (pp.328 (treatise on Gregorian modality) Rome, Torre D’Orfeo Ed.
(2) The Gregorian Melody: The expressive Power of the WORD (pp.250) Forthcoming from Liturgical Press, March 2023
(3) An Initiation to Gregorian Chant (pp.180 Forthcoming from Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music + Vatican Editions + Archabbey Publications, December, 2022

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

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Gregorian Rhythm Wars, Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music Last Updated: December 6, 2022

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President’s Corner

    PDF Download • “Polyphonic Extension” (Kevin Allen) for Gloria III
    EVIN ALLEN was commissioned by Sacred Music Symposium 2025 to compose a polyphonic ‘middle section’ for the GLORIA from Mass III, often denoted by its trope name: Missa Kyrie Deus sempiterne. This year, I’m traveling from Singapore to serve on the symposium faculty. I will be conducting Palestrina’s ‘Ave Maria’ as well as teaching plainsong to the men. A few days ago, I was asked to record rehearsal videos for this beautiful polyphonic extension. (See below.) This polyphonic composition fits ‘inside’ GLORIA III. That is, the congregation sings for the beginning and end, but the choir alone adds polyphony to the middle. The easiest way to understand how everything fits together is by examining this congregational insert. You may download the score, generously made available to the whole world—free of charge—by CORPUS CHRISTI WATERSHED:
    *  PDF Download • Gloria III ‘Middle Section’ (Kevin Allen)
    Free rehearsal videos for each individual voice await you at #24366. Related News • My colleague, Jeff Ostrowski, composed an organ accompaniment for this same GLORIA a few months ago. Obviously, the organist should drop out when the polyphony is being sung.
    —Corrinne May
    “Booklet of Eucharistic Hymns” (16 pages)
    I was asked to create a booklet for my parish to use during our CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION on 22 June 2025. Would you be willing to look over the DRAFT BOOKLET (16 pages) I came up with? I tried to include a variety of hymns: some have a refrain; some are in major, others in minor; some are metered, others are plainsong; some are in Spanish, some are in Latin, but most are in English. Normally, we’d use the Brébeuf Hymnal—but we can’t risk having our congregation carry those heavy books all over the city to various churches.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Yahweh” in church songs?
    My pastor asked me to write a weekly column for our parish bulletin. The one scheduled to run on 22 June 2025 is called “Three Words in a Psalm” and speaks of translating the TETRAGRAMMATON. You can read the article at this column repository. All of them are quite brief because I was asked to keep within a certain word limit.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    Antiphons Don’t Match?
    A reader wants to know why the Entrance and Communion antiphons in certain publications deviate from what’s prescribed by the GRADUALE ROMANUM published after Vatican II. Click here to read our answer. The short answer is: the Adalbert Propers were never intended to be sung. They were intended for private Masses only (or Masses without music). The “Graduale Parvum,” published by the John Henry Newman Institute of Liturgical Music in 2023, mostly uses the Adalbert Propers—but sometimes uses the GRADUALE text: e.g. Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (29 June).
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    When to Sit, Stand and Kneel like it’s 1962
    There are lots of different guides to postures for Mass, but I couldn’t find one which matched our local Latin Mass, so I made this one: sit-stand-kneel-crop
    —Veronica Brandt
    The Funeral Rites of the Graduale Romanum
    Lately I have been paging through the 1974 Graduale Romanum (see p. 678 ff.) and have been fascinated by the funeral rites found therein, especially the simply-beautiful Psalmody that is appointed for all the different occasions before and after the funeral Mass: at the vigil/wake, at the house of the deceased, processing to the church, at the church, processing to the cemetery, and at the cemetery. Would that this “stational Psalmody” of the Novus Ordo funeral rites saw wider usage! If you or anyone you know have ever used it, please do let me know.
    —Daniel Tucker

Random Quote

“These French offices represent a new case of the old tendency towards local modification—which the Council of Trent had meant to repress. They are commonly attributed to Gallican ideas and are supposed to be not free from Jansenist venom. Some of these local French uses survived almost to our own time. They were supplanted by the Roman books in the 19th century, chiefly by the exertions of Dom Prosper Guéranger (d. 1875).”

— Dr. Adrian Fortescue (d. 1923)

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