Views from the Choir Loft

Grant Awarded for Digitizing Over 400,000 Pages of Ancient Solesmes Manuscripts

Matthew Frederes · March 6, 2023

REPERTORIUM is new project that has been awarded a 3 million euro grant by the EU to scan and digitize over 400,000 ancient manuscript images from the Abbey of Saint-Pierre de Solesmes archive. The result will be made available for musicological study through Oxford’s DIAMM portal. The project commenced on January 1, 2023.

From the REPERTORIUM website at Neumz.com:

Over two million musical works will be correlated for concordance amongst the Solesmes dataset and external datasets such as the Cantus Index network. Approximately 4,000 novel chants are expected to be discovered and prioritized for manual indexing. A total of 127,000 chants will be manually indexed for OMR DL training purposes. Approximately 2,200 hours of Gregorian chants sung in the Tridentine forms, corresponding to the manuscript tradition, will be recorded at Le Barroux (France). Between 1,800 and 3,000 handwritten operatic aria manuscripts will be digitized from ICCMU’s DIDONE database.

Neumz is a project of the Benedictine nuns of the Abbey of Notre-Dame de Fidélité, a monastery founded by the nuns from the Abbey of Saint-Louis du Temple of Simon, located in Jouques, near Aix-en-Provence.

The nuns have recorded more than 7,000 hours of Gregorian Chant from the Psalter, Lectionary, Collectary, Antiphonary, Responsoriary, and Gradual, and is said to be the only complete recording of all Gregorian Chant in the world.

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

About Matthew Frederes

Mr. Frederes is a software engineer, pilot, served as an organist for 31 years, and directed small parish choirs/scholas for 22 years. He and his wife have 12 children. —(Read full biography).

Dr. Mahrt explains the ‘Spoken’ Propers

In 1970, the Church promulgated a new version of the Roman Missal. It goes by various names: Ordinary Form, Novus Ordo, MISSALE RECENS, and so on. If you examine the very first page, you’ll notice that Pope Saint Paul VI explains the meaning of the ‘Spoken Propers’ (which are for Masses without singing). A quote by Dr. William P. Mahrt is also included in that file. The SPOKEN PROPERS—used at Masses without music—are sometimes called The Adalbert Propers, because they were created in 1969 by Father Adalbert Franquesa Garrós, one of Hannibal Bugnini’s closest friends (according to Yves Chiron).

—Jeff Ostrowski

PDF • “Music List” (1st Sunday of Advent)

Readers have expressed interest in perusing the ORDER OF MUSIC I’ve prepared for 30 November 2025, which is the 1st Sunday of Advent (Year A). If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. The ENTRANCE CHANT is quite memorable, and the fauxbourdon setting of the COMMUNION is exquisite. As always, the Responsorial Psalm, Gospel Acclamation, and Mass Propers for this Sunday are available at the feasts website alongside the official texts in Latin.

—Jeff Ostrowski

“Music List” • Christ the King Sunday

Readers have expressed interest in perusing the ORDER OF MUSIC I’ve prepared for 23 November 2025, which is the 34th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C). If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. In the 1970 Missal, this Sunday is known as: Domini Nostri Jesu Christi Universorum Regis (“Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe”). As always, the Responsorial Psalm, Gospel Acclamation, and Mass Propers for this Sunday are conveniently stored at the magnificent feasts website alongside the official texts in Latin.

—Jeff Ostrowski

“Translations Approved for Liturgical Use”

According to the newsletter for USSCB’s Committee on Divine Worship dated September 1996, there are three (3) translations of the Bible which can be used in the sacred liturgy in the United States. You can read this information with your own eyes. It seems the USCCB and also Rome fully approved the so-called NRSV (“New Revised Standard Version”) on 13 November 1991 and 6 April 1992 but this permission was then withdrawn in 1994.

—Corpus Christi Watershed

Gospel Options for 2 November (“All Souls”)

We’ve been told some bishops are suppressing the TLM because of “unity.” But is unity truly found in the MISSALE RECENS? For instance, on All Souls (2 November), any of these Gospel readings may be chosen, for any reason (or for no reason at all). The same is true of the Propria Missæ and other readings—there are countless options in the ORDINARY FORM. In other words, no matter which OF parish you attend on 2 November, you’ll almost certainly hear different propers and readings, to say nothing of different ‘styles’ of music. Where is the “unity” in all this? Indeed, the Second Vatican Council solemnly declared: “Even in the liturgy, the Church has no wish to impose a rigid uniformity in matters which do not implicate the faith or the good of the whole community.”

—Corpus Christi Watershed

“Our Father” • Musical Setting?

Looking through a Roman Catholic Hymnal published in 1859 by Father Guido Maria Dreves (d. 1909), I stumbled upon this very beautiful tune (PDF file). I feel it would be absolutely perfect to set the “Our Father” in German to music. Thoughts?

—Jeff Ostrowski