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).

Simplest “Agnus Dei” Ever Published

Our choir is on break during the month of July. I needed a relatively simple “Agnus Dei,” so I composed this setting for organ & voice in honor of Saint René Goupil. It has been called the simplest setting ever composed. I love CARMEN GREGORIANUM (“Gregorian Chant”), especially the ALLELUIAS, INTROITS, and COMMUNION ANTIPHONS. That being said, some have pointed out that certain sections of the Kyriale aren’t as strong as the Graduale or Vesperale. There’s a reason for this—but it would be too complicated to explain at this moment.

—Jeff Ostrowski

14th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)

Our choir is on break during the month of July. However, on the feasts website, the chants have been posted for the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C), which is this coming Sunday: 6 July 2025.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Bugnini’s Statement (6 November 1966)

With each passing day, more is revealed about how the enemies of the liturgy accomplished their goals. For instance, Hannibal Bugnini deeply resented the way Vatican II said Gregorian Chant “must be given first place in liturgical services.” On 6 November 1966, his cadre wrote a letter attempting to justify the elimination of Gregorian Chant with this brazen statement: “What really gives a Mass its tone is not so much the songs as it is the prayers and readings.” Bugnini’s cadre then attacked the very heart of Gregorian Chant (viz. the Proprium Missae), bemoaning how the Proprium Missae “is completely new each Sunday and feast day.” There is much more to be said about this topic. Stay tuned.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Pope Pius XII Hymnal?

Have you ever heard of the Pope Pius XII Hymnal? It’s a real book, published in the United States in 1959. Here’s a sample page so you can verify with your own eyes it existed.

—Corpus Christi Watershed

“Hybrid” Chant Notation?

Over the years, many have tried to ‘simplify’ plainsong notation. The O’Fallon Propers attempted to simplify the notation—but ended up making matters worse. Dr. Karl Weinmann tried to do the same in the time of Pope Saint Pius X by replacing each porrectus. You can examine a specimen from his edition and see whether you agree he complicated matters. In particular, look at what he did with éxsules fílii Hévae.

—Corpus Christi Watershed

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