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Views from the Choir Loft

PDF Download • César Franck Book of Gregorian Chant Accompaniments (156 Pages)

Jeff Ostrowski · May 16, 2023

AROLD C. SCHOENBERG said of César Franck: “He must have been a cocky lad, exultant in his talent.” At the age of fifteen, César—who had been born in Liège (Belgium)—was sent to the Paris Conservatoire. At the finals of the piano competition he was given a difficult piece to read at sight. Young César suddenly elected to transpose the piece selected a third below the key in which it was written (!), which he was able to do without any hesitation or slip. The judges were transfixed. After some discussion, the legendary Luigi Cherubini (d. 1842) announced: “The jury has now decided that Monsieur Franck stands so incomparably far ahead of his fellow competitors that it is impossible to nominate another to share the prize with him. Accordingly, a second first prize will be given to those who would in ordinary circumstances have deserved the senior award.”

DUGUET, Franck’s Teacher • According to the Belgian organist Flor Peeters, Maestro Edgar Tinel (director of the LEMMENSINSTITUUT) confessed to his orchestra quite late in life: “Gentlemen, I, Tinel, was wrong. César Franck is a great composer.” A childhood crush of mine was Franck’s glorious Variations symphoniques. Franck’s first organ teacher was Abbé Dieudonné Duguet (d. 1849), the blind organist of the Church of Saint-Denis. If you search Mr. James Doherty’s fabulous Brébeuf Portal for “DUGUET,” you will find many settings. Below is one for 6 August, the Feast of the Transfiguration. The melody is attributed to Dieudonné Duguet:

To access this hymn’s media in the Brébeuf Portal, click here.

Bad Attribution • Below, you can see how the DUGUET melody appears in the “Christ The King Hymnal” published by Father Aloysius Knauff in 1955. It is erroneously called “Gregorian Chant”—but deficient hymnal attributions were pretty common until the 1970s:

*  PDF Download • “DUGUET” in CTK Hymnal

Père Lambillotte • Among Franck’s acquaintances at the Jesuit College of the Immaculate Conception (where he taught piano) was the Jesuit priest Louis Lambillotte (d. 1855). Camille Saint-Saëns described Père Lambillotte as a “ridiculous composer” of “dreadful music,” who left an indelible impression on Catholic church music with hymns like On This Day, O Beautiful Mother. Father Lambillotte helped push forward the Gregorian revival, and his tombstone says: Qui cecinit Jesum et Mariam, eripuitque tenebris Gregorium, hunc superis insere, Christe, choris. [“Receive, O Christ, into Thy choirs above him who sang the praises of Jesus and Mary, and rescued the music of Gregory from the darkness of ages.”]

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Franck’s Gregorian Accompaniments • In 1851, Père Lambillotte published a facsimile of Saint Gall 359 (an adiastematic “Cantatorium”), and Abbat Prosper Guéranger spoke with him in 1854. When Père Lambillotte died in 1855, César Franck completed for publication their collaboration, a five-part Chant Grégorien: restauré par le R.P. Lambillotte; accompagnement d’orgue par César Franck. The work is Franck’s note-for-note accompaniment of Lambillotte’s modern notation transcriptions of plainsong then being reintroduced into the churches of France. It consisted of five sections. GALLICA has placed online the complete work, which is fascinating:

*  PDF Download • GREGORIAN ACCOMPANIMENTS (César Franck)
—156 pages • Gregorian harmonizations to “corrupt” plainsong by César Franck.

You can read an English translation of Franck’s Preface:

*  PDF Download • Franck’s “Preface”

Missing Page? • “Ad regias Agni dapes” is supposed to be number 11, according to the index, right after “A solis ortus cardine,” but I can’t find it for some reason. In any event, here’s the harmonization by César Franck of his teacher’s hymn (DUGUET):

Eastertide Hymn • And speaking of “Ad Régias Agni Dapes,” here’s a hymn we like to sing during the season of Easter:

To access this hymn’s media in the Brébeuf Portal, click here.

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

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Dieudonne Duguet, Flor Peeters, Maestro Edgar Tinel Last Updated: June 18, 2023

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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 Michigan. —(Read full biography).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    Luis Martínez Must Go!
    Sevilla Cathedral (entry dated 13 December 1564): The chapter orders Luis Martínez, a cathedral chaplain, to stay away from the choirbook-stand when the rest of the singers gather around it to sing polyphony—the reason being that “he throws the others out of tune.” [Excerpt from “The Life of Father Francisco Guerrero.”]
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Urgent! • We Desperately Need Funds!
    A few days ago, the president of Corpus Christi Watershed posted this urgent appeal for funds. Please help us make sure we’re never forced to place our content behind a paywall. We feel it’s crucial that 100% of our content remains free to everyone. We’re a tiny 501(c)3 public charity, entirely dependent upon the generosity of small donors. We have no endowment and no major donors. We run no advertisements and have no savings. We beg you to consider donating $4.00 per month. Thank you!
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “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

Quick Thoughts

    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

Random Quote

“With all the powers of modern music open to him, from romanticism through French impressionism to the German and Russian modernists, he is yet able to confine all these contradictory forces on the groundwork of the Gregorian tradition.”

— Theodor Rehmann (on Msgr. Jules Van Nuffel)

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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.

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