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Views from the Choir Loft

PDF Download • “Entrance Chant in English” (31st Sunday in Ordinary Time) for 3-NOV-2024

Jeff Ostrowski · October 30, 2024

ERTAIN PEOPLE can do breathtaking things. Google “Daniel Tammet” and you can watch him recite 22,514 digits—from memory—of the infinite number “PI” (π) without making a single mistake. It took him five hours. How many digits do you think you could memorize? I might be able to memorize about thirty … but certainly not 22,514. ABBAT JOSEPH POTHIER was even more amazing than Daniel Tammet. The sheer amount of pieces he edited (from a vast array of ancient manuscripts) and publications he oversaw surpasses anything that could be imagined. What’s truly insane is that Dom Pothier was simultaneously doing tons of other projects, like restoring old abbeys. Moreover, much of Pothier’s work was accomplished while his monastery (Solesmes Abbey) was exiled. This exile by the French anti-clerical laws forced the monks to live in the local town, dispersed among the laity.

[1 of 2] Feelings Of Inadequacy • I’ve been attempting to harmonize the beautiful plainsong adaptations created by the CHAUMONOT COMPOSERS GROUP. They’re currently searching for a publisher, and I’ve been making the case that their compositions would reach a wider audience if they included optional organ accompaniment:

*  PDF Download • Singer’s Score (Treble Clef)
*  PDF Download • ORGAN ACCOMPANIMENT (2 Pages)

Here’s the direct URL link.

[2 of 2] Feelings Of Inadequacy • It takes me considerable amount of time to create such harmonizations. When I think about everything that Abbat Pothier was able to accomplish—close to 5,000+ pages of unbelievably pristine plainsong editions based on the manuscript tradition—I can’t help feeling inadequate.

Mode 7 • That ENTRANCE CHANT is in the 7th mode, just like the authentic version that served as its inspiration. It would be difficult to imagine a more gorgeous mode than Mode 7. On the other hand, during the season of Eastertide the entire ceremony of Vespers (1962 version) is sung in the 7th mode, and I always wondered why. It seemed a bit excessive. It was Abbat Pothier who edited all the chant books: the “Liber Responsorialis” (1895); the “Liber Gradualis” (1883); the “Liber Antiphonarius” (1891); and so forth. Were he still alive, perhaps Dom Pothier could explain matters to me. Unfortunately, he died on 8 December 1923. It’s absolutely remarkable that he died on 8 December—the feast of the IMMACULATE CONCEPTION—because the most famous composition Pothier ever wrote (by far) was the INTROIT for 8 December: “Gaudens Gaudebo.” More than any other contribution, Pothier will be remembered by the universal church for that INTROIT. What are the odds he would die on that day?

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

Filed Under: Articles, PDF Download Tagged With: Abbat Joseph Pothier, Auguste Pécoul, Chaumonot Composers Group, Chaumonot Entrance Chant Collection, Dom Pothier, Solesmes Abbey Exiled Last Updated: October 31, 2024

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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

    “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
    “Music List” • Pentecost Sunday
    Some have expressed interest in perusing the ORDER OF MUSIC I prepared for Pentecost Sunday (8 June 2025). If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. Because our choir is on break this week, the music is relatively simple.
    —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

“We must acknowledge that We have been somewhat disturbed and saddened by these requests. One may well wonder what the origin is of this new way of thinking and this sudden dislike for the past.” [Paul VI responding to requests from monks asking permission to remove Latin from the Divine Office.]

— Pope Saint Paul VI (15 August 1966)

Recent Posts

  • “Booklet of Eucharistic Hymns” (16 pages)
  • PDF Download • “Text by Saint Francis of Assisi” (choral setting w/ organ: Soprano & Alto)
  • “Yahweh” in church songs?
  • “Music List” • Pentecost Sunday
  • “Participation” • Recovering its Receptive Dimension

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