HERE IS NO HONOR the Anglican Church would have withheld from FATHER ADRIAN FORTESCUE—one of the most talented polymaths who ever lived—had he been willing to renounce the Catholic Faith. But Fortescue remained faithful to Christ. As a result, instead of conducting services in a massive English Cathedral, Dr. Fortescue offered Mass in a barn (until his modest church could be constructed). Oh, irony of ironies! Our Savior was truly present—Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity—in Fortescue’s barn, while the Eucharist was not to be found in the gorgeous English cathedrals.1
“The last shall be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few are chosen.”
Father Young • I had the privilege of knowing someone who embodied Gospel values and submission to God’s Will in a remarkable way: viz. Father Valentine Young, OFM. He often spoke of the INTROIT for the feast of the Ascension (Viri Galilaéi), which he loved. More than once, he told me: “When I sing this beautiful Introit, I can almost see the apostles standing there.” Because of my admiration for Father Valentine, I sang the English adaptation as well as I possibly could:
Downheartedness • Completely free of charge, you can download that PDF vocalist score—as well as the organ accompaniment—at the flourishing feasts website, but most readers won’t take the time to explore that website. That reality fills me with downheartedness.
Re: “White Notes”
One of my teachers was a close associate of REVEREND JEAN-PIERRE SCHMIT (1904-1985), a Catholic priest who directed the music program at the Cathedral of Luxembourg from 1936 until 1959 and served as editor of “Musicae Sacrae Ministerium,” journal of the Consociatio Internationalis Musicae Sacrae. There are many interesting anecdotes about Abbé Schmit, who—along with his family—bravely resisted the Nazi armies, risking his life by clandestinely training choirs. Getting back to the subject at hand, my teacher used to poke fun at the “white notes” in the EDITIO VATICANA, which denote pauses in melismata. He said: “To see whether the blank space was truly equal to the width of a note-head, one had to place the spine of the book right in front of one’s nose.”
When I first learned about this “blank space” method in the 1990s, I thought it was dumb. Over the years, I have come to see its wisdom. Below is the actual decree from the Vatican Commission on Gregorian Chant vis-à-vis the “melismatic mora vocis” (MMV):
Essentially, during a melisma—and only during a melisma—the singer is to observe a brief pause. The English adaptation above uses three ‘alleluias’ (which are taken directly from the authentic Gregorian Chant version). Are you able to spot the melismatic morae vocis?
Those who follow the rhythm of the EDITIO VATICANA know where to insert each elongation. For example, Father François-Xavier Mathias (1871-1939) was director of music at the Cathedral of Strasbourg (and in 1913 founded the Saint Leo Institute for Sacred Music). Here is his modern-notation edition of the INTROIT for the feast of the Ascension:
A very important musician in Germany was Monsignor Franz Nekes (1844-1914), but I hesitate to summarize his career, because I’m not someone intimately familiar with the geography of places like Erkelenz, Aachen, Cologne, and so forth. In any event, Father Nekes had no difficulty locating the elongations in his organ accompaniment for the feast of the Ascension:
1 That’s because the church of Henry VIII doesn’t have valid orders. For the record, I always thought the world’s most impressive cathedrals were to be found in France—such as the Basilique Cathédrale Saint-Denis—but England can give France a run for its money!
