“What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too…” Pope Benedict XVI (7 July 2007)
From a reader: “I wasn’t looking for it. But, I stumbled across your hand-dandy arrangement of Pachelbel’s Canon. Jeff, this is the greatest thing since sliced bread! I had to play a wedding on Saturday. The bride requested the Canon. There were 11 bridesmaids! The organ loft is a football field away from the communion […]
You will notice Father Guerrero takes the chant melody (“Beata Mater”) and creates a perfect canon between Soprano and Alto.
I’m still trying to decide how to visually present the “pure” Editio Vaticana scores, using what is (technically) the official rhythm of the Church. You can download my latest attempt, for this coming Sunday. Notice the “trochee trouble” as well as the old issue of neumes before the quilisma.
Actual headline from 9 April 1964.
If there’s a more beautiful setting of this text, I don’t know what it could be.
If you spot typos, please let us know!
Does the music of Franz Liszt belong to Adolf Hitler?
This year’s upcoming Sacred Music Symposium will demonstrate several ways to sing the CREDO at Mass. This is because—for many parishes—to sing a full-length polyphonic CREDO by Victoria or Palestrina is out of the question. Therefore, we show options that are halfway between plainsong and polyphony. You can hear my choir rehearsing a section that […]
The Supreme Court has been in the news lately.
As readers know, my choir has been singing from the “pure” Editio Vaticana. That is to say, the official rhythm which—technically—is the only rhythm allowed by the Church. I haven’t figured out how I want the scores to look, so in the meantime we’ve been using temporary scores that look like this. Stay tuned!
If there is a more beautiful book than Abbat Pothier’s 1888 Processionale Monasticum, I don’t know what it might be. This gorgeous tome was today added to the Saint John Lalande Online Library. I wish I owned a physical copy.
We are so pleased to welcome this priest!
If his choir sounds terrible, why would you trust his advice?
1 June 1579: “The chapter passes a rule that anyone ascending to the new organ without official permission shall be fined a month’s pay.” 26 October 1579: “The altar boys remain always separate and distinct from choirboys—the one group learning only plainchant and assisting at the altar, the other living with the chapel-master and studying […]
Around the year 1955, “transcription” became a dirty word.
Back in 2001, I created an arrangement of “O Filii Et Filiae” based on the work of Monsignor Jules Van Nuffel. You can access free rehearsal videos at #5909. Choirs absolutely love singing this piece. You can hear my volunteer choir singing a live recording.
The choir director’s vocation is chock-full of difficulties.
Corpus Christi Watershed has provided rehearsal videos to assist choir members who do not read music well.
Many people wonder what Cantus Gregorianus sounds like when sung according to the “official rhythm.” You can hear the Introit for Maundy Thursday sung that way—i.e. according to the “pure” Editio Vaticana—if you click here. Technically, this is the only interpretation allowed by the Church; cf. the letter of Cardinal Martinelli (18 February 1910).
The Vatican’s choir sounds beautiful these days—no longer is it “the scandal of Christendom.”
