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Views from the Choir Loft

Lesson 2: Intervallic Relationships

I’ve already mentioned that songs can begin on any pitch, but the intervallic relationships must not be changed. Let us now explore these intervallic relationships.

We usually use “solfege” (Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do) to help us learn these intervallic relationships. Instead of solfege, the French often use numbers (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8). Either system is fine:

You probably noticed there isn’t quite as much space between two steps: MI-FA and TI-DO. This is because MI-FA and TI-DO are “half steps.” All the other steps (for instance, DO-RE) are “whole steps.” It is absolutely essential (and I cannot stress this enough) that you memorize MI-FA and TI-DO as being half steps. In the following video, I start on four different starting pitches, and then (always keeping the intervallic relationships inviolable) go up the first four notes. See if you can hear that MI-FA (the half step) is not as wide an interval as the other steps:

In the next video, I demonstrate the aural difference between an ascending half step and an ascending whole step. I could have chosen any ascending whole step (e.g. SOL-LA) or any ascending half step (e.g. TI-DO), but I chose DO-RE and MI-FA:

In the next video, I show the demonstrate difference between a descending half step and a descending whole step. I could have used any descending whole step (e.g. MI-RE) or descending half step (e.g. FA-MI), but I chose LA-SOL and DO-TI:

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Quick Thoughts

    Hymn by Cardinal Newman
    During the season of Septuagesima, we will be using this hymn by Cardinal Newman, which employs both Latin and English. (Readers probably know that Cardinal Newman was one of the world's experts when it comes to Lingua Latina.) The final verse contains a beautiful soprano descant. Father Louis Bouyer—famous theologian, close friend of Pope Paul VI, and architect of post-conciliar reforms—wrote thus vis-à-vis the elimination of Septuagesima: “I prefer to say nothing, or very little, about the new calendar, the handiwork of a trio of maniacs who suppressed (with no good reason) Septuagesima and the Octave of Pentecost and who scattered three quarters of the Saints higgledy-piddledy, all based on notions of their own devising!”
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Introit • Candlemas (2 February)
    “Candlemas” • Our choir sang on February 2nd, and here's a live recording of the beautiful INTROIT: Suscépimus Deus. We had very little time to rehearse, but I think it has some very nice moments. I promise that by the 8th Sunday after Pentecost it will be perfect! (That Introit is repeated on the 8th Sunday after Pentecost.) We still need to improve, but we're definitely on the right track!
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Simplified Antiphons • “Candlemas”
    Anyone who desires simplified antiphons (“psalm tone versions”) for 2 February, the Feast of the Purification—which is also known as “Candlemas” or the Feast of the Presentation—may freely download them. The texts of the antiphons are quite beautiful. From “Lumen Ad Revelatiónem Géntium” you can hear a live excerpt (Mp3). I'm not a fan of chant in octaves, but we had such limited time to rehearse, it seemed the best choice. After all, everyone should have an opportunity to learn “Lumen Ad Revelatiónem Géntium,” which summarizes Candlemas.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“I have, on the other hand, retained several more or less traditional tunes, absolutely valueless and without merit from a musical point of view, but which seem to have become a necessity if a book is to appeal—as I hope this one will—to the varied needs of various churches.”

— A. Edmonds Tozer (1905)

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