Views from the Choir Loft

Gregorio

Tweaking Linebreaks Online with Gregorio

Veronica Brandt · January 6, 2018 ·

You CAN add linebreaks with Illuminare Score Editor. All in the browser.

GABC Propers Tool Revisited

Veronica Brandt · December 30, 2017 ·

A major shortcut to preparing Gregorian chant propers and ordinaries.

Planning a Corpus Christi Procession

Veronica Brandt · May 28, 2016 ·

Last minute preparations for a Corpus Christi Procession.

A hymnal in e-book format

Veronica Brandt · June 6, 2015 ·

100 pieces of Gregorian chant to carry around in your pocket, with English translations.

Taking the easy way out, relatively speaking

Veronica Brandt · May 2, 2015 ·

Starting a collection of easier propers for the Extraordinary Form. A pair of Alleluias and two Offertory antiphons to start the ball rolling.

The modern armchair chant scribes

Veronica Brandt · February 14, 2015 ·

A great source of chant snippets for your booklets as well as a way to make the internet a better place.

What not to do on GitHub

Veronica Brandt · August 24, 2013 ·

Read my mistakes to save yourself the trouble.

What’s new with the age old chant?

Veronica Brandt · July 13, 2013 ·

Gregorio has a wiki and ideas on typing up semiology.

Try Illuminare Score Editor

Veronica Brandt · June 16, 2013 ·

Yet another training video, this time simpler than ever.

Setting propers to psalm tones with gregorio

Veronica Brandt · June 10, 2013 ·

Another training video showing another easy way to use gregorio online – this time while holding a 4 month old baby girl!

Could Pope St. Pius X Sing?

“On 12 March 1908, the complete publication of the Roman Gradual was issued by the Vatican Press. On that very day, Dom Pothier solemnly presented the first copy to the Holy Father. A witness of the audience says that Pius X wished to be the first to see the new book; he opened it at random, at page 128 of the supplement pro aliquibus locis—it was the Introit of the new Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. The Pope sang it with perfect taste to the last note.” (Catholic Choirmaster, February 1915)

—Jeff Ostrowski

Julius Bas Accompaniment

A very prolific harmonizer of Gregorian chant in the early 20th century was Mr. Julius Bas. He often uses a very strange technique, wherein he employs rests to eliminate the Alto, Tenor, and Bass voices. Consider what he did with “Lumen ad revelationem” here:

* JPEG • Lumen ad revelationem

It seems quite lazy, and I’ve never seen anyone else use such a technique, although Dr. Peter Wagner often switched to parallel octaves when he ran out of ideas… (Yuck!)

—Jeff Ostrowski

Hitting wrong notes

Fr. Valentine Young, OFM, used to say: “The organist can play 1,000 correct notes and one wrong note—and the only thing people will care about is the wrong note.” Last Sunday I hit some wrong notes, and felt bad. Then I remembered a story about Rudolf Serkin and started to chuckle. Charles Rosen (or was it Leon Fleisher?) told the story of Serkin playing a Beethoven Sonata in front of a large audience. The theme is all in octaves; but Serkin hit some wrong notes, and played parallel 7ths instead. This so unnerved him that every time the theme returned, he played the entire thing in parallel 7ths! We must remember that even the greatest hit wrong notes. Alfred Cortot, Vladimir Horowitz, Wilhelm Backhaus, Edwin Fischer, Sviatoslav Richter, Egon Petri—they all hit wrong notes, which we can hear on recordings. (Josef Hofmann was an exception, but he was super-human so he doesn’t count!)

—Jeff Ostrowski