Views from the Choir Loft

Method of the Solesmes Plain Chant

Corpus Christi Watershed · March 19, 2013

HE FOLLOWING BOOK has been made available for free download courtesy of the Jean de Lalande Library. If you appreciate these efforts, please consider making a donation by using the link at the top of the page.

* * Method of the Solesmes Plain Chant

• Author: Birkle, Suitbertus, 1876-1926. • Title: A complete and practical method of the Solesmes plain chant • Publisher: New York, J.F. Wagner • IMPRIMATUR: 1904 – COPYRIGHT: 1904 • TRANSLATION: Lemaistre • (supposedly printed in 1904) • • Please Note: EXCERPTS ONLY •

* * The Vatican Plainchant

• Author: Birkle, Suitbertus, 1876-1926. • Title: The Vatican plain chant; a practical manual for teacher and student • Publisher: New York, J. F. Wagner • IMPRIMATUR: 1904 COPYRIGHT: 1904 • TRANSLATION: Lemaistre • (supposedly printed in 1906) •

N.B. These two titles by Suitbertus Birkle are but one book masquerading as two. They are identical, except for their titles. The one called “The Vatican plain chant: etc.” says that it’s a NEW AND REVISED EDITION. However, in this “new and revised edition” the Preface is missing. The Preface said, “This method has nothing new to offer. It is based upon well-known Plain Chant hand-books by authorities such as DOM POTHIER, KEINLE, TINEL, WAGNER, HABERL, etc.” Again, this Preface is NOT printed in the one called “The Vatican Plain chant; etc.” but it WAS printed in other book (which, again, has the same year of copyright and imprimatur). However, in the INDEX of “The Vatican Plain chant; etc.” it claims that the Preface is on page 7 . . . but there IS no Preface!!!

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

“Music List” (4th Sunday of Advent, Year C)

This coming Sunday—22 December 2024—is the 4th Sunday of Advent (Year C). Some have expressed interest in perusing my “ORDER OF MUSIC.” If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. The English version of “Roráte Cæli” we’re singing for the ENTRANCE CHANT is magnificent.

—Jeff Ostrowski

“Entrance Chant” • 4th Sunday of Advent

Download the ENTRANCE ANTIPHON in English for the 4th Sunday of Advent (22 December 2024). Set in the first mode—just like the authentic version—this setting manages to capture the “essence” of the Gregorian setting in quite an admirable way. Corresponding to the vocalist score is this free organ accompaniment. If you’re someone who enjoys rehearsal videos, this morning I attempted to sing it while simultaneously accompanying my voice on the pipe organ.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Communion (4th Sunday of Advent)

The COMMUNION ANTIPHON (PDF) we’re singing for the 4th Sunday of Advent has a particularly gorgeous melody. The text (from the prophet Isaiah) is also quite beautiful and is cited toward the beginning of Saint Matthew’s Gospel. It certainly seems like most of the Advent antiphons come from the book of Isaiah…

—Jeff Ostrowski

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Seen online! Dr. Samuel Backman conducted a “Lessons and Carols” service with his choir, and someone produced this lovely vignette.

—Corpus Christi Watershed

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—Veronica Brandt

The Breviary in the Life of the Laity

Recently I have been enjoying looking through the inaugural (1927) edition of a 20th-century liturgical magazine called Orate Fratres. The July 1927 issue included an excellent article by a Chicago laywoman named Ellen Gates Starr entitled “The Delights of the Breviary: From the Point of View of a Lay Woman.” As we in the 21st century have recently undergone a (blessed!) re-translation of the missal into English, and as we await with joyful hope (please God, before Jesus comes back!) a similar re-translation of the breviary, the opening of her article reminded me of that old saying, “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” Nearly a hundred years ago, she penned words that could just as easily have been written today: “It is indeed a privilege to be allowed any participation, however slight, in the liturgical movement in the Church – the movement to bring back the classics of devotion, the Missal and the Breviary, into general use by the laity. The wonder is that they should ever have fallen into disuse. Nothing can take the place of these great universal prayers of the Church, the prayers of the Mass and the divine Office. One has only to know them to find them indispensable. And alas, how few of the laity know them!” I know that I have been tremendously nourished by regular praying of the breviary as of late, and my wish is that you and I, dear reader, may continue to nourish our interior lives with the official prayer of the Church, which present to us (in the Mass) and extend (in the Office) the fullness of Christ’s greatest gift to us – the gift of Himself – in the Most Holy Eucharist.

—Daniel Tucker