Views from the Choir Loft

1900 (?) Lepage Gregorian Accompaniment Treatise

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.

* * 1900 (?) Lepage Gregorian Accomp. Treatise (1 of 2)

• FIRST PART • Traité de l’accompagnement du plain-chant : : 1ère Partie : : concernant les notes étrangères aux accords • par L’abbé L. Lepage, organiste a l’église métropolitaine de Rennes • 1900? : : Bossard-Bonnel, 3, Rue Nationale, 3, RENNES : : Imp. SAINT-PIERRE à Solesmes, Par Sablé SARTHE • On the cover, it says, “HOMMAGE FILIAL A SON ÉMINENCE LE CARDINAL LABOURÉ, ARCHEVÊQUE DE RENNES, DOL ET ST. MALO” • This is a FASCINATING book on how to accompany chant “a la Pothier rhythm” •

* * 1900 (?) Lepage Gregorian Accomp. Treatise (2 of 2)

• SECOND PART • Traité de l’accompagnement du plain-chant : : 2me Partie : : concernant les notes étrangères aux accords • par L’abbé L. Lepage, organiste a l’église métropolitaine de Rennes • 1900? : : Bossard-Bonnel, 3, Rue Nationale, 3, RENNES : : Imp. SAINT-PIERRE à Solesmes, Par Sablé SARTHE • On the cover, it says, “HOMMAGE FILIAL A SON ÉMINENCE LE CARDINAL LABOURÉ, ARCHEVÊQUE DE RENNES, DOL ET ST. MALO” • This is a FASCINATING book on how to accompany chant “a la Pothier rhythm” •

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

“Music List” • Midnight Mass (Christmas)

Some have expressed interest in perusing the “ORDER OF MUSIC” we followed for our Christmas Midnight Mass. If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. The English version of “In Splendóribus” we’re singing for the COMMUNION CHANT is short but striking.

—Jeff Ostrowski

“Silent Night” • Easy Organ Arrangement

Here’s an organ accompaniment (PDF) in three different key signatures: MIDDLE, HIGH, and LOW. The Latin lyrics (“Silens Nox”) are courtesy of Father Valentine Young, OFM (d. 2020). The organ harmonies are very simple, yet beautiful. Those who desire such a thing may also download a Singer’s Version. Choirs will ‘pick up’ this piece up with minimal rehearsal time. Here’s a live recording from Midnight Mass from a few years ago: LIVE RECORDING.

—Jeff Ostrowski

PDF Download • “Chart For Each Mode”

On 13 December, Dr. Weaver posted an article about the EIGHT CHURCH MODES. I thought it might be helpful to create this mode chart (PDF) which gives the various names for each mode of Gregorian Chant. If you notice any errors, please let me know!

—Jeff Ostrowski

“Lessons and Carols”

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

—Corpus Christi Watershed

Epiphany Proclamation 2025

Each year, without fail, someone asks me to typeset the Epiphany Proclamation, an announcement of moveable feasts chanted each year on the feast of the Epiphany. As a result, you may now find an archive of 23 such proclamations in PDF ready to print HERE.

—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

These prayers were not peculiar to Good Friday in the early ages (they were said on Spy Wednesday as late as the eighth century); their retention here, it is thought, was inspired by the idea that the Church should pray for all classes of men on the day that Christ died for all. Duchesne is of opinion that the “Oremus” now said in every Mass before the Offertory—which is not a prayer—remains to show where this old series of prayers was once said in all Masses.

— Catholic Encyclopedia (1909)