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Pope Saint Paul VI (3 April 1969): “Although the text of the Roman Gradual—at least that which concerns the singing—has not been changed, the Entrance antiphons and Communions antiphons have been revised for Masses without singing.”

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Views from the Choir Loft

Recording Release! • Marenzio’s “Salve Regina”

William J. Fritz · December 13, 2023

S THE NEXT PART in the series releasing the different recordings we captured during the 2023 Sacred Music Symposium, I have been tasked with writing up my thoughts on Marenzio’s setting of Salve Regina. I have been very, very behind in getting this article out—but we just had three immense and beautiful feast days for Our Lady over the weekend, so now is as good a time as any! Before you read the rest of my musings, you should brush up on Maestro Ostrovsky’s article going over the compositional techniques used in the piece. Find that here. [Also included at that link are rehearsal videos for each individual voice, for anyone interested in such things.] The recording is by symposium participants—several of whom had never before (!) sung a cappella polyphony—conducted by the legendary Dr. Alfred Calabrese:

And now the recording:

*  Mp3 Download • SALVE REGINA (à5)
—By Luca Marenzio (d. 1599AD) known in his time as: “Foremost Musician in Rome.”

Before You Read On • Did you listen? I hope you found it to be moving. But if you are reading on, you may not believe me on a certain point if you didn’t already listen to it before finding out what I am going to talk about. Go ahead and listen to it if you haven’t already. The article will wait for you while you do!

… article is patiently waiting for you…

My Lead Up • Alright, now that you have the recording fresh in your ears, I would like to focus on a feature of a cappella music: viz. the tendency to shift from the original pitch. In fact, you may have noticed, the pitch drifted down a half step in each of the three sections. I will save my main point for later, but let’s get the nitty-gritty facts out of the way:

According to my listening, the pitch starts a smidge below “concert” pitch, and then drifts solidly down to a half step flat by the entrance of the tenors in bar 7. It stays there consistently until the end of the first section (mostly—I heard a section that went a hair flatter, but the basses managed to push the pitch back up).

The second section (@3:00) [with a smaller group singing] starts with a new pitch, and then drifts a bit down after maybe 13 bars. By the entrance of the Bass “misericordes” we are a quarter tone flat. It then quickly gets down to a half step flat by the end of the section a dozen measures later.

The last section (@4:23) begins with a fresh pitch and then takes longer to drift down, first hitting a quarter tone flat 10 measures in, but then not quite settling on a half-step flat until about 17 measures later. Once a half step down, the choir remains there until the end.

Marenzio Floored • But, unless you have perfect pitch you may not have been bothered at all—maybe you do have perfect pitch, and it still didn’t bother you! Marenzio himself would most likely be floored by knowing that close to half a millennia later a group of dedicated Catholic musicians studied and worked on singing his masterpiece. The point I want to make is that going flat during a piece of choral music is not the end of the world. In fact, given the complexities of tuning and temperament, it is a wonder that pitch drift doesn’t happen more! Tuning has been a complicated issue—it only seems to be a historical oddity because we have almost universally adopted an equal temperament as the predominant way that tuning is done.

New “Wars” Series? • However, this won’t be an article on temperament. If it were, I would perhaps make many, many enemies. Maybe a future article. Or maybe I will spark a new series on “Chant Tuning Wars”?

I Could Cite… • I could also cite famous groups that have gone flat, sharp, and even both within a single piece. This has to do with many factors, one of which is certainly this idea of temperament and tuning.  You see, what we hear from a piano (or pitch pipe) is not a perfect fifth. The tuning of the pitches on a piano are slightly “bent” to have each of the 12 notes of the chromatic scale equally spaced apart, one from the next. (Hence, why it is called “equal temperament”.) So, if you sing certain intervals as an a cappella choir, tuning precisely a fifth, and then the next interval, or even if you approximate the pitch, there is a little drift to be expected. To illustrate this point, I did a little test with my choir: on YouTube a few years ago, I ran across a video claiming that there was a little musical puzzle that was “mathematically impossible” to stay on pitch. You can watch the video here:

My Choir’s Attempt • I think Adam Neely gives a pretty good outline of the problem … and what might happen with the pitch. I recorded my choir trying out the little “puzzle” for themselves to see if the pitch would drift at all:

*  Mp3 Download • Benedetti’s Puzzle
—Benedetti (Italian mathematician) shared this with composer Cipriano de Rore.

Results Revealed • Notice anything? We didn’t go sharp!!! That illustrates another issue at play: pitch memory and muscle memory. Rather than saying my choir has bad pitch perception, I’d say the piece is too short and too simple for any pitch drift. Each singer remembers the pitch they were singing and went straight back to it. Maybe you can try this with your choir as a little warm up piece … and then see if they drift sharp. It would be interesting to get some more instances of choirs singing it. (Hint hint.)

Back To Marenzio • Let’s go back to Marenzio’s Salve Regina. Perhaps there’s a subtle mathematical or musical bent in the harmonies that facilitate a downward tilt? I don’t know—but the pitch memory of the group was strong—since each time the choir went down nearly to a half step each time the pitch was reset (there are three sections to the Salve Regina). Because of certain restraints and constrictions, we weren’t able to record the entire piece from beginning to end. Maestro Ostrovsky promised it wouldn’t be an issue, but he was mistaken. We can punish him later!

To lay out everything I’ve said so far:

  • Sometimes pitch drift happens
  • Sometimes it’s because the choir is bad (but not necessarily)
  • Sometimes it’s because the choir is so good, that it drifts because of complicated ‘maths’
  • Sometimes the choir doesn’t drift, because they remember the pitch
  • Sometimes the choir does drift because they remember where they drifted to

My Main Point • So what’s my point? I don’t believe that any choir must measure success in singing a piece of music by how well they stayed on pitch. Certainly losing the pitch is catastrophic; but, as you hear in the recording of the Salve Regina, no one lost the pitch. Rather, each part responded and tuned to the other parts singing. This active, listening and engaged singing led us all to drift down and settle a half-step lower than we started.

Intriguing Question • Would we have gone down that far if we had started the pitch down a notch? I’ve sung in choirs where that is the case, and the choir is just drifting flat on a certain day. At times, I’ve also noticed choirs hold the pitch perfectly when we start the piece down (or up) to where we eventually go anyways.

Final Consideration • One last consideration: this recording was made Friday afternoon, after a week of intense study and work, including countless conferences, breakouts, Masses, Vespers, masterclasses, meals, and conversations. It’s also possible we were just tired from an amazing week and drifted flat. So … there’s that as well. Happy drifting!

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

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: 2023 SACRED MUSIC SYMPOSIUM RECORDINGS, Cipriano de Rore, Giovanni Battista Benedetti Last Updated: December 13, 2023

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About William J. Fritz

William J. Fritz currently serves as music director at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Costa Mesa, CA where he resides with his wife and three boys.—(Read full biography).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    “Pope Leo XIV Has Announced…”
    My pastor asked me to write brief articles each week for our parish bulletin. Those responsible for preparing similar write-ups may find a bit of inspiration in these brief columns. The most recent article speaks about the recent announcement by Pope Leo XIV, which does have an impact on church musicians. Scheduled for publication on 2025 08 10th, it’s called: “Pope Leo XIV Has Announced…”
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Chants” • 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time
    All the chants for 3 August 2025—which is the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)—have been added to the feasts website, as usual under a convenient “drop down” menu. The COMMUNION ANTIPHON (from the book of Wisdom) is stunning. That feast website has been called “the best kept secret of Church music.”
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Corn” From Heaven?
    The Westminster Version of the Sacred Scriptures was produced by Roman Catholics in England and bears a 15 March 1958 IMPRIMATUR from the Archbishop of Westminster. Its IMPRIMI POTEST was given by the director of the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome. Sometimes words chosen by translators sound funny to American ears. For instance, one of our Responsorial Psalms has as its refrain: “The Lord gave them bread from heaven.” But the British version has “The Lord gave them corn from heaven.” Feel free to examine this with your own eyes. (It comes from Psalm 77.)
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    Pope Pius XII Hymnal?
    Have you ever heard of the Pope Pius XII Hymnal? It’s a real book, published in the United States in 1959. Here’s a sample page so you can verify with your own eyes it existed.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    “Hybrid” Chant Notation?
    Over the years, many have tried to ‘simplify’ plainsong notation. The O’Fallon Propers attempted to simplify the notation—but ended up making matters worse. Dr. Karl Weinmann tried to do the same in the time of Pope Saint Pius X by replacing each porrectus. You can examine a specimen from his edition and see whether you agree he complicated matters. In particular, look at what he did with éxsules fílii Hévae.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    Antiphons Don’t Match?
    A reader wants to know why the Entrance and Communion antiphons in certain publications deviate from what’s prescribed by the GRADUALE ROMANUM published after Vatican II. Click here to read our answer. The short answer is: the Adalbert Propers were never intended to be sung. They were intended for private Masses only (or Masses without music). The “Graduale Parvum,” published by the John Henry Newman Institute of Liturgical Music in 2023, mostly uses the Adalbert Propers—but sometimes uses the GRADUALE text: e.g. Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (29 June).
    —Corpus Christi Watershed

Random Quote

Saint Phillip Neri founded a religious congregation called the Oratory. Animuccia was involved from early on and remained “maestro di capella” of the Oratory until his death. The Oratory was able to attract many musicians who volunteered their services, including the famous singer Francesco Soto de Langa from the Capella Sistina, the composer Palestrina, and probably the composer Tomás Luis de Victoria who lived in the same house as St. Phillip Neri for five years.

— Source Unknown

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