Angelus Domini - SATB
  • Here is a new SATB version of the Angelus using the original chant melody. We sing this every week at noon before our 12:30 Sunday Mass at St. Anthony's Parish in Calgary Alberta. Recording and score attached. I would be thrilled if other parishes are interested in singing this work. All I ask is that you let me know where it is being performed.

    Recording Credits:
    Director: John Morgan
    Director of Chant & Cantor: James Hume
    Soprano: Kathryn Boissonneault, Elizabeth Cameron, Danika Allen
    Alto: Maria Cameron, Therez Cameron
    Tenor: James Hume, Lucas Marincak, Joycelyn Kristoff, Thaddeus Allen
    Bass: Chris Goldring, John Morgan, Blaise Allen

    Recording at Saint Anthony's Church on May 26th, 2019.
    Recording Engineer and Mix: John Morgan
  • m_r_taylor
    Posts: 324
    Wow! How beautiful! And immensely practical. I'm sure it will see use around, and will pass this along to my friend.
  • That's really really awesome! I love the dissonance, it's done so well it's hardly noticeable.
  • cesarfranck
    Posts: 161
    Love it!
  • JonathanKKJonathanKK
    Posts: 542
    Who was this Dom. Charpentier, and when did he live?

    And where did this chant appear prior to the SSPX's Traditional Roman Hymnal (2000)?

    I am just raising the questions, because I've been under the impression for a number of years that this was less than ~100 years old, but I don't have evidence to back that up other than that I've never seen it in any source older than the above.

    A similar chant is the Ant. Paradisi portae with Ps. Eructavit, as found in e.g. Cantus Selecti (1957) where it is no. 114. The notes in this edition are as follows:

    Ant. II ad Matutinum in festo Assumptionis B. M. V. cum Ps. 44 super antiquam melodiam. Cfr. Revue du Chant grégorien, IV, 1896, p. 177-183. (Variae Preces, 1892, p. 192).

    Thanked by 2CHGiffen tomjaw
  • Thank you all for the comments.

    JonathanKK I also had the same concerns. Found my answer at ccwatershed.

    http://www.ccwatershed.org/blog/2017/aug/2/angelus-in-latin/

    It does appear that I read the page wrong and will have to ammend the information to regarding when he lived. However the chant is very old. Anyone have more info?
  • The history of the Angelus is not as well attested as many common Catholic prayers. It seems to have grown organically from a practice of saying the Ave Maria three times after Compline, a practice that is attested explicitly by St. Bonaventure (13th century). There are earlier mentions of saying a triple Ave Maria, though not explicitly associated with Compline (to my very fallible knowledge). In the 14th century the practice was officially instituted by Rome, and in the late 15th century, an indulgence was granted for praying the Angelus midday.

    I had a hard time tracking down our friend Dom Charpentier, but located this footnote in an article on Tertullian: "Dom Charpentier, bénédictin de la congrégation de St-Maur, travaillait, en 1720, à une édition de Tertullien ; mais elle n'a point paru." (He was working on an edition of Tertullian, but it never appeared.) That quotation was the lynchpin, and with it you can track down other info about him, but basically, from what I can tell, he was an 18th century Benedictine academic. Later in life (much later, so he must have been a young man when he was working on Tertullian), on the eve of the French Revolution, he seems to have become the Prior of the Abbey of St. Benoit, and to have played some role in politics.

    As for Mr. Ostrowski's ancient manuscript: What he found is not the earliest version. The likely earliest extant version is Einsiedeln, Stiftsbibliothek, Codex 611(89), beginning page 57v (at the very bottom and continuing on the next page). Look here:


    https://www.e-codices.unifr.ch/en/sbe/0611/57v/0/Sequence-1025


    It is believed (and I am not an expert on these manuscripts, so I'm just implicitly citing others, here) that it was copied directly from Guido of Arezzo's mss, which does, indeed, make it 'old' by most standards.

    However, it is not clear to me what connection Ostrowski sees to the Angelus prayer or chant. Neither the melody nor the words are the same (or even similar). The chant in the manuscript is part of the Office for the first Friday of Lent ("FR VI") and almost certainly long predates the Angelus prayer (see above).

    But probably I just don't see what he sees. The post that you linked from him is very brief. Perhaps he will chime in.



  • a_f_hawkins
    Posts: 3,456
    [EDITED] Dom Charpentier Aperçu historique sur le chant grégorien, Paris 1929, editions Herelle. https://www.worldcat.org/title/apercu-historique-sur-le-chant-gregorien/oclc/21426140/editions?referer=di&editionsView=true Is probably the man; may be Dom Louis Charpentier OSB. See "The Origins of Western Notation : Revised and Translated by Neil Moran- With a Report on "The Reception of the "Universale Neumenkunde", 1970-2010"in which he is mentioned with respect.
    Thanked by 1MichaelDickson
  • a_f_hawkins
    Posts: 3,456
    So Regensburg gives these examples http://gregorianik.uni-regensburg.de/an/#id/740 . I imagine that it was Dom Charpentier who suggested that it would fit Angelus Domini annuntiavit ... .
    The book translated & extended by Moran is available here.
  • Heath
    Posts: 966
    John, beautiful! Continue to share your work with us, please!
  • ServiamScores
    Posts: 2,872
    This is a delightful work! The music is awesome and the recording is excellent too. Bravo!

  • However, it is not clear to me what connection Ostrowski sees to the Angelus prayer or chant. Neither the melody nor the words are the same (or even similar).


    On the contrary, there is a similarity in the chant, albeit a brief one, but there is something. If you sing the manuscript on the bottom of the right hand page and move on to the next page, the chant intervals are the same as the chant at the start of the Angelus until you get to the “cepit” of “concepit”. The Angelus chant goes down, while the manuscript chant goes up and no longer fits the Angelus.

    Perhaps it’s more accurate to say the manuscript inspired the chant up until it wouldn’t really fit anymore and the rest of the chant was ad libbed to fit the text and passed down that way.
  • a_f_hawkins
    Posts: 3,456
    I am getting neumes dancing around in front of my eyes, but is this not the tune? The Einsiedeln, Stiftsbibliothek, Codex 611(89) manuscript version (linked by Michael Dickson) is different from most of variants shown in Antiphonale Synopticon.
    0740 Xerg.png
    1042 x 520 - 142K
  • a_f_hawkins
    Posts: 3,456
    where did this chant appear prior to the SSPX's Traditional Roman Hymnal (2000)?
    Aha! We are perhaps 'too clever by half' blinding ourselves to Liber Usualis #801(1962) p.1084. No need for Dom Charpentier to do much research.
    Thanked by 1iamjohnmorgan