Chant Accompaniment for the Ordinary
  • Huxtaby
    Posts: 2

    Back in 2004 I visited Rome and purchased (from a Vatican Bookstore) a Graduale Simplex and also a book of Mass Ordinary accompaniments. I can’t remember what it was called, I’ve got in my head ‘Lauda Sion’ but I may be wrong on that. Sadly I’ve lost the book (grrr!) but I took a copy of the Gloria for Mass VIII for use in my 'every' Sunday file. For a very amateur organist like me, the harmonies are both simple and effective and allow me sing whilst playing - not having a choir!

    Please can anyone assist me with the name of the book and if it’s available online. It had a blue cover with a picture on and was in Italian (mainly). I know this is a long shot I know but I'm tapping into a wealth of knowledge here.
  • quilisma
    Posts: 136
    Not sure about the book you bought but an alternative could be the Liber Cantualis accompaniment. It's available from Solesmes and has Mass I, IV, VIII, IX, XI, XVII & XVIII plus Credos I & III - and a whole load of other stuff to boot. The accompaniments are very accessible. (It's blue, but there's no picture on the cover and it's in French - so 1 out of 3 criteria fulfilled). I've attached a scan of the contents.

    http://www.solesmes.com/GB/editions/livres.php?cmY9MTU0
    Liber_Cantualis_index.pdf
    39K
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,216
    Was there ever perhaps an accompaniment book for Jubilate Deo? That had a blue cover with a picture.
  • BruceL
    Posts: 1,072
    I didn't know if it was appropriate to hijack a thread, but I thought I'd post a couple modern notation accompaniments of Mass XI's Sanctus and Agnus that I did for our assistant organist. I usually improvise accompaniments from the score, but I thought this would be a good exercise in humility! Hope these are helpful to some of you.

    Obviously I intend them for free circulation, but please do credit me and say a prayer for me!
    Mass XI Sanctus MOD NOT Accomp.pdf
    51K
    Mass XI Agnus ModNot Accomp.pdf
    47K
    Thanked by 4Richard Mix CHGiffen Ben JulieColl
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Bruce,

    Very interesting. Thank you for sharing these. I confess that I wouldn't accompany either quite the way you do, but I think I recognize the same idea of "leading" the congregation, instead of confusing them -- or as I usually put it, thinking like a singer instead of like an instrumentalist or like a theory student.
  • BruceL
    Posts: 1,072
    These are unapologetically accompaniments to "gently guide" the congregation on a fairly substantial organ registration. Our accompaniments for the choir or scholae is most definitely of the Fontgombault variety. However, this is the American South, so congregational participation is very high: they sing with gusto, which can take some guidance. A more rhythmic accompaniment like this is, in my experience, necessary here, although they are certainly able to sing a cappella.
  • WGS
    Posts: 300
    I'm not sure this relates to what you're looking for, but I have a copy of "Simplified Modal Accompaniment to the Vatican Kyriale and the Requiem Mass" by Dr. Eugene Lapierre.

    It's identified as G-656 from the Gregorian Institute of America and copyright 1946

    It's spiral bound and has a blue cover but no picture. (I was looking for the Jubilate Deo accompaniment that Chonak mentioned, but I have not yet found it.)
  • madorganist
    Posts: 906
    Parallel root-position chords??? There are plenty of published accompaniments that avoid /5/s and /8/s, easily available on the musicasacra website.
  • BruceL
    Posts: 1,072
    ...they are also accompaniments that are not designed with 18th Century voice leading and resolution conventions in mind :)
    Thanked by 1madorganist
  • madorganist
    Posts: 906
    /5/s can be found even in the Solesmes Liber cantualis comitante, and I've later caught them in accompaniments I wrote myself. They're hard to avoid when harmonizing chant, which I suppose is why the experts recommend using first and second inversion as much as possible.
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