2.5 minute video (Chabanel Psalm) "The Lord Is My Shepherd"
  • RagueneauRagueneau
    Posts: 2,592
    I would like to share with you a video, which shows how a Chabanel Psalm sounds.

    We recorded this in a completely empty Cathedral, and I think the sound came out really good.
    By the way, the Cantor saw the music for the first time about 3 minutes before she had to record it.

    Chabanel Psalm: The Lord Is My Shepherd (Mode VIII)

    A tip:
    Watch the video in "High Quality" if you want to enjoy the stained glass windows.

    If you like this video and you want to help us, please send this video to your friends (or, heck, even your enemies!).
  • Pes
    Posts: 623
    Lovely. Would not sound out of place with sung readings and the priest's parts. And in a chopped salad Mass, it would be a rare moment of quiet clarity.
  • francis
    Posts: 10,848
    That is nice, Jeff. You should put a book and CD out and you would improve the the whole RP market. I have often considered doing it myself, but I can't stomach the thought about the music going obsolete at the whim of the changing Engish translations.
  • Jeffrey TuckerJeffrey Tucker
    Posts: 3,624
    Thanks for being such a good sport about the NLM commentariat. That's tough to take. And yet I think the post did some good, don't you?
  • francis
    Posts: 10,848
    Jeff:

    I just read the post and commented as you may have already seen. Keep up the good work. Composers must continue to create, even in the midst of all the confusion and the many 'schools' of thinking. We need to keep our gaze fixed on God and not worry about the whims and quickly changing winds of the present moment. For everyone who aspires to create something beautiful for God there will be ten critics, sadly mostly from our own ranks.
  • mjballoumjballou
    Posts: 994
    Jeff - Francis is right about criticism. No good deed goes uncriticized - generally by people who don't do a darn thing themselves. And remember for every crabby commentor, there are probably 100 people who watched the clip and thought, "Gee, that's nice. We could use that" and possibly forwarded it to their music director. I use Chabanel whenever I can - generally weddings and funerals where the organist (me) is the default "music director."

    One thing I like about many of your psalm arrangements is the primacy of the text without tedium. Many cantors can't manage to put the words and music together very successfully on Guimont or Deiss settings. They're not singing but getting from one note to the next with the text as an afterthought.

    Some day I'll have to come down to Corpus Christi and see what makes it such a hotbed of creativity.
  • Jeffrey TuckerJeffrey Tucker
    Posts: 3,624
    MJ, I was thinking the same thing. NLM's readers are real world but many comboxers are far flung
  • janetgorbitzjanetgorbitz
    Posts: 968
    I just got your lovely Watershed Quarterly, Jeff. It had been forwarded to me, so took a bit longer, I imagine... I loved the interview and also the photo taken during your nuptial Mass... thanks very much!

    I use the Chabanel site a lot... thanks for all you do.

    J.
  • RagueneauRagueneau
    Posts: 2,592
    My friends, from my heart I thank you for all your kind words.

    Jeffrey, I agree with everything you have noted and I am in your debt.

    I would only add that I am very amused by people who scream about using the Resp. Psalm at Mass, but cannot provide any recordings of the Gradual being sung at their Masses. They need to either follow their own advice and sing the Gradual or shut up. Period. Am I wrong?

    Also, I have noticed that there is a particular type of person who "loves" chant when it is done in Latin, yet is unable to recognize a mode VIII Psalm tone in English, and confuses it with praise & worship music....it would be instructive, I think, to play for them a mode VIII Psalm tone in, say, Italian, and see what their dogmatic opinion is! In other words, musically they don't have a clue: whatever is sung in Latin they think is authentic chant, and whatever is sung in English, they think is trash. ....Reminds me of the folks who lobby for "the good old, Gregorian chants, the real authentic stuff"---by which they mean "Bring Flowers of the Rarest".... I think Fr. Philips made a comment to this effect at the Colloq, and he was echoing Frank P. Schmitt.
  • JulesVanNuffel
    Posts: 126
    Speaking of psalm tones, has anyone used these? Has anyone heard of them?
  • Joseph Michael
    Posts: 258
    There is a gentle movement in the Church to guide the faithful back to the practice of "singing the Mass" as opposed to "singing at Mass". Music in the liturgy is not for show. Rather, it is to point us to God through the use of our senses. And this Jeff Ostrowski surely has done with his prayerful and tasteful settings of the responsorial Psalm. I believe the proof of the effectiveness of this musical treasury is to hear people, even children, humming Jeff's psalm melodies as they leave Mass. Surely, this is what St Augustine meant when he said, "To sing is to pray twice."
  • Fr. Matthew Spencer
    Posts: 100
    Wow, I just saw this thread, and the comments on the NLM post. Just wanted to chime in and say that as a transitional deacon that serves the N.O. and has a great love for the chant tradition of the Church (I especially like many of the Graduals), I think the Chabanel Psalms are an incredible resource, not least because of their open accessibility, though in greater part because of their simple beauty.

    Thanks for the efforts!
  • RagueneauRagueneau
    Posts: 2,592
    Thank you, so much!

    And thanks to Jeffrey Tucker, who has helped us with publicity: we now have more than 2,000 views!
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