Hello everyone, sorry for the rambling nature of this post, but I would really appreciate any suggestions:
The schola at my (EF) parish is going to start our fourth year of singing chant after our summer break in just a few weeks; one thing several of us in the schola have talked about for this upcoming year is trying to do more things "like organum" or possibly other medieval/early Renaissance stuff. To give you an idea of what we typically do: our men's schola does Gregorian propers and ordinaries, and more recently we've experimented by doing certain hymns (Audi Benigne Conditor and Veni Veni Emmanuel are the ones I remember) with parallel organum, as well as sometimes adding parallel organum to the amens/alleluias at the end of sequences. We also have a small mixed-voice choir that has sung some Josquin works (Ave Maria, Gaude Virgo), Byrd (Mass for 4 Voices, Ave Verum), and various other Renaissance composers. I was thinking of suggesting certain "organum-esque"/medieval/early Renaissance pieces for our groups to try, but the only piece I know that probably fits this description is the Dufay Ave Maris Stella. Does anyone have any other suggestions for our groups? These could be notated pieces, chants that work well with organum/drones, or anything else that sounds like it might fit the description, whether for just men's voices or mixed. Thanks!
Palestrina. Jesu Rex Admirabilis. Immediately comes to mind. Always a good standby. The anonymous Nobilis Humilis. Two part. Lassus's pieces from the Bicinia always work nicely. Look for the anthology by Fr. Lindusky called Tricinia. Bud Clark has some nice fauxbordons written out on his website - Google Search for Codex Budensis.
If your goal is to stay semi-attached to the chant, you could try the music of Heinrich Isaac. We sing his Amen, dico vobis at the end of the liturgical year, alternating with the chant. It works well, I think. Or you could try hisManducaverunt, which is programmed for Quinquagesima, but could intelligently work at other times of the year as a motet.
We recently learned the 3-part Monteverdi Ave Maria.
This is really Dr. Mahrt’s area. But it sounds excellent. Droning on something like the solemn Marian anthem is something a choir with which I sang did to move beyond the basic chant.
I would experiment with organum through the whole sequence. Improvised harmonies, falsobordone, etc. work really well on office hymns (a McGill prof even chose the hymn for Vespers of the Sacred Heart for his students to sing; it’s on Youtube) &, from the propers, the Alleluias.
Is the question about "My guys don't do parts well"? If you have an organist, there is convincing music in 1-2 parts by Perosi and his school on IMSLP. Another possibility would be psalms in falsobordone. There's a fair bit of that unedited on IMSLP, not so much edited for use. With an organ, you don't even have to sing all the parts, but certainly the part that carries the psalm tone should be sung.
Jeffrey, I would say we're comfortable singing in parts, we just haven't sung much of anything that isn't chant or later Renaissance polyphony, so it's more of a matter of finding resources/composers associated with organum, fauxbordons, etc.
Unless you are adverse to music for Compline, I've recently posted my entire Compline Collection, 2357 works in my dropbox for free download. Most of the titles mentioned above are in there. The thing you will not find are the Psalm settings of Peter Hallock. The other things you will have to put up with is my notation, 'Anglicanus', and backdated voicing on multi part tunes. ATBarB, AATB, SSAT. Note, very little in SATB. These are good size files: about 3 gigs, total. This just about ate up my dropbox allowance and now they are pestering me to buy some more space. Just know that you might run into the same wall if transferring to your dropbox. Let me know if the files will not open. jefe The first link is for the pdf files: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/d19x25atn87uq8i/AADIb3qc4ORRrORSX1AqzN9Ga?dl=0
To participate in the discussions on Catholic church music, sign in or register as a forum member, The forum is a project of the Church Music Association of America.
