Catholic keyboard music
  • tony
    Posts: 1
    12/14/10

    I am an organ/piano musician for a Catholic church with little control over the music sung by our choir, most of which is not what I believe appropriate for a traditional Catholic Mass. However, for the music not involving the choir, I make my own selections. Unfortunately, my collection of traditional sacred music is extremely limited. I have had a very difficult time trying to find a collection of such music (for keyboard playing). Any information that anyone may offer in acquiring such music would be deeply appreciated.

    Anthony J. DeBlasi
  • eft94530eft94530
    Posts: 1,577
    Use the Gregorian Missal as your guide,
    available online (PDF file, 35 MB, right click to download)
    http://www.musicasacra.com/books/gregorianmissal-eng.pdf

    Having identified the chants specified for the day,
    look for pieces based on those chant melodies,
    or improvise on those chant melodies,
    or peruse the "Nova Organi Harmonia" (NOH)
    for an organ accompaniment to the above chants.
    http://www.jeandelalande.org
    click the full-page icon
    scroll down and click ADDITIONAL TOME (Organ Accompaniments)
    The NOH has eight volumes, but only seven have been found and scanned.
    Each PDF is 29-37 MB so right-click and save them to your hard-drive.

    At the top of any Forum webpage click the blue word Search
    in the search box enter organ
    click radio button Topic and click button Search,
    or click radio button Comments and click button Search.

    You might find the following Forum Discussion a good start ...
    chant-based organ scores
    http://musicasacra.com/forum/comments.php?DiscussionID=1422
  • Ralph BednarzRalph Bednarz
    Posts: 489
    eft: that is excellent advice!
  • Jeffrey CogginsJeffrey Coggins
    Posts: 360
    However, for the music not involving the choir, I make my own selections.


    Which parts of the Mass do you play solo piano/organ music?
  • AndrewK
    Posts: 41
    You can always use the organ works of any of the French classical composers (i.e De Grigny, Couperin, Daquin, etc). They were written for such use.
  • R J StoveR J Stove
    Posts: 302
    Don't overlook the repertoire of Spanish and Portuguese organ music from the 16th and 17th centuries. Much of it is manuals only; some of it is harmonically pungent in a way you don't expect from other countries' sacred works; and all of it makes an agreeable change from later and better known areas of organ history.

    Here are some examples (non-copyright, I gather) that I found after a quick trawl through the Net:


    (a) A Fabourdon by Antonio de Cabezon (Spain, 1510?-1566)

    http://216.129.110.22/files/imglnks/usimg/5/5f/IMSLP06678-Cabezon_Fabordon_1.pdf


    (b) A Tiento by Juan Cabanilles (Spain, 1644-1712; this piece has a fairly elaborate pedal part)

    http://icking-music-archive.org/scores/cabanilles/Tiento_Juan_Juan_Cabanilles.pdf


    (c) Pange Lingua, by Manuel Rodrigues Coelho (Portuguese, 1555?-1635)

    http://orgaos-portugal.net/Partituras/Coelho_PangeLingua_04.pdf


    At any rate, these might pique readers' interest.
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