Spanish Chant -
  • I believe this subject has been discussed here before. However - at St Basil's chant class this morning the topic was modern and English chant, which was very well received. We concentrated on the work of Fr Columba and Bruce Ford, as well as By Flowing Waters. Afterwards I was asked about Spanish chant. Does anyone here have information or sources about such? I told the lady that I would see what I could find. I know neither Spanish nor what is available musically for Spanish masses.
  • Earle
    Posts: 6
    Define your terms a little bit, as in most Hispanic parishs chant is completely unknown. Use of the organ on the parish level doesn't happen and to often either. Perhaps in the Cathedrals, but not elsewhere. So are we talking about a typical Hispanic parish in New York, the Cathedral in LIma, Peru, or Spain?
  • What was asked for specifically was Gregorian chant adapted to Spanish; this, presumably, for use in a local (Houston) parish church. That is to say, is there anything that would be a Spanish equivalent to the work of Bruce Ford or Fr Columba Kelly, or By Flowing Waters?
  • Maureen
    Posts: 674
    Not that I know of or can easily find. But that doesn't mean it's not there. (Frankly, with the closeness of Latin to Spanish, the need may not have been felt. I've certainly had a hard time finding translations of Latin hymns into Spanish, whereas other languages seem to have been obsessed with versification and translation.) "Canto gregoriano" and "traduccion" are your search terms, I'd think.

    Schola Cantorum Bogotensis (Bogota, Colombia) has some informational text translations, and maybe some of them are singable.

    Office of the Dead
    http://interletras.com/canticum/traducc_difuntos.html

    Various stuff: Mass parts, hymns, etc.
    http://interletras.com/canticum/traducc_varios.html

    Advent/Christmas
    http://interletras.com/canticum/traducc_navidad.html

    Lent/Easter
    http://interletras.com/canticum/traducc_cuares_pasc.html

    Pentecost
    http://interletras.com/canticum/traducc_pentecostes.html

    Marian hymns
    http://interletras.com/canticum/traducc_virgen.html

    I'll look around some more.

    You might find more luck with "canto mozarabe".
  • I wish that I knew of a Spanish language chant collection. I need this desperately as I am in a 50/50 English/Spanish speaking parish with much work to do with the Spanish liturgies! Here is a sample of the Easter Vigil Responsorial Psalms that I used this past year at our bi-lingual Easter Vigil Mass. Fr. Columba helped me set the Spanish antiphons, but he has said that a native Spanish speaker is really needed in order to properly set Spanish texts.
  • Maureen
    Posts: 674
    Here's a Spanish Liturgy of the Hours site. It has a ton of hymn texts, but they seem to be Office-usable, not Office hymns per se.
    http://www.liturgiadelashoras.org/himnoliturgiadelashorasindex.htm

    A much more complete site, with Spanish Liturgy of the Hours texts, Mass readings, etc.
    http://www.cenaculum.org/

    Here's a Spanish academic society for studying Gregorian chant -- maybe you could email them? The books they offer for sale seem to be the usual suspects in French:
    http://www.cantogregoriano.es/indexlibros.htm

    Here's the Amigos of Gregorian Chant:
    http://www.amigosgregoriano.es/

    Honestly, translation doesn't seem to be much of a priority!
    Thanked by 1eft94530
  • Maureen
    Posts: 674
    Capilla Catolica seems to have gone to Power Point for its hymns! Aaagh!
    http://www.capillacatolica.org/Himnos.html

    The Hermit has the Mozarabic breviary with Spanish translations:
    http://usuarios.lycos.es/sinelabe/oficio/ofi-himnos.htm#inicio

    http://www.fratefrancesco.org/orac/02.htm
    Office hymns for St. Francis

    Apparently in the 1700's, a Jesuit named Faustino Arevalo put out a book of translations called Hymnodia Hispanica, which has now been reprinted and edited by a professor named Elena Gallego Moya:
    http://www.primeravistalibros.com/fichaLibro.jsp?idLibro=846

    Wow, I'm really not finding anything useful. Maybe Spanish-language church music publishers have stuff. But honestly, it seems like you'd have an easier time just getting a Mexican missal (since that's what we use in the US for Spanish Masses) and setting the chant yourself. It'd be a big PITA, but a lot easier than running around looking for something that might not exist.
    Thanked by 1eft94530
  • Maureen
    Posts: 674
    Re: native speaker

    Delegation is good. If you intone the chant and record it, and provide someone who speaks Spanish with the neumes/score, it would seem that they could bang something out. And that would move the PITA away from you and delegate it onto others. :)

    Er... I meant that it would empower the laity of the community. Yeah, that's it. :)
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,157
    Isn't Paul Ford working on a Spanish counterpart of BFW?
  • Yes, Paul Ford and his prize student are working on a Spanish counterpart to the Graduale Simplex. There are 680 chants and we have 5% done. My colleague is setting them in square notation.

    Do you need anything in particular?
  • Liana
    Posts: 1
    Hello Paul: I would like to know if you have finished that spanish version of the Graduale Simplex, I am very interested in singing spanish versions of the gregorian chants.
    Regards,
    Liana
  • matthewjmatthewj
    Posts: 2,694
    There will be a presentation at the 2014 Colloquium on Spanish proper chants.
  • I've been reading the previous discussions about Spanish chant, but notice that these took place in 2009...... Has anyone published Spanish propers yet, or Spanish psalms??? I'm desperate to use something better than OCP Respond and Acclaim in Spanish. My cantor does not read music, and sometimes each verse has different music!!!! Please help!

    Desperate in Milwaukee
    Thanked by 1Bridget Scott
  • To bump this up... I recently had a call requesting chant versions of Marian hymns in Spanish... any help?
  • matthewjmatthewj
    Posts: 2,694
    The GIA hymnal has the Salve Regina in Spanish. I, as a non-Spanish speaker, find some of it kind of awkward, but the congregation at our Spanish Masses have picked it up exceedingly well. In fact, other than our Mode V chant Gloria, it is by far the most vocal participation during those Masses.
    Thanked by 1janetgorbitz
  • ronkrisman
    Posts: 1,388
    The wording of the Spanish translation of the Salve Regina that is recited at the end of the rosary is:
    Salve Reina y madre de misericordia: vida, dulzura y esperanza nuestra.
    A ti clamamos los desterrados hijos de Eva. A ti suspiramos clamando y gimiendo en este valle de lágrimas.
    Oye por tanto, abogada nuestra, vuelve tus ojos misericordiosos hacia nosotros.
    Y a Jesús, fruto bendito de tu vientre, muéstranoslo después de este destierro.
    Oh clemente, Oh piadosa, Oh dulce Virgen María.

    As is immediately apparent, the text is not a "singing translation" that can be used with the Latin chant. (Most, if not all, of the texts referenced above by @Maureen in 2009 are not singing translations either.)

    Why are there so few Spanish-language singing translations of Latin chants? Primarily because, until after Vatican II, they could not be used in the liturgy. They had to be sung in Latin. So apparently few thought it important to make Spanish translations.

    In the early-1950's the great Argentinean poet Francisco Luis Bernárdez translated into Spanish about 50 hymns from the Roman Breviary. Most were not singing translations, and those that had a strict meter were often not in the same meter as the Latin hymn. Bernárdez was especially fond of 11 11 11 11 meter.

    There may also have been but a few English-language singing translations of Latin chants before Vatican II if Anglican divines such as John M. Neale had not made them for use in the Anglican Church. (When Edward Caswell and John Henry Newman came into the full communion of the Catholic Church, they continued to make English translations of Latin hymns, but their translations could only be sung at Catholic devotional services, not in the liturgy itself, which had to be in Latin.)
  • Richard MixRichard Mix
    Posts: 2,767
    There's an awful lot of 11 11 11 11 in https://books.google.com/books?id=DvTlFXcIgh8C&printsec=frontcover&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false too.

    Are there any Spanish/Hispanic tunes or should one use ST DENIO?
  • ronkrisman
    Posts: 1,388
    Ah, but when one studies all those 11 11 11 11 translations, it is discovered that meter often changes from line to line - trochaic, iambic, dactylic, anapestic. There's little consistency, which is necessary for regular metrical hymnody.
  • Alas, Spanish-language culture never (?) seems to have had a J. M. Neale, Fr. Caswall, Percy Grainger, or the like to create really fine vernacular translations of Catholic hymns.

    I found some success this past Pentecost setting the Dixit Dominus from the Spanish-language LotH to one of the St. Meinrad psalm tones. But it’s not a straightforward affair necessarily because of the vowel-combining that can happen; for example:

    Gloria al Padre y al Hijo

    ^^ That would be sung with 7 (!) syllables: “Gloria” has two, the “al” gets smushed in with the previous word, “Padre” has two, then “y” gets “forward-smushed” into “al”, though it’s kind of halfway between “back-smushed” into the previous syllable, too. It’s hard to explain.

    (I’m not fluent in Spanish, but when I’ve done pointing like this native speakers have told me it’s spot-on. And I played and sang for Mass in Spanish for two years besides.)
    Thanked by 1Jehan_Boutte
  • Any word on Paul's project to render the gradual in Spanish?

    After a recent discussion with my pastor, it appears as though I will be doing funerals in spanish, perhaps with some regularity, and I'm looking for appropriate resources. I'd also love to know if there are any good spanish hymnals... so far, the only thing I've found is an old methodist hymnal from the 1880's that, oddly, has very orthodox hymns and speaks of the true presence. (go figure).
  • CGM
    Posts: 683
    Janet Gorbitz, who posted above, has spent the last several years adapting all the Proper chants into Spanish, and at this point I think she's got a pretty exhaustive set. Check out her website:
    https://spanishpropers.com/

    You might be interested particularly in her All Souls Day / funeral Mass music:
    https://spanishpropers.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/All-Souls-usccb-rev1-wo-tract.pdf
  • Very nice and beautifully done.
    I've been hoping that there must be a Spanish Palmer-Burgess somewhere.
    Now we need a French P-B. And a German one. And.........
  • "Now we need a French P-B."

    I have begun something like that.
  • it's not spanish but portuguese, however it can be useful for someone in USA or other countries:

    https://linktr.ee/gradualsimples (graduale simplex melodies adapted to portuguese language)

    there are videos in the youtube in the channel "o som da palavra"
    https://youtu.be/T7YtdjRm13Q

  • I had a request for an adaptation of the Te Deum. https://spanishpropers.com/chant-hymns/

    It looks a little lonely on the page right now, but perhaps I'll work on more adaptations over time.
    Thanked by 1Richard Mix
  • Richard MixRichard Mix
    Posts: 2,767
    Yikes, I didn't expect Janet's link to go where it did! Try pasting the url instead.
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 1,938
    There’s a problem even searching and clicking the Google result. :|
  • This is a great resource - and a giant project. Thank you, Janet!

    I wonder about a setting with much simpler tones. The Spanish Mass at my current parish (and all my previous parishes) would be starting from scratch with regard to chant-based liturgical music. Is there a resource who's tones are simpler, such as the St. Meinrad tones, or from the Mundelein Psalter?
  • janetgorbitzjanetgorbitz
    Posts: 964
    Thanks very much! I did try to follow the example of Fr. Weber and create multiple versions of many of the chants. This is one aspect of the project that I still need to spend more time on going forward. On many of the chants for Introit and Communion, there are simpler versions available (not all Sundays, but quite a few). In many cases, they are simplified versions of the melody from the Graduale, but I did use psalm tone melodies for a few. For example, version iii for the Introit for the 2nd Sunday of Easter can be found in the booklet here: https://spanishpropers.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/2nd-Easter-usccb-rev1.pdf

    I'm not aware of any other free projects that are available with very simple settings, but it may well be that there are other projects out there. As far as a subscription service, Ignatius Press does have the Canta la Misa! publication, which has very simple settings available.
  • A good resource of simple chants in Spanish is Mario Zelada's version of the Graduale Simplex. Mario is organist at the Catedral of Santiago de Chile. We use this Gradual Simple at St Dominic Basilica in Córdoba (Argentina).
    It's available here: https://www.amazon.com/Sr-Mario-Eduardo-Zelada-Orellana/dp/9564048168/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.7HeSXQgs9j5Koo83P275RA.63qSAPpLm44ZMORBXJqmyT9-3woSJ09oKXUvNpF79MM&dib_tag=se&qid=1712332402&refinements=p_27:Sr.+Mario+Eduardo+Zelada+Orellana&s=books&sr=1-1&text=Sr.+Mario+Eduardo+Zelada+Orellana

    N.B.: I strongly advocate for adaptations made by native Spanish speakers in Spain or Latin America. I sometimes found U.S. Spanish adaptations rather difficult to sing, due to strange syntaxis, weird choice of words, or lack of melodic flow.
  • lmassery
    Posts: 404
    I have collected some free resources I found in Spanish at the bottom of this page, which is dedicated to the introit hymn adaptations that Fernando Gil provided. https://www.antiphonrenewal.com/antífonasdeentrada
  • Richard MixRichard Mix
    Posts: 2,767
    Hi reacebovietto,

    I'm rather shy being a non-Spanish speaker myself, but then I find not all English adaptations are equal either. In the sample page of Zelada's book "Gloria a ti, Señor." drops pitch at "ti" and rises back on "Señor", which is contrary to my intuition to sing Glo(do)ria_a(do) ti(do) Se(la)ñor.(do) Does it strike you differently?
    Thanked by 1reacebovietto
  • Hi Richard,

    Acclamations and responses of the Roman Missal are not standardized in Spanish (there is at least one adaptation per Spanish-speaking Episcopal Conference). There are also different sensitivities with accentuation: mainstream Chilean accent is very different to Rioplatense, Cordobés, etc. (These are Argentinian accents.) With this context, the question here is "where do I put the emphasis?". Is it in "ti" or in "Señor"? Dropping the pitch at "Se-" makes the phrase more unified and quick to diction, but fails to emphasize the "ti" and to convey the vocative comma. Also, when this acclamation is spoken, it sound more natural to me to emphasize the ti, drop pitch at "Se-" and even drop it more at "-ñor". Even then, dropping pitch at "Se-" is not incorrect, in some places would sound perhaps childish, but it's also pretty standard. So there are two criteria at stake: the phonetics one and the syntaxis one.
    I'm not a 100% fan of Mr. Zelada's work, I sometimes made my own adaptations (according to Dominican Chant) or emendations. He is open for corrections and suggestions, as this is a preliminary version.
    In any case, I'd like to narrow my previous comment to adaptations of antiphons (GR, GS, AR...)
    Thanks for your answer!
    Thanked by 1Richard Mix
  • Popping in to say that @janetgorbitz’s project has been a huge blessing for me and my cantors at a bilingual parish, one of the historic California missions founded by St. Junipers Serra, and I have started using the introit and communion antiphons every Sunday.
    Thanked by 1janetgorbitz
  • Richard MixRichard Mix
    Posts: 2,767
    The Zelada sample pages unfortunately only get as far as the acclamations. I'd be delighted to hear comments on how for example his mandatum antiphons compare with mine or Janet's, though. My ideas on accentuation have a lot to do with Italian, but what most worries me most is the tone of the disparate translations I've drawn on.