Choralis Constantinus - Communios
  • Palestrina
    Posts: 526
    Has anyone had any success coupling the above with the appropriate psalm tones?

    I’ve not taken a close look as yet and was wondering whether the collection lent itself to alternation with verses (either in plainchant or falsobordone) of the communion psalm verses.
  • tomjaw
    Posts: 2,916
    We do this a lot of the time, including today, with the Amen dico vobis.

    Most of the Communions are short so they lend themselves to singing in the following manner,

    Issac setting
    Psalm verse
    Chant Communion
    Psalm verse
    Issac setting
    Repeat as needed

    For the longer ones we sometimes

    Issac setting to begin
    2 Psalm verses
    Chant Communion
    2 psalm verses
    etc.
    Isaac setting to end

    We use the Psalm verses as set in the following,
    https://media.churchmusicassociation.org/pdf/psalmorum.pdf

    Do watch out that Issac was setting music for the Constance Gradual and not the Graduale Romanum, so sometimes the texts are not the same! Certain Roman Communions were not in the Constance books so there are no settings.

    Also for Epiphany III the Communion 'Mirabuntur Omnes, has two chant settings, Issac used the setting and mode not found in the Graduale Romanum.
    http://gregorianik.uni-regensburg.de/gr/#id/683
    and
    http://gregorianik.uni-regensburg.de/gr/#id/685
    Thanked by 3CHGiffen Palestrina Chant_Supremacist
  • Palestrina
    Posts: 526
    Thanks, tomjaw.

    What I meant (and should have been clearer about) to ask was whether the pitch ranges in the psalm verses relative to the polyphonically-set antiphons are practical.

    I have been 'snookered' before by nice polyphonic settings of things that alternate plainchant and polyphony, where the polphony is terrific but then requires terribly high-pitched chant around it... and tranposing the polyphony down then isn't possible because of the pitch ranges for each voice (usually to do with the alto).

    Also, does anyone know whether Isaac did any falsobordone settings of the psalms?
  • tomjaw
    Posts: 2,916
    @Palestrina,

    Issac based his settings on the chant, so we regularly find the chant melody buried in the Polyphony. For the intonation it does vary what voice part is used for the Amen dico Vobis, it is Soprano, for others it is Alto or Tenor.

    We do set the pitch of the psalm verse, to fit to the polyphony. We have found that sometimes (We have sung over 20 of these Communions!) it is really too high to sing comfortably, but most of the time we have no problem. We usually have the men singing the psalm verses.

    We worked with the wonderful @CCooze so the settings on CPDL are sometimes produced for and used by us.
    Thanked by 2CHGiffen CCooze
  • Xopheros
    Posts: 73
    If the chant is too high for the tenors, why don't the altos sing it?
  • tomjaw
    Posts: 2,916
    We have strong and experienced Tenor and Base lines, our Contralto is less experienced with psalm tones.
  • CCoozeCCooze
    Posts: 1,262
    I’m so glad that folks are still making use of these.
    My parish choir hasn’t used polyphonic settings in a good while and it makes me sad.
    Thanked by 3CHGiffen MatthewRoth tomjaw
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 3,263
    I was just thinking of this; we won’t get the opportunity for a while to do these, but there are a few for Sundays after Pentecost, Easter, and in the sanctoral cycle that aren’t yet up at CPDL, and I’m sure that someone would make use of them if you ever did return to this.
  • Charles_Weaver
    Posts: 158
    At my parish, we use your editions all the time!
    Thanked by 3CHGiffen tomjaw MatthewRoth
  • Chaswjd
    Posts: 298
    Another thought would be to teach the choir one of the ad libitum communion settings like Qui Manducat which can then be reused during the year.
    Thanked by 1tomjaw
  • tomjaw
    Posts: 2,916
    These settings are great,
    Here is our programme we do quite a few, https://stbedeschoirblog.wordpress.com From the last list that we got @CCooze did for us we only have a couple that we have not yet used.
    We have lost some key people over the last few years, so it has been difficult to maintain the polyphony, but we are just managing! We are training up new singers from the children's choir, so we should be back to full strength again soonish!
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 3,263
    On CPDL, I see that the following are missing of Sundays/feasts where folks would likely use them.

    Sundays after Pentecost:

    – Cantabo Domini
    – Dominus firmamentum
    – Unam petii
    – Circuibo
    – Honora
    – De fructu
    – Domine memora(-bo; I envision singing chant-psalm-polyphony-psalm-chant-polyphony so the textual discrepancy where it exists is not necessarily a big deal).
    – Tollite et introite (here it might be a problem, but…)
    – Tu mandasti
    – Memento

    Sunday after the Ascension, Pater cum.

    Purification: Responsum Simeon

    Saints Philip and James: Tanto tempore

    Saint Michael: Benedicite

    Common of Apostles: Vos qui secuti estis (in the Roman edition, the text is identical save a final Dicit Dominus for Saint Bartholomew, and in that case, the chant is in mode II).

    Aristotle Esguerra also did some of these back in the day…

    The other missing communions aren't in the Roman chant books (afaict) or Isaac wrote multiple versions and one is available already.
Add a Comment