Chant verses with polyphonic refrain?
  • Egrimm84
    Posts: 14
    Hello experts!

    I’m looking for something with chant verses and a short and simple polyphonic refrain. Anything come to mind?

    Thank you!
  • rvisser
    Posts: 83
    Adoremus in aeternum by Allegri
    Thanked by 2ServiamScores Egrimm84
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,273
    My MzABar "Gustate et videte" has a rather simple polyphonic (actually, 3-voice canonic) antiphon plus Mode III chant verses, which are harmonized (but just the chant melody can also be sung).

    There is also an English version "O taste and see" with the English verses in harmonized Mode III Anglican chant (which evokes a slimmed down version of the Gregorian Mode III chant).


    Giffen-Gustate et videte MzABar.pdf
    115K
    Giffen-Gustate et videte MzABar-192kbps.mp3
    5M
    Giffen-O Taste and See MzABar.pdf
    91K
    Giffen-O taste and see MzABar-224kbps.mp3
    5M
    Thanked by 1Egrimm84
  • tomjaw
    Posts: 2,921
    The Issac Communions as the refrain, the chant verses from the relevant psalm.
    Thanked by 1Egrimm84
  • GerardH
    Posts: 630
    @Xopheros Dalitz's Ubi caritas, Rorate caeli and presumably other works.
  • Xopheros
    Posts: 78
    You do not write for which time of the church year and what you consider "simple polyphony", so it is difficult to make suitable suggestions. As @GerardH already has suggested two of my pieces (one for Maundy Thursday and one for advent), here are some further suggestions for the coming Lent and Easter season:
    • The Lenten chant Attende Domine with a two part setting of the refrain and stanzas in the original chant tone (editions with Latin or English text).
    • The Mandatum Antiphone Mandatum novum do vobis with the antiphone set in four parts and the verse chated to the chant melody from the Graduale (editions with Latin, English, or German text).
    • The Easter chant O filii et filiae with a three part setting of the alleluja refrain and the stanzas in the original chant tone (editions with Latin, English, or German text).
    • The Easter sequence Victimae paschali laudes with the first verse used as a three part refrain and the rest sung to the 11th century chant (editions with Latin or Esperanto text).

    There are many more on my website like Salve festa dies, Haec dies, or Gaudeamus omnes, but these presumably do not fall in the category "simple polyphonic refrain".
    Thanked by 3Egrimm84 GerardH Verbum_Gloriae
  • Egrimm84
    Posts: 14
    Thank you! This is for a rag tag group of high school and middle school students to sing in May- so could be Easter or Marian. And simple is best!
  • CGM
    Posts: 787
    Richard Rice also has a huge collection of polyphonic antiphons with chanted verses, all texts in Latin, that he composed for the Extraordinary Form. There are Easter and Marian pieces in there that would probably work well.
    Thanked by 2Egrimm84 Verbum_Gloriae
  • Susdem
    Posts: 9
    Christopher Dalitz has a beautiful but also very doable polyphonic choral setting of the offertory antiphon for Ascension that alternates with chanted psalm verses. And it's available for free on cpdl and he offers it in SSA and SAT settings as well as in English and Latin.

    You can hear it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqj8c7-hiPs&list=RDuqj8c7-hiPs&start_radio=1
    Thanked by 2Egrimm84 Verbum_Gloriae
  • Susdem
    Posts: 9
    I'm also going to have my choir sing the Vaughan Williams' setting of O Taste and See - which is the text of an ad libitum Communion antiphon - alternating with the chanted psalm verses for the ad libitum antiphon to lengthen it out.
    Thanked by 1Egrimm84
  • ServiamScores
    Posts: 3,194
    As it happens, I wrote a communion motet for the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord just yesterday that alternates between a simple refrain and chant.

    https://youtu.be/UzUCwdoY070?si=Z5WvJFo50MzcaNDP
    Thanked by 1Egrimm84
  • CGM
    Posts: 787
    Also, this edition of the Palestrina "Jesu Rex admirabilis," which incorporates a chant hymn as verses.
    (The text of both polyphony and verses comes from the same 48-verse hymn on the Holy Name of Jesus, composed by St. Bernard of Clairvaux.)
    JesuRexAdmirabilis_withVerses_Palestrina.pdf
    25K
    Thanked by 2rich_enough Verbum_Gloriae
  • rich_enough
    Posts: 1,081
    Here are two pieces you can use during Lent: a simple choral refrain for SAB (Grancini's O Bone Jesu) with verses from Psalm 50, and a setting of Attende Domine (melody in the bass) with chant verses.

    Besides Jesu rex admirabilis, many chant hymns can work alternating verses of polyphony and chant, though some of these involve more complicated polyphony than the examples above. I've attached two such settings of the Veni Creator adapted from Josquin des Prez and Praetorius, and a setting of the Vexilla Regis for Holy Week. You could also alternate the Stabat Mater by Bragers (found in the Pius X Hymnal) with the familiar chant.
    Grancini - O bone Jesu - SABar - with Ps 50 psalm tone - FOR PRINTING.pdf
    294K
    Roussel - Attende Domine - chant with SATB refrain.pdf
    300K
    Josquin - Veni Creator - SATB (ed Schmitt) - COMPLETE - FOR PRINTING.pdf
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    Praetorius - Veni Creator Spiritus - SATB (even verses).pdf
    812K
    Feroci - Vexilla regis - SABar with chant - FOR PRINTING.pdf
    130K
    Thanked by 1Verbum_Gloriae
  • Chant_Supremacist
    Posts: 267
    Ravanello composed a number of works that alternate chant verses with 3 voice polyphony verses. It's not verse-refrain, but a similar idea. You can mine this thread.

    Allegri's Adoremus in Aeternum is also nice.
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