Music on texts of St. Francis of Assisi

PLTT

Since this year is the 8th centenary of the Transitus of St. Francis, I'm trying to put together a list of musical settings of texts written **by St. Francis**, for use at Mass or other liturgies/devotions. Links appreciated, especially to sheet music. Or if metrical, to the suggested hymn tune.

As an example, I found this nice one from the Franciscan of Immaculate (unfortunately, can't locate the sheet music seen int the video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQgPUiPkCX8 . It is Francis' salutation to the Blessed Virgin.

PLTT

Bumping this thread as various Franciscan celebrations draw closer in the hope someone my have something....

tomjaw

Have you checked the Cantuale Romano-Seraphicum?

rich_enough

Searching for "Francis of Assisi" at hymnary.org and Sheet Music Plus would be a quick and dirty start.

dannyboi0513

Probably not relevance enough but there is a Polyphonic Mass setting based on themes of Franciscan litanies called "Mass in Honor of Our Lady, Queen of the Franciscan Order.

PLTT

@tomjaw - yes, but as a rule it seems that the texts OF St. Francis have rarely been set to music. Usually, it is more common to find them as spoken texts (Rituale Romani-Seraphicum) - if at all. There are more texts in honour of St. Francis, but that is a bit different from what I am looking for.

Just for reference, here you can find some of the prayers written by St. Francis:
https://ofm.org/en/prayers.html
https://sacred-texts.com/chr/wosf/wosf18.htm

Xopheros

Just for reference, here you can find some of the prayers written by St. Francis:
https://ofm.org/en/prayers.html
https://sacred-texts.com/chr/wosf/wosf18.htm

Unfortunately, the second site only has English translations and no original texts. On the first one, you can choose Italian, but does someone know whether these are indeed the original texts or whether they are transcriptions to modern Italian?

Roborgelmeister

Most High Omnipotent Good Lord
Closer to Francis.
The tune Assisi, is in a chant style form.
https://hymnary.org/text/most_high_omnipotent_good_lord

rebeccaraber

https://giamusic.com/resource/illumina-le-tenebre-satb-octavo-sbmp861

Illumina le tenebre by Joan Szymko

GORGEOUS SATB setting on a prayer by St. Francis

probe

I set the Canticle of the Creatures in English to the chant of Beati Mundo Corde. I can upload a Cantamus rendering if desired. I tried to stick to the chant melody except where I had to repeat some phrases to accommodate long stanzas. If you notice awkward word setting, please tell me where.

probe

@Xopheros, the Italian in ofm.org is the same as the Wikipedia Umbrian dialect with the occasional typographical difference, such as v for u. So it looks original to me.

probe

https://singpraises.net/collections/en/hymns/62/all-creatures-of-our-god-and-king?edition=2021-digital

Words
Text: Laudes Creaturarum
Author: St. Francis of Assisi
Translator: William H. Draper
Music
Tune: Lasst uns erfreuen
Composer: German hymn; Geistliche Kirchengesäng, Cologne, 1623
Arranger: Ralph Vaughan Williams

Another version (I haven't sourced the sheet music yet)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKVQ9W7k6B4

The Canticle of the Creatures (Metrical Version) St Francis of Assisi
This version is the one used by the Society of St Francis (the Anglican Franciscans) and was harmonised by members of the Hilfield Friary community.

Other hymns and chants for St. Francis:
https://chantblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/october-4-st-francis-of-assisi.html

https://www.liturgytools.net/2013/10/hymn-for-of-st-francis-of-assisi-4-october.html

Roborgelmeister

The Canticle of the Creatures (Metrical Version) St Francis of Assisi
This version is the one used by the Society of St Francis (the Anglican Franciscans) and was harmonised by members of the Hilfield Friary community.

See my post above on July 20.

TLMlover

Altissimo Glorioso Dio, by Carlotta Ferrari.

Downloadable pdf here:
https://archive.ccwatershed.org/media/pdfs/25/06/09/15-06-47_0.pdf

Video here:
https://youtu.be/FkRfwHavwRU?si=nc82Oy09YaW_V2hg

StimsonInRehab

Not St. Francis's text, but my men's schola will be premiering a TTB setting of the Sequence for the Seraphic Father by the 'Buckeye Palestrina' himself, Jeffrey Quick. I'll have recordings closer to the date for you.

Welcome to the MusicaSacra Forum!

Categories