Fr.Weber to compose chants for Pope
  • Jeffrey TuckerJeffrey Tucker
    Posts: 3,624
    News:

    Samuel Weber, associate professor of early Christianity and spiritual formation at the Wake Forest University Divinity School, was invited to compose original chant settings that will be performed during the Pope’s visit to Washington, D.C., April 15 – 20. The chants will be sung during Evening Prayer at 5:30 p.m. April 16 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception with Pope Benedict XVI presiding, and during a private mass with the Holy Father at the Apostolic Nunciature (Papal Embassy) the following morning.

    "I am deeply honored to have a small part to play in the preparation of this vesper service,” says Weber. He composed original chant melodies for the antiphons, which are scriptural verses sung before and after the Psalms and Canticles of Vespers. Peter Latona, Basilica director of music, invited Weber to compose the chants and has created polyphonic settings based on Weber’s chants. During the service, the antiphons will be sung by the 24-member Choir of the Basilica in plain chant before the Psalms and Canticles of Vespers, and then repeated afterward in full harmony.

    Weber, a Roman Catholic priest and Benedictine monk, says the decision to use chant melodies reflects the aesthetic and tradition at the heart of prayer life in the Roman Catholic Church. “Historically, sacred compositions were based on the chant melodies which formed the core of liturgical music.”
  • Lawrence
    Posts: 123
    This is a wonderful collaboration; one that should be praised from the rooftops.
  • G
    Posts: 1,400
    "sacred compositions were based on the chant melodies which formed the core of liturgical music.”

    You mean had Palestrina been lucky enough to have TV, he STILL wouldn't have based a Good Friday motet on the theme song from Gilligan's Island?

    (Save the Liturgy, Save the World)
  • mjballoumjballou
    Posts: 994
    G - I'm glad every time I hear someone else note that similarity. It's is my happy hope that this year I won't be hearing this.
  • gregpgregp
    Posts: 632
    OK, I've been searching and I can't find anything, so I have to ask: what sounds like the theme song from Gilligan's Island?
  • gregpgregp
    Posts: 632
    Never mind, I found it. Fortunately, I haven't heard it in about 20 years.
  • GavinGavin
    Posts: 2,799
    Ok, what song is it?
  • mjballoumjballou
    Posts: 994
    It's Dan Schutte's "Behold the Wood of the Cross." The refrain isn't bad. The problem is with the verse.
  • GavinGavin
    Posts: 2,799
    Ok, I hadn't run into that one ever.
  • Michael O'Connor
    Posts: 1,637
    "If a grain of wheat should upon this desert isle..."
  • Jeffrey TuckerJeffrey Tucker
    Posts: 3,624
    It is sung in probably 80% of american parishes because it is the OCP setting, and OCP books are used in 75% of parishes, and I'm adding an extra 5% because the setting appears in many other places.

    you know, this reminds me. In a comment I saw somewhere, a guy was completely dismissing my claim that there are parishes that have used the Mass of Creation every sunday for 25 years. He thought this was self-evidently untrue. Actually, it is not untrue. There are many. I've been to two and heard reports of many other cases. liturgical musicians don't leave their own nests enough to know what is really going on in American Catholic music.
  • GavinGavin
    Posts: 2,799
    My first parish used the OCP books and pretty much everything out of there; didn't touch this one. Just saying, I don't know that every or even most OCP parishes are using this.

    I would also bet that there are some parishes that have not used anything besides MoC. Perhaps few in number, but I'm certain they're out there. Parishes that use the Mass of Creation more than half the time? VERY large amount. Which makes me think that our problem is NOT the Mass of Creation, but pragmatism. Jeff, you've expressed yourself your fears that the Jubilate Deo Mass is going to be overused. The worst thing about pragmatism is that we can't fight it. There's nothing we can do about it, because it's built into the foundations of so many Catholic parishes.

    My LCMS girlfriend told me that most Lutheran churches use the same setting of the liturgy each and every week. Before "Lutheran Worship", they had one setting to use. With LW and their new "Lutheran Service Book" they now have a grand total of some 4 liturgies to choose from, each with its own setting of the service music. And no one uses anything else. Let me tell you, you would all be BEGGING to hear Mass of Creation again if you heard how awful these things are. So there's an example of pragmatism at work on a denominational scale. (and by the way she sees nothing wrong with using the same setting week after week!)
  • francis
    Posts: 10,816
    A good start to backing off of a blanketed pragmatic approach is to incorporate Ordinary settings on a seasonal basis with varried arrangement to accentuate the feast days. This is a great way to give people a sense of moving through the liturgical year with Ordinaries that reflect the spirit of the changing seasons (penitence, exaltation, etc.). Here is a quick example using extra instruments such as bells and brass to highlight feasts. Each time there is an 'appearance' of the Christ, brass and/or bells are added to the settings, driving home the sense of preparation and fullfilment in the various seasons.

    Advent: Setting 1
    Christmas and Octave: Setting 1 (superimposed with a choral overlay and brass)
    Epiphany Setting 1 (superimposed with choral overlay and bells)
    First Four Weeks of Ordinary Time : Setting 2
    Lent : Setting 3
    Holy Week : Setting 4 (superimposed with choral overlay and bells for Palm Sunday, and no choral overlay on Holy Thursday)
    Easter : Setting 5 (superimposed with choral overlay and brass)
    Easter Weeks 1-7 : Setting 5
    Pentecost : Setting 5 (superimposed with choral overlay and bells)
    Ordinary Time (every six weeks) : Settings 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
    Christ the King : Setting from Christmas or Easter with bells or brass

    I have begun setting some of the other Gregorian Ordinaries that will offer new options for these types of applications. I also have some settings that are through composed, one of which is presently utilized in a Canadian Cathedral at the moment. I will post them as time allows.
    Thanked by 1hilluminar
  • janetgorbitzjanetgorbitz
    Posts: 968
    I just got a blistering comment from an (obviously unamused) NPM member on my blog:

    Wendy Johnson has left a new comment on your post "Holy Week":

    I have used Dan Schutte's "Behold The Wood" for over 20 years as a pastoral musician and I must say, there is no similar sound or melody to the Gilligan Island theme. In fact, I did a Google search for the score of the Gilligan score and the music is no match. On the other hand, anyone can bastardize a song to sound like another. Many sacred Christmas carols and even "American The Beautiful" have been bastardized. As for "Behold The Wood", the notations and tradition holds this song to be sung reverintial - my question would be more about the state of mind and hearts of the people who would basardize such a meaningful sacred song and moreover what about those who would make fun of a song that has deep meaning for so many of the faithful this Triduum 2008. I was in Rome last year at this time and I recall the song was sung at the Pontifical North American Chapel in Rome a couple of years ago where Cardinal Levada presided. It was very moving.

    She, apparently doesn't see the similarity (and will probably use it for another 20 years!).
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,978
    You are likely correct on her using it for another 20 years. A parish member approached me 3 weeks ago about using "Behold the Wood" on Good Friday. He even brought a photocopy of the music. He said he heard it in Texas and loved it. I told him that he should have talked to me in December 2007 about music for Holy Week, so I'm off the hook on that one for another year. I'm in a situation not of my own making with NPM, however. The parish pays the yearly dues so I will get the magazine. I have asked them to stop, but I get something back similar to, "there's other good information in there about liturgy and documents from the Bishops Conference," etc. It seems to me that every time I pick up that magazine, I read about NPM honoring some musician for contributions to the liturgy, who isn't worthy of the honor. So you could say I am an unwilling member of NPM.
  • Charles in CenCA
    Posts: 2,416
    Well, we'll being initiating the veneration with BFW version of the Reproaches, followed by Allegri's Incipit Lamentatio. Then we'll transition into BTW and Were You There, for the simple reason that I'll get shivved otherwise if they're missing.
  • AOZ
    Posts: 369
    Janet, I can't resist. Listen to Gilligan here
  • francis
    Posts: 10,816
    Is there a recording of Shutte's "Behold the Wood" on the www? I have never heard it before. Or, is it in any of the contempo hymnals... (I keep a couple of them in my library for reference use only.)
  • Aristotle EsguerraAristotle Esguerra
    Posts: 1,186
    Might as well be a chant enthusiast who points out the similarity in the melody of "Jesu Christe" of Gloria I to the incipit of "If I Were a Rich Man".

    Of course, Gloria I predates Fiddler on the Roof by almost a millennium...
  • janetgorbitzjanetgorbitz
    Posts: 968
    francis... I know it is in the Gather Comprehensive hymnal (I took another gander at it after the poor lady said she saw no similarity whatsoever... it was (again) immediately obvious to me :)

    Janet.
  • janetgorbitzjanetgorbitz
    Posts: 968
    I just did a search to try to find the recording of the verses... OCP's site only has the refrain on its CD samples... I found a number of other Schutte classics on YouTube, but not Behold the Wood...
  • Jeffrey TuckerJeffrey Tucker
    Posts: 3,624
    here
  • francis
    Posts: 10,816
    wow.
  • Jan
    Posts: 242
    I'm a newcomer to RC parish music past 1975 (I 'took a sabbatical' for about 30 years). Yikes...AOZ's clip on the Gilligan's Island theme. This is really sad. (I hope it's at least sung 'lento').

    Which reminds me of another early 1970's 'inappropriate church music' story. A very talented organist I know from my undergrad music days wrote an addition to Bach's Chorale Preludes, #372 using as its CF 'The Vatican Rag' from Jesus Christ Superstar. He played it in church as a postlude.
  • francis
    Posts: 10,816
    del.
  • priorstf
    Posts: 460
    Keep in mind that The Vatican Rag is actually a song by Tom Lehrer, and not from the musical Jesus Christ Superstar.
  • Jan
    Posts: 242
    Yup! Your right. The memory is the first thing to go?
  • Jeffrey TuckerJeffrey Tucker
    Posts: 3,624
    Francis, as pointed out above, the similarity is not with the refrain of Behold but the verse. You have to listen a while to get to it. They are nearly identical.
  • francis
    Posts: 10,816
    revised
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,978
    I think there is often a bit of plagiarism that goes on with some of these songs. Anyone remember the infamous, "Here I Am Lord?" It sounds a little too similar to the Brady Bunch theme.
  • marymezzomarymezzo
    Posts: 236
    And how about the similarity between the first four notes of the "In paradisum" chant and "Oh when the saints . . ."?

    I think about it every time I sing a funeral . . . beforehand I gently suggest to the family that, oh, by the way, I always sing "In paradisum." I try not to make it sound optional.

    Mary
  • aria
    Posts: 85
    I know this is an old thread, but I found it when I did a search on this site for "Behold the Wood verses". I came looking b/c I had one question. Now I have two...

    (1) Are there actually any prescribed verses that go w/ "Behold the Wood" or is that just a Schutte thing? The DM asked our schola to sing that version but we're wanting to skip the verses... I told the DM that I haven't seen verses in other (i.e., chant) versions so I think it's ok to skip them. Just want to make sure I'm right on that.

    (2) Where can I find a copy of Fr. Weber's version of "Behold the Wood" mentioned at the beginning of this thread?

    Thanks!
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,413
    There are no verses: only 'Behold...' and the response, 'O come ye, let us worship.

    If you want this in English to the Gregorian chant, it may be found on page 136 of Palmer and Burgess' Plainchant Gradual, a CMAA reprint, which (I think) is available on line.
    Thanked by 2kenstb aria
  • aria
    Posts: 85
    Thanks! I have found some English chanted versions but we'll have to use Schutte this year... at least I have solid ground to support cutting the verses. Baby steps!
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