Plainchant Hymn Tunes
Settings for Organ
(35 pages)
Méditation canonique
on
Adoro Te Devote
(2 pages)
Intermède
en
canon
on
Adoro Te Devote
(4 pages)
Fantaisie
on
Conditor Alme Siderum
(5 pages)
Prélude et
Choral Fugué
on
Conditor Alme Siderum
(6 pages)
Préambule
on
Divinum Mysterium
(2 pages)
Prélude canonique
on
Divinum Mysterium
(3 pages)
Acclamation
on
Pange Lingua Gloriosi
(2 pages)
Improvisation
on
Pange Lingua
(3 pages)
Danse
for
Flute Stops
on
Ubi Caritas
(4 pages)
Oraison
on
Veni, Emmanuel
(4
pages)
Notes
Méditation canonique
on
Adoro Te Devote
sets a modern plainchant melody that was first published in the Paris
Processionale of 1697. It is one of a later genre of chants from
France characterized by a measured sense of rhythm, even though unmetered;
it also makes use of the Ionian mode, equivalent of a modern major scale,
instead of one of the traditional church modes. The Méditation
exaggerates the metric qualities of the tune with its canonic imitation of
chant phrases over a steady syncopated pedal line. After
a brief and contrasting episodic interpolation, the hymn tune returns to
its original key for a complete solo statement alternated between soprano
and tenor voices.
Intermède en canon
on
Adoro Te Devote
similarly exploits the measured qualities of the plainchant tune with a
canonic presentation of the entire melody between two voices, the upper
voice in actual note values and the lower one in augmentation (i.e., in note
values that are moving at half the speed of those in the upper voice).
Following a rhapsodically developmental and modulatory episode, the
plainchant reappears in the tenor, accompanied in treble registers by
rocking triads and pedal-points. After a brief retransition to the original
key, a variant of the opening canonic treatment returns, this time between
the left hand and pedal, with the addition of a sonorous chordal
accompaniment in the right hand. For the last phrase, the texture
thins out, leading to a tranquil ending.
Fantaisie
on
Conditor Alme Siderum
offers a rhapsodic treatment of the traditional Mode IV plainsong associated
with the text from which the tune takes its title. Each of the four phrases
of chant are introduced by brief unison statements, then followed by running
eighth note passagework in the left hand, harmonized in the right hand and
sounding above a slow moving pedal cantus firmus presentation of the
plainchant in augmented note values. For the second phrase, the left
hand divides into two freely imitative voices. Following a brief episode,
the third phrase introduces a sighing motif in the two voices played
by the left hand, followed by another episodic extension. The fourth
phrase returns to the thinner textures of the opening statement: the left
hand is reduced to a single line, only to divide once more into two voices
at the arrival of a series of dramatic harmonic progressions over a
concluding pedalpoint. In contrast with the conservatively Ionian tonality
of the plainsong's mode, The fantaisie
displays venturesome
modulatory explorations of near and distant keys, starting out in a tonic of
D major, then presenting a complete pedal statement of the chant in A major.
A final cadence on a C-sharp major chord adds a closing éclat to an
already rich tonal palette.
Prélude et Choral Fugué
sur le chant
grégorien,
Conditor Alme Siderum
is an extended composition that offers multiple
treatments of the plainchant melody. The prelude is a loosely
imitative motet setting in which the four phrases of the chant
are sounded in augmentation in the soprano over points of imitation in lower
voices. The choral opens each successive section of the four chant phrases with a
declamatory statement of the tune that appears in its original time values in the
left hand, accompanied in the right hand by bold chords moving in parallel
motion stating the melody in augmentation, all over a sustained tonic
pedalpoint. Each of the four declamations is cadenced by points of imitation
between voices, followed in turn by a contrastingly light and dancing
three-voice fugato
treatment of consecutive phrases of chant. A brief
and dramatic coda returns to the declamatory opening textures of the
Choral, ringing out with boldly imitative ‘Amens.’
Préambule on Divinum Mysterium
presents the planchant tune of a Sanctus Trope
dating from the 11th century that appeared in
Piae Cantione
Ecclesiasticae et Scholasticae, published in 1582 by Theodoricis
Petri of Finland. In the middle of the 19th century, the tune was adapted
by Thomas Helmore as a setting of the now familiar text, “Of the Father’s
love begotten.” The Préambule
presents one complete statement of
the melody, phrase by phrase. Starting in the soprano, the tune is
harmonized in the left hand over an extended tonic pedalpoint; at midpoint,
the melody migrates to the tenor voice for two phrases, returning to the
soprano for an appearance of the final hymn phrase and its brief
cadential extension.
Prélude canonique
on
Divinum Mysterium
provides a quasi-canonic treatment of the plainchant melody
between soprano and alto voices in the right hand, accompanied by
two-voice points of imitation
in the left hand. The free canon
appears at unfixed tonal and temporal intervals.
The flowing
textures and rich harmonies continue to the end, with only occasional use of
the organ pedal for sustained pitches.
Acclamation
on Pange Lingua Gloriosi,
a chant which first appeared in the 14th–Century
Zisterzienser Hymnar,
sets an unaltered form of the original Mode III plainsong tune in a
dramatic manner. Alternating between declamatory statements
and bold chordal interpolations of successive phrases, an imitative
midsection presents two additional phrases of the chant. A return of
the opening treatment is concluded by a final ‘Amen.’
Improvisation
on
Pange Lingua
sets a more contemporary version of the Mode III plainchant, one that has
been adapted for use with later poetic translations of the original Latin
text. In paired phrases, each punctuated by brief cadential pauses, the
melody is heard in successive points of imitation. A stirring plainchant
‘Amen’ draws this gently rambling setting to a hushed
conclusion.
Danse
for Flute Stops on
Ubi Caritas
is an improvisatory composition in which the first phrases of the original
plainchant are repeated continuously, contrasted by varied rhythmic
accompanimental figures and by migrations through a myriad of keys and
tonalities. After a brief hiatus, the final phrases of the chant are
sounded in an extended crescendo, drawing the dance to an affirmative
conclusion.
Oraison
on
Veni, Emmanuel
presents a familiar Advent hymn tune that was mistakenly ascribed to Thomas
Helmore. In more recent years it has been determined that the chant
originated as a melody applied to verses sung in association with the text,
‘Libera me’: it was not until 1966 that the original manuscript of a
15th Century Processional
belonging to a community of French
Franciscan nuns was recovered. It was Thomas Helmore who recast the tune
into a metered format for inclusion in contemporary hymn collections. This
setting is meditative in nature and begins with a hypnotic manual
accompaniment to the chant, which is sounded phrase by phrase in the pedals.
The hymn setting finally blossoms out into repeated fragmentary statements
in depiction of the word “Rejoice”. In due course the
Oraison
wends its way through the final phrase of the hymn to a codetta that echoes
the introduction, and is concluded by a serene ‘amen.’