Saint Composers

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Delphinus

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I literally have no idea where to but this one, so I’ll try here.

I’m doing a small research project of my own and I have no idea where to start. Google wasn’t super helpful, but I’m confident in my CAF friends. 🙂

Does anyone know of any musical pieces from any time period that were composed by a saint? Not writings or poetry from saint set to music, but the actual music itself composed by a saint? Thank you so much in advance. 🙂
 
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Heh… She’s about the only one I know of, too…

St Gregory didn’t even compose the Gregorian Chants, as I understand it… He just compiled them, if I have it right…

Most hymns (even more modern ones) seem to have been developed and handed down through the ages as folk-songs is an odd combination of oral and written tradition… and by “modern” I mean like post 13th century…

I think the best you’ll probably be able to find is more stuff like lyrics, not music… I have no idea why this is… but, if I am wrong, then I’d love to stand corrected on this point, as it is a question I have asked many times myself…

It seems what usually would happen is scholarly monks and friars (e.g. St Francis of Assisi (Canticle of the Creatures) and St Thomas Aquinas (various hymns) and etc) would have written prayerful words, and they would leave it at that… but then secular artists would come forward with musical intentions…

a lot of music was also commissioned by Diocesan Patrons and the Vatican, but that doesn’t mean you wouldn’t find stuff many non-canonized Priests may have written, too… and even possibly anonymous stuff that could have been written by Priests… I know of one Dominican here in DC who wrote some most excellent psalm tones, except they were only released under the pretext of anonymity, and I dont he was ever canonized… so sometimes the pieces just float around…

I hope you find a positive answer to your question… but, aside from St Hildegarde, this stuff I’ve mentioned is what I usually come up with…
 
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Vivaldi was a priest, hopefully he is heaven, although he is not declared a saint by the Church.
 
St. Romanos the Melodist and St. Tutilo both composed hymns, including music and lyrics. I think a few of St. Tutilo’s works survived and quite a few of St. Romanos’ .
 
While God alone knows, of course, Vivaldi is a little iffy to include in a discussion of saintly composers: he lived an irregular life, with a number of mistresses. So be careful using him as an example. This isn’t to say I don’t love his music, however!

Two better recommendations would be Tomas Luis Victoria, a devout Spanish priest and one of the finest composers of polyphony (probably second only to Palestrina), and Anton Bruckner, a genuinely saintly man, who wrote some of the most titanic symphonies in all of classical music - they’ve been called “cathedrals of sound”, which is a rather nice way to put it.
 
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