Traditional Hymns

[kamaan]

I thought I’d share some of my YouTube videos with you all! I can’t figure out how to embed them, so here are the links:

youtube.com/watch?v=vL6zvsRxpMo

youtube.com/watch?v=znkIbeAPxZY&feature=related

youtube.com/watch?v=BYYrMlUc_Bw&feature=channel_video_title

youtube.com/watch?v=6jUf3jUpk5k&feature=relmfu

youtube.com/watch?v=XzhZd_10_eQ&feature=channel_video_title

youtube.com/watch?v=0TUkW7CRm4g&feature=relmfu

youtube.com/watch?v=xqNPzCdHohQ&feature=relmfu

youtube.com/watch?v=V1IoWqxxJ7U&feature=relmfu

 

[Warloff]

Thanks for such a lovely collection of music. That’s also a nice forum you have there

 

[liturgyluver]

Lovely hymns and music but the name of youtube site is a bit of a misnomer. Many of the hymns and tunes and mass settings were in fact written by protestants (including 3 of the ones in your list)

Personally I have no problem with this as I think that protestant composers have written some of the best church music ever, alongside some of the renaissance catholic composers. It’s a shame that today this traditional music is more likely to be found in protestant rather than catholic churches.

 

[OraLabora]

Lovely hymns and music but the name of youtube site is a bit of a misnomer. Many of the hymns and tunes and mass settings were in fact written by protestants (including 3 of the ones in your list)

Personally I have no problem with this as I think that protestant composers have written some of the best church music ever, alongside some of the renaissance catholic composers. It’s a shame that today this traditional music is more likely to be found in protestant rather than catholic churches.

Truly traditional Catholic music would be the chanting of the propers and ordinary in plainchant. The traditional place for hymns in the Roman and western monastic traditions is the Divine Office.

 

[PiousTemplar]

Excellent.

 

[kamaan]

Lovely hymns and music but the name of youtube site is a bit of a misnomer. Many of the hymns and tunes and mass settings were in fact written by protestants (including 3 of the ones in your list)

Yes, I realise that a few of the songs were written by Protestants, but I still call them “Traditional Catholic” because that is who my channel is for.

I will be adding more chants later. I would have done all the chants first, but it seems like no one wants to see them!

 

[Sarabande]

Thank you for sharing them. I especially love the Tallis and the Hassler. We used to do the Missa Secunda at my previous parish and I loved singing it in the choir! Filii et Filiae is also one of my favorite hymns.

 

[kamaan]

Thank you for sharing them. I especially love the Tallis and the Hassler. We used to do the Missa Secunda at my previous parish and I loved singing it in the choir! Filii et Filiae is also one of my favorite hymns.

Thanks!

All of the music I use was downloaded free from iTunes U, by the way. If you search “Christendom College”, you should be able to find it.

 

[liturgyluver]

Yes, I realise that a few of the songs were written by Protestants, but I still call them “Traditional Catholic” because that is who my channel is for.

I will be adding more chants later. I would have done all the chants first, but it seems like no one wants to see them!

Good - some of the chants are really lovely.

 

[kamaan]

New chant! Ave Regina Caelorum: youtube.com/watch?v=MIJEi0oGbFM

 

[liturgyluver]

Truly traditional Catholic music would be the chanting of the propers and ordinary in plainchant. The traditional place for hymns in the Roman and western monastic traditions is the Divine Office.

Certainly that would be the case in High Mass pre-Vatican II, but there was a tradition of singing (normally 2) hymns in low mass in the UK, Netherlands and Germany prior to the reforms. The UK catholic hymn book from 1955 is till used in those few churches which appreciate good music - though sadly most of the congregation stand there flicking through the hymnal and looking puzzled.

 

[MontChevalier]

No offense to anyone, but I’m looking at it with suspicion.

-MontChevalier

 

[kamaan]

Certainly that would be the case in High Mass pre-Vatican II, but there was a tradition of singing (normally 2) hymns in low mass in the UK, Netherlands and Germany prior to the reforms. The UK catholic hymn book from 1955 is till used in those few churches which appreciate good music - though sadly most of the congregation stand there flicking through the hymnal and looking puzzled.

Yes, I have a Catholic hymnal from 1920.

No offense to anyone, but I’m looking at it with suspicion.

-MontChevalier

What are you talking about?

 

[adamfleming10]

Hi all,

Does anyone know the song Lord of light? (at least I think that is what it is called!)

Lyrics go something like this…

Lord of Light,
I am your Child…

(That’s all I know!)

Trying to find music and sheet music for it online but having no luck. Any help would be appreciated.

I can try get more lyrics if needed (Actually searching for my girlfriend as she has been trying to find it online for a while)

 

[TrueLight]

Truly traditional Catholic music would be the chanting of the propers and ordinary in plainchant. The traditional place for hymns in the Roman and western monastic traditions is the Divine Office.

This may be true but it really bothers me. Sorry for the mini rant coming up.

If the place of hymns is in the Divine Office, how many Catholics are singing these hymns?

How many Catholics actually pray the Divine Office regularly?

How many Catholics can read music or chant notation so that they learn the hymns on their own.

How many Catholics have access to a monastery or a friar-run parish where they can pray the Office with the friars?

So those who do pray the Divine Office but don’t read music, what do they do when they get to the hymns? Just read them?

This doesn’t make sense to me.

 

[I_Thirst]

If the place of hymns is in the Divine Office, how many Catholics are singing these hymns?

I’m praying the Hours in the Eastern Catholic tradition. I sing the daily Troparion and Kontakion, which are included in my edition with standard notation.

How many Catholics actually pray the Divine Office regularly?

Lately, I’ve been praying the hours regularly, especially when fasting.

How many Catholics can read music or chant notation so that they learn the hymns on their own.

I can read standard notation and chant notation. I learned standard notation in school, but I learned how to read chant notation on my own. One can start learning how to read chant notation here.

How many Catholics have access to a monastery or a friar-run parish where they can pray the Office with the friars?

There is one in my area, but my access to it is rather limited due to distance.

So those who do pray the Divine Office but don’t read music, what do they do when they get to the hymns? Just read them?

Perhaps as a long-term project, one could learn to read either standard notation or chant notation? I’d guess that in the meantime, one would recite them or chant them using recto tono, which is the simplest way to chant any text. Just pick a note and chant the words to it without changing the note.

 

[LoyalViews]

Hi all,

Does anyone know the song Lord of light? (at least I think that is what it is called!)

Lyrics go something like this…

Lord of Light,
I am your Child…

(That’s all I know!)

Trying to find music and sheet music for it online but having no luck. Any help would be appreciated.

I can try get more lyrics if needed (Actually searching for my girlfriend as she has been trying to find it online for a while)

I don’t think it’s a traditional hymn, as it doesn’t sound like one, but I could be wrong.
This it?

 

[TrueLight]

. One can start learning how to read chant notation here.

LOL this part is funny.

Forget vibrato
• Forget bar lines
• Forget jazzy inflections
• Forget singing in a punctuated note-by-note manner.
• Forget holding out long notes that build to dramatic cut offs.
• Most of all: forget your own singing personality and spin

Of course someone can use recto tono for the chants, but should one make up one’s own melody for the hymns?

My point is that for the average Catholic who is not a singer/musician, if they are not hearing the hymns, how are they to learn them?

 

[Sarabande]

Of course someone can use recto tono for the chants, but should one make up one’s own melody for the hymns?

My point is that for the average Catholic who is not a singer/musician, if they are not hearing the hymns, how are they to learn them?

They can’t. It usually is by rote… which means hearing them at mass on Sundays. And depending on the instrumentalist and cantor, they will learn the hymn according to how it is played and sung by the musicians. So, if the church has an organist/pianist/guitarist/cantor or other instrumentalist who is not so great of a musician and plays/sing rhythm incorrectly, wrong notes, etc. then the average Catholic who doesn’t read music will learn the music incorrectly. There are so many hymns, especially newer ones with varying rhythms, that aren’t played according to how the music is written. But even the more simple hymns can sometimes be played completely wrong. ie. the instrumentalist or cantor not knowing the difference between a dotted quarter note and a quarter note or how to play two eight notes within one beat and ends up playing them like two quarter notes, etc. etc. etc.

I have seen, though, people who never read a note of music in their lives, actually learn how to sort of read music when they were in choirs. They start to understand note values and realize when a note is going up or down on the staff. In parishes where they do chant often, some have learned to read the music in their own ways or just do it by rote.

Most, however, will not be proactive and look for systems or teachers to learn how to read music, although if there are cds that they can purchase with the hymns, they can also learn the music that way. Again, it would be by rote.

 

[I_Thirst]

LOL this part is funny.

Of course someone can use recto tono for the chants, but should one make up one’s own melody for the hymns?

I don’t see why one couldn’t. There are uncountable settings of Ave Maria, the Gloria, Agnus Dei, as well as chants and hymns. Even that ole Protestant hymn Amazing Grace went through many musical settings before it settled on the melody from “New Britain.”

You can even use existing melodies and adapt them to fit the words. Easier said than done, of course, but it’s always a possibility. For example, one can sing the melody of “America, The Beautiful” to Psalm 2 (in this metrical setting).

Why do the na-tions all con-spire,
And peo-ples plot in vain?
The rul-ers of the earth stand forth,
And plans a-mongst them make
A-gainst God and his Cho-sen One;
To-geth-er they all say,
“Let’s break their fet-ters from our-selves,
And cast a-way their chains.”

Or try this one of Psalm 148 using Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” …

Praise the Lord! Praise God from heav-en;
Praise God from the heights a-bove.
Praise God, heav’n-ly host and an-gels;
Praise God, sun and moon and stars.
Praise the Lord, you high-est heav-ens,
And the wat-ers up a-bove.
Let them praise the name of Yah-weh,
For God spoke and they were made.

(Note that I’m not sure these metrical versions are suitable for LOTH, but I’m just using them as an example of what can be done.)

Even melodies get recycled. Beethoven’s melody “Ode To Joy” is used for “Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee” (among others) and Greensleeves is used for “What Child Is This?” (last year I heard an entire Mass setting that used that melody).

My point is that for the average Catholic who is not a singer/musician, if they are not hearing the hymns, how are they to learn them?

If the average Catholic isn’t a singer, then the average Catholic can learn how to sing and read music. If one can learn LOTH with all the page turnings and ribbons etc, then one can learn something much simpler like reading music.