Four Preludes on Chant Hymns

Use: General, Advent, Christmas
Required Resources: organ


After retiring from his positions as Associate Professor of Music at the University of Illinois (Springfield) and as Organist/Choir Director st Saint Paul Episcopal Cathedral (Springfield), Dr. F. Mark Siebert spent time with one of his great loves, composing, until his death at age 79 in 2005.

Part of his output was a group of organ collections based on chant melodies, including this Four Preludes on Chant Hymns. He has produced preludes in various styles, from the Baroque chorale fantasia, through the Bach two-part invention, to the stability of Flor Peeters and the flashy toccatas of the French Romantic school.

Contents include:

1. Hymn Prelude: Creator alme siderum
2. Invention: A solis ortus cardine
3. Hymn Prelude: Divinum mysterium
4. Toccata: Ut queant laxis

The tune in number 1 is often sung with the words, "Creator of the Stars of Night" [see Creator alme siderum]. Number 2 is an interesting 5th century Office hymn in which each stanza begins in order with a letter of the alphabet, from A to I, skipping H which was uncommon in Latin. Number 3 is sung with the text, "Of the Father's love begotten," by Marcus Aurelius Clemens Prudentius (348-413). The chant tune in Number 4 is the hymn for the feast of Saint John the Baptist, and shows us the origin of the solfeggio syllables: ut (do), re, mi, fa, sol, la ... . Each of the phrases of the hymn begin on a successively higher pitch, and the syllables below this first note of each phrase are the ones outlined above [see Ut queant laxis].