by Fred Moleck
Joseph Gelineau, SJ, 1920 – 2008
With heavy hearts, the people of GIA Publications, Inc. mourn the passing of a liturgical and musical legend, Father Joseph Gelineau, SJ, pastor and visionary. His contribution to the world of liturgical music was both ground breaking and prolific. Gelineau dedicated his life to liturgy and was instrumental in the movement toward the Second Vatican Council. He was most renowned for his numerous psalm tones (covering the entire Psalter), which were originally written for the Psalter of the Bible de Jérusalem, and were later applied to the Grail Psalter in English. For over 60 years he also composed for Brother Roger and the Taizé Community. The spiritual power of his music inspired many and now lives in the hearts and minds of Christians worldwide. He died in Sallanches, August 8, 2008, at the age of 87 after 67 years as a Jesuit priest.
Fr. Gelineau’s funeral Mass was celebrated Tuesday, August 12, 2008, in the village of Vallorcine in the Savoy Alps.
May he rest in peace with his Jesuit brothers in Grenoble, France.
GIA Publications, Inc.
www.giamusic.com/sacred_music/index.cfm
Most American church musicians were introduced to Fr. Gelineau’s work by his musical settings of all one hundred fifty psalms.
It is an interesting trail from their first form in the Jerusalem Bible in French, their translation into English by the Ladies of the Grail, England (1963), and GIA securing them before 1967.
It is not clear how Dr. Clifford Bennett, the founder of GIA, acquired them. They were part of the inventory that the Gregorian Institute of America possessed when Bennett sold the company in 1967 to Ed Harris.
The Psalms appeared in the French Bible de Jerusalem in 1958. They were translated into English by The Ladies of the Grail, an English women’s community, in a literary style of “sprung rhythm,” a poetic device developed by the English Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins.
Sprung rhythm is organized by the natural flow of stressed and unstressed syllables, not the organization of a numbered count of syllables as in a hymn text that coordinates with a hymn tune.
For example, “O God, our help in ages past, Our hope for years to come.” 86 86, Common Meter, such as the tuneST. ANNE.
Or “Praise God, from whom all blessings flow; Praise him, all creatures here below.” 88 88, Long Meter, such as the tune, OLD HUNDREDTH.
As you can see, both text and music are tightly organized. Some think too organized.
The following is an example of sprung rhythm from “God’s Grandeur” by Hopkins:
The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil.Compare that to the best-known psalm setting by Gelineau, Psalm 23 (verse 2):
Fresh and green are the pastures
Where you give me repose.
Near restful waters you lead me,
To revive my drooping spirit.The psalm tones he composed are four measures for a four-line stanza (as verse 2 above) or six measures for a six-line stanza.
When his psalmody and the texts of the Grail translation appeared “on the market,” it was a prayer come true for all of us who were responsible for providing leadership in the singing of the psalms in both the Eucharist and the Office.
I still find comfort in singing his Psalm 23, “My shepherd is the Lord, nothing indeed shall I want,” and excitement with Psalm 100, “Arise, come to your God, sing him your songs of rejoicing.”
Please consider him, his work, his incredible endurance each time you sing these two psalms, or any of his psalm settings, and offer quiet thanks for the life of Joseph Gelineau.
Surely goodness and kindness shall follow me
all the days of my life.
In the Lord’s own house shall I dwell
for ever and ever.
You can reach Fred Moleck via email at fmoleck@comcast.net