Totus Tuus • O’Connor (FREE SCORE!)

I recently stumbled across a phenomenal recording on the Saint Michæl Hymnal FB page of Michæl Dominic O’Connor’s (O.P.) new work, Totus Tuus, as sung by a group of seminarians. Instantly smitten, I (and a large group of others, apparently!) immediately contacted the editors of the hymnal to see about obtaining a copy.

To everyone’s delight, O’Connor has released the score into the public domain under a Creative Commons license via the St. Michæl Hymnal editors.

In the interest of seeing that this wonderful work spreads far and wide, I’ve created a series of practice tracks of the “Setting II: SATB Choir” edition.

I highly encourage you to go and check out the recording uploaded directly to Facebook (sadly, it is not on YouTube) by the editors of the Saint Michæl Hymnal on their FB page.

UPDATE: the video has now been posted to YouTube!

Hearing a schola of well-trained seminarians chant it is a true delight. (Which accounts for the male unison on the refrains of these demo recordings.)

O’Connor’s setting is quite clever in that he offers options for how the verses can be sung:

• Setting I is for Cantor and Organ

• Setting II is for SATB Choir (accompanied or a cappella)

• Setting III is for SSA Choir with organ

• Setting IV is for TTBB Choir a cappella

As featured in the demo recording on FB, a combination of these different options could be used depending on the desired effect and choral resources. For instance, at St. Augustine Cathedral, we will have Men chant Verse 1 in unison, Women chant Verse 3 in unison, and we will sing Verses 2 & 4 SATB.

Since the work has been released into the Creative Commons, I’ve taken the liberty of engraving my own edition of the refrain and settings I & II (the most likely to be used). The ServiamScores edition features larger text than the original, as well as an editorial translation added above the melody of the Antiphon/Refrain.

Please spread this work far and wide! Say and Ave for Fr. Michæl, that he be blessed for giving the world such a gift for love of Our Lady.