Views from the Choir Loft

Position Opening • Music Director for the NY Dominican Parish

Andrew Leung · April 18, 2016

E DON’T USUALLY SHARE about music director job openings, but this is a very special parish music program (and the message was forwarded to me by a friend of mine in the Order of Preachers). The Parish of St. Vincent Ferrer and St. Catherine of Siena, a parish of the Archdiocese of New York confided to the pastoral care of the Dominican Friars of the Province of St. Joseph, is looking for a Director of Music and Organist. The parish includes two churches: the Church of St. Vincent Ferrer and the Church of St. Catherine of Siena. The music director will direct the music program at both churches. The music program at the Parish draws on the liturgical tradition of the Catholic Church with special emphasis on the particular tradition of the Dominican order. A full job description can be found here.

This Dominican parish in New York is definitely a very busy and developed one. There are five weekend Masses with music and a Vespers service each week. They also have a long list of special feast days liturgies including Masses, Processions and Advent Lessons and Carols. The director will also be responsible for the arrangement of liturgical performances by local musical ensembles and occasional concerts of sacred music.

This is definitely a busy job, and probably one of those “dream jobs” for some of our readers. It looks like traditional Sacred Music plays a very important role in this parish and the friars do take the liturgy very seriously. I want to point out especially how the Propers are treated in this parish: the antiphons are chanted, in Latin or English, at every single sung Mass! This is one of the few parishes in the country that hold very high liturgical and musical standards.

So, if you are interested in the position, submit a curriculum vitae and a one-page statement of your philosophy of Catholic liturgical music to parish@svsc.info by May 9, 2016. Here is a video tour of the Church of St. Vincent Ferrer.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

About Andrew Leung

Andrew Leung currently serves the music director of Vox Antiqua, conductor of the Cecilian Singers, and music director at Our Lady of China Church.—(Read full biography).

PDF Download • “Ubi Caritas” (SATB)

I remember singing “Ubi Cáritas” by Maurice Duruflé at the conservatory. I was deeply moved by it. However, some feel Duruflé’s version isn’t suitable for small choirs since it’s written for 6 voices and the bass tessitura is quite low. That’s why I was absolutely thrilled to discover this “Ubi cáritas” (SATB) for smaller choirs by Énemond Moreau, who studied with OSCAR DEPUYDT (d. 1925), an orphan who became a towering figure of Catholic music. Depuydt’s students include: Flor Peeters (d. 1986); Monsignor Jules Van Nuffel (d. 1953); Arthur Meulemans (d. 1966); Monsignor Jules Vyverman (d. 1989); and Gustaaf Nees (d. 1965). Rehearsal videos for each individual voice await you at #19705. When I came across the astonishing English translation for “Ubi Cáritas” by Monsignor Ronald Knox—matching the Latin’s meter—I decided to add those lyrics as an option (for churches which have banned Latin). My wife and I made this recording to give you some idea how it sounds.

—Jeff Ostrowski

PDF • “Cantus Mariales” (192 pages)

Andrea Leal has posted an absolutely pristine scan of CANTUS MARIALES (192 pages) which can be downloaded as a PDF file. To access this treasure, navigate to the frabjous article Andrea posted Monday. The file is being offered completely free of charge. The beginning pages of the book have something not to be missed: viz. a letter from Pope Saint Pius X to Dom Pothier, in which the pope calls Abbat Pothier “a man versed above all others in the science of liturgy, and to whom the cause of Gregorian chant is greatly indebted.”

—Jeff Ostrowski

Music List • (2nd Sunday of Lent)

Readers have expressed interest in seeing the ORDER OF MUSIC I created for this coming Sunday, which is the 2nd Sunday of Lent (1 March 2026). If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. This feast has magnificent propers. Its somber INTROIT is particularly striking—using a haunting tonality—but the COMMUNION with its fauxbourdon verses is also quite remarkable. I encourage all the readers to visit the feasts website, where the Propria Missae may be downloaded completely free of charge.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Extreme Unction

Those who search Google for “CCCC MS 079” will discover high resolution images of a medieval Pontificale (“Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 079”). One of the pages contains this absolutely gorgeous depiction of the Sacrament of Extreme Unction.

—Corpus Christi Watershed

PDF Chart • “Plainsong Rhythm”

I will go to my grave without understanding the lack of curiosity so many people have about the rhythmic modifications made by Dom André Mocquereau. For example, how can someone examine this single sheet comparison chart and at a minimum not be curious about the differences? Dom Mocquereau basically creates a LONG-SHORT LONG-SHORT rhythmic pattern—in spite of enormous and overwhelming manuscript evidence to the contrary. That’s why some scholars referred to his method as “Neo-Mensuralist” or “Neo-Mensuralism.”

—Jeff Ostrowski

PDF • “O Come All Ye Faithful” (Simplified)

I admire the harmonization of “Adeste Fideles” by David Willcocks (d. 2015), who served as director of the Royal College of Music (London, England). In 2025, I was challenged to create a simplified arrangement for organists incapable of playing the authentic version at tempo. The result was this simplified keyboard arrangement (PDF download) based on the David Willcocks version of “O Come All Ye Faithful.” Feel free to play through it and let me know what you think.

—Jeff Ostrowski