Views from the Choir Loft

Report • Hong Kong Summer Choral Workshops

Andrew Leung · September 7, 2017

HAVEN’T BEEN POSTING too much lately and I apologize for that. I have been very busy with the following workshops. In August, I conducted two Summer Choral Workshops for church singers in Hong Kong. The workshops were about six hours long and about fifty singers participated. Participants were introduced to traditional sacred music, both Gregorian chant and polyphony, of the Catholic Church. Both workshops were concluded with Sung Masses in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite. Here are some pictures from the workshops and the Masses

CTL Hong Kong Summer Choral Workshop 9

CTL Hong Kong Summer Choral Workshop 8

CTL Hong Kong Summer Choral Workshop 7

CTL Hong Kong Summer Choral Workshop 6

CTL Hong Kong Summer Choral Workshop 5

CTL Hong Kong Summer Choral Workshop 4

CTL Hong Kong Summer Choral Workshop 3

CTL Hong Kong Summer Choral Workshop 2

CTL Hong Kong Summer Choral Workshop 1

LEARNED A LOT in this workshop through teaching and it was amazing to be able to work with church singers in Hong Kong again (I did a similar workshop last summer). A lot of the participants come from regular parish choirs, and most of them don’t have the chance to sing chant and polyphony in a regular basis. It was definitely an unforgettable experience for many to be able to sing choral pieces by European masters like: Tallis, Byrd, Allegri, Rheinberger and Faure. We were also very grateful to Dr. Peter Kwasniewski for allowing us to use his setting of Tantum Ergo during one of the workshops.

Here is a recording of Gregorio Allegri’s Adoremus in Aeternum, which we sang during communion on the Feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord. Keep in mind that participants rarely get the opportunity to sing pieces like this and the recordings never do justice to the actual sound. The piece is fairly simple, especially for small church choirs, and is suitable to be sung during communion and Eucharistic adoration. It is available for free download on Choral Public Domain Library.

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).

“Samaritánæ”

With regard to the COMMUNION for the 3rd Sunday of Lent (Year A), the Ordo Cantus Missae, published in 1969 by the Vatican—bearing Hannibal Bugnini’s signature and approbation in its PREFACE—inexplicably introduced a variant melody and slightly different words, as you can see by this comparison chart. When it comes to such items, they’re always done in secrecy by unnamed people. (Although it is known that Dom Eugène Cardine collaborated in the creation of the GRADUALE SIMPLEX, a book considered by some to be a travesty.)

—Jeff Ostrowski

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

Grotesque Pairing • “Passion Chorale”

One of our rarest releases was undoubtably this PDF scan of the complete Pope Pius XII Hymnal (1959) by Father Joseph Roff, a student of Healey Willan. One of the scarcest titles in existence, this book was provided to us by Mr. Peter Meggison. Back in 2018, we scanned each page and uploaded it to our website, making it freely available to everyone. Readers are probably sick of hearing me say this, but just because we upload something that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s wonderful or worthy of imitation. We upload many publications precisely because they are ‘grotesque’, interesting, or revealing. Whereas the Brébeuf Catholic Hymnal had an editorial board that was careful and sensitive vis-à-vis pairing texts with tunes, the Pope Pius XII Hymnal (1959) seems to have been rather reckless in this regard. Please take a look at what they did with the PASSION CHORALE and see whether you agree.

—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