Views from the Choir Loft

Summer Sacred Music Workshop 2018

Andrew Leung · May 31, 2018

OUR YEARS AGO, I had the privilege of joining with a group of church music directors in the South and planned the first Summer Sacred Music Workshop for musicians from the Southeastern region of the country. Four years later, this workshop has been continued annually and will happen again this summer in Charlotte, NC. Bridget Scott, a dear friend of mine who planned the very first Workshop and founded the Southeastern Sacred Music (a chapter of the Church Music Association of America), will again lead a team of presenters in this year’s workshop.

This year’s workshop will be hosted by the Cathedral of St. Patrick in Charlotte. The Summer Sacred Music Workshop will be held on July 27-28. This is the furthest north the group have been since its founding in 2015, and they are hoping to attract new participants (music directors, singers, organists, and clergy) from the area.

The annual workshop will explore on a variety of topics, with main focuses on Gregorian chant and sacred polyphony. The 2-days workshop include a Sung Vespers on Friday evening and a Mass celebrated by His Excellency Bishop Peter J. Jugis of the Diocese of Charlotte. The workshop attendees will have the opportunity to apply what they’ve learned in these two liturgies. During the break-outs, participants may choose to attend sessions on the following topics:

• Establishing Children’s Choirs – Training up Our Youth in the Catholic Tradition

• Composing Spanish Propers

• Do Amazing Things with a Small Parish Choir – How to get the Most out of your Singers?

• Organ Master Class on Service Playing and other Organ Literature

• Individual Voice Lessons

You can visit the website of the Southeastern Sacred Music for registration; and to find out more about the Summer Sacred Music Workshop 2018 and its presenters. The registration fee is $75 and it covers all materials as well as a light breakfast and lunch on Saturday.

This is a GREAT opportunity to learn more about the music of the Catholic Church. You will also have the chance to meet some phenomenal church musicians who share the same passion as you! DON’T MISS IT!!!

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).

Dr. Mahrt explains the ‘Spoken’ Propers

In 1970, the Church promulgated a new version of the Roman Missal. It goes by various names: Ordinary Form, Novus Ordo, MISSALE RECENS, and so on. If you examine the very first page, you’ll notice that Pope Saint Paul VI explains the meaning of the ‘Spoken Propers’ (which are for Masses without singing). A quote by Dr. William P. Mahrt is also included in that file. The SPOKEN PROPERS—used at Masses without music—are sometimes called The Adalbert Propers, because they were created in 1969 by Father Adalbert Franquesa Garrós, one of Hannibal Bugnini’s closest friends (according to Yves Chiron).

—Jeff Ostrowski

PDF • “Music List” (1st Sunday of Advent)

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—Jeff Ostrowski

“Music List” • Christ the King Sunday

Readers have expressed interest in perusing the ORDER OF MUSIC I’ve prepared for 23 November 2025, which is the 34th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C). If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. In the 1970 Missal, this Sunday is known as: Domini Nostri Jesu Christi Universorum Regis (“Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe”). As always, the Responsorial Psalm, Gospel Acclamation, and Mass Propers for this Sunday are conveniently stored at the magnificent feasts website alongside the official texts in Latin.

—Jeff Ostrowski

“Translations Approved for Liturgical Use”

According to the newsletter for USSCB’s Committee on Divine Worship dated September 1996, there are three (3) translations of the Bible which can be used in the sacred liturgy in the United States. You can read this information with your own eyes. It seems the USCCB and also Rome fully approved the so-called NRSV (“New Revised Standard Version”) on 13 November 1991 and 6 April 1992 but this permission was then withdrawn in 1994.

—Corpus Christi Watershed

Gospel Options for 2 November (“All Souls”)

We’ve been told some bishops are suppressing the TLM because of “unity.” But is unity truly found in the MISSALE RECENS? For instance, on All Souls (2 November), any of these Gospel readings may be chosen, for any reason (or for no reason at all). The same is true of the Propria Missæ and other readings—there are countless options in the ORDINARY FORM. In other words, no matter which OF parish you attend on 2 November, you’ll almost certainly hear different propers and readings, to say nothing of different ‘styles’ of music. Where is the “unity” in all this? Indeed, the Second Vatican Council solemnly declared: “Even in the liturgy, the Church has no wish to impose a rigid uniformity in matters which do not implicate the faith or the good of the whole community.”

—Corpus Christi Watershed

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—Jeff Ostrowski